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When 2014 was coming to a close, we started looking at the key trends that shaped the year and the ones that would impact hotel marketing in 2015 and we gave you an eBook filled with insights to market your hotel better online in the new year, including advice from marketing experts at citizenM, Naman Hotels, Expedia, and more.

To help you further, weve compiled this snackable version of the eBook which includes the four most important hotel marketing trends to watch for 2015.

Continue reading to check out the most important predictions of the year and let us know how your hotel plans to navigate these changes. You can also join the conversation on Twitter #LeoeBook.

Regards,

Darlene RondeauV.P. Best Practices, Online MerchandisingLeonardo

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In our daily diet of online news from the likes of HotelNewsNow.com, Tnooz and Skift, it wouldnt be surprising to read the following headlines as we drink our first cup of joe at home, take the train to the city, or scan the news on our smartphone while were stopped at the red light enroute to the office (not that we condone texting while driving ).

Our predictions are organized into the four main areas we believe will be top of mind for Hospitality Marketers next year. Additionally, well share practical takeaways that will help you prepare for the next 12 months.

Content, But Not For The Sake Of Content

When visual storytelling works it conveys impressions and invokes memories; when it works well, it makes us feel. Thats what content marketing is: creating and telling your story online, to reach your prospective consumer, with an emphasis on helping (informing), rather than just selling. And its what smart marketers are turning to in 2015. In fact, more than half of B2C marketers plan to increase their

content marketing budget over the next year.

There are a lot of bright hotel marketers out there who already have the recipe for the secret sauce and understand that people dont want to be sold to any longer. This is particularly true of the Millennials, a generation solidly grounded in the workforce, and they are traveling a lot. This group can smell a spin from a mile away so authenticity is essential to a successful marketing program, but theyre in good company this sentiment transcends all demographics in todays society. Good content is the stimulus that leads enquiring consumers through the shopping journey on their road to purchase, not an afterthought that surrounds the booking engine.

Content Marketing

1888 Hotel

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Could It Get More Complicated?Yes, and it probably will, but there is a light in this tunnel, and its called visual storytelling. In 2015, visual storytelling will become even more important for hoteliers who want to navigate the complex shopping journey and stand out online.

Lets review the stages of the shopping journey which by most travel marketing standards consists of five steps. What theyre labelled varies from company to company, but the approach is consistent: Inspiration & Awareness, Consideration, Intent, Decision, and Post-Purchase (reviews & sharing).

Now, look at the growing list of options consumers have to wade through just to figure out the right choice for their travel needs. Property websites, hotel brands, corporate booking tools, GDSs, airlines, holiday and destination planning sites, review sites, meta-search, and mobile and social channels top the list. There are literally hundreds of thousands of travel channels.

Whats most interesting about the combination of the shopping phases with the complex digital landscape is the important role visual storytelling plays. It wasnt that long ago when a travel site (pick one, any one), had a listing of hotels, with a large price point and a thumbnail image of the property, usually the exterior. Increasingly, wise marketers have moved from the boring text-heavy presentations at the turn of the century to websites that are dominated with rich media, like big, bold images, short, snackable videos and descriptive text. This approach transports viewers to their place by showing what its really like and according to MDG Advertising, content with images gains 94% more total views than non-visual content.1

The right picture can go further than just telling your story visually, it can make you feel emotions, evoke memories and even make you act differently, which is an essential motivator to move people along the path to purchase.21

Shopping Journey

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The Social House That Mark BuiltSure, Mark Zuckerberg wasnt the first to build a social network, but he took it to an entirely new level 10 years ago when he initially developed Facebook to give fellow students a visual of their classmates and a way to connect with each other. Today, social marketing is used by hundreds of thousands of companies

to build customer relationships in a nuanced and sophisticated way.

Consumer behavior has dictated what, how, and when they want to interact with companies, and with each other. Its pretty clear that people are looking for good storytelling on hotels social channels. Humans are curious creatures. We love conversation and comments. We want to be heard and understood.

Our definition of social networking has expanded over the last several years, whereas it may have started with Facebook, now it includes platforms that support video or image only sharing,

location based services, conversations with the suits, news aggregators, group buying and selling, along with micro-and blogging sites. And multi-media is the common denominator for the leading social marketing companies. Its woven into the experience whether its your bio picture or company graphic on LinkedIn or a video on how to carve a Halloween pumpkin on Pinterest, todays social communication is dominated by visuals. And thats a good thing because in our busy, busy world, where time is the new currency, visuals are processed much, much faster than words. In fact, people have drawn for 32,000 years, while weve only written for 5,000; and in todays society, pictures help pull us out of our noisy surroundings to provide transparency and context.

