In today's dynamic hospitality landscape, understanding consumer behavior is crucial for hotel marketers to thrive. This guide will explore key strategies for navigating the evolving digital landscape, leveraging data and AI to drive guest satisfaction and loyalty, and ultimately achieving profitability in 2025.
View our guide now.
ICYMI: TikTok has been reinstated for the time being, and if you haven't tested TikTok advertising for your property, now's your chance.
TikTok is a playground for creativity and connection. With millions of active users and endless opportunities, it’s the ultimate space for advertisers to think outside the box and make a real impact.
Learn how to engage users, collaborate with creators, and drive results effectively.
TikTok’s Creative Codes are designed to help advertisers craft ads that perform well on the platform. Here’s an expanded look at each component:
Native content refers to ads that blend seamlessly into the platform’s regular content, making them feel like organic posts rather than intrusive ads:
Trends on TikTok can be divided into moments, signals, and forces, each offering different types of opportunities for your brand to align with cultural currents:
TikTok is a highly immersive platform, and sound is one of the most important elements for keeping users engaged:
Creativity is at the heart of TikTok's success, and it must resonate with your target audience on a personal level:
Here are several key strategies for optimizing your TikTok campaigns:
Need help getting started with TikTok ads? Reach out today!
Getting back into the swing of things after the holiday season isn’t always easy, but we’ve got you covered. Check out our handpicked articles to help you kick off 2025 on the right note!
The Path to Profitability in 2025: A Hotel Marketer's Guide
In today's dynamic hospitality landscape, understanding consumer behavior is crucial for hotel marketers to thrive. This guide will explore key strategies for navigating the evolving digital landscape, leveraging data and AI to drive guest satisfaction and loyalty, and ultimately achieving profitability in 2025.
Battling OTA’s for Direct Business
As hospitality digital marketing has progressed, so have the strategies and tactics used by hotels and OTA’s to win customers. The newest battlefield is hotel metasearch, and OTA’s have committed an outsized portion of their attention and budget to ensure they dominate the field. The response from hotels has been tragically tepid.
The Crucial Importance of Owning Your Website
Having a robust online presence is not just advantageous—it's essential. While social media platforms offer visibility and engagement, they shouldn't be your sole digital outpost. Instead, owning your website is paramount for establishing credibility, control, and long-term success online. Let's look at the top reasons why owning your website is crucial for your property.
Effective Strategies to Increase Your Hotel’s Direct Bookings
In the highly competitive hospitality industry, increasing direct bookings is crucial for hotels and other accommodation providers. Direct bookings not only help you reduce reliance on third-party online travel agencies (OTAs) but also allow you to establish a direct relationship with your guests, resulting in better customer satisfaction and increased profits. To help you maximize your direct bookings, we've compiled a list of effective strategies that can give your business a boost.
What Google’s Sunset of Commission Bid Strategies Means for Your Hotel Ads Campaigns
For hotels that want to run hotel ads campaigns, the ecosystem requires they use a 3rd party connection to access their rates and inventory feed via Google’s Hotel Center. This hotel center feed is then connected via third-party platforms or directly from a hotel’s CRS provider.
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As we enter 2025, the digital marketing landscape continues to evolve at a breakneck pace, driven by technological advancements and shifting consumer behaviors. Our ebook, 2025 Digital Marketing Trends and Predictions, is designed to equip you with the insights and strategies you need to stay ahead of the curve.
Whether you're looking to enhance your current strategies or explore new avenues for growth, our predictions and analysis will help you navigate the dynamic digital marketing landscape confidently and succeed.
By the way, we batted a thousand with our 2024 digital marketing trends and predictions.
Check out our 2025 digital marketing trends and predictions here.
This is a blog post I was first asked to write over 2 years ago but never finished. It wasn’t because I got distracted or forgot; there just wasn’t a compelling story there at the time. 2 years and 4,000 miles of running later, and I think I finally have something to write about here.
This version of the story starts early last year on a drive with my dad. I told him about how I was having a really hard time doing hard things. Taking on difficult tasks is something I’ve prided myself on for a long time, but after a few big life changes, graduating college, and taking my first ‘real’ job, doing hard things had become so much more difficult. I found it difficult to motivate myself to run as much as I did in college, I found it difficult to challenge myself at work, everything was just… harder than it used to be.
Last summer, I took a step back and focused on the little things. I had become too focused on doing the biggest runs, delivering the best hotel marketing campaigns, being the best at everything. Instead, I went on more neighborhood runs for 3 miles instead of 13 and delivered more hotel marketing campaigns with the goal of learning something instead of trying to learn everything.
