Another tourist season is here and the millions of vacationers coming to Myrtle Beach from all over the U.S. will need accommodations. There are many beautiful hotels and resorts on the Grand Strand, but most are not nationally-known brands that out-of-towners will immediately know to search. Hoteliers trying to gain more visibility can consider a few ideas.
Improve Your SEO
It is 2010. So, of course, you have a website. (Right?) A well-designed website is a must. With the growing ubiquity of mobile devices and public WiFi hotspots, today’s travelers do online research not only before their trip, but during it as well, so an online presence for your business is essential to staying competitive. For hotels and resorts, a website creates the opportunity to make a visual argument about your services. Your site should feature a photo gallery with pictures of rooms, amenities, and your particular view of the beautiful Atlantic.
But what good is all that visual bragging if no one can find your site on Google? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a service that makes your site visible to popular search engines; the better your SEO, the higher your website will appear on a search engine’s “results” page. Thus, your SEO is directly related to your number of hits. It is imperative that your site is designed and coded properly with strategies for maximum SEO in mind.
Get Mobile
Many hotels and resorts in Myrtle Beach have some kind of website, but how many are customized for mobile? The sale of smartphones is on the continual rise, enabling Americans to do just about everything from their mobile devices: email, research, shopping, etc. Travelers in particular depend on their mobile devices to provide them with location-based services, so customizing your website for mobile is another must.
But here, again, the right web developer is vital. Just as you need a qualified developer who can format and code your website to suit SEO, you also need one who understands the purpose of a mobile website. The best mobile websites are not merely shrunken versions of the original desktop sites, but they are sites that understand the consumer habits most prevalent in mobile usage. Mobile users, and tourists especially, are people on the go; they are less likely to be browsing and more likely to be goal-oriented in their searches: they want directions, availability, contact info, and real-time rates. A mobile website should be as easy to navigate as possible, and if consumers can book their room right from their mobile device, you are several steps ahead of your competitors.
Go Viral
Take advantage of social media and the viral nature of email by encouraging your promotions to be passed around. Have a great deal to offer? Make it as unique and appealing as possible and advertise it on your website encouraging people to link to it. If you have an email campaign in place, include your special promotion in an email message, inviting people to forward it to friends and family members. This not only creates rapid, viral advertising for your hotel, but it will boost your search engine ranking while expanding your market reach.
In the era of mobile marketing, the only limit is your own creativity. Designing a marketing strategy that intersects web, email, and mobile campaigns is a guaranteed way to increase your visibility and stand out from the many Myrtle Beach hotels and resorts. The more people can learn about your services before they arrive, the better the business interaction—for them and for your brand.
