Outpacing the Competition:

Dominating the Hospitality Market with a Blended Digital Strategy

Case Study: Launching Koosh Collection – A New Hospitality Brand

In February 2024, Pink Paradigm launched the new Koosh Collection hospitality website in an intensely competitive market and industry. The online landscape, dominated by corporate hotel chains, presented numerous challenges including the well-established “competitor”- the hotel’s own corporate website. Adding to the overall challenge was the limited marketing budget available, and the lack of data availability to assist in decision making.

To maximize the budget, blended digital marketing campaign that combined local SEO, organic social media, digital PR, backlink acquisition, and paid advertising was rolled out to help establish a strong digital foothold for the Koosh Collection website. As a result, the brand achieved outstanding growth, brand awareness, and audience retention over a six-month period.

18,457 users

Total Users between February and August 2024

9,956 users

Total organic users between February and August 2024

9.75%

Engagement rate on Google Ads between February and August 2024

direct traffic increase

CHALLENGES

  • Highly Competitive Industry: The hospitality industry is highly competitive, with large corporate players dominating key rankings in the digital space. Koosh Collection had to compete against the already established corporate hotel website with a significantly larger budget, higher traffic numbers, and longer domain history.

  • Brand New Domain: The domain name was newly created to reflect the brand.

  • Limited Marketing Budget: Koosh Collection’s more modest budget limited the reach of paid search, social, and other promotional activities.

  • Building Brand Awareness: A new brand faces a challenge in establishing trust and recognition in a market already saturated with well-known competitors.

STRATEGY AND EXECUTION

1. Local SEO for Targeted Visibility
We focused heavily on local SEO strategies to gain traction in the regional market, which involved optimizing the website for local search terms and ensuring consistency in online listings, such as Google My Business. Key tactics included:

  • Keyword Targeting: We identified high-intent local keywords and optimized the website content to be useful and engaging to visitors.

  • Local Backlink Strategy: Through local PR efforts, we acquired local backlinks from hospitality blogs and local directories, boosting the website’s authority and relevance in regional searches.

  • On-page Optimization: We optimized metadata, headings, and implemented structured data markup to ensure that search engines understood the website's focus on local offerings​​.

2. Organic Social Media Campaigns for Brand Engagement
To increase brand awareness and foster engagement, we built a strong organic social media strategy across platforms like Instagram and Facebook:

  • Consistent Posting: We maintained a consistent posting schedule, sharing behind-the-scenes content, showcasing hotel amenities, and engaging with the audience through polls, contests, and giveaways​.

  • Leveraging User-Generated Content: To build trust and social proof, we shared reviews and customer-submitted photos across our channels.

  • Targeted Hashtags: Using location-specific and trending industry hashtags helped drive organic discovery by potential customers​.

3. Digital PR for Brand Authority
We initiated a digital PR campaign focused on positioning Koosh Collection as a premium hospitality brand:

  • Press Releases: By distributing well-crafted press releases to high-authority hospitality and travel publications, we secured mentions in blogs and news outlets, which increased backlinks and domain authority.

  • Brand Collaborations: The parent brand and partner brands were leveraged to help boost the authority and relevance of the new Koosh Collection brand and domain name.

4. Paid Search and Social Ads for Targeted Traffic
While the focus was largely on organic growth, we complemented these efforts with strategic paid search and social ads:

  • Google Ads: We ran a series of targeted Google Ads campaigns to capture high-intent search traffic for specific keywords and remarketing campaigns.

  • Facebook and Instagram Ads: To build brand awareness, we deployed paid social ads showcasing the hotel’s unique selling points, which helped drive direct traffic to the website while reinforcing brand messaging​.

5. Backlink Acquisition for SEO Strength
Backlinking played a crucial role in building the domain authority of the new website:

  • Targeted Outreach: We reached out to hospitality bloggers, local tourism boards, and travel websites for guest posts and link-building opportunities. This effort resulted in acquiring high-quality backlinks that significantly improved the website’s domain rating​​.

  • Directories: Manual outreach to relevant, high value directories was employed to build up a strong backlink profile and generate traffic likely to convert.

RESULTS

The targeted efforts led to impressive results over a six-month period, demonstrating substantial growth in several key digital metrics:

    • Total Users: Between February and August 2024, the website attracted 18,457 users.

    • Organic Traffic: 9,956 users came through organic search, demonstrating the success of our SEO efforts.

    • Returning Visitors: A significant number of users returned to the site after their first visit, indicating strong brand loyalty and customer retention.

    • Engagement Rates: Social media posts drove organic engagement, while users spent an average of 49 seconds per session on the website, which is strong for the hospitality industry where visual content often plays a critical role in decision-making.

  • Direct Traffic: There was a steady rise in direct traffic, peaking at 600 monthly visitors by August, showing the strength of our brand marketing and retention efforts.

Conclusion

This case study demonstrates the power of blending organic, paid, and PR efforts to establish a new brand in a crowded, competitive market. Through well-executed strategies and efficient use of resources, Koosh Collection achieved significant growth and set the foundation for continued success.

Pink Paradigm’s strategies resulted in dramatic improvements in traffic and user engagement.

Are you looking to transform your business’s online footprint and increase customer engagement? Book your free consultation today, and let us help you turn your business into our next success story!