Editor note: Original post 2015. Latest update June 2019.

Independent Hoteliers whom I discussed with in Malta, Dubai, Phuket, Bali or Helsinki for that matter have similar concerns. How can we deal with the fast pacing changes in hotel marketing, which is changing by the month, and to ultimately build stronger relationships with a fickle travel market on their terms, who are going to intermediaries, focusing on rate only. The industry can only blame itself for jumping on the Best Available Rate (BAR) scenarios.

I would argue developing strong relationship is important as it may result that eventually the relationships could convert to direct bookings through the hotels website.

Direct bookings through the hotel website increases your average rate by around 15%, commission free revenue.

Today’s buzzwords are, cross-channel marketing solutions, content marketing, and finally contextual marketing. Contextual marketing is touted as the next ¨big thing¨ in marketing.

Contextual understanding of consumers, and the ability to engage continuously with them on their terms, enables hotels to deliver on the promise of customer-centricity. When executed effectively, context opens new opportunities for hotels – enabling them to deliver value to their guest in new ways and to build stronger relationships.

Hoteliers I talked with, realize that their websites are simply  not sufficient enough, or engaging enough to drive more visitors to their website and ultimately enticing them to book directly with the hotel.

Many of the basic jobs could be handled by the team in the marketing department, rather outsourcing the assignments.

So the list of ¨Must Have¨ skills are not only for students aspiring to become digital marketers, but also for professionals in the hotel marketing department, as a starters to stay abreast with the fast changing world of hotel digital marketing .

#1: Writing and Copywriting

Travelers enjoy reading about the destinations they will visit, and tips what to do.

Writing skills are  important for writing blog posts and website content, something more and more marketers are being asked to do. And since writing website content is something any digital marketer may get asked to write at some point, it’s also important to pick up basic copywriting skills so you know how to write persuasively and how to get people to take the action you want them to take.

A good source I can recommend for improving one’s skills include but are not limited to:

• Writing with Style by John R. Trimble
• Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy
• The Adweek Copywriting Handbook by Joseph Sugarman
• Marketing Bullets by Gary Bencivenga
• The Copyblogger Blog

#2: WORDPRESS

Have you noticed people still list Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint as skills on their resume?

At this point one is expected to know how to use Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint if you grew up at any point after 1970s.

More importantly, WordPress, to me, is the new Microsoft Word when it comes to relevant skill for the modern hotel marketer. Not only do you need to know how to write a post in Word, but also need to know how to upload it and schedule it in WordPress.

It is more impressive to be able to say you know how to use WordPress than you say you are fluent in Word.

#3: Creating beautiful posts for Instagram

There are now so many tools available to create posts. My favourite apps on my phone are, Canva, Wordswag, Unfold, GiantSquare and Prisma. Once you have taken a nice picture as per #4, then use one of the apps to put the post together and the nice text. It is important to be regularly in Stories, like what is happening behind the scenes. The post can be to promote the lifestyle of your brand.

With IGTV make some short videos to tell the story in video format. I use FILMIC Pro to shoot the video. Video editing I use either Lumafusion or for a quick on the go editing InShOt. Most of my short IGTV has been edited with InShOt. Finally remember to go LIVE once in awhile.

#4: Camera skills and Photo Editing

In addition to being able to write well and being able to upload your writing to WordPress, it’s also important to have some basic photo editing skills.

With the quality of the mobile phone cameras and great Apps you can create good quality images for your website, blog posts or Instagram posts.

My favourite camera app is Halide, it is the only camera app that probably has been designed ground up for iPhone X. For editing I use either Lightroom or Snapseed.

Using these apps with your smart phone can go a long way for today’s marketing professionals.

#5: HTML

HTML is another skill that digital marketers should pick up because you need to know HTML well enough to format a blog post correctly or to fix a formatting issue on an email you’re sending out.

Again, it’s not expected that digital marketers will code an entire website, but they do need to know the basics of HTML so they can change a link color when needed or to resize a photo or video to fit within a blog frame.

#6: MailChimp

MailChimp (or other email management tools like Constant Contact and GetResponse) is another important skill for digital marketers.

