5 Winning Formulas to make your hotel #1 amongst competitors.

Foreign hello, and welcome to another episode of the Askavyaria Show. Today we're going to talk about what we learned from the Gita and we're going to talk about what these seven puppies are up to. One of them is growing up to be a real naughty tyrant. We're going to talk about him, show you some of his pictures. Then we're going to get into the show and talk about digital marketing 2016. What is in store for you? It is a scary future out there. Beware. I'm going to share some awesome secrets with you. And then we got some questions coming, and I'm happy to know we got video questions being shot. So if you're actually taking the effort to sending me video questions, I'm charged and prepped to answer them and look forward to getting into the show. So let's get right into the show. I've always mentioned that I'm very fond of reading and we used to have Gita classes and Upanishad classes as I was growing up at that time, I didn't understand what significance this one hour every week is going to play in my life. But as I'm growing older and hopefully more experienced, I'm realizing the power of those teachings in my life. So one of the things that I wanted to share with you through this episode right now was when we learned about the fact that every habit changes your life. And I read somewhere that harburi adatko sangat ki zarudi hai, which means that every bad habit needs company. Now, when I saw that happening in the social media world with all of us marketers becoming now social media addicts, and we're trying to, you know, run businesses on social media, do social selling, I see a lot of bad habits in the social media world as well. Well, I'm a digital marketer and I'm a social media junkie, right? So I will talk about bad habits in the life, in the ecosystem where I'm living. So my ecosystem is social media, and I want to talk about one of the really, really bad habits. In fact, I wrote an article which got a lot of backlash last week on LinkedIn. But backlash, I am taking it in my stride, which also means a lot of people are reading my article. Any publicity is good publicity. Right? But here is what I wanted to say. Your social media bad habits are when you getting into your campaign, when you're starting a channel without actually understanding it. Very sorry to say, but most of the people that I interact with, which is hundreds of companies in 1415 hundreds of companies in 14, 15 countries in different parts of the world. Well, they don't know how to use Facebook. Their marketing heads do not know what features Twitter has. I mean, you cannot, you know what, like I think Einstein or somebody said that before, you know, before you want to break the rules, learn the rules properly and then you can mold them and, you know, make whatever you want out of them. But you need to know the rules first. You need to understand those channels. Facebook has got now got live streaming, Twitter has got paid ads, Instagram paid ads. There are so many options which are available in various channels. You need to study these channels and see what you can do. YouTube has got such awesome embedding capabilities. The SEO is today moving towards video SEO. By the time this video goes viral, I mean, my videos take typically a few weeks to a few months for it to reach a critical mass. And I've seen by that time, when I see that video and I see there are 50,000 views or lack 100,000 views, by that time, the whole social media dynamics have changed. So within a month's time when this video goes viral, a lot of things would have changed. So that's how fast things are changing. And you need to address this. So one of the bad social media bad habits is not understanding the feature list in the tools you're using and you start attacking the tools and start looking at roi. So start understanding the feature list. There are awesome videos out there. In fact, refer to some of our Facebook or Twitter or Instagram videos where we are breaking down feature wise what these channels have in store for you. So don't adopt that bad habit. First read the manual of the channel that you want to use and then get into the channel. I hope this helps. This is a bad habit you do not want to take with you into 2016. The Seven Puppies. This show is becoming a lot about my puppies. I know that. But we are all dog lovers out there, aren't we? So this week what I wanted to talk about was that a friend of mine just told me that he's buying a beagle and he came to me and he said, you already have seven dogs. And he knew that there was a time and we had 14 dogs and I love those times. The difference is I have seven dogs and unfortunately not so much time to spend with each one of them. But When I had 14 dogs, I was just in my teens and I had a lot of time and I miss growing up with dogs all around now, my kids, my wife, everybody, all the girls in my house they'll, they adore the puppies. Anyways, getting back to the fact that my friend Priyas has just bought a beagle and wanted me to, wanted to know how to take care of a beagle and all that. Beagles are in our experience and puppies and as they grow up, they're beautiful. See, they're beautiful. They don't grow beyond a certain size, they're very easy to