When I worked at Expedia, we always spoke about this phenomenon known as ‘the billboard effect’ and how it can help to ensure your business is growing.
Imagine driving down a highway on a long trip when a billboard catches your attention. Maybe you’re looking at a Maccas billboard, or it could be a local restaurant, attraction or hotel. You feel compelled to investigate this product. You whip your phone out (or your passenger does, safety first remember) and starts researching. It’s simple right? Its old school advertising and it works.
How does this relate to your hotel? You need to treat Online Travel Agencies (OTA) (such as Expedia, Booking.com and more) as your virtual billboards for your property. Customers find properties on these marketplace style websites, then search for the direct website to further investigate your product and likely, book direct! The OTA has provided your property the visibility it needs to drive the booking through your hotels website and not only increases your awareness, but direct engagement and bookings.
Thus, the billboard effect is born!
Why do I need it? If you are an independent, small scale or boutique property, you likely don’t have the marketing budget that some of the big brands do. The billboard effect is about placing your hotel in the spotlight and using the ripple on effect it creates to enhance your digital presence across all platforms.
The first step to leveraging the billboard effect is to ensure you have a presence on multiple OTAs. But this is not where it ends, you need to actively manage these relationships with the agents, regularly update your listings with the best quality photos, ensure your descriptions are correct and the most important one, ensure your pricing is competitive.
Now you’ve gone this far – the next step is ensuring your website is optimised and has the easiest user experience to make the booking. There is no point to the billboard effect if it’s a nightmare for a customer to book on your website – it will just drive them straight back to the agents.
The next step from here is to encourage direct bookings! You can offer customers perks for booking direct – whether it be a slight discount, late checkout, comp upgrade, breakfast or more.
Your reviews that are showcased on the OTAs and on your direct website will help to convert these lookers into bookers. Highlight these reviews on your website, let customers see you are the real deal! The same can be said with your social media, ensure you have a prescence on socials to showcase your property and let the world see you. This will only help to boost the billboard effect.
Now we know how to leverage it to suit your needs, you need to drive VISIBILITY on the OTAs! A quick search on Booking.com shows that there is over 600 available listings to book in Brisbane, 1200 on the Gold Coast and over 1400 on the Sunshine Coast. Finding your property in a large market can be like finding a needle in a haystack, so how do you stand out?
This is where you leverage your relationship with the OTAs, if you don’t have a relationship with them then this is the perfect place to start. Ask the OTAs what the best strategy is to drive visibility, they will be happy to share with you on what works best for their individual platform. Yes, they will suggest a strategy that will involve discounting or increased commissions but don’t turn your nose up at this just yet!
When they give you the strategy, rework your own existing revenue strategy to allow for these discounts or commissions. You don’t always have to take the hit to your average daily rate.
You are probably sitting here thinking that you hate the OTAs and you don’t want anything to do with them and its fine for you to think that. But the truth to this matter is that they are the most effective and highest spending marketers for our industry. They aren’t the enemy, by leveraging your partnership with them you will find that your overall bookings will increase, not just through their channel. Remember – a rising tide lifts all boats!