6 Spectacular Marketing and Distribution Insights: Hospitality Marketing Link Digest

Hey, Big Thinkers, hope you’ve had a fantastic holiday weekend. Not much setup this time around, but I bet you’ll like these 6 spectacular marketing and distribution insights from the past week. Enjoy:

1. Tnooz uncovers why TripAdvisor excels at product. Key takeaway? Test, test, test. Want to know how to do that? Well, for starters, check out our coverage of A/B testing.
2. We took a look at why Priceline believes in the death of search engine optimization (SEO)—and why I don’t. As it happens, according to Search Engine Land, Google just released the full version of their search quality rating guidelines. So it seems Google isn’t giving up on search either.
3. Of course, that doesn’t mean Google has put its eggs solely in the search basket. As Travolution notes, Google showed off its new destination experience at Phocuswright 2015 but denied its OTA intentions. Yeah, right. If Google isn’t becoming an OTA, we need to have a serious discussion about what an OTA is anymore. Google definitely has its sights set on owning a piece of the hotel distribution pie—specifically, the dollars hotels now spend with OTA’s. Happily, there’s a fairly straightforward playbook you can use to prevent intermediaries from driving up your costs—no matter who they are.
4. On a highly-related note, we examined the hidden factor OTA’s use to get between you and your guests and, more importantly, how you can use the same trend to your advantage.
5. PSFK talked with Airbnb’s Head of Product about the future of travel experiences while Mobile Commerce Daily reported on Airbnb’s digital platform upgrades that place a bigger focus on hosts. Each of these stories highlights the need for driving brand intimacy in hospitality.
6. And, finally, you won’t want to miss these mind-blowing mobile stats for hotel marketers from Google we rounded up the other day. Really useful information as you’re finalizing your budgets and plans for next year.

If you’re interested in more insights and information about travel marketing and distribution, you’ll definitely want to check out these “4+ Fantastic Travel Marketing Posts: the Top Posts Of October, 2015” and be sure to check out this list of “4 Tremendous Travel Marketing Trends From the Past Week,” a great set of “7 Key Insights: The Top Travel Marketing Posts of August, 2015” and a terrific round-up of “7 Brilliant Insights into Mobile Travel E-commerce” from our hospitality marketing link digests (part of the ongoing E-commerce Link Digest series).

And if you’re looking to learn even more about how changing guest behavior shapes hospitality marketing, e-commerce, and distribution, be sure an register to receive a special report I’ve produced in conjunction with hotel marketing firm Vizergy, “Digital Hotel Marketing in a Multiscreen World.” While it’s targeted specifically at hotel and resort marketers, the lessons apply to just about any business. You can get your free copy of the report here.

You might also want to take a moment to review the slides from my recent webinar, “Digital Marketing Directions 2016: The Key Trends Driving Your Hotel Marketing Next Year” here:

Finally, you will definitely want to check out some of our past coverage of the mobile, local, social web and how to make it work for your business, including:

• 10 Key Posts about Millennials and Mobile: E-commerce Link Digest
• The Secrets Behind “It’s All E-commerce” for 2014
• Should Marketers Really Trust Google in 2014?
• The Zen of Digital Marketing Strategy
• 7 Steps to E-Commerce Heaven
• Today and Tomorrow: Mobile and The Changing Customer Journey
• Mobile Makes E-commerce Even More “Frictionless”
• Your 2014 Internet Marketing New Year’s Resolutions – Thinks Out Loud Episode 56