* eBook - The Missing Link to Increasing Bed charset=ISO-8859-1">
The Internet has become a great marketing medium for the Bed &
Breakfast industry. More and more B&B hosts have set up their own
website to market their B&B to the world. In fact, B&Bs get 75% of
their new guests from the Internet, and the number is growing every
year (. (2008). __)
While a well designed website is an excellent tool for you to
showcase your
B&B, most hosts are led to believe that a website is all they need
in terms of marketing their B&B online, which could not be farther
from the truth.
THE USE OF EFFECTIVE ONLINE MARKETING FOR YOUR B&B GOES BEYOND JUST
SETTING UP A WEBSITE OR LIST WITH ONLINE B&B DIRECTORIES.
Specifically, there lies an even more important element for you to
incorporate into your online marketing campaign - YOUR EXISTING GUESTS
(i.e. people who have stayed at your B to exceed their expectations;
to bring them to a point where they cannot wait to tell their friends,
family and colleagues about their extraordinary stay at your Bed &
Breakfast.
However, here are some important questions that you must ask
yourself. After you have wowed your guests (who are now your existing
guests) during their stay with you, how has your online marketing been
keeping up with staying in touch with them?
Does your online marketing communicate any extra incentives or
exclusive offers that would more likely draw your guests back to you
on an ongoing basis? Better
yet, does your online marketing even prompt your existing guests to
spread around positive word-of-mouth about your Bed & Breakfast and
encourage others to pay you a visit?
Sadly but true, the way most B&B hosts utilize online marketing
tends to overlook the significance of their existing guests. This
overlooks the opportunity to PROACTIVELY build relationships with them
after their stay. This not only results in a loss of potential repeat
bookings in the future, but also a loss of potential new guests who
would have otherwise been referred to you by your existing guests.
In reality, YOUR EXISTING GUESTS ARE THE MOST VALUABLE ASSET TO YOUR
B&B, WHO MUST BE LEVERAGED IF YOU WISH TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS. They are
the source of your repeat bookings, and are the most influential
spokespeople for your B&B.
In fact, well established B&Bs can get 30 TO 40% of their business
from repeat guests and word of mouth ( (2008). __) Exactly how you can
implement an
online marketing campaign that effectively leverages your existing
guests is the missing link to increasing your B&B's repeat bookings.
This is where this book, _"The Missing Link to Increasing B&B Repeat
Bookings",_ will greatly help you.
TESTIMONIALS
_"The book does a good job of describing in simple language a
marketing approach that is fairly technical. Anyone unfamiliar with
email marketing will learn a lot from it. _
_We liked that you made a distinction between "exposure" and
"awareness". It did a good job of laying the foundation for the
subsequent chapters. _
_We appreciated that you included among the goals of an online
marketing campaign that it should "have as many people do the
marketing for your B&B as possible." Too few B&B operators understand
that their primary role as hosts is to do everything possible to make
their guests so overjoyed that they will be impatient to return home
and spread the word about their wonderful experience. A happy guest
will market your B&B far more effectively than any other marketing
tool. _
_We enjoyed your use of graphics to illustrate the steps described
in each chapter and that they "grew" throughout the book._
_In closing, we congratulate you for producing a publication that we
believe can help B&B operators enhance their relationship with their
clients and better position themselves in their eyes."_
Award winning B&B hosts and educators
Dominique Lavigueur & Robert Chiasson
Moka & Pyjama, B&B Resource Centre
645, ch. Des Bains
Saint-Ir
