The hospitality industry is an extremely competitive environment and positioning yourself among the best is not easy.

For us it was a great challenge to deeply understand the intricacies of this industry and help in building an image, reaching a higher number of bookings per month and optimising the website to rank higher in SERPs.

How did we start working together?

Ruskovets Resort is an elegant complex of villas and apartments, ideal for a weekend and spa holiday in the mountains. It has an indoor spa including a warm mineral pool, children’s pool, sauna, steam bath, wellness centre and free kids club. Guests can enjoy great food and wine in the two available restaurants: “Il Forno” – an Italian restaurant offering pizza, pasta, fish, salads, and desserts, and “Lavender” – an establishment dedicated to classic cuisine using fresh regional products.

The client approached us in March 2019 to develop a new website for the complex, in tune with new trends. We launched the project by the end of the month. In June 2019, we prepared an SEO audit of the website. After reviewing the results and discussing future changes, the client approached us with the idea of reaching more people, working on the brand image and ranking the site as well as possible for certain keywords. In July, we launched SEO services and Facebook posts to reach a larger audience. Once the client was happy with the results, we earned their trust completely. In September 2019, we also started with Facebook advertising. Keep reading to find out more about our approach and the results we achieved within a year.

TECHNICAL IMPROVEMENTS

Development of a new website

The first important step we completed was developing a website that adequately represents the beauty of the resort. Our goal was to use an intuitive, lightweight structure, in order to help users navigate faster. To that end, we created an easy and quick booking system. The stylish new website meets all the current trends, boasting a responsive design suitable for all devices. With this step, we initiated the process of building the online image of Ruskovets Resort. We began working on the project in March 2019.

SEO

In July we started with the SEO service for the website. The first step we took was to perform a comprehensive audit. After discussing the results, we began implementing the improvements. We focused on primary keywords and within a year managed to rank Ruskovets significantly higher. Below you can see some statistics of the positions in 2019 and 2020 in July.

STATISTICS

MARKETING

Facebook posts

In July 2019, we began by supporting and developing the Ruskovets Resort Facebook. Until that point, there had been almost no professional graphic design involved.

The first step we took was to analyze the target audience and create an appropriate marketing strategy. The client’s objective was to increase the visibility of the resort.

How did we improve results?

• We built a new look for the Facebook page;
• We increased the number of posts per week;
• We engaged with the audience and generated interactions on the Facebook page through polls, games, emoji voting, etc;
• We presented the resort interior and exterior with product photos, as well as professionally designed visuals;
• The Facebook ads audience was able to see the amazing rooms in the hotel and villas, in different advertisement styles including Slideshow, Carousel and collages;
• We posted greeting cards for all the major holidays;
• We showcased all the amenities of the resort in diverse ways.
• We mainly focused on using real photos provided to us directly by the client;
• We also focused on creating Stories on Facebook.

Facebook ads

We began advertising on Facebook in September 2019. The goal was to reach more people and raise the number of bookings per month. Before starting our partnership, the client had used boosting posts as the only advertising strategy for their page. After starting work, we managed to achieve the set goals and even surpass the initial expectations, by doubling revenue within six months of starting our marketing efforts.

How did we improve results?

• We created various events such as Checkout, Add To Cart, Purchase and Contact to track user actions and the number of bookings;
• We created different campaigns for engagement purposes. Conversion ads and traffic to the website;
• We tested various formats, with different visuals;
• We used collages, carousels, and slideshows to represent the resort exterior and the room interior;
• We optimized the campaigns daily, in terms of audiences, texts, and designs.

Results

Facebook ads

The comparison between the number of bookings in January 2019 and January 2020, shows a 20% increase. In February 2019 and February 2020, the increase is even more pronounced at a 33% rate. These results were achieved with a small advertising budget. In March 2020 bookings started to drop due to the national emergency, which was declared in connection to the global Covid-19 pandemic. For this reason, we had to stop advertising in April and May as the resort itself was forced to close temporarily. We continued our advertising efforts, once the pandemic restrictions were lifted.

How did we achieve these results?

• We set up ads with various goals – Purchase, Add to Cart, Contact, etc.;
• We optimized campaigns daily;
• We tested different audiences, created new ones, changed designs, used a variety of formats, and tested copy.

What did we achieve within a 1-year period?

• We created 75 advertising campaigns;
• We used 162 advertising groups;
• We created 12 publications per month;
• We reached 419,262 people;
• We increased our advertising budget by only 20%.

SEO

If we compare the keywords earned for the year, we observe the following results: in July 2019 Ruskovets ranked for 1343 words on average and in July 2020 – 4574 words on average.

What did we achieve within a 1-year period?

• Traffic has increased by 118% on average
• Total number of clicks on the site before the emergency – 30.9 K;
• Total number of impressions before the pandemic – 210 K;
• Homepage authority – 65% increase;
• Backlinks – 169% growth;
• Links pointing to the site – 87% growth;
• Keywords the site ranks for – 92% growth;
• Organic traffic to the site – 166% growth;
• Improvement in site loading speed – 68 points.

Tendrik’s new service

If you also want to achieve high results for your hotel, digital agency Tendrik has created a new product-service Upguest, offering specialized marketing for hotels. It brings together our expertise and experience with clients in the hotel and restaurant industry who we have helped over the years to increase their direct bookings and strengthen their online presence.

Find out more at upguest.net