manage, they don't shed a lot of hair. So you know, it's a good pup to have at home. But the problem is that I have seen that their immune system is very weak. They pick up diseases, they pick up infections here and there. So you want to keep things clean and neat around them and you want to take them for regular checkups. Unfortunately, pugs, beagles, there are some varieties of breeds of puppies who catch infections really fast and you don't want to see them getting unwell. So that's the only advice that I give to a friend of mine. If you have a dog, if you have a beagle, let us know. I'm sure a lot of friends like Priyas would like to know how to take care of the new beagle. So if you're a dog lover watching this show, send me a comment on that. So that was just the section on the seven puppies. 2016 what should be my digital first quarter. We're not going it with a year wide strategy because we've understood that Internet marketing is so dynamic. We've already been talking about the fact that every month something is changing. So there is no way that we can make a one year strategy. So we're coming up with a three month strategy for our own brand and for our clients brands. What we're doing is we're choosing YouTube for sure because as we go towards 2018, it is my firm, firm, firm belief that people who are not shooting their own videos, people who are not promoting themselves through their own videos, people who are not editing their own videos, who, people who are not promoting their own videos through Facebook, people who are not going live through live streaming on Facebook or Periscope and all of that, people who are not making that, you know, three or four dimensional visual engagement with the customer for themselves or their brand are not going to be seen in 2018 at all. Small companies might die down and the large companies will come down in that graph in terms of consumer engagement and their recognition in the market. So videos is number one. And I love Vimeo, I love YouTube, I love all the Facebook video channels. Out there. So that's what we're doing for our clients. YouTube being number one. Facebook, I still love it. I love it in 2011, 2012, 13, 14 and I'm going towards 16, it's still amongst my top favorites because Facebook is improvising and coming up with things faster. The reach is going completely crazy and the cost at which you're able to do a Facebook ad today is unbelievable. You can actually test so many things today and make a Facebook ad go viral. So Facebook is still my favorite and what I'm liking is native advertising on Facebook, video advertising on Facebook, create nice short videos. Now the challenge is to come towards the third part I mentioned, YouTube. Second was Facebook. But to make the YouTube and the Vimeo and the Facebook strategy work, you need very good copywriting. Now today, in fact, two and a half hours before we shot this video, we had a team discussion in the office. And despite the fact that we've been doing this for the last 10 years successfully, it took us two and a half hours to come up with two to three ad copies for a new resort that we are handling. It's a beautiful 10 acre resort, it's on the golf course and they wanted ad copies to promote their Christmas vacation. Now, we can't sit 20% off on a Christmas meal or away from the monotonous lifestyle you have. So it took us two and a half hours for our team, including myself, to sit down and make those real crystal clear ads for those clients. There's a client called Coco Lagoon and beautiful resort and I will be showcasing here the kind of ads that we've done. This is the first offer that we did for them and here is the second offer that we did for them. Now if you look at these offers, these are actually talking to the stressed, tired audience of the resort. It's talking about the spa treatments. So instead of talking about yourself, the resort, it's talking about the spa treatments. So instead of talking about yourself, we started talking about, instead of talking about the resort, we're now talking about what for you. So wiffm. Wiffm. What's in it for me is what makes your ad work. So to compress. So 2016 is all about compressed thinking. Yesterday the conversation I was having with my team was exactly this. As we're going into 2016, start thinking small. Gone are the days of essays. I remember I was a debater in my college, I was a debater in school. I used to write essays. But what started happening was that even at that time, if you were not Extremely engaging. Nobody wanted to listen to 8, 10 pages of debating. Today in 2016, it's 140 character generation. And guess what? I think Twitter's going to revise 140 characters because people are not even ready to read that punchlines. So when I was doing my New York Film Academy course, I remember my editing, my, my screenwriting professor telling me that we spend hundreds of million dollars to make movies and then we have two to three lines to explain to our audience what kind of movie we are making. Because just by giving those two to three lines, four friends will call up each other and say, this is the movie, let's go for it. The other guy asks him, what's the story? The story is about four friends who steal a Cadillac and go have a good time in Bangkok for four