Though storytelling has always thrived on property, it really hasnt been until recent years that our marketing tools and technologies have given us the ability to source, curate, publish and amplify these stories in todays multi-screen, multi-channel universe.

The Power Of Social Media and Mobile

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Mobile TakeoverIn 2010, Steve Jobs predicted that tablets would eventually takeover PCs. His prophecy will become true in 2015. Gartner predicts a total of 320 million tablet sales, versus just 316 million PC sales (desktops and laptops).3 However, this is small potatoes compared to mobile. Next year, Gartner predicts ~ 1.95 billion mobile phone sales around 70% of which be smartphones.

Now, imagine this scenario. Friends are sitting around, talking about where to take their next vacation. Everyone in the discussion pulls out their tablet or phone and someone grabs the laptop that is already on the table. Ideas are starting to flow and the group decides to head to San Francisco for a long weekend. The million dollar question:

where to stay? Nob Hill, North Beach or the Mission District? So many choices, where do I start? 57% of leisure travelers and 64% of business travelers will start the shopping and booking process with search and then go from there.

Eventually this crowd converges on the Mission District because of its nightlife, cuisine and coolness. Now they need a place to stay. Fingers are flying over the keyboards. Jennifer, on the laptop, is the first to come up with a great selection of options and directs the rest of the group to the website to continue shopping. Uh, oh. Of the three hotel choices she can clearly see on her device, two of them are not optimized for mobile and therefore Jessica and Rachel, who are using their tablet and smartphone, cant see the entire picture the way Jennifer does. 61% of mobile users abandon non-mobile optimized websites. From here,

The Power Of Social Media and Mobile

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you can probably figure out the rest of the story.

Consumers expect to see great visuals, even on the smaller screens of their smartphones and tablets because it helps them imagine the experience they could have at your property.

The mobile market is booming as travelers are turning to their smartphones and tablets throughout the shopping journey. Mobile traffic has grown 125% in the last year,4 and this growth is expected to continue. This increase drives the need for your hotel to create an optimized mobile website that offers an easy-to-use shopping experience. Additionally, Googles 2014 research shows that only 23% of those who have encountered a mobile site that wasnt optimized actually pushed through. Thats a lot of money left sitting on the table. Its time to ramp up your mobile marketing strategies.

Savvy hotel marketer citizenM is totally mobile optimized for hotel shoppers, but what is also notably clever is that they accentuate the I get the mobile message in their marketing strategy by showing their guests in a variety of situations using their portable electronic devices; lying on the bed checking texts, sitting in the lounge updating presentations on their laptops, and

watching movies on their tablets. This double-pronged solution for the mobile traveler provides a good shopping experience and gives their target audience an effective and impactful visual presentation of the anticipated experience.

The Power Of Social Media and Mobile

citizenM Hotels

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Make sure your hotel story is told on all the devices travel shoppers use to search for travel by having smartphone and tablet optimized websites that automatically reformat to fit the users screen. Alternatively, you could create a single responsive website using the same CSS files. You can also develop an adaptive website using the same CSS, giving you the ability to choose which content goes where (this comes in handy if you want to create special offers unique to shoppers searching for travel via their mobile devices).

To respond to the mobile trend, eCommerce marketers are adopting responsive design implementations which automatically render and function appropriately according to the device being used. This may be more time consuming in development, but ultimately gives the consumer the best experience as they travel across screens and increasingly shop, book and interact with your hotel throughout their day. The multi-device movement will increase in the coming years. According to a Hudson Crossing study, by 2018, 91% of travelers will own a smartphone and 89% will own a tablet.5

Consumers are uber mobile pun intended. People on mobile devices have a much shorter attention span compared to desktop

(or even tablet), so its important that videos be snackable and in mobile-friendly formats.

According to HeBS, the majority of mobile bookings in 2014 are coming from the voice channel, so a key element of your mobile website design should be a clearly visible call button.6 Also, embed a map of your location with easy to access contact information.

The Power Of Social Media and Mobile

How has the cross-device, multi-screen behavior impacted hoteliers and what can they do to ensure that their hotel is telling a consistent story across all devices?

We all know that customers are using multiple devices, at different times and stages of inspiration, shopping and booking. The trick is to 1. Be everywhere throughout

the process and 2. Where possible, make the transition between screens easy for your shopper.

