RM MAGAZINE issue 7 RM MAGAZINE issue 7 2018 | Page 10

F E AT U R E A R T I C L E 7 WAYS to track your competition Keeping track of your competition’s activities is easier than you think. Here are a few things you could do to stay on top of your competitor’s activities and keep ahead of the game. 1 Monitor Their Website & Blogs You can learn a lot about your competition by keeping an eye on their website. Check our rates, packages and offers. Compare these to your own. See how consumers are responding to these. Keep up with the new services and even website functionalities they add and see what kind of traction they may be getting. Is it worth you implementing them too? You can use STAAH’s RateStalk to monitor competitor changes. It will show you rates of five of your top competitors in a simple table and interactive graph. 3 Set Up Google Alerts Setting up Google Alerts to arrive in your inbox is a good way to help properties monitor and track what their competition is doing. Set alerts to go off whenever competitors post press releases, get media coverage and run promotional campaigns. This will also help you shape your own marketing strategy as you can understand what works and what fails for your environment. 2 Sign up to Their Emails Sign up for your competitors’ e-mail and direct marketing campaigns, commonly known as Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) programmes. Become a regular “customer” and you’ll quickly see what kind of offers they provide and how they stack up to yours. 4 Track Their Social Platforms Social media provides a great platform to spy on competition. “Like” and “follow” your competition on Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels to see what they are posting. The responses their content receives can also provide valuable data into what kind of content your hotel should be posting on its own channels and when. 10 Better Revenue I Better Industry I APAC I www.revenuemanagement.com.au