Whether you've experienced digital marketing success this year, or have continued to struggle with your direct online channel strategy, now is the perfect time for reflection and planning ahead; 

2013, a year of growth in our industry, has also been a year chock full of major industry developments.

A few examples include the explosion in meta search travel websites, the continued growth of the mobile and tablet channels, the fall of keyword-centric SEO due to the rise of Penguin 2.0 and Hummingbird, and new technology advancements that have allowed us to achieve unparalleled heights in hotel distribution.

Music to any hotelier's ears is that 2014 is expected to be another great year in hospitality. All three key performance indicators are expected to experience growth, over the already robust growth of 2013.

To help you reap the benefits of this continued growth and understand where to focus your strategy this year, here are the 2014 Top Ten New Year's Digital Marketing Strategy Resolutions presented by HeBS Digital for the 14th consecutive year.

1. I believe that 2014 will be the Year of Dynamic Price Marketing and will work towards the full integration of customer purchasing preferences and behavior with content management and online distribution and marketing.

Situation:

In this fast, interconnected and multi-device world we live in, hotel digital marketing can no longer exist in isolation of the hotel's business needs, real-time availability and pricing. Travel consumers no longer buy into promotions featuring a lead-in rate ("Our weekend rate starts from $199") or less than credible rate range ("Our Holiday Rates are $199-$399"). Today's always connected traveler demands real-time pricing and resents any type of price promotions that smell of bait and switch. By not integrating marketing campaigns with real-time availability and pricing, hoteliers are losing potential guests to the OTAs as well as their more savvy competitors.

By combining marketing campaigns with real-time hotel inventory and pricing, hoteliers can satisfy travelers' demand for instant, precise and concise information, as well as respond instantaneously to changing market conditions and comp set behavior. At HeBS Digital, this combination already generates substantial returns for our hotel clients, and opens a new tremendous revenue source coming into 2014; which is why we are calling 2014 the "Year of Dynamic Price Marketing."

Dynamic Price Marketing opens up two strategic and powerful marketing possibilities:

a) Online advertising utilizing dynamic price marketing technology such as HeBS Digital's MetaSearch Gateway, enabling real-time availability and pricing across various advertising formats: banners, CPC, email, etc.

The main benefit here is that advertised rates in ad campaigns (banners, meta search, email, etc.) change the second the hotel changes their rates in the PMS or CRS. Some examples of these types of campaigns include:

• Meta search marketing, including TripAdvisor Meta, Google Hotel Finder, Trivago, Kayak.com, etc.
• Dynamic price banner advertising, including several travel ad networks, already utilized across our clients, many major hotel brands and OTAs.
• Dynamic price email marketing
• "Game-changing" initiatives that are already in Beta, including Google Dynamic Text Retargeting Ads, Dynamic Price Google AdWords, etc.

b) Personalized pricing based on known guest booking history, preferences, user and pathing behavior, demographics and affiliation to customer segments or a loyalty program. In other words, this is one-on-one marketing that takes full advantage of "big data."

• This one-on-one marketing is the industry's smart response to the restrictions of rate parity provisions.
• By combining guest past booking history and website browsing behavior with real-time, rules-based pricing tied to the property's concrete business needs, hoteliers can dramatically increase conversion rates, customer retention and maximize direct online channel contribution.

Action Steps:

Begin by participating in meta search marketing that utilizes real-time hotel inventory availability and pricing, starting with TripAdvisor Meta Search, Google Hotel Finder, Trivago (if targeting European feeder markets), Kayak.com, etc.

Consider launching business-need campaigns utilizing dynamic price banner advertising, such as on travel ad networks like Adara Media, Sojourn and Criteo.

A natural next step would be to consider dynamic price email marketing to improve email conversions and improve the credibility of your campaigns.

When considering a website redesign, demand that your website design vendor equip the new website with CMS technology that integrates with the property PMS or CRS, and can handle dynamic content personalization and dynamic pricing capabilities for one-on-one marketing.

Read the full article HERE at 4Hoteliers.com