We first published our recovery strategies (Scenario 1 and Scenario 2) back on March 27th, also known as about 20 quarantine days ago. Now, with close to another month under our belts, we’ve decided to revisit those strategies based on what we know now.Here’s what we recommend doing right now.
Paid Search
As we discussed in our first blog, paid search costs are as low as you’ll find. If you have the ability to turn on paid search, we highly recommend that you do. After all, other brands are already in the marketplace.From what we’ve seen, OTAs are still active. They may not be spending at pre-COVID levels, but we only expect the competition to increasingly turn up over time. You don’t want to wait until you realize you’re losing revenue to turn brand campaigns back on.For clients that don’t have funds to run fully in paid search, we recommend running campaigns at even $1/day, which unlocks auction insights so you can keep an eye on who’s bidding on your terms. This is a low-cost investment that allows you to monitor and analyze the ads marketplace so you know how to strategically get back in the game.
Social Advertising
Continue to focus on high-funnel awareness and use “look now, travel later”-type messaging. Consider running a lead-gen ad. This will bolster your email list, which you’ll definitely want to utilize to announce when your hotel either reopens or stay-at-home restrictions soften.
Organic Social
Continue posting! If you have someone to manage your social channels, organic social media is your only free way of connecting with your consumer base and potential guests. Even if you don’t have the money to run advertising campaigns, you can at least continue to post on social. We’ve compiled some of our favorite ideas here.
Website
Make sure your messaging about COVID-19 updates, cancellation policies, and cleaning/social distancing expectations are posted very clearly on the site. Every guest will be looking for this information, and hiding it isn’t going to do you any favors.As you continue to add content to your website, think about two things: what do guests want to know right now and what will they want when they start traveling again. This can entail anything from posting your restaurant’s recipes to fun content for sparking wanderlust, such as a guide to road-tripping to your property.
Continue to engage your guests. If you’re creating content on your website and posting it to social, you should share it via email as well. For email marketing, your biggest opportunity will be when your hotel plans its reopening date and/or restrictions are lifted—you can easily announce this information to your subscribers.
Recovery strategies may change as quickly as the COVID-19 situation develops. These Screen Pilot recommendations are based on all available news and data as of April 17th. We will publish additional updates as market trends change, so check back for more!
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We first published our recovery strategies (Scenario 1 and Scenario 2) back on March 27th, also known as about 20 quarantine days ago. Now, with close to another month under our belts, we’ve decided to revisit those strategies based on what we know now.Here’s what we recommend doing right now.
Paid Search
As we discussed in our first blog, paid search costs are as low as you’ll find. If you have the ability to turn on paid search, we highly recommend that you do. After all, other brands are already in the marketplace.From what we’ve seen, OTAs are still active. They may not be spending at pre-COVID levels, but we only expect the competition to increasingly turn up over time. You don’t want to wait until you realize you’re losing revenue to turn brand campaigns back on.For clients that don’t have funds to run fully in paid search, we recommend running campaigns at even $1/day, which unlocks auction insights so you can keep an eye on who’s bidding on your terms. This is a low-cost investment that allows you to monitor and analyze the ads marketplace so you know how to strategically get back in the game.
Social Advertising
Continue to focus on high-funnel awareness and use “look now, travel later”-type messaging. Consider running a lead-gen ad. This will bolster your email list, which you’ll definitely want to utilize to announce when your hotel either reopens or stay-at-home restrictions soften.
Organic Social
Continue posting! If you have someone to manage your social channels, organic social media is your only free way of connecting with your consumer base and potential guests. Even if you don’t have the money to run advertising campaigns, you can at least continue to post on social. We’ve compiled some of our favorite ideas here.
Website
Make sure your messaging about COVID-19 updates, cancellation policies, and cleaning/social distancing expectations are posted very clearly on the site. Every guest will be looking for this information, and hiding it isn’t going to do you any favors.As you continue to add content to your website, think about two things: what do guests want to know right now and what will they want when they start traveling again. This can entail anything from posting your restaurant’s recipes to fun content for sparking wanderlust, such as a guide to road-tripping to your property.
Continue to engage your guests. If you’re creating content on your website and posting it to social, you should share it via email as well. For email marketing, your biggest opportunity will be when your hotel plans its reopening date and/or restrictions are lifted—you can easily announce this information to your subscribers.
Recovery strategies may change as quickly as the COVID-19 situation develops. These Screen Pilot recommendations are based on all available news and data as of April 17th. We will publish additional updates as market trends change, so check back for more!
Did you enjoy the read?
Get original hospitality industry insights delivered to your inbox. Sign up to receive Screen Pilot’s #TrendingNow Newsletter.
