Website for our Hotel? Wastage of money!
When I started marketing Website Designing Services to Hotels in Delhi NCR for our company Growth Technosoft (www.growthtechnosoft.com/ servicesWebApps.htm), I had in my mind that it would be an easy business as more and more hotels would be waiting for such call or email from any such company to place their orders of getting their website designed or redesigning with an objective to make their presence felt on International level, and get advantage over their competitors for the large chunk of tourists expected to come for the Common Wealth Games, 2010.
I started gathering data from various sources about hotels in Delhi NCR. That was easy and soon I had a large database. I picked up some sample records to start with and take the feedback from them.
I begin with emailing our company's profile to the hotels and waited for response. As some of my friends in marketing had already shared their experience of poor response rate of email marketing it was on the line of expectations but still I was a bit surprised as to why people does not take them seriously. I planned to start cold calling to those to whom I have already mailed company's profile. In a few calls it was evident that hotel owners have still not thought to have International presence of their hotel on Internet. Everybody had a reason to avoid us like -
* Not interested in getting website for their hotel. This one is really surprising as almost every hotel had computer, internet connection, and email account but still find website as a waste of time and money.
* Some of them had falsely claimed to have already placed order to some company. It was quite evident from their tone that they were just trying to spot us from calling them again.
* Many of them have also said to call us back if they need our services. Now it is universal truth that this is the simplest way to avoid future calls.
* Above all and most shocking the phone number was not working or if ring goes nobody was responding to that call. In some cases the concerned person was not available. Now, this is really unprofessional and even our best efforts to design a website for them will not going to help them in getting a business.
With this initial feedback I made note of all these reasons and started analyzing the reasons for such a poor response before going for the second phase of marketing of our Website Designing Services. I reached on certain conclusions:
* Hotel Management is over confident to make maximum out the Common Wealth Games, 2010.
* Their Hotel is well branded and has a strong market.
* Their Hotel is already overbooked.
* They don't understand how it will help their hotel in giving International recognition.
* As Indian mentality to run for the things on the last moment but let me tell you that this will not going to deliver the desired result as websites need atleast 6 months to mature enough to have presence on the Internet (specifically on Search Engine).
Whatever the reason is I would like to share the advantages a website has over other media and why it has become an important media for product and services marketing.
* Additional outlet for conducting business
* Access to a larger customer base
* Attain competitive edge
* Indispensable part of promotion and marketing strategy
* Enable 24 hour global presence
* Allow quick & easy update to customers about your business
* Effective Communication tool for partners & customers
With a hope to create awareness and increase business for my company I would continue to market our company's Website Designing services through mail and phone. I would also be sharing my experiences articles and write-ups using Internet as media.
To read more about Growth Technosoft and services we offer visit us at http://www.growthtechnosoft.com.
I started gathering data from various sources about hotels in Delhi NCR. That was easy and soon I had a large database. I picked up some sample records to start with and take the feedback from them.
I begin with emailing our company's profile to the hotels and waited for response. As some of my friends in marketing had already shared their experience of poor response rate of email marketing it was on the line of expectations but still I was a bit surprised as to why people does not take them seriously. I planned to start cold calling to those to whom I have already mailed company's profile. In a few calls it was evident that hotel owners have still not thought to have International presence of their hotel on Internet. Everybody had a reason to avoid us like -
* Not interested in getting website for their hotel. This one is really surprising as almost every hotel had computer, internet connection, and email account but still find website as a waste of time and money.
* Some of them had falsely claimed to have already placed order to some company. It was quite evident from their tone that they were just trying to spot us from calling them again.
* Many of them have also said to call us back if they need our services. Now it is universal truth that this is the simplest way to avoid future calls.
* Above all and most shocking the phone number was not working or if ring goes nobody was responding to that call. In some cases the concerned person was not available. Now, this is really unprofessional and even our best efforts to design a website for them will not going to help them in getting a business.
With this initial feedback I made note of all these reasons and started analyzing the reasons for such a poor response before going for the second phase of marketing of our Website Designing Services. I reached on certain conclusions:
* Hotel Management is over confident to make maximum out the Common Wealth Games, 2010.
* Their Hotel is well branded and has a strong market.
* Their Hotel is already overbooked.
* They don't understand how it will help their hotel in giving International recognition.
* As Indian mentality to run for the things on the last moment but let me tell you that this will not going to deliver the desired result as websites need atleast 6 months to mature enough to have presence on the Internet (specifically on Search Engine).
Whatever the reason is I would like to share the advantages a website has over other media and why it has become an important media for product and services marketing.
* Additional outlet for conducting business
* Access to a larger customer base
* Attain competitive edge
* Indispensable part of promotion and marketing strategy
* Enable 24 hour global presence
* Allow quick & easy update to customers about your business
* Effective Communication tool for partners & customers
With a hope to create awareness and increase business for my company I would continue to market our company's Website Designing services through mail and phone. I would also be sharing my experiences articles and write-ups using Internet as media.
To read more about Growth Technosoft and services we offer visit us at http://www.growthtechnosoft.com.
