Being the commercial capital and the most developed city of a country as big and populated as Mumbai is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it makes it the ultimate dream, and on the other hand, it makes it extremely vulnerable. Coronavirus Pandemic showed as the ugly side, and Mumbai became the worst affected city in India and one of the worst in the world. The famed international connectivity that the city boasts turned to be the biggest issue, leaving India’s premier metropolitan into total lockdown for more than six months.

Most industries in the city of dreams underwent a sleep mode, and so did Hotel & Hospitality. All the major hotels in Mumbai were shut down completely or were forced to work with a thin staff. Thousands of individuals lost jobs, and all of these factors have led to a staggering downfall of the industry.

However, with the effects of COVID19 subsiding a most of the restrictions being lifted, the new year 2021, is all set for a revival of Hotel & Hospitality. To make the most of the new opportunities expected in the coming year, every company needs a great digital marketing strategy, that only emphasizes traditional practices, but also adapts new and innovative techniques to make it effective in the post-pandemic era. Here’s a guide about the advanced digital market techniques for the industry’s revival not only in Mumbai but also in other major cities of Maharashtra like Pune and Nagpur.

1 Influencer Collaboration

In modern times, the role social media plays in commercial and personal space is hardly distinguishable, yet extremely impactful. Thanks to a bat in Wuhan, its importance has amplified to a great extent. And if you want to promote your brand on social media, social media influencers are the key to the great puzzle. Especially, in developed cities like Mumbai and Pune, influencers play a giant role in influencing the spending decisions of the target audience.

Engaging will social media influencers is important, for which a company needs to collaborate with a social media marketing agency in Mumbai and Pune that has connections with the top influencers. Such an agency will also help you get the best deals as they have a better engagement experience with independent content creators on social networks.

Promote the visits of major influencers at the hotels, and also request them to elaborate on the necessary aspects, like hygiene and safety protocols. This instills confidence in the viewers, which is exactly what they need to visit the hotels in the aftermath of the Coronavirus pandemic. Moreover, engagement with social media influencers, though not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, is way more economic than engaging with any mainstream celebrity. However, when targeting a niche audience, influencers categorically have more influence than celebs.

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Besides all of these, influencers generate unique and more engaging content, making the brand they represent more appealing to the target audience. Unique content is as important as anything because innovation in digital marketing is key in making the revival for the hotel and hospitality industry. The first-hand account, uniqueness in content, deeper connection with the target audience, and easy accessibility make influencers a force to reckon with, especially when the chips are down.

2 Combining AR and 3D Design 

Innovation in content-presentation is a crucial part of digital marketing in an era when viewers are bombarded with content and advertisements left, right, and center. More so now since most people have hours to spend with a small screen in their hands. To stand out from the crowd, one of the ways to advertise is to combine Augmented Reality (AR) with 3D Design.

Imagine a beautiful 3D design and an XBOX game-like immersive experience. Viewers can have a life-size tour of your hotel from the comfort of their homes, and this in itself is a breakthrough innovation. Better than your standard image and caption stuff. The only thing you need to take care of is to make sure that the content the tech-laden content you create reaches the correct audience, as not everyone will have the devices to experience its true potential.

On the flip side, this will ensure that your content reaches only the higher income group who are more likely to visit your luxury hotels. 

This means that the AR/3D content you create will not only help you stand out from the crowd but will also ensure unique and almost exclusive content for your niche. Therefore, the conversion rate could be much higher.

However, creating such complex content requires special expertise, which an in-house team might not have. Also, hiring a workforce exclusively for the job may not be a wise idea, given that the industry is looking for a revival. A website design and development company in Mumbai and Pune, like AdEngage, can be of great use, as they generally have technical content creators on their partner list, making life easier for you to spend more time on strategy building rather than on the technical front.

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3 Integration of Big Data Analytics

With millions of users active in and around the two megacities, the are several challenges which a successful digital marketing campaign must tackle, especially for the revival of the industry. The first, and the most basic challenge, is to reach the target audience. In the case of the hotel industry, it will probably be the young executives or higher management, businessmen, and soon-to-be-married couples, etc.

The second challenge is to post the right kind of content to each type of audience. For instance, you need to pitch your flamboyant banquets and exquisite restaurants for the couples, and the conference rooms and bulk discounts to the business managers. Likewise, you also need to decide on the type of content – written, videoed, or AR-based, for your audience. Those looking to spend their honeymoon will want to have a complete tour of your hotel, while managers would go through the pictures and feature lists.

