As evidenced by the scores of new hospitality trends popping up, it is readily apparent the online digital landscape is affecting hospitality marketing in a variety of new forms. What was always a traditional one-way marketing model—that of informing the consumer—is evolving to more of a two-way dialogue, empowering consumers and forcing marketers to convey their message across a variety of channels. In today’s digital space, the marketer can speak with the consumer across social networks, engage them on YouTube, deliver ads that bring them directly to the price comparison or property exploration stage of the purchase funnel and marketers even have the capability to engage consumers directly through their mobile device and real-time location.

This, in turn, leads to the fact that digital marketing strategies take consumer activity and provide actionable insights to marketers, who then have information that will make their advertising even more relevant. Analytics systems use data to illuminate audiences that are most profitable for a given brand. The technological processes enabled by the digital platform make delivering targeted marketing messages by content and audience a simple task.

In addition, the digital space allows marketing efforts to scale quickly and efficiently across multiple platforms and many influential consumer touch points. A hotel brand should promote value holistically—considering search results, content across the web, social media outlets, online video sites, and more—to ensure consistency and completeness of the consumer experience.

Digital marketing also enables hospitality marketers to be nimble. It seems the only constant is change: change in offers, prices and consumer demand. The digital platform enables marketers to react to sudden fluctuations very easily and with immensely less effort than ever before. Automated budgeting, bidding and targeting strategies simplify what used to be complicated processes, allowing hospitality marketers to keep up with the changing pace of the industry.

There are two consumer trends, in particular, that should continue to be significant in 2011.

First, consumers are researching travel across digital platforms with greater intensity than ever before. Over the last three years, Google has conducted studies with third-party vendors that demonstrate continued growth in:
1. The amount of travelers using the Internet as a planning tool (84 percent in 2010).
2. The importance of search in travel planning (search is now the top tool used by consumers shopping for travel).
3. The amount of research sessions completed prior to travel (from an average of eight sessions in 2008 to 9.5 sessions in 2010).
4. The visits to travel-related sites across the Internet (from an average of 18.5 in 2008 to 21.9 in 2010).

Second, with consumers becoming increasingly savvy about researching their travel prior to purchase, showing value even more important now. Although we’ve seen significant increases in queries that include the words “deals,” “discounts” and “package,” the concept of value is not limited to just a dollar savings for the consumer.

Following along with a few positive economic signs, there are consumers who are willing to spend the same or more as they have in the past—as long as they can receive a guaranteed positive travel experience. Loyalty programs, custom or special offerings and enticing experiences are all driving consumers to purchase at pre-2008 rates, because the perceived value is higher than other 2010 offerings.

Typically, travel marketers use the online space for direct-response purposes. The key metric for a “heads in beds” goal would naturally be conversions (including online purchases, saved reservations, etc.). Tools such as the AdWords and Display Campaign Optimizers use conversion-tracking technology to automatically optimize toward the cost-per-acquisition and conversion goals that you set for your campaigns. The web overall also provides powerful tools for branding, both via reach (using impressions as a metric) and engagement (interaction time is a common metric).

Another area within the digital realm that is generating steam is location or mobile marketing. The traveler is, by definition, mobile. Therefore, it’s especially important to understand how people are using their phones: in general, and to make their travel plans.

It should come as no surprise that the mobile web and smart phones in particular are growing at a stunning clip; many estimate smart phones will be the way most people access the web in the next few years, overtaking personal computers. What are people doing with their smart phones? Plenty, but one breakout trend is searching. Mobile search has grown 500% in the last two years, and 400% in the last year on mobile devices with full Internet browsers.

For travel specifically, the usage statistics of smart phones among leisure and business travelers are growing at unprecedented rates. The number of searches in the travel category via a mobile device is up 1,200% this year; hotel searches on Google Maps have grown 3,000%. And people aren’t just searching; they are actually completing transactions from their devices. The number of mobile bookings in the travel space is accelerating: from $20 million in 2008 to $200 million this year, with over $80 million coming from the hotel category alone. There are mobile strategies to address your target consumer’s needs— whether that’s making a reservation, checking-in, watching travel videos or finding the closest hotel property on a map.

At the end of the day and regardless of the channel marketers pursue, ROI for digital marketing programs is entirely dependent upon marketing objectives. Often times these include growing brand awareness, audience engagement, driving online conversions, driving call center bookings, launching a new property and more. To measure ROI effectively, marketers should first be clear about their objective for a given campaign and then identify the corresponding metrics that matter to their brand.

With over 20 years of travel industry experience, Rob Torres serves as Google’s managing director of advertising and marketing for the North American travel sector. Torres oversees the strategy development and profitable growth of integrated and innovative advertising campaigns. He’s also HSMAI’s vice chair, Americas board of directors.