The reason is that most businesses use an email management software of some sort. Whether it’s MailChimp, InfusionSoft, or Aweber, everyone in marketing is building and managing email lists through a thrid-party software platform of some sort.

Like I mentioned above, Microsoft Word is a skill that’s absolutely necessary, but platforms like MailChimp are the new Microsoft Word when it comes to standing out and showing an organization you have the skills it takes to succeed as a digital marketer.

#7: Google AdWords Advertising

Another important tool for digital marketers is Google AdWords.

AdWords makes it easy to reach customers and to drive targeted traffic. It can get expensive pretty quickly, but it’s also one of the most reliable ways to drive traffic, get leads, and generate sales.

AdWords is also incredibly complicated, but the more you know about AdWords, the better prepared you’ll be to manage a campaign if needed or to direct someone who is managing your campaign.

#8: Facebook  Instagram Advertising

The next important skill is learning how to run Instagram ads and how to effectively leverage social media marketing.

Instagram  ads are important because they’re a great way to drive target traffic, much like Google AdWords. The targeting options are super powerful, and the creative provides an even better branding exposure as compared to AdWords.

The new Instagram boss wants shoppers to buy online. LINK

Mark my words the Instagram is the platform that may generate lots of bookings for the hotels. Just look how some retail brands have given up on traditional advertising and put their efforts on Instagram to drive sales.

#9: Social Media Marketing

Another very important skill is social media marketing, which is different from running a Facebook ad campaign. Someone said the the marketing one to many is old school, one to one is when social media is cleverly used you can reach and communicate to your customers and target customers every single day.

Instead of paying to show an ad, you use social media marketing to engage with customers and prospective customers, to share content, and to interact with people in your target market before they’re ready to become a customer.

This means that learning how to manage the Instagram account and how to run a Twitter account are valuable skills as a starting point for learning what you need to do to run a full-scale social media marketing campaign.

Why?

Because social media marketing requires a platform fluency more than any other type of platform. If you don’t understand how Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Tumblr., YouTube, Periscope, WhatsApp, Google+, flickr,Vine, Snapchat, and Instagram work, then you won’t know how to interact with people and how to share your content in a way that fits into the network versus spamming and annoying people. Thus, picking up a fluency on relevant social networks is a very valid skill to pick up.

#10: Search Engine Optimization

Learning the basics of search engine optimization (SEO) is yet another important skill for digital marketers.

Not every marketer is expected to become an SEO expert, but it is important to understand how SEO works so you can leverage its benefit for your organization.

This means you need to know about things like title tags, meta descriptions, keyword density, and link anchor text and how they affect your organic search rankings.

#11: Conversion Rate Optimization

Last, but certainly not least, is understanding the basics of conversion rate optimization (CRO).

CRO, in case you don’t already know, is the art and science of testing different versions of a page or pages to see which version convinces the most people to take the action you want them to take. Essentially, you create two versions for a single page, and then run a scientific A/B test to see which version is the most effective.

This means you need to understand both your customers and basic principles of web design, user experience, and copywriting. In addition, you also need to know how to learn more about your actual customers by conducting surveys, using on-site surveys, and utilizing user tests and customer interviews.

CRO might actually be one of the most important skills for digital marketers to understand and may also be the least studied at this point in time.

# 12: One more thing, Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free Web analytic service that provide statistics and basic analytical tools, so you can better analyse where the visitors of your hotel website is coming from. It is a great tool to quantitatively evaluate  web content quality, and provide comparative analysis. The power of web analytics lies in trends, not individual numbers. Knowing you received 8,000 admissions website page views last month is not important, as knowing that those 8,000 page views are 25 percent increase from the previous year. That is progress.

In Summary

In the end, it isn’t about becoming an expert in all of these topics. Yes, some digital marketers will become experts in one area or another, but most need a general understanding of all these skills to boost their value.

The good news is an interest in digital marketing and a desire to learn is the most important characteristic for someone who wants to become a successful digital marketer. Even if you don’t learn these skills in school, you can learn them on the job and become proficient in a short amount of time. In the end hopefully you will drive more visitors to the website and conversion rate to direct bookings will increase.