Integrated Hospitality Marketing: Attract More Customers

Creating a comprehensive and memorable experience ensures true success for a hospitality brand. From the food and drinks that are served to the energy of a location and the people behind it, hospitality brands must effectively touch on all aspects of the experience to leave their guests wanting more. 

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And, marketing the brands in the hospitality industry is no different, as a siloed approach to marketing in this industry can limit exposure, minimize impact and hurt results. Curious if this is happening to your hospitality brand? Let’s dive in deeper. 

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What Is Integrated Marketing?

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‍Integrated marketing is the strategic combination of key marketing channels - such as earned, owned and paid - to position a brand and its offerings in front of current, new and potential customers. An integrated marketing strategy leverages different tactics with specific goals based on the channel and customized positioning that aligns each tactic under one comprehensive goal.

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So, what are some examples of these channels? Let’s break it down. 

• Owned  - These channels are owned by the brand, and the brand has ownership of the messaging, imagery, content and overall strategy that is implemented. This could include an organization’s social media page, website or blog to name a few. They are a critical piece of the marketing strategy as owned channels reflect how the brand presents and positions itself.
• Paid - True to the name, these channels require payment to strategically position a brand in front of potential audiences. Often associated with digital marketing strategy, this channel could include tactics such as digital advertisements, paid media buys, sponsored content or even paid influencer partnerships. It could also include traditional advertising methods, such as billboards or signage. 
• Earned - Unlike Owned content where the brand can own the messaging and positioning or Paid strategies where the brand pays to control how they’re marketed, Earned marketing efforts, such as public relations, influencers, word-of-mouth tactics or reviews, are earned through strategy and relationships, often representing public opinion. 

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For a hospitality brand to effectively market themselves, it’s important to integrate strategies across all three of these channels. Let’s discuss what this looks like:

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Marketing Activities in Hospitality Businesses

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Leveraging a combination of owned, earned and paid marketing efforts can set hospitality brands up for success, ensuring that target and potential audiences are effectively exposed to the brand. 

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To determine the best combination of integrated marketing strategies, it’s critical to evaluate brand goals. Are you looking to increase visibility or secure new customers? Or, are you interested in drumming up excitement with current customers? Is there an upcoming event that you’re a part of and want customers to know about? 

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Determining your goals - large or small - can help brands identify the best strategies to implement going forward. 

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For example, if you’re looking to drum up excitement about offerings with existing customers:

• Consider an approach that combines earned media and influencers for third-party endorsements that showcase the newsworthiness while positioning your brand as the talk-of-the-town. Coupled with enticing and creative marketing activities, such as hosting an event and promoting across your owned and paid channels, you can effectively position the brand in front of current customers, driving action and engagement. 

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If you’re looking to tap into a new or unknown audience:

• Evaluate your owned, earned and paid efforts to determine how you can approach new customers through each avenue. Starting with owned channels, ensure that you have content that speaks to that new audience, answers their questions, and spotlights how your brand is of interest. Once in place, execute an earned media campaign strategically targeting publications that speak directly to this audience, organically showing how your brand is aligned with their interests and driving those customers back to your owned channels to demonstrate this. Finally, leverage paid strategies to strategically increase your visibility and reinforce recognition with this newer group of customers. 

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While there are thousands of scenarios and strategies, it’s critical in the hospitality industry to understand the impact of an integrated approach and effectively execute across each channel.

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Integrated Marketing Campaigns IRL 

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So, how does this play out IRL? 

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At Bolt PR, we’ve executed hundreds of integrated campaigns for clients - helping strategically align their owned, earned and paid marketing efforts in order to achieve their goals. 

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When a national hospitality group sought our expertise to launch a new rooftop bar in North Carolina, we understood deeply the importance of first impressions in the hospitality industry and developed an integrated marketing campaign that would deliver the right one for every target audience. 

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Leveraging PR, influencer marketing, organic and paid social, we built a campaign designed to build hyper local excitement, awareness, and most importantly action. In addition to over 30 pieces of coverage, 40+ influencer placements and 200K social media impressions, the hospitality group saw one of its largest opening weekends with record success. 

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Similarly, a major hotel management company tapped Bolt as their strategic partner ahead of development and debut for their flagship location. Crafting an integrated approach across paid and trade influencers, earned media and community relations, Bolt’s efforts, which included coverage in CNN and The New York Times, helped the hotel sell out weekend availability before it even opened. 

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An integrated marketing approach in the hospitality industry doesn’t just bolster awareness and engagement, but it also drives bottomline impact. 

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Your Agency Marketing Team is Calling

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The hospitality industry is booming and with a lot of noise, comes a lot of competition. Every hospitality brand should have an effective strategy to remain relevant, stand out against the crowd and deliver that comprehensive and world-class guest experience. At Bolt PR, our dedicated marketing team provides award-winning PR, digital marketing and content strategies to help clients effectively integrate owned, earned and paid marketing channels. 

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Partner with our team and let us provide a comprehensive approach to marketing for your brand. Drop us a line today.