This authoritative e-marketing course, run by a hotel marketing expert, is specifically designed for people in the hospitality and tourism industry. It helps participants get up to speed with the web and all the new communication tools. It demystifies the technology and jargon and teaches you what works, and what is hype or myth.

The course describes the various components of e-marketing and how they fit together into an overall e-marketing strategy. It explains the expectations and behaviour of travel-seekers online, how to attract traffic to your website, and finally what it takes to convert “lookers into bookers”.

Why E-marketing?

The phenomenal growth of the tourism industry online, has been accompanied by a boom in website creation that has intensified the battle for the consumers’ time and attention. Getting travelers and hotel-seekers to find you, and book with you, therefore requires a competitive online presence. This means that you need to create a compelling online guest experience that distinguishes yourself from others. Furthermore, having a hotel website and a few portal listings is simply not enough. You need multiple points of presence on the web and you need to be continuously engaged in the online conversations that can convince potential guests that your establishment really is their best option.

This is e-marketing. And succeeding in it today seems daunting. It’s a constantly changing environment that seems to be driven by technology, and is laden with off-putting jargon. But when you cut through all this, and understand the various components of emarketing, it is one of the most cost effective ways of to reach out to your new and existing guests and engage with them – keeping in mind that the ultimate objective is to drive bookings for your hotel.

What will you learn?

This course is about how to market your hotel online. It is about understanding all the steps you take to reach your market online and which are developed and defined within your internet marketing strategy. Whether you are large or small, the process is the same and is an ongoing cycle of attracting visitors to your web site, encouraging them to purchase from you and making them want to come back for more – all in an increasingly competitive and ‘noisy’ market.

Participants will learn hotel e-marketing tactics and best practises for elements like email, SEO, Google advertising and website design. In addition, they will learn how to exploit the power of social media tools like Twitter, YouTube, Digg and Facebook. You will know what to look for when listing on travel or accommodation portals. You will appreciate the value of consumer generated content. And you will be confident to make effective use of online travel reviews to further market and promote your establishment or business.

The course empowers people with the knowledge, understanding and confidence to manage and work with web developers as well as the ability to handle many of the ongoing tasks themselves.

The course is packed with examples, references, practical hints and tips, and ‘how-tos’. You will find that doing a great e-marketing job does not require big-company budgets nor is it rocket science. This course is designed to provide exactly the right amount of information to inform and educate you so that you get there quickly and effectively, and without breaking the bank!

At the end of the course you will have an excellent understanding of all the available online resources and be able to define and implement the web strategy that is just right for you and that best fits the needs and character of your establishment or travel business.

The course topics are

• Overview of the hospitality industry
• Your website
• Search engines — what are they and how to increase your site's search engine prominence
• Online advertising
• E-mail marketing
• E-commerce - features and issues (online reservations)
• Travel site portals and aggregators
• Social Media, social networking, user generated content - Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, blogs, TripAdvisor - what are they and how can hotels use them
• Developing an e-marketing strategy and budget
• Measuring performance

Why Master Hotel E-marketing?

• Get up to speed with South African and International online marketing trends, know what is myth and hype and what is not
  
• Understand the behaviour and expectations of the online traveller
• Build an understanding of all the elements of e-marketing and how they fit together, and the techniques available to bring people to your website
  
• Learn the essentials for your website
  
• Understand how to optimise your site for better search engine rankings Learn how to use social media to further enhance your online presence Booking engines – which ones are out there and how they work, and criteria for selecting one
  
• Online travel agencies (accommodation portals) – learn how to evaluate which ones are right for you
  
• Learn how to work with web developers
• Increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your marketing investments – learn how much everything should cost, what can be done for FREE, and how to allocate your budget
  
• Define and execute the internet strategy that best fits your hotel

Who should attend?

This course will be of great value to you if you are

• responsible for sales or marketing in a large or small hotel, B&B, or other hospitality business.
• responsible for making strategic decisions or implementing a marketing strategy
• in IT or web development and support websites for hotels
• tired of not looking or functioning like a 21st century hospitality business

In other words, if you have any kind of responsibility for improving the marketing performance, image, or quality of customer service in a hotel chain, independent hotel, bed and breakfast, game lodge or any other travel accommodation, you need to have the skills that this class provides.

Why You Should Attend

It's not easy to stay up to date with online developments. But the travel industry more than any other is now emphatically an online marketing industry. It's customers' expectations have to be understood and accommodated. You can no longer demand that they come to you in your preferred medium. You have to go to them and engage them in the medium that they prefer. This Master Class will teach you how to get there fast!

The course leader

Karen Parkin. Karen has worked in Europe and the USA for over 25 years. She is an outstanding leader with an enviable depth of experience in information technology, advertising, TV, new media, web development and e-commerce. She has a reputation for planning, execution, and delivery on demanding high-pressure projects requiring vision, sound business judgment, creative flair, and technical innovation.

She has spent the last 8 years working in emarketing and ecommerce and has worked on several award winning sites in the USA. Most recently she worked for Marriott International where she was responsible for creating and managing the company’s global online presence. Working with international marketing and hotels around the world, in 2 years she took Marriott from having a US-only web site to an international presence in 20 countries and 9 languages. Marriott’s e-commerce operations now take over $17 million a day in online hotel reservations, for all of its 3,200 hotels in 66 countries around the world, and last year they were voted Best Hotel Website by Business Traveller magazine.

Karen is a lively communicator and a skilled instructor. She is a consummate professional and is passionate about everything she does and inspires people around her with her relentless and uncompromising drive for the best. She has in-depth experience of all aspects of online marketing in the hospitality industry. She has developed a great understanding of multicultural work environments and international markets and is a recognized guru in internationalisation and localisation. She moves with ease from large corporate structures to small entrepreneurial companies. She is kept busy by a host of consulting and online projects, by her schedule of training courses, and by her own ongoing research into the world of the online consumer, and all aspects of enhancing usability and the user experience.