Digital Marketing Assignment PDF

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Digital Marketing Assignment...

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Digital Marketing Strategy Plan 20080619

School of Humanities Academic Work Declaration Page Programme Title

BA (Hons) in Hospitality Management

Year of Programme

4th year

Module

Digital Marketing

Assignment Title

Digital Marketing Plan for my organisation

Lecturer

Angelo Hurley

Student Name

Kayleigh Butler

Student Number

20080619

Declaration of Authorship I declare that all material in this assessment is my own work except where there is clear acknowledgement and appropriate reference to the work of others.

Signed2_______________________________________ Date 15/12/2020

Contents Situation Analysis – Marco trends in Hospitality Sector...........................................................3 Virtual Reality............................................................................................................................4 Technology using Mobile Phone................................................................................................5 Smart Hotels...............................................................................................................................6 Situational Analysis - (Micro)....................................................................................................7 1

Digital Marketing Strategy Plan 20080619 TripAdvisor................................................................................................................................8 Competitor Analysis – Talbot Hotel...........................................................................................8 SWOT Analysis..........................................................................................................................8 Persona.....................................................................................................................................11 Goals, Objectives and KPIs......................................................................................................12 Action Plan...............................................................................................................................14 Actions to implement the digital Strategy................................................................................18 Facebook Advertisement..........................................................................................................20 Bibliography.............................................................................................................................24

I am required to create a digital marketing plan for an organisation of my decision that involves being in the industry of Hospitality & Tourism. I have chosen to create a plan for the Maldron Hotel in County Wexford, which is a branded hotel within the Dalata group plc. Its Irelands largest fastest growing hotel operator with leasing 44+ hotels across Ireland and UK.

Situation Analysis – Marco trends in Hospitality Sector Chabot’s – Robots in the Hospitality Industry 2

Digital Marketing Strategy Plan 20080619 Hotels chatbot is a type of digital technology that is designed to simulate human conversations, and then it can be used by the hotel or any hotel within the hospitality sector. The hotels aim by using the chatbot is to interpret the relevant interactions a customer may actually have when talking to a real assistant, which is generally via text. In most hotels, this is a type of digital customer service that hotels use to respond to any problems, answering queries and giving customers relevant information that they may need. There are multiple reasons why hotel adapt these chatbots, but it’s mainly about how the hotel is engaging with their customers by improving their customer service and direct bookings may increase also. Increasing direct bookings are very important in the hospitality industry. The commission doesn’t need to be paid on these bookings, so as a result it can have a larger profit. A hotel chat bot can help with this, rising the number of conversions on the company’s website by answering queries more rapid. Chabot’s can be set up on social media platforms by being able to give people options to book with them directly through that platform or suggesting other ways to help them. Hotel chatbots are able to provide 24/7 customer service. When it comes to customer service, it can be very difficult for the hospitality industry, where you can have customers from all over the world that may have queries and asked at different times. This way that chatbot are able to communicate with the customers to help them with any problems. These robots can be used to provide room service and housekeeping duties within the hotel. Other hand, restaurants can also use robots implement level food service as it can decrease a level of human contact.

Virtual Reality Virtual reality (VR) is one of the biggest development in technology trends. It has a major impact in the hospitality industry as virtual reality has a specific appeal, as their able to give customers an insight of their destination. It can also give customers to experience their expectations of the hotel offerings from their home, before they even arrive. This is important as it can get your customers to come stay at the hotel. Virtual 360 videos can give the customers a better understanding of the facilities on offer. The hotels can also have VR tours on their website as this would mean customers are able to have 3

Digital Marketing Strategy Plan 20080619 easy access with variety of devices. It can make customers feel as though they are present in the hotel and are able to place themselves in that hotel room, restaurant or lobby etc. VR is becoming crucially important in the hospitality industry. Although there are lots of different functions of virtual reality that are entertainment-based, businesses are more aware on how to manage VR as their marketing tool, giving valuable information to customers in a certain way that they can experience, and challenging different impressions in the process. Another point why virtual reality is important in the industry is that the quantity of information that a customer may need before their willing to actually book a room in the hotel. Instead of having to read through the summary, which makes it uncertain to be true or not, it gives customers the opportunity to see things for themselves. The VR hotel tours are able to be accessed on the hotel websites itself, this can allow customers to view their hotel room, or any parts of the hotel, before they arrive or book the hotel room. It can also be available on social media platforms, for example Facebook, Instagram or Tik tok etc.