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Big Data Analytics is the answer to all of these questions and some more. It helps you analyze the spending pattern, basic & advance demographics, tastes & preferences, and much more of the target audience. Integrating this analysis in your digital marketing campaign will have apparent and multiple benefits, and will prove to be instrumental in the revival. One of the major benefits of Big Data that helps you reduce costs significantly. While hiring a digital marketing agency in Mumbai and Pune that has an organic and holistic data bank relevant to your market is a substantial expense, it is a worthy investment in multiple ways.

Firstly, by applying Big Data Analytics, you only advertise your content only where and when it is bound to have a significant impact. This alone will save you a fortune, given that the ad rates on social platforms are soaring by the day. Secondly, it helps you cover the intended niche audience with the right kind of content, resulting in better conversion rates.

4 Conducting Awareness Campaigns

Awareness has never been more important than it is today, and it is a great opportunity for the success of your digital marketing campaign. Having enough and accurate information regarding the pandemic and the government’s guidelines is equally beneficial for the viewers as well as the company.

To begin with, make the target audience aware of the safety protocols you have put in place to prevent the spread of COVID19. AR base content and videos will be great for this purpose. Secondly, connect with your customers on an emotional front by explaining to them how the iconic hotel survived the onslaught of the virus and the long months of the lockdown. Likewise, inform them about how the hygiene is being maintained, and how all the guidelines formulated by the administration are being followed strictly.

Involving influencers in the awareness campaigns is a great option, as the viewers will have much more confidence about a hotel when they see a public figure, they know speaking about it. Another mode of creating awareness is mobile SMS marketing, email marketing, and extensive social media marketing. The content for this must be precise, technical, and should answer all the basic questions like medical precautions, social distancing templates, outdoor risks related to the virus, etc.

Mass marketing coupled with crisp visual content, including videos, posts, and captioned images are one of the best ways you can connect with your potential customers, and encourage them to step into your hotel without worrying too much about the Coronavirus and the possible infection. On the other hand, the hotel staff will have less to explain to a guest who is aware and has already informed about the protocols and other COVID19 specific procedures.

5 Integration of Automation and Chatbots

Automation has become a norm in digital marketing, and it is probably going to be the driving force in the coming months. As soon as the lockdown and restrictions are completely lifted, market players will hold back nothing to market their services, which will result in a stupendous demand for content. To keep up with this anticipated demand, automation will become a must, and therefore, putting the system in place beforehand is not a bad thing at all.

Likewise, chatbots will also play a significant part in digital marketing for the hotel and hospitality industry. Every hotel marketing agency in Mumbai and Pune has bots in place for answering recurring queries of customers. However, the post-pandemic era will have a host of new queries, right from regarding the safety protocols, to pricing, discounts, isolation facilities, service specifics, and much more. All of these questions will be bulk and answering each one of them will be extremely important.

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Combining automation and chatbots will be a major innovation contributing to the digital marketing campaign’s success. Automation will allow the chatbots to be implemented on a large scale across the platforms, not only for answering questions via email or chat messenger but also for replying to comments on videos and images posted on networks like Facebook, Instagram, etc.

Scalability is a big challenge for digital marketing, especially when the workforce of many companies has shrunk down considerably. Circulating content on a large scale on multiple platforms simultaneously is a complex task, which is simplified by applying automation. Likewise, combining it with chatbots, and other holistic technologies like AI, Blockchain, Machine Learning, and IoT, can yield staggering results.

6 Circulation of Visually Engaging & Interactive Content

One of the primary objectives of running a digital marketing campaign is to engage the audience, and have as much interaction as possible. Therefore, it is important to create content that fulfills two conditions – one, it must be interesting enough to hook the audience, and second, must be interactive.

Firstly, to make the content interesting enough, we need more than captioned images and long written posts. Short and crisp videos, puzzles, 3D animations, AR/VR based content, Q&A, etc., are some of the examples. As long as the viewer is hooked to the content, the advertisers get a chance to showcase all that they want to. This will not only help the viewer acquire all the information it wants but also allow the company to measure the actual attention span the audience is willing to spend on it.

Second, to make the content interactive, the content must include viewer participation. 3D games are a very good example. For instance, a well-equipped digital marketing company for hotels in Mumbai and Pune can build small demo games that allow the viewer to participate and experience a virtual tour of the hotel by active interaction. Likewise, the agency can also schedule live Q&A sessions that would allow the general/target audience to ask questions to the hotel management. A social media influencer can also be roped in for the interactive session.

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Such kind of content will not only help the company to distinguish itself from the crowd but also help it collect vital information about their target audience. For instance, a virtual 3D interactive tour of the hotel will let the company know what most of the viewers are looking for. If most of the engaged audience is selecting options to see the banquets, the agency can boost the promotion of banquets, and so forth.

Written by: Noman Shaikh

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