It was shortly after that last year where hard things became a whole lot easier. I ran 2 and a half hours faster in a 50k race than I had the year before, and the hotel digital marketing campaigns I was in charge of at work were driving more revenue than they ever had since I had taken them over. I ran through the entire winter (in one of the snowiest ski towns in California) – through blizzards and in the dark during evenings after work. This spring, I ran my 10th Los Angeles Marathon, a 17-minute personal-record from my previous best in 2017. This summer, I ran my first 100k, and this past fall, I placed 14th in my local 50k race with over 600 participants.
That 50k race was the same race that had prompted GCommerce to ask me to write this blog back in 2022 when I placed 163rd with a time of almost 9 hours. This year, I finished in 5 hours and 9 minutes. Oh, and hotel digital marketing work has gone great too.
It’s not the ‘doing hard things’ part that brought all of those successes, but rather doing small, easier things a lot.
The desire to always do something greater and better every single day brings a lot of paralysis when it comes to just doing anything. I’ve found that to be true in not just running but just about everything, especially hotel digital marketing.
We tend to get caught up in the glitz and glamor of wanting every hotel marketing campaign to be an award winner driving record results, and so often miss the opportunities to make incremental improvements day over day and week over week. Things like launching new hotel marketing ads every other week instead of every other month or avoiding new hotel marketing targeting strategies for fear they won’t change anything.
Doing those small things isn’t just an important part of our jobs, but it might be the most important part of our jobs. Without those small improvements and perfecting the foundations of the hotel marketing campaigns we run, those out-of-the-park home runs are a lot more rare (or never come at all).
Being successful at the hard things requires doing the easy things daily. Running 60 miles well requires a lot of 3-mile runs, just like delivering award-winning hotel marketing campaigns requires a lot of really little incremental improvements year-round.
You’ll never get the first without the second.
As the 2024-25 ski season approaches, the weather has been unpredictable. However, there's no need to worry; whether it's powder or sunny days, we have ski hotel digital marketing strategies to keep your property top of mind.
If you're a ski resort or a hotel close to the slopes, here’s how to keep your hotel’s digital marketing fresh and effective all ski season long.
The weather is always changing. One day, it’s snowing, and the next day, it’s sunny. Make sure your hotel’s content is as flexible as the weather. Use videos, social posts, and landing pages highlighting different activities based on conditions: snow days on the slopes, cozy fireside vibes, or winter hikes.
Actionable item: Develop hotel content that showcases your property no matter the weather. Whether it’s powder days at the resort or a warm, sunny afternoon near your hotel, you want to stay relevant.
Forget the broad search terms like “best ski resorts” or “ski vacations”—they’re highly competitive. Instead, focus on local, long-tail keywords to attract guests searching for nearby experiences.
Actionable item: Use phrases like “ski resorts near Steamboat Springs” or “hotels close to Jackson Hole ski area” to get in front of travelers looking for specific ski destination lodging.
User-generated content (UGC) is gold. People trust reviews from real guests. Whether you’re a resort or a hotel, showcase testimonials through social ads that highlight real guest experiences.
Actionable item: Run social ads with hotel guest testimonials or reviews. Feature experiences like après-ski fun or cozy lodge stays to build trust and encourage bookings.
Skiers are spontaneous, so your hotel’s mobile-friendly site should be ready to capture those last-minute bookings. Ensure your hotel’s website is fast, easy to navigate, and optimized for mobile visitors planning a trip on a whim.
Actionable item: Offer last-minute hotel deals or special packages for travelers looking for spontaneous ski getaways. Push real-time notifications about snow conditions or exclusive offers to keep them engaged.
Snow levels vary dramatically from region to region. Personalize your hotel’s email campaigns to reflect local weather conditions so your messages are always relevant.
Actionable item: Send tailored emails based on weather patterns. For example, promote “Fresh Powder Deals” during snowstorms and highlight non-ski activities like spa days or winter hikes on warmer days.
Influencers are great for spreading the word, but with unpredictable weather, you need partners who can promote both epic snow days and other experiences like après-ski or indoor activities around your hotel.
Actionable item: Collaborate with winter sports influencers who can showcase a variety of activities, from skiing to snowshoeing to relaxing at your resort or hotel.
Real-time hotel marketing is key. If a big snowstorm hits, you’ll want to be ready with promotions that can go live instantly. Keep your property top-of-mind by capitalizing on current snow conditions.
Actionable Item: Set up automated campaigns that trigger based on weather. Promote last-minute deals during a snowstorm or highlight non-ski activities when conditions are mild.
The 2024-25 ski season may be unpredictable, but your hotel’s marketing doesn’t have to be. With these strategies, your resort or hotel can stay at the top of your mind, no matter the weather. Whether your guests are skiing or relaxing nearby, stay flexible, creative, and ready to make this season your best yet.
For expert guidance and tailored ski messaging strategies, contact Gcommerce Solutions today.
