FACTS:
- · YouTube is claiming that more than 1 billion unique users visit its website each month.
- · Users spend more than 6 billion hours watching videos.
- · More and more businesses are using videos to promote better awareness of their products.
- · YouTube is the most used site for travel videos.
- · Travelers are increasingly watching and uploading travel-related videos. 43% of Personal Travelers, 63% of Business and 58% of Affluent Travelers are watching travel videos – and it’s almost an even match between professionally produced videos and trip reviews or videos created by “people like me.”
- Bookings are 67% more likely to happen when a video tour is available.
The key to turning lookers into bookers is found in delivering creative, yet relevant, content that informs and entertains travelers and prospective guests, and there’s no better vehicle to do that than video.
Authentic, compelling and informative video content will entice travelers and convey a hotel’s unique experiences to online visitors. A video embedded on the homepage of the hotel’s website and also uploaded to YouTube and the other leading social media channels can be what sets your property apart from other destinations. Video conveys visual and emotional touch points which are present in almost every travel offering, and that is what drives bookings. With the constant expansion of Internet advertising, hoteliers need to discover the impact that online promotion with video can have on travelers.”
Are you using video to market your hotel? Those of us who have been in the hospitality industry for many years can remember when we were first encouraged to create a website. Next came communication by email. Now we have to have a Facebook page. The next imperative marketing tool: the VIDEO.
Video can increase traffic to your website, appear in Google search results and help convert more sales opportunities. It is becoming a form of marketing expected by customers today. A picture is worth a thousand words, and online hotel videos can help your property capture more guests. It is not just costly professional video productions that get noticed online. If you have a computer, video camera, a bit of know-how, and do your research, hotels can achieve excellent results at a fraction of the cost.
When these videos are embedded on the hotel’s website PLUS shared on YouTube and other social channels, it increases visibility and ultimately leads to more bookings and revenues. When tagged and optimized for search engines, videos dramatically increase a property’s visibility and improve search rankings.”
There are numerous videos on You Tube that are professionally created marketing tools for New Hampshire and Vermont hotel/motels that are not linked from the hotel’s website. I find it difficult to understand why a hotel would create the video without establishing a link.
Does your hotel have a video available for prospective guests to view? If not, will you create on in 2014? If so is there a link available from your website?
- This North Conway motel offers an informative video promoting their accommodations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmxFiN12Uco
CenterPoint Business Advisors wants to help you to realize the full value from your hospitality business. CenterPoint assists business owners build the value of their business, plan for an exit from their business, value their business, and broker the sale of their business. Please contact us if you are considering a long or short term exit from your hospitality business.
O.J. Robinson of CenterPoint has many years in the hospitality industry in New Hampshire. He is the former owner of Parker’s Motel in Lincoln and is one of the owners of the Whale’s Tale Waterpark in Lincoln. He has provided consulting, exit planning, and brokered the sale of numerous lodging properties of various sizes. oj@cpointadvisors.com