IBEROSTAR Hotels & Resorts is a major hotel chain operating in Spain, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. They were recently looking for a way to gain a competitive edge for their 100+ 4 and 5 star hotels. By implementing a combination of digital regional marketing and a major affiliate campaign, they were able to achieve the sales growth they were looking for. Since the implementation of these new marketing campaigns, which I will provide details on here, they increased sales by 33.74% with revenue going up by 30.7%. These are the overall numbers from 2013.
IBEROSTAR’s regional digital marketing campaign used email, SMS and app notifications to get in touch with major company contacts from their database. They reached out to these customers with a wide range of tailored products and offers to entice them to book with one of their many great hotels. In addition, they used a points based rewards system to help encourage repeat customers. As customers built up points, they could redeem them for merchandise, hotel services and many other products.
In addition to these efforts, IBEROSTAR teamed up with AffiliRed to expand the affiliate program they had been running since 2010, with great success. Harnessing the power of the AffiliRed network, they were able to target multiple high impact affiliate partners who specialized in the travel and tourism niche.
By generating quality traffic to the iberostar.com site, they were able to boost overall sales and profits. The affiliate program targeted potential customers using publications, blogs, voucher code sites and other effective tools to expand IBEROSTAR’s customer base.
The Head of Marketing Online for IBEROSTAR, Jon Recacoechea, said of this effort, “This is our fourth consecutive year of working with AffiliRed. Affiliate marketing has been very successful for us and is a crucial part of our online marketing.”
Going forward, IBEROSTAR Hotels & Resorts plans to continue to capitalize on the overall success of their digital marketing, and especially their affiliate marketing programs. They will be targeting new territories and markets, while still bringing in quality traffic.
IBEROSTAR is a great success story, which shows just how powerful affiliate marketing can be. Growing sales by 33% or more is an incredible accomplishment. Stories like these will continue to show companies in the travel industry, as well as other niches, just how important a well-run affiliate program can be.