Technology using Mobile Phone Mobile phone service is another major development in the Hospitality Industry, in fact it’s almost now being used in every other business. Hotels are offering check-in service by mobile phone, which is very effective as it decreases the need for human contact with employees. By using self-service, it can benefit customers as their arrival experience is much faster. The hotel can provide customers with access to the app on their hotel website. An example of this would be contactless payments, which many businesses would be concerned about reducing friction, and it allows customers to save time on getting cash or

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Digital Marketing Strategy Plan 20080619 inserting their pin. By using Google pay and Apple pay means you don’t need to carry purse or wallet. Customers are now more dependent on their mobile devices when ordering from a restaurant, check in for a flight and are able to catch a ride. By using mobile devices when checking into a hotel is more convenient than waiting in a line at reception, customers want an easy process that allows them to go straight to their hotel room. There was a study from Software Advice that indicates 60 percent of guests will select a hotel that allows them to check-in and have simple access to their room by using their mobile phone over a hotel that doesn’t. J.D. Power study informs us that guests are more than likely to take advantage of using mobile check in/out having a high level of satisfaction than people using plastic key cards which can be lost very easily. The hotel can also benefit from using mobile check-in not just guests, but it’s also a great benefit to the hotels day-to-day activities. It conducts a more up-to-date and smooth running of the check-in process, decreases front desk friction, and it gives front desk extra time to help guests, this can lead to customer service being more personalized. By the hotel providing simple process to checking in/out, it can give free time to employees to meet high level of customer service. Another function would be that having the option to examine and check guest’s ID means you’re able to access information you need to affirm a reservation or payment and it can also erase any mistakes that may occur. This can also help with assisting language barriers between employees and foreign guests and giving those guests with the same simple check-in process that other guests’ experience.

Smart Hotels Smart room technology is a growing trend in the Hospitality Industry. These hotel rooms are powered by electronic devices which makes them “SMART”, which can allow to communicate with one another. Each hotel room are all fitted with “internet with things” connection. There are some business already implementing the smart hotel rooms for example Hilton, the reason of this is it can increase the customers’ experience of staying in a hotel.

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Digital Marketing Strategy Plan 20080619 A smart hotel room can help a hotel stand out from other hotels, making the rooms more appealing from a marketing aspect. Smart hotel rooms can offer guests a high standard of personalisation, which indicates that a guest quickly make changes to their room and wanting to make them feel more like home. Actually, through a smart device, guests can make their own changes within the room, being able to select temperature and level of lighting. The lights, heating and air con are controlled with internet of things technology. One of the biggest benefits is that it can help to reduce costs by having these smart hotel rooms. This can improve sustainability and energy in each of the hotel rooms, using devices when you need them. It can increase customer experience by having a smart speaker in the room with built in Alexa for service, it also can be controlled by turning off the lights in the room, heating and even the TV by just a voice.

Situational Analysis - (Micro) Maldron Hotel is three-star property family-orientated hotel suited on the outskirts of Wexford town. There is a big chain hotel, as Maldron is one of the branded hotel within the Dalata group. I do believe that the Maldon use digital marketing but in terms of getting their content out there, they need to really improve. I currently was an employee for the Maldron Hotel and I’m very familiar with how its run. The hotel wouldn’t be as active on social media in terms of Facebook or Instagram. They’ve 6

Digital Marketing Strategy Plan 20080619 recently set up Instagram in 2018 but in my opinion it’s not good content and I feel it doesn’t catch attention although they share food offerings, bedrooms offer, family trips away, Dalata awards etc. They’ve always had Facebook page and they post regularly. Overall, there digital media is average for a three-star hotel but could improve. Pros and Cons of the Maldron website: 

Pros -

The website is accessible.

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It’s easy to navigate.

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The website has good imagery of the facilities they offer.

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The hotel gives you an option to view bar/ restaurant and kid’s menu which is an advantage to people to see what they have on offer before they arrive.

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They offer great activities for kids such as bingo, table quizzes and movie time, this is great for parents as it gives them a break too.

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The website has a couple of reviews that you have access to see.

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They also have information about Covid-19 regulations and restrictions.

Cons -

They don’t have much reviews on their website, as you need to access another page like TripAdvisor to see more reviews of the hotel.

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The website needs to be updated in term of their image gallery as they recently refurbished Vertigo dining room, and it’s now showing how its changed. This is disadvantage as the company are not using their digital marketing platform to its potential.

TripAdvisor Maldron Hotel – they have 1,080 reviews on TripAdvisor with a star rating of 3.5. Talbot Hotel – They have 2,422 reviews on TripAdvisor with a star rating of 3.5.

Excellent Very Good Average Poor Terrible

Maldron Hotel 353 273 234 122 98

Talbot Hotel 1,311 683 251 112 65 7

Digital Marketing Strategy Plan 20080619

This shows the comparison of the two hotel TripAdvisor customer reviews indicating that Talbot is more superior in terms of giving customer satisfaction. This shows that the Maldron need to improve with dealing with customer complaints. By looking at the reviews, they can focus on issues discussed by customers and then eventually they will see an improvement within their organisation. Talbot seem to be more engaged with TripAdvisor than Maldron.

