There’s an interesting tension in the world of digital hospitality. In fact, it’s a tension that exists for any business that engages directly with their customers online. It’s undeniable that personalization helps to convert browsers into bookers, but how do you protect your brand from being diluted or damaged by the wrong kind of website messaging?
OTAs invest heavily in perfecting their approach to website messaging, but ‘perfect’ for them means lots of visitors making a purchase. They have much less interest in a visitor’s experience on their website or even which hotel they choose, so long as they make a booking. That visitor is not going to be spending their vacation or business trip with the OTA they booked through, so these distributors can afford to be less concerned about how their digital brand experience actually feels for the guest.
Hoteliers don’t have it so easy. They need to both encourage as many visitors as possible to book directly on their website, but also give them a sense - digitally - of what staying at their hotel will be like. Hotel websites aren’t just a place to convert customers as quickly as possible, they’re also the storefront where you showcase and strengthen your brand.
All of a sudden, those OTA-style messages designed to convert have to do more than just push website visitors down the booking funnel as quickly as possible. The website messaging now also needs to help potential guests decide if this is the right hotel for them to stay at. This can be achieved by creating a strong digital brand, and there are two pillars to making it work:
- A consistent visual presence
- A seamless, enjoyable online experience
Website messaging done badly will not provide either of these. Which is why, at Triptease, we invest so much research and development time into building the right messaging product for hotels. We aim to give hoteliers access to the kind of precision-targeted messages used by OTAs, but without damaging their hotel brand in the process.
A consistent visual presence makes your brand memorable
The benefits of a strong visual brand are well known. It helps to differentiate your business from others in the market, and it gives your business an identity that potential customers can relate to. A commitment to consistency in your branding takes time to implement, but will drive authority and trust in your business - in turn increasing customer loyalty and brand evangelism.
In the online marketplace, keeping hold of brand consistency can become more complex. There are multiple third party suppliers who offer website messaging tools, but few are able to create bespoke branded options for hotels at the speed and scale they are often required.
The Triptease Message Builder has always allowed hoteliers to create a personalized, targeted message in minutes (or to upload their own custom design to ensure total brand consistency). We’ll very soon be adding functionality that means hoteliers can save time by setting a default message theme as standard. This means you only need to upload your branding once, never having to worry about visual consistency again.
A seamless, enjoyable online experience increases brand trust
So that’s visual brand consistency taken care of - but how can a hotel provide precision messaging that doesn’t feel disruptive for a hotel’s potential customers? How do you give them an experience on your website that ensures your brand feels personal and helpful, rather than intrusive?
The answer to that circles back around to one of our favorite topics here at Triptease - personalized messaging. Building up a range of Targeted Messages that compliment the booking journey and feel tailored to each customer perpetuates the idea that the hotel provides an equally helpful and tailored service to guests in person. In terms of building your brand in a digital space, this is what all hotels should be aiming for. Messages created with consideration for the types of customers who will be seeing them is a simple but effective way to bring your hospitality brand online.
Learn more about building your digital brand with Targeted Messages
Interested in learning more about how to use Triptease tools to strengthen your brand online? If you’re a Triptease client, put your questions to a team of experts at our monthly product webinar. As well as updating you on all the latest product developments over the past month, the Triptease Product Team will be taking a closer look at our new branding functionality and giving you a sneak peak of what’s coming up next for Targeted Messages.