Around a third of revenues from room nights at Le Méridien Hotel & Spa in St. Julian’s are generated online, a steady increase registered over recent years. Social media have established themselves as a leading online marketing tool, directly contributing towards this trend with the significant investment done by the hotel.

Ludivine Bendotti, marketing manager at Le Méridien Hotel & Spa, explained to i-Tech how tourism and hospitality have become reliant on the internet to generate revenue and for marketing. In an article published in this newspaper around two years ago she had already hinted at the ever-increasing role of social media and the rise of e-commerce.

“Technologies have tremendously evolved in the last two years. The web platform is ever changing, search engines are being upgraded faster than ever, as they better adapt to internet visitors’ needs and behaviours. This phenomenon enhanced the importance of photography, video content and social media. Whereas in the recent past Google search results would only generate a list of website homepages, nowadays searches for any given keyword yield a whole new range of varied assets such as YouTube videos, images and social media profiles. These items are now ranked higher than traditional websites!

“The web is no longer just a source of information, it is a market place where countless conversations are taking place and where the most attractive ‘shop window’ generates the most traffic. You can no longer only ‘talk’ about your product, you need to ‘show’ it in the best possible light and get your followers to talk about it in a positive manner. In order to engage people, you must have rich media content to display and interesting insights to share. The role of online channels has taken an increasing space in marketing strategies and it has become more complex than ever. Companies either seriously invest in online channels or stay behind,” she warned.

Le Méridien St Julian’s has embraced those trends by recruiting one more person to assist in the overall marketing activities of the property, and targets in terms of online revenue are more aggressive than ever. In 2010, the internet contributed to just below 30 per cent of overall room revenue. That figure rose to around 35 per cent at the end of 211.

“It is a great success story but we can’t stop there. 2012 will definitely be challenging and with the current economic trends, we will need to carry on our efforts without interruption. Our plan of action is in the making to further improve our direct online bookings,” the hotel’s marketing manager said.

Although the results are tangible it’s not easy to attain them, given that technology changes all the time and the tourism sector is very competitive and depends on the ever-changing trends.

Ms Bendotti has some very important points from experience to share.

“There’s so much competition out there, in Malta like anywhere else. It’s important to be visible, everywhere, all the time, but it is also essential to progress with a clear action plan in mind. In an environment where everything changes so fast, it is easy – and tempting – to rush, but some careless mistakes could cost some valuable exposure and credibility to your company. Marketers have to welcome the fact that their professional path has now become an ongoing learning process. Take the emergence of mobile devices, for example. Customers’ behaviour on their smart phones is once again totally different from anything we’ve encountered before. How can we embrace those technologies fast enough to stay one step ahead from competition? It never stops. It is necessary to get a solid understanding of online strategies such as SEO, PPC campaigns and social media applications targeting mobile devices (such as Foursquare). It is essential to keep up with those trends.

“If you think that it is not worth investing time, resources and money into online marketing, think again! All these new developments and marketing platforms must be taken extremely seriously and budgeted for, as every singly aspect of nearly any business out there sees their customer base shifting online. Some old-school minds may argue that you should only focus on online vendors and booking engines as Facebook doesn’t sell your product as such. Well, maybe not. But because of your level of interaction on social media, potential clients will notice you, read about you and most likely remember you during their next online shopping spree.”

At the end of 2009 the Le Méridien Malta Facebook page had just over 2,000 fans but now it has over 15,000 “likes”. The hotel’s marketing team makes use of images and video content shared on emergent social networks such as Flickr, Dailymotion, Panoramio, Scribd, and Slideshare. It also has a Twitter feed.

While exploiting social media for business is challenging, it’s also an opportunity to do something different.

“Have fun with your online marketing. Be creative, think out of the box. Internet users will stop and have a chat with you if you manage to create an online buzz that’s relevant to your line of business. And don’t give up.

“The secret is to remain active no matter what, to keep on trying again and again. Online viral reactions that create a positive commotion on the web don’t only happen to others,” concluded the marketing manager at Le Méridien St. Julian’s.

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