This article was written by Martin Soler. Click here to read the original article

Hello,

Everybody wants amazing marketing. Fomo is real. But how much is the other company spending in sales and marketing? Probably a lot more than you think. And with that, have a great read.

Best, Martin

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Hotel marketing was always niche

A study of consumer habits suggests we are seeing a shift towards niche marketing, with brands increasingly focusing on micro-creators and personalized content curation. For hotels this was always the case. An individual hotel might be part of the Hilton brand, but it is still a hotel in the suburb of Paris and as such it will only appeal to a niche market. This post has some interesting thoughts, they don’t all apply to hotels but some do. But seeing hotel marketing as a niche marketing strategy helps make it more relevant.

GEN Z MARKETING

Hotel distribution evolution?

A recent report on how hotel distribution is changing, what are the challenges, where AI fits in. Should hotels select all-in-one or the “best of breed” (I had a long discussion with 10min Columnist Mark Fancourt on this during ITB). This study by Hospitality-ON is quite interesting and nice visual of the current scene.

HOTEL DISTRIBUTION

About me: I'm a fractional CMO for large travel technology companies helping turn them into industry leaders. I'm also the co-founder of 10minutes.news a hotel news media that is unsensational, factual and keeps hoteliers updated on the industry.

Humans as Luxury

When hospitality excelled at anything it was because of humans. Yes the decoration was great, the guilding was amazing, the food was excellent. But when things excelled, it was because of humans. So while AI is growing and will eventually become ubiquitous – hotels will thrive because they deliver a luxury good called great human service.

LUXURY GOODS AND AI

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Let’s go ChatGPT shopping…

I just hope that title never becomes a phrase. OpenAI rolled out an update to ChatGPT search integrating online shopping. This includes product recommendations, images, reviews, and direct purchase options. I think this will be huge for the travel industry. Where booking is a uniquely painful process (probably doesn’t help that you can’t just return it if you didn’t like it). Building in images, videos, reviews, match score with the whole Chat conversation, would seriously make travel booking easier.

CHATGPT SHOPPING UPGRADE

AI Ads or no AI Ads?

There’s a discussion that AI generated ads are the end of the ad profession. Then there’s those who disagree. In reality, those who do the work with chose the path of least effort. And those who pay for the work will chose the path of most return. We can get dogmatic about it, but I’m not sure it helps. The fact is, being able to iterate with AI, or get ideas with AI will greatly accelerate. And if there’s a machine doing that, then so be it. Machines can trial and error better than humans can and that’s a fact.

AI MARKETING FUTURE

The marketing choice of silence

Bottega Veneta deleted all its social media accounts in 2021 and still managed to rank as the 6th hottest brand globally. It is a pretty hard choice for a marketing team, to decide to not communicate as a strategy. A lot of hotels might do better with this approach. But which ones?

LUXURY BRAND STRATEGY

Podcast: I was invited on the Hospitality Daily Podcast and spoke about technology in hospitality, some thoughts on what wont change in hospitality, and why I co-founded 10minutes.news. Best, Martin

Opinion

Budgeting for B2B Tech Marketing

How much should a B2B tech startup spend on marketing? This is one of those questions that keeps resurfacing, especially when funding is tight and expectations are high. The usual expectations for marketing are simple: build hype for the company and drive lots of leads. That’s what founders, execs, investors, and frankly everyone wants.

But here’s the hard truth: marketing is a game of investment and ideas. If you don’t have the money, you need better ideas. If you have money, you can sometimes get away with mediocre ideas. But even the best ideas still need exposure. And that has a price.

Oh so you want it to go viral, “because that’s free”. Some sell virality as a science, note that you need to pay for their science. But most “viral” hits are engineered with smart scripts, high production value, media budgets, and relentless promotion. There is no free tips shortcut. And in the B2B world, everyone’s chasing the same leads on the same channels. If you’re not coming up with a better idea, you’re part of the noise.

The quick wins (email campaigns, LinkedIn hacks, cold outreach) can work in the short term. But they’re sugar hits. You need persistence and good ideas for the protein: constant visibility, trust, clarity, persistence, freshness. That’s what building a brand requires.

So let’s talk about money, I researched the financials of dozens and dozens of B2B tech companies to try and find how much the budget should be. Here’s the hard truth, they invest 44% of their budget in Sales and Marketing and 31% in R&D (the rest was General and Administrative). Those are the averages, the median investment in Sales and Marketing is 46% vs 28% in R&D.

Yet most B2B tech companies don’t do this. The difference? I only researched the ones who successfully exited.

It’s tempting to try cheap marketing. Fiverr gigs, junior marketers, quick-fix consultants, but the fact is you get what you pay for. Great marketing is not cheap. And once you have paid for the talent, you still need to pay for the distribution / exposure of the great ideas.

So here’s the rule of thumb: match your product development spend with an equal investment in sales and marketing. If you’re spending $1 million on engineering, spend another $1 million on marketing and sales. Anything less, and you’re not giving your product the chance it deserves. Don’t blame the market if you haven’t invested in reaching it.

It is a hard pill to swallow, but if you’re not spending enough to be seen and generate revenue, you’re just building great tech in a dark room.