nights. Does that sound interesting? Yes or no? Just that two lines. Those four friends steal a Cadillac and take a road trip to Bangkok. Is that enticing enough for the person to go and watch that movie? If yes, that guy will be able to make money on his 100 million dollar movie. If not, he might lose that entire amount. Same is with digital marketing today. It has to be short, crisp, reaching to your audience. And that is when you will be able to make roi, you'll be able to make revenues, you'll be able to have click through rates and whatever you're looking for in your campaign. So 2016 is all about this. I mentioned YouTube videos, I mentioned Vimeo, I mentioned Facebook and the real time feature that it has. And the last point I mentioned was short, crisp thinking. We have to start thinking short, crisp visuals so that we can engage our audience faster. Those were my tips. And to everybody who's watching the Ask Arya show, we've got video questions this week and I'm very excited to answer some of those. Let's get started on those. So my question to Avi would be, how can he share the passion? How can he make his own passion viral on social media so that everybody thinks like him and everybody can use these platforms to the best advantage? I recognize this video is from Mrs. Amina Bhatia from the Meridian Hotel in New Delhi, I believe. So if you're asking me how to ensure that this passion of social media can be imbibed in different teams. Firstly, I think social media passion is there with everyone, you know, like myself. It's a, it's, it's. Nothing could have been better. You have a chance to talk to so many people, connect with so many people through so many channels and talk about yourself, talk about, you know, their lives, their businesses. So they will love it, right? So identify the extroverts, give them a different channel that they love, don't force them to do a strategy, give them a channel that they love and allow them to express the brand through that channel. A lot of people love photography, a lot of people like writing, a lot of people like shooting, a lot of people like editing. So maybe you can find your teams and their passion and let them go wild and you know, find their own social media passion. That's one. Because then they will do it naturally. That's one. The other thing is introverts. Now I think for introverts, nothing better ever happen again than social media because you, if an introvert has a problem with confronting people and social media, you can actually sit on your phone passively look at somebody's post, like it, comment it, comment on it or share it and without having a personal face to face confrontation. So the passion is there within both kinds of people, the extroverts and the introverts. The idea is to bring it out and allow them to do something. So first what happens? Like with any child or any project, you allow them to do something on their own which they love and then slowly you can tell them to do it for your brand or the brand that they're working for. So have a workshop, I'd be more than happy to help you with that workshop. Have a workshop, let them do a campaign each, let them do photography, let somebody write, let them find that what happens. Like with any child or any project, you allow them to do something on their own which they love and then slowly you can tell them to do it for your brand or the brand that they're working for. So have a workshop, I'd be more than happy to help you with that workshop. Have a workshop, let them do a campaign each, let them do photography, let somebody write, let them find their social media passion, let them post it out there, promote the post for them, let them find the engagement coming from the guest. Once they start connecting with the outside world, the passion will become inherent and it will become an addiction of sorts. It's not the right word, addiction, but it's become addiction of sorts and you want to do it every day. So that is my, I hope that answers your question and great question by the way. Social media passion, let them post it out there, promote the post for them, let them find the engagement coming from the guest. Once they start connecting with the outside world, they, the passion will become inherent and it'll become an addiction of sorts. It's not the right word, addiction, but it's become addiction of sorts. And you want to do it every day. So that is my. I hope that answers your question. And great question, by the way. Hey. Hi, Avjeet. This is my question to you. I need to do a spend on our hotels worldwide. How do I know which markets to put my money in? Hi, Gopal, thank you for your question. So your question, if I've understood correctly, is that how to understand which market to go for for your hotels, right? Hey. Hi, Avjeet. This is my question to you. I need to do a spend on our hotels worldwide. How do I know which markets to put my money in? Hi, Gopal, thank you for your question. So your question, if I've understood correctly, is that how to understand which market to go for for your hotels right now that is a very interesting question. And here's the answer. The best part about the Internet is that it is 100% data driven. And the best part about most parts of data is that it's relatively free. So