Join me at the virtual Direct Booking Success Summit (27-29 September 2022).
Transcripts
02 - Marketing and your guest’s booking journey
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Marketing what do you think when I say that word, do you think of people selling?
Do you think of spam emails? Do you think of junk mail through your letter box?
have a voice or video call. [:
You're taking your time and starting to think that this person might be the one for you. Days turn into weeks and then in a months you've gotten to know each other so well, you're now spending all of your time together. You trust each other one day, you both decide that you wanna spend the rest of your lives together.
Now, why am I telling you this? You're thinking that just sounds like a typical dating story. Um, because this is marketing. Marketing is just like dating. Okay, your guests need to know you like you and trust you before they book with you. Now, I can't tell you how long this process is gonna take.
t might take a few years. It [:
This is why you'll always be told that marketing is the long game. You are getting your guests to know you exist. To like what they see trust you are, who you say you are and then they will be ready to book.
So when you go after direct [:
Don't despair. I didn't tell you all of this for you to think that you can't compete with the likes of Airbnb and the other OTAs, the online travel agents, because you can, yes, you really, really can.
It does take some time. It does take some effort. It does take some work and you can do it.
If you are listening to me now, I know you wanna get started and maybe you've already gotten started. Well done using marketing to increase your direct bookings, mean that everything you do needs to help guests know like trust and book with you.
sting your time. An example, [:
If you're spending your days posting waffle like this on social media, that doesn't help your guests move down this no like trust book funnel, then you're wasting your time.
t they're seeing and hearing [:
How do guests know to book. Well, you're gonna tell them that's right. You have to tell them, you need to tell your guests what you want them to do. This is called using a call to action, a CTA, tell them, tell them to book direct now, once you are showing potential guests, how to know like trust and book and only then will the direct booking start to roll in.
