Brian Boland, Facebook Performance Solutions Manager, spoke with Tom O’Rourke, Founder/CEO of O’Rourke Hospitality Marketing, about how hotels can benefit from using Facebook Ads. Brian explained that if your target audience has seen your hotel ads on Facebook they are more likely to conduct searches on your hotel or click on your hotel listing when it appears in the search engine results pages. He also explained that your hotel can create ads that are highly targeted to very specific audiences and you can specify different age groups, genders, interests, and more. Facebook ads are also effective because of the social component. For example if a guest is a fan of your Facebook page you can also send very targeted ads to their friends.
O’Rourke Hospitality Marketing Blog
Welcome to O’Rourke Hospitality’s Blog! Our blog posts are written for and about the Hospitality Industry. We have a wealth of information we would like to share with our readers including our research findings, latest industry trends, and monthly Internet Marketing tips. Sign up to receive our monthly tips directly to your e-mail!Quick ‘Critical’ Tips and Latest Trends in E-Mail Marketing
February 2nd, 2010
Re-cap of presentation ‘Critical Email Prospecting Strategies for 2010’
Jay Schwedelson, Corporate Vice President of Worldata, focused on the newest trends and lastest developments in prospecting, in his presentation ‘Critical Email Prospecting Strategies for 2010,’ at the Email Evolution Conference 2010 in Miami Beach, Florida. Below are some quick tips your hotel can use to improve your email marketing campaigns:
• Test your e-mail creative on a mobile device to make sure it displays correctly.
• Keep your e-mail campaign on a server so that people can access the message at a later date.
• Don’t use recipients’ names in the subject lines because they can be picked up by spammers.
• Include the offer deadline date in the subject line. This can increase open rates by 39% (i.e. offer ends Jan 31st). Read the rest of this entry »
EMail Evolution Conference 2010
February 2nd, 2010
O’Rourke is attending the Email Evolution Conference in Miami Beach, Florida, February 1-3. This conference is sponsored by the Email Experience Council and the DMA, and will focus on how email and digital media drive each other and how businesses can gain the most ROI by utilizing a multichannel strategy. O’Rourke will keep you updated on best practices and new strategies to help your hotel email marketing campaign excel. You can follow the twitter stream of the conference by searching on the hashtag #EEC10 (on a site such as search.twitter.com). Read the rest of this entry »
Augmented Reality App From Yelp- O’Rourke Interview with Colleen Curtis
January 5th, 2010We met up with Colleen Curtis, Midwest Regional Director of Yelp, at SES Chicago in December. Tom ORourke, Founder/CEO of ORourke Hospitality Marketing, asked Colleen if she could explain the new augmented reality app from Yelp. Colleen explained that there is a Yelp app for the iPhone and one for the Android. The iPhone has Monacle, which has an augmented reality function which allows users to point their phone on the street and find out the location and ratings of nearby bars and restaurants. The virtual listings appear as an overlay of the (reality) image you see through your camera. This app is great for travelers and can be thought of as the new e-concierge to help your guests find their way around your city!

