is quickly emerging as the next area of opportunity for driving value through analytics in hospitality.

The guest is at the core of marketing's responsibility, so guest data is at the core of marketing data.

(age, gender, geography),

(personality, values, opinions, attitudes, lifestyles),

(recency, frequency, value).

rewards guests for allowing the hotel to access and track their information. This means that loyalty programs must be designed with enough value to the guest that they are willing to allow this information to be collected.

Marketers also collect data on the content and performance of campaigns, and can use this to report on past performance and predict future performance.

As the digital ecosystem evolves, so too do opportunities for marketing to collect new data. Hospitality and gaming companies are beginning to explore the following data sources.

as the process of researching and purchasing a travel experience moved to the web, and now recently to mobile devices, marketers are having to collect and manage a whole set of new digital data.

hotel and casino managers are becoming more accustomed to the data generated by review sites and social engagement, and well recognize the impact of social data on their businesses.

is also an interesting opportunity for marketers. It is possible for hotels to pinpoint exactly where a guest is at any given time down to a very granular level of detail- using the location services (GPS) in their smartphones and devices installed at the property, called beacons that pick up a signal when the mobile device is in proximity.

Marketers should be heavy users of statistical analysis.

identifies which variables in the guest profile are related to which outcome measures.

identifies the factors that contribute to overall guest satisfaction and likelihood to return, and how much impact manipulating the values of those variables will have on overall satisfaction

Marketing tends to be more of a forecast consumer than a forecast creator.

is probably the most heavily used category of analytics in marketing.

is a predictive modeling technique of particular importance to marketers. Segmentation splits guests into groups with similar characteristics, utilizing the clustering technique.

basically, predictive modeling analyzes the variety of inputs deemed to be significant predictors of an outcome for each guest or patron in the database, and outputs a probability that a guest with a certain combination of values for those inputs will display that outcome.

marketers can leverage a very specific application of optimization to improve campaign results. Hotels, and particularly casinos, tend to have multiple campaigns running at the same time.

Since so much of marketing's role today is focused on digital channels and the digital experience, it is worth addressing the challenges and opportunities associated with this area.

is an umbrella term for the targeted, measurable, and interactive marketing of products or services using digital technologies to reach and convert leads into customers and retain them.

the process of impacting the visibility of a website in natural or organic search-for example, by using phrases or words that are commonly searched for.

promotion of websites in Internet search engines, generally by paying for placement.

A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience-and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

the process of targeting messaging (or content) at a set of individuals who have extensive networks with the hopes that they will advocate for you in your network.

the process of organizing communications into a coordinated marketing effort to a targeted group of consumers.

the process of gaining website traffic or other brand, product, or service attention through social media sites.

the use of a number of social media outlets and communities, social news, bookmarking sites, and social networking sites to generate publicity to increase awareness for a product, brand, or event. SMO is similar to SEO

provides marketing messages directly to a consumer through their email address.

this refers to advertising on websites. It includes many different formats and contains items such as text, images, flash, video, and audio. The main purpose of display advertising is to deliver general advertisements and brand messages to site visitors.