Leading North, the full-service boutique hospitality consulting firm, recently announced the launch of a brand new social media and digital marketing platform, which has been built from the ground up by a team of highly skilled and innovative digital experts, who will work with hotel revenue teams to provide specialised digital marketing planning and solutions in a uniquely integrated model. The fresh approach starts with a holistic evaluation of a hotel's performance data, which will be examined by a small, dedicated team that becomes an extension of each hotel's revenue group. Based on the team's key findings, they will develop a highly customised, integrated plan that includes a mix of A/B website variant testing, conversion metric testing, search engine optimisation, pay for performance advertising, banner advertising, display marketing/retargeting, email communication and social media. In other words; a complete digital marketing solution customised specifically to fulfil each hotel's individual needs.
With the new platform, Leading North will be able to help hotels compete more effectively in the digital realm by “Executing unique and cutting-edge solutions that provide them with a measurable advantage over their competitive sets."
Mike Schugt, the founder and president of Leading North, believes that “By handpicking bright minds in the digital marketing world who bring with them a diverse range of online marketing backgrounds within and outside of the hotel industry, they have created a new dimension to traditional online marketing strategies often utilised by today's hotel teams.” With the new platform, he feels Leading North will be able to help hotels compete more effectively in the digital realm by “Executing unique and cutting-edge solutions that provide them with a measurable advantage over their competitive sets."
The Hotel Teatro in Denver, Colorado, which has already benefited from the new platform
Beyond the personal service and unique creative strategies implemented by Leading North, they also take a performance-based approach to their work, with each hotel agreeing to an expected return on investment before any cheques are signed. The hotel will only have to pay their service charge once Leading North has managed to reach the agreed upon target! The company has only been in business for four years, but has already established an enviable portfolio of clients, with some of the biggest names in boutique hospitality already signed up, such as Highgate Hotels, Chartres Lodging Group, Northwood Hospitality, Kokua Hospitality and Bluegreen Vacation Resorts.
The company has only been in business for four years, but has already established an enviable portfolio of clients, with some of the biggest names in boutique hospitality already signed up
Schugt adds that "It's common to see hotels use one vendor for SEO, another for SEM and use in-house resources for things like social media and email communication,” but by weaving all individual marketing elements into one strategy, he feels they'll get a broader picture of each client's specific needs. He says this theory has already proven itself in one of their engagements, where “Monthly website traffic has more than doubled within four months and the percent of business coming from the property site has also increased." The engagement in question is the Hotel Teatro, a luxury boutique hotel in Denver, Colorado. The hotel's general manager, Afsi Bird, said that Leading North played a big role in increasing the volume of business to their website by “Strategically redesigning and utilising SEO and Pay Per Click methods that were not previously in place." He said that Schugt had been completely vested in how well the hotel performed, and that having his expertise on the team “Made a difference in a number of revenue generating areas."
Official Leading North Website
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer from Kidderminster in the UK. All he requires from a hotel is a bed that doesn't smell like its previous occupants and a sizeable TV.