you can actually go to Google and you go to Google Advert Tools, you have a Gmail account, you can access your Gmail account to go into Google. Now that is a very interesting question. And here's the answer. The best part about the Internet is that it is 100% data driven. And the best part about most parts of data is that it's relatively free. So you can actually go to Google and you go to Google Advert Tools, you have a Gmail account, you can access your Gmail account to go into Google Advert Tools, and then you can actually type in any keyword. You can type in hotels in Delhi, hotels in London, travelers coming to India, looking for India, travel to India, spas in India. And you can see what are the searches, what is the search volume for those keywords coming from Germany, Europe, different parts of Europe, Canada or, you know, uae. And see what are the, what is the search volume coming? And depending on the search volume, you'll know that these are people who are looking for these kind of keywords and accordingly make a campaign and accordingly test a campaign. You know, start with a small budget, have some, have a nice key Google Advert Tools. And then you can actually type in any keyword. You can type in hotels in Delhi, hotels in London, travelers coming to India looking for India, travel to India, spas in India. And you can see what are the searches, what is the search volume for those keyword, keyword plan done, have a nice Banner ad plan done and start advertising in that market and you will definitely start seeing results. But. But I have to have a continuation to this answer because this campaign could go wrong if you do not keep factor in mind that you need to ensure that you know that if you're for example planning a trip, a campaign in Germany, you need to know when is it that those people are traveling to India and when is it that they are booking. Because the booking time and the travel time can be a few months apart. And mostly the booking, the travel time is in and around the holidays that they have if it's for leisure. And I believe your hotels are leisure travel. So this is the strategy that you should follow. A like I said, go to Google adword words coming from Germany, Europe, different parts of Europe, Canada or you know, UAE and see what is this, what is the search volume coming. And depending on the search volume, you'll know that these are people who are looking for these kind of keywords and accordingly make a campaign and accordingly test a campaign. You know, start with a small budget, have some, have a nice skills, type in the keywords, see which country has traffic for those keywords, make a nice ad copy, a nice creative. Run those test banners in those countries, see the response coming in, but ensure that you're running it at the right time, it should be relevant. Right time is when they're booking their holidays. Keyword plan done, have a nice banner ad plan done and start advertising in that market and you will definitely start seeing results. But I'd have to have a continuation to this answer because this campaign could go wrong if you do not keep factor in mind that you need to ensure that you know that if you're for example planning a trip, a campaign in Germany, you need to know, and I'm sure you will 100% see returns from that. So that's the beauty of the Internet. It's all data driven and it's so easy for anybody, all lay people like you and I to sit on the Internet and find our own strategy, make our own strategy. And once you make your own strategy, the good part about that is once you make your own strategy, you believe in it more because you have actually seen the data, you believe in it more and for you to implement it becomes that much more. It comes with that much more conviction. So when is it that those people are traveling to India and when is it that they are booking? Because the booking time and the travel time can be a few months apart and mostly the booking, the travel time is in and around the holidays that they have if it's for leisure. And I believe your hotel is a leisure travel. So this is the strategy that you should follow a Like I said, go to Google AdWord. Once again great questions, thanks for asking and please stay connected. Look forward to getting more questions from you on the Ask a VR tools, type in the keywords, see which country has traffic for those keywords. Make a nice ad copy, a nice creative Run those test banners in those countries, see the response coming in, but ensure that you're running it at the right time. It should be relevant. Right time is when they're booking their holidays and I'm sure you will 100% see returns from that. So that's the beauty of the Internet. It's all data driven. And it's so easy for anybody, all lay people like you and I to sit on the Internet and find our own strategy, make our own strategy. And once you make your own strategy, the good part about that is once you make your own strategy, you believe in it more because you have actually seen the data. You believe in it more and for you to implement it becomes that much more. It comes with that much more conviction. So once again great questions, thanks for asking and please stay connected. Look forward to getting more questions from you on the Ask Kavya session.