Serving 10,000 Customers in 140 Countries, Sojern Offers Hotels Real-Time Access to Travel Data and Holistic Digital Media Solutions
SAN FRANCISCO – January 8, 2020 – Sojern, a leading provider of digital marketing solutions serving 10,000 customers in more than 140 countries, today announced that it will offer its digital marketing solutions for independent hotel and chain properties as a subscription. A commission version of the same solution has been popular with Sojern hotel customers for some time.
With this new package, the same enterprise-grade technology developed to power marketing campaigns for the world’s biggest travel brands is available to smaller hotels for a fraction of the price, and all in one platform. Offered as a direct bookings alternative to a hotel’s distribution deals with online travel agencies (OTAs), Sojern’s digital marketing solution delivers highly personalized advertising to consumers across multiple devices and digital channels such as Facebook and Instagram, video, display ads, and search. The targeted ads and content then drive potential customers to the hotel’s website to book directly.Most hoteliers don’t have access to the same resources that the major brands have. Many also lack the time and expertise needed to manage multiple vendors, and come up with a comprehensive digital media mix that will allow them to reach customers online. Sojern offers hotels a way to easily run sophisticated digital marketing campaigns across multiple channels to reach travelers at the precise moment when they are planning and booking a trip by providing access to real-time traveler data and all the major digital advertising channels. And now, for the first time ever, you can access this platform in a way that works for you—either on commission or subscription.
Online marketing has become complicated and time consuming, and as a result, the industry has become increasingly dependent on online travel agencies (OTAs) to help fill rooms, but that often comes with high commission rates and no direct customer relationship. The Sojern platform identifies in-market travelers, and uses advertising to drive direct bookings and increase web traffic on the hotel’s own website while fostering direct customer relationships for the hotel. Sojern automates campaign management and optimization so hotels can focus not on the complexities of digital marketing, but on their first priority: the guest experience. Additional program benefits include complimentary ad creative, A/B creative testing, translation services, and local market and competitive insights.Originally developed for the world’s biggest hotel brands, Sojern now offers its digital marketing solutions for independent hotels and chain properties in two different ways—both backed by proprietary data science supported by a dedicated customer success analyst:
- Pick Your Plan™ is priced at a fixed monthly fee, or subscription. Customers pull from their marketing budgets to leverage Sojern’s branding and performance marketing solutions to drive web traffic, build brand awareness, and overcome seasonality.
- Pay On The Stay™ customers work with Sojern as part of their overall distribution strategy to drive direct bookings through digital channels. In the commission model, Sojern takes on the risk of running digital media campaigns and hotels only pay for completed stays.
“Today it’s easier and cheaper than ever for a hotel to build a website and accept bookings online, but attracting qualified in-market travelers to your site is an ongoing challenge. What hotelier has the time, budget, or expertise to master marketing across search, Facebook, Instagram, display, video, mobile, native and the next big thing—particularly when they’re competing with multi-billion dollar ad budgets from the OTAs?” said Kurt Weinsheimer, Sojern Chief Solutions Officer. “Sojern has been looking at traveler behavior across the mobile and digital web since 2007 and providing solutions to the biggest travel brands on the planet to increase their share of direct bookings and meet their performance KPIs. We realized there was an opportunity to turn this expertise into simple solutions for hoteliers with smaller budgets who didn’t want to take on the risk of a traditional media insertion order model.”
When considering a commission versus subscription payment model for marketing services, Wendy Norris from Valencia Hotel Group said, "Not only did we have more control with our marketing spend with Sojern's subscription offering, but the Sojern platform allows us to easily monitor and measure our results. We needed to reduce our rising commission expenses that were driven by cost per acquisition (CPA) campaigns and OTAs, and Sojern was able to reduce our commission expenses by moving away from the CPA model. Sojern allows us to deliver ROI, results and data that allows us to make key decisions that are performance based."
"Sojern's subscription offering has been great for us, has significantly increased not only traffic to our website but also our direct bookings. We also get access to a wide range of data insights available to us at any time allowing us to take a more strategic and informed approach to our marketing. I can say with confidence that Sojern's solutions for hotels have really delivered results for our property,” said Andres Blasco, Melia Bali Hotel.
Fiona Neo, Director of Sales and Marketing, Montigo Resorts, Nongsa said, "We found that we were only reaching those customers who visited our website. We wanted to reach potential new guests, advertise through multiple channels, and have improved visibility across those channels. Sojern was successfully able to activate marketing campaigns across multiple online channels using Google Marketing Platform. With access to real-time travel search and booking information, we have been able to reach those looking for travel in the region, and target them with highly personalised adverts inspiring them and ultimately encouraging them to book directly on our website. We have already seen some great results including S$583,043 in direct booking revenue from online display advertising and in only five months, SEM has delivered over S$75K in direct revenue. With the most effective marketing strategy possible, we are so excited to be able to target the right audience resulting in an impressive ROI."
For more information about Sojern’s digital marketing solutions for independent hotels and chains, visit sojern.com/solutions/hotels.
About Sojern
Sojern's digital marketing solutions for travel are built on more than a decade of expertise analyzing the complete traveler path to purchase. The company drives travelers from dream to destination by activating multi-channel branding and performance solutions on the Sojern Traveler Platform for more than 10,000 customers around the world. Recognized as a Deloitte Technology Fast 500 company six years in a row, Sojern is headquartered in San Francisco, with 600 employees based in Berlin, Dubai, Dublin, Hong Kong, Istanbul, London, Mexico City, New York, Omaha, Paris, São Paulo, Singapore and Sydney.