Adam AndersonDirector, Industry Relations Expedia

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The web is moving to a very personalized medium. More and more, youre going to see content tailored to your interests its already happening on social sites and across the web (notice that ad for a shoe sale

pops up, just after youve visited the shoe stores website), but we predict it will continue to evolve further as companies learn to better personalize their content to the right consumer and this is especially true for

hotels.

To stand out in 2015, hoteliers need to deliver the message appropriately for your market. To tell a story that impacts your ideal travel shoppers, first you must understand what stories resonate with them. Millennials, business travelers, leisure travelers and event planners are all

searching for the right hotel property, but their requirements are very different. This type of targeting gets more complicated as you expand this definition to include the variety of growing travel markets around the globe like Asia. Understanding the characteristics, preferences and behaviors of your ideal audience, backed by reputable data, will help you efficiently expand your reach.

Targeting

Did You Know?The web will continue to evolve further as companies learn to better personalize their content to the right consumer.

The Four Seasons and Resort

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In 1938, Aldo Gucci said, The story and experience is remembered long after price is forgotten, and 76 years later, that adage still holds true. Each day, as hotel staff walk through the lobby & hallways, and back-of-the-house alcoves and hideouts, they come across anecdotes told by guests and fellow teammates. Take these stories and stitch them together with the hard-wired elements of your property like your clean and comfortable breakfast area, lively sports bar or proximity to the theatre district. Use the Lopez family reunion last fall as the backdrop to describe the hotels ability to host and cater special occasions for large groups. Perhaps you have the ideal location to mix business with pleasure. Walk through the neighborhood, pretend youre your own guest, and notice the little things like the park across the street, a nearby subway station or dinner theatre. All of the content ideas you need are right at your doorstep and inside your building.

Most hotel marketers will readily say that things are changing so rapidly, its hard to stay on top of it all. Keeping current will help you focus on the actions that are right for you to make things more manageable.

Attend a 45 minute educational webinar that promises practical tips you can put into action, download an eBook and read a section each morning with your coffee, take 60 seconds to read that infographic that just arrived in your inbox. Of course, you also have the support of your brand, management companies, technology partners and industry associations at your disposal.

Todays travel consumer is in charge. They choose how and when they will shop for hotels. They decide what device is most convenient to conduct their research. They often prefer to solicit input from strangers on social channels rather than taking the brands word for it. The booking decision rests squarely on their shoulders and their selection is based on how well we can engage, inspire, and inform.

This is just a snapshot of our top predictions and trends for 2015 dive even deeper and get ahead of the competition by checking out the full eBook Show, Share, Stand Out: The Most Important Hotel Marketing Trends to Watch in 2015.

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About LeonardoLeonardo is a technology company serving the global hospitality industry. We provide e-marketers at hotel brands, management companies, hotel properties and travel websites with technology solutions that improve the way they present their hotels online to travel shoppers.

Our core products include Vizlly, a cloud-based Multi-Channel Digital Marketing System that makes it easy for hotel marketers to create and publish websites, mobile websites, social media apps and digital brochures for third party travel websites; VScape Digital Asset Management System, an enterprise-level digital asset management and distribution tool that helps hotel chains better source, manage, organize, store, and publish media assets to direct and indirect online channels; and MediaConnect, advanced connectivity for travel websites to access the industries definitive source of hotel certified visual content. Key to all products is our extensive connectivity. Using our VNetwork, the largest travel website network in the global hospitality industry including GDSs, Meta Search sites, OTAs and more, hoteliers can publish their content and stories to millions of travel shoppers all over the world on the channels, devices and platforms they use to shop for hotels online.

For more information about Leonardo, visit www.leonardo.com.

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SOURCES 1 MDG Advertising http://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/its-all-about-the-images-infographic/ 2 NewsCred 3 Extreme Tech http://www.extremetech.com/computing/185937-in-2015-tablet-sales-will-finally-surpass-pcs-fulfilling-steve-jobs-post-pc-prophecy 4 Leonardo http://www.leonardo.com/knowledge-center/checklists/maximizing-your-mobile-presence-total-optimization-checklist-for-hotels/ 5 Hudson Crossing http://www.hudsoncrossing.com/previewing-our-new-research-report-travels-mobile-centric-future/ 6 HeBS Digital http://www.hebsdigital.com/blog/mid-year-review-the-rising-tide-of-mobile-bookings-how-hoteliers-can-stay-afloat/

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