Improving digital marketing performance for Pelham Hospitality Group

When Pelham Hospitality Group expanded from a single hotel to managing a collection of stunning properties on the iconic US destination of Cape Cod, it faced one big challenge: how to grow its marketing strategy to scale for the new structure? What was clear and effective for a single property wouldn’t translate smoothly, and the owner quickly saw that their marketing engine needed to evolve accordingly. Without a new “North Star” and brand-wide marketing strategy, Pelham’s long-term success would be at risk of stagnating. Our mission was to help them develop the ideal blend of marketing initiatives that would help them steer their strategy with confidence.

Because high season was rapidly approaching at the time, we ran strategy and execution simultaneously, moving the needle where needed while completing a comprehensive audit. Our initial assessment revealed:

• A multi-faceted paid search program was needed to anchor the efforts.
• Their strategic planning and communications process needed to be recalibrated to build a stronger brand marketing environment.

Time was of essence, so we quickly developed and implemented a robust PPC campaign. In the first two months, we launched the program while also helping Pelham overcome another hurdle: the industry-wide change from Google’s Universal Analytics to GA4.

Although the groundwork was in place, this was not a “set it and forget it” endeavor…monthly check-in meetings, actively monitoring and interpreting results, then adapting campaigns based on market trends, data insights, wedding cancellations, occupancy holes, and other emerging needs…significant oversight was required.

What about the rest of the audit? Once immediate initiatives were underway, we shifted gears to assess Pelham’s ecosystem. There is a lot of secret sauce that goes into such an audit but for Pelham, the upshot included results such as:

• Create a suite of marketing tools (brand books, style and best practice guides for marketing channels, and content calendars) to round out their marketing strategy with a more diