Top 3 Mobile Marketing Tactics for Hotels

Posted 19 Mar 2010

phone

Mobile phones are transforming into the portable computers of today, especially for people on the go. These people on the go are also frequent travelers. They want information fast, simple and at their fingertips.

  • In the U.S., the number of mobile phone lines has already surpassed the number of land lines.
  • More than 90 percent of the U.S. population has a mobile device, and out of those mobile users, more than 4 billion access the Web via their mobile phone.
  • According to Nielsen research, “40% of iPhone/iTouch users access the Internet more on their mobile than their desktop.”

How can we harness the enormous possibilities of the mobile market? Start engaging mobile users as soon as possible with these:

3 Ways Hotels Can Use Mobile Technology

1. Create a Mobile-Friendly Website

The mobile phone has made Internet access so easy it is imperative your company have a site that is mobile friendly. If guests are searching for lodging in your area on their phone, can your site be seen? Your Web site must be designed for users to easily access, view and use on a small screen. A mobile user is more likely to leave if they a find a site that doesn’t load properly or is not easy to navigate.

Mobile users on-the-go want to be able to book a room quickly and easily. Edge out your competitors with a mobile-friendly site.

2. Utilize Foursquare to Engage Mobile Users

There are thousands of iPhone gaming apps floating around. With mobile local search becoming the next big thing for mobile users, now is the time to jump in.

Foursquare is a location based iPhone application that aims to encourage people to explore their neighborhoods and then reward people for doing so. Foursquare does this by combining their friend-finder and social city guide elements with game mechanic. Users earn points, win mayorships and unlock badges for trying new places and revisiting old favorites.

By adding your hotel as one of the venues included in the game, players of foursquare can earn points by visiting your hotel, bar or restaurant. Points and merits can be used to unlock discounts on food, drinks or room nights.

As an added bonus, Foursquare and other mobile applications are utilizing social media which generate exposure and valuable links to your Web site.

Here are a few examples:

3. List Your Hotel in Location Based Applications for Mobile

Mobile users are making full use of convenient applications to find nearby restaurants, businesses and hotels. The video below covers the Yelp application.

Video: Yelp for iPhone 4.0
New interface and features including one with augmented reality called monocle.

Currently, there are over 20 major directories and some of the big ones offer applications for users. These applications draw information from a Website database – a database where you want your hotel to be listed.

Here are just a few of these apps: Yelp Mobile, Google Maps Mobile, Yellow Pages Mobile

What are you doing to generate exposure through mobile? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

*Special thanks to Brittany for her contribution to this article.

One Response

  1. Steven - 19 Mar 2010 |

    Very helpful advice, Randy. I’m already a big fan of Foursquare. It’s like earning XP in real life.

Leave a Reply