To beat the biggest competitors and stay ahead in the fierce industry, modern businesses are using different strategies in unique ways. These business tricks keep on changing with the change in technology and requirements of consumers. But to lure people- online or offline- it is necessary to understand them.
In the gym, I have noticed many times how trainers talk to a person to understand their health goals before suggesting right exercises and a diet plan to follow. This way of communication not just helps the person, but makes it easy for the trainer to schedule exercises. Similarly, hospitality industry also needs to understand guests to cater what they expect from their hotels during their stay there.
During an event on digital marketing, I was having a conversation with hotelier who believed that hotels should focus on young travelers and their needs while making marketing plans on accommodation amenities. As I have been in hotel industry since a long time and work on digital marketing strategies related to the hospitality field, I thought about making the hotelier aware of true facts of generational marketing.
Hotel guests comprise of four major categories: Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964), Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980), Generation Y (Born between 1980 and 2000) and Generation Z (Tech savvy people who grew up around smart devices).
Understanding Multi-Generational Travelers
From my experience, I believe different travelers have different hospitality requirements. But there are some amenity-requirement differences that differentiate a generation from others. It’s easy to make assumptions about generations, but it can also affect a hotel business. For example, you can easily assume that baby boomers don’t like to travel or they are not financial stable as they are not working anymore. But the truth is that baby boomers have enough money and time to spend on trips. Plus, they are loyal guests who, if like your hotel’s services, will be your customers for a long time.
Although the hotelier looked convinced with the fact, there was more necessary information to tell him on Generational Marketing.
What is Generational Marketing?
All kinds of people love to travel and collect beautiful memories. Apart from events and outdoor activities, they admire accommodation services of a hotel. It is essential for a hotel to plan its services in a manner that they could fulfill requirement of all travelers. When it is about reaching right audience online and luring them with digital marketing strategies, hotels are required to design social media campaigns in a manner that they could grab attention of users of all ages.
Through Generational Marketing, audience can be divided into different segments based on their age group. This helps the digital marketer in understanding what type of content and graphics can attract people who share habits and preferences.
How To Reach Multi-Generational Travelers Through Digital Marketing?
Once you identify preferences of different generational travelers, you can design online campaigns for each group of guests.
- How to reach Baby Boomers: Not all of them are active on Snapchats or Instagram, many in this group still use social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. Social media campaigns can be launched on them. Plus, they can be approached directly through email.
- How to reach and attract Generation X: A guest in this category will be of around 40 years old. Such individual is super busy, but still has some time to spend over social media websites. Instead of fancy ads, they can be attracted through simple and to-the-point content.
- How to lure Generation Y: Also called Millennials, they are young people obsessed with technology and spend hours exploring different social media sites. They are also the people who like to share their experience online. You can grab their attention through creative and funny content. If they like your social post, your content will be shared by them.
- How to attract Generation Z: People of this group are also known as Generation I. They are still growing and love to spend time on smart gadgets. They could be attracted through engaging content that works well on all kinds of devices.
Every generation has its crucial role to play in the growth of hospitality industry. Paying attention to all of them can make a lucrative deal, while neglecting any of them may do the damage. A family trip brings all generations together, so you cannot afford to ignore any of them. Being thoughtful about these multi generations can help your hotel business grow and gives you a strong base of loyal customers.
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