There is a big shift towards data-driven marketing happening right now. Fuelled by the abundance of data that marketers are now able to lay their hands on – from social media click throughs and post likes, to time on a page, source of lead and even progression from one channel to another – marketing is becoming more and more of a numbers-led science.
For hoteliers, this is a golden opportunity to work more efficiently and effectively, with hotel revenue management holding much of the data that marketing needs to roll out better performing campaigns.
Still not convinced? Read to discover a few of the advantages and benefits you can expect by bringing your hotel revenue management and marketing functions together.
Better lead tracking
In any business, the ability to track leads and predict lags is a competitive advantage. Bringing revenue management and marketing functions together means that revenue can feed marketing the data needed to show when a lag is coming – and when a marketing campaign to counter-act that quiet period is therefore needed. This should help to smooth out seasonality and low demand, so your hotel doesn’t sit empty during quiet periods.
Winning business from competitors
Your hotel revenue management team should actively be benchmarking your own room rates against those of your key competitors. Making a habit of passing this information on to marketing means your marketing department can work this knowledge into their campaigns – promoting cheaper rates or better deals to win business away from your rivals.
Capitalising on opportunities
Your revenue management function should be able to identify opportunities from the data it has access to. That could be identifying the guests who always go for a more expensive suite option rather than a standard room. It should also identify those guests who spend more during their stay and are therefore of higher value – those customers who book expensive spa treatments for example, purchase fine wines, order room service or make multiple excursion reservations.
By bringing revenue management and marketing together, marketers are empowered to create relevant, personalised campaigns for those valued guests. They can use the tools at their disposal, such as email marketing or remarketing, to maximise those opportunities to increase revenue.
So, what are the strategic steps needed to bring those teams together?
Bringing both functions together requires more than simply relocating one department next-door to the other. While sharing an office or being physically located in the same place will undoubtedly make life easier and enhance communication, more is needed.
When looking to create a cohesive marketing and hotel revenue management unit, consider the following three As:
Align: Think in terms of how your two teams can work together. Are there barriers or tech compatibility issues to overcome?
Assess: Consider what data your teams have access to and where each strength lies. Revenue management should be able to pinpoint opportunities in data, with marketing able to execute them.
Action: Decide which opportunities are the most profitable and leverage them.
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