Digital marketing for resorts that are hit by the COVID-19 pandemic was an idea built on two factors. The first one being the fact that a recovery in any conventional approach would be time consuming. Also, the possibility of digital marketing for resorts have increased several folds as the internet penetration during the period was so high.
The scenario:
Owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, resorts were one of the sectors that received the mightiest blow. With airports remaining close, people continuing to home and borders growing stricter, leisure trips were the least probable activity during the pandemic. This scenario affected the resort industry so hard that a fast recovery was near to impossible for any holiday resorts.
The Case:
Here is a case study how one of the leading holiday resorts in Dubai managed to overcome the pandemic crisis by. Their readiness to act in bold even in the most difficult situation helped them to be one of the fastest to recover. The way we incorporated our experience in successful digital marketing for resorts to fight their crisis is something which we are proud to put on as an example to all.
The challenges:
The overdependence on traditional marketing: Our client here, was super-convenient with the traditional marketing techniques and least preference was given to digital marketing. Especially with their cold social media presence and shortcomings including lack of integration and coordination among their online platforms.
The dull and not very responsive website: Even though there was an established website, it was loaded with some outdated contents and elements. Also the page was over crowded with ‘call to action’ nowhere in the beginning.
The shortcomings in the app resulted in less conversion: The user UI/UX design of the app were not up to the mark. The options that should lead to conversions were under-utilized.
The minimal level or lack of SEO, SMO and PPC: There was no proper SEO strategy due to which the keyword distribution in the website was poor. The social media postings were also inconsistent. Added to these, Google Ads usage was nil.
With the pandemic hitting so hard, most of the conventional marketing techniques were found obsolete. For any business, not milking the benefits of internet penetration increase during the pandemic would be a great setback.
Target audience
- Any people residing within Dubai looking for a vacation or staycation.
- Any people wishing to travel to Dubai by any means of transportation.
- MNCs that regularly provide recreational activities.
- Tour agencies within Dubai and from other major tourists contributing countries.
- Frequent travelers.
- Frequent visitors to Dubai.
The Action
As soon as we entered into terms with the client, we started analyzing the shortcomings of the website in detail. However, a preliminary analysis was already done. With insights from both the preliminary and detailed analyses, we prepared a report and shared it to the client. In the meeting we convinced our client that a total revamp of the website is necessary instead of the minimal modification they were suggesting.
After convincing the client and taking approval we executed the website revamp plan by our team of web developers, designers and content writers. From the older website we created a freshly brewed version. We were able to do this with minimal possible disturbance to the prevailing traffic to the website. We designed the newer version by keeping the base color scheme of the site matching the existing theme and logo.
Being aesthetically pleasing is only secondary for a website. We added the content part and other elements of the websites after careful optimization. Along with different page contents, blog and tourism guides helping the visitors to the country were also added with enough backlinking. With the objective of increasing organic traffic, we added contents and elements carefully and with good planning. This eventually worked. Within the next 16 weeks the primary effect was evident from the increased traffic that appeared in our data analysis.
With the objective to reach the people residing in Dubai, we carried out a special digital marketing for resorts by integrating all the possible methods. We used localized display ads, Bumper ads in YouTube on a limited scale by carefully selecting the timings to maximize reach. Along with that, we strengthened local SEO and SEO by our experienced team.
Aiming the probable tourists to Dubai, we incorporated certain keywords as the part of SEO. Also, we presented display ads in 20 selected countries that contributed the most tourists to Dubai on an average. We did this after analyzing the data of incoming tourists to Dubai from the previous 5 years.
Further we used email marketing too, to crack the blockage. It was carried out with two separate contents for two different databases. One with all major MNCs and the other with all travel agencies.
Furthermore, social media accounts were also revamped and made sure regular postings were done. After the first two months of regular social media posting and minimal brand awareness campaigns, we started other social media campaigns which majorly included engagement, leads and app promotion campaigns.
Speaking of the app, as mentioned in the beginning, there were a number of shortcomings to deal with like lesser features available when compared to the website. Even though we resolved feature availability issues to an extent with website revamp, we had to attend certain UI/UX issues and limitations with call to action options later. For all the listed packages, ‘buy now’ buttons were installed with app special offers. To market the app, Social Media Marketing was done targeting frequent travelers and other frequent visitors to Dubai.
The JachOOs success
This integrated approach with careful implementation practices helped our client to generate more traffic online. We also improved the client’s business on a higher scale than pre-COVID-19 scenario. Our previous experience in digital marketing for resorts helped in achieving this.
The indicators are as follows.
- Website traffic increased by at least 4 times within 5 months.
- Increased the number of leads from the website by at least 2 times.
- Increased bookings from the app by at least 6 times.
- Number of followers in social media accounts also increased from 3 to 5 times in various accounts.
Our client keeps relying on JachOOs since we were able to achieve this majorly in organic methods. We also perform digital marketing for businesses from various domains. JachOOs is one of the best digital marketing agencies in Dubai providing innovative ideas for discoverability of your business.