Competitor Analysis – Talbot Hotel I have picked the Talbot Hotel as a competitor to the Maldron as there in same local area but also there is a big difference between them as Talbot is a 4 star and Maldron is only 3. I’m going to complete a SWOT analysis on the Talbot Hotel and then summary on the comparison of them using social media platforms. The platform I will use is Facebook as its used by most people.

SWOT Analysis Strengths 

The Talbot Hotel have an Instagram page but also a separate page for Talbot Fitness. They seem to be well on Instagram as its active and also they interact with customers by posting competitions. Comparing to the Maldron which just having the main page.

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They’re website page looks good in terms of content marketing as they’ve an option to have a virtual tour on the weddings they cater for which I think is strength as customers are able to see what it will look like. Maldron don’t have the option to do this on their website which they should consider.

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Talbot are a four-star hotel that caters for weddings and are currently doing really well in terms of weddings compared to Maldron only being three-star hotel with no banquet room to do this.

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They engage with TripAdvisor a lot with replying to their positive reviews but also their negative reviews. Comparing this to Maldron, as you seen above the difference of excellent reviews, which stands that the Talbot I think have some big relations to when it comes to customer’s feedback.

Weaknesses

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Digital Marketing Strategy Plan 20080619 

They don’t post much content on their Instagram page compared to their Facebook page. The Talbot have 36k followers on Facebook viewing their content and have only 2.6k on Instagram.

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Compared to the Talbot four-star hotel, they don’t have as much followers as them. The Maldron has 31k followers and Talbot have 36k but have the same star rating on TripAdvisor of 3.5.

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They don’t use advertising campaigns.

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The level of engagement is poor compared to the Talbot as they have only 17% while Talbot have 91%, there is an extreme difference in these figures.

Opportunities 

TikTok has become more popular nowadays than many other social media platforms, by considering this platform would be beneficial as it aims to the younger generation and they can interact with the content with liking, sharing and reposting etc.

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They could have a greater use of checking in/out services as a digital form of technology. This is more efficient for their guests and it benefits the hotel also.

Threats 

In my opinion, Maldron need to improve their level of engagement and number of comments on social media. Their level of engagement is only 0.017% when on average is 0.46%, which is worrying for their business comparing that to Talbot with a figure of 0.91%.

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Covid-19 pandemic is another example of how it can be a threat to the both Talbot and Maldron. Maldron nor Talbot are not staying active in terms of food beverage as they’re not offering takeaway services to their customers.

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I think Virtual reality changes how customers change about options to travel; VR is giving customers option to travel without actually travelling. For example: looking at videos of virtual reality is having an insight of what it looks like before you travel. Its advantage but also a disadvantage as it can impact the lodging industry.

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Digital Marketing Strategy Plan 20080619

This table above compares the two hotels in term of their digital marketing content and from what I can see, Maldron have a low number in nearly all aspects which indicates they need a better plan for their customers to engage more.

Persona – The persona I have chosen is Mary the Mum (female). Mary is 30-year-old accountant with three children under the age of 9 and living in Dublin. She works full-time but is extremely busy between getting up with the kids for school every morning before she goes to work. She loves her job! She works hard during the week and tends to enjoy her weekends with her friends and family as they’re very important to her in life. She tends to put her children’s first as they’re her priority. She’s not the type of person that is able to go out for food or go away on the weekends with friends to fancy hotels, but it’s not that she can’t do these nice things. 10

Digital Marketing Strategy Plan 20080619 Mary is tech savvy with her laptops, mobile phone and especially her iPad so she can stay in the same room as the kids. She loves connecting with her friends and sharing pictures of her family on social media to keep up with other families. She tends to struggle with her work balance as it’s difficult to raise children and try keep down a full-time job to provide for her kids but also saving money to be go on breakaways with them. Mary loves her social media platform such as Facebook, Twitter and Tik-Tok, always looking for advocacy. Mary is a great mum likes to engage and create long-lasting memories with her partner and most importantly her children. She enjoys bringing her family away to standardize hotel that provide her kids needs to be entertained with activities. Mary tends to do some research in the evenings after she puts the kids to bed, this way she is able to relax while spending a good bit of time on social media. The social media aps helps her find things quickly and would book directly from her phone as its easier. She prefers when sites are mobile friendly as it’s easier to view content and imagery so she can actually she the products or services. She also interacts with blogs on family holidays that involve water parks, playgrounds and beaches for her kids. She always engages with an app called Pinterest, it helps her create cool ideas with the kids such as, baking cupcakes and arts & crafts. Mary tends to make the decisions when planning holidays. Mary is not a trendsetter but looks to other people for information and advice to stay intact with the latest trends. She has limited spending and constantly looking for offers and discounts to meet her budget. Maldron is a budget/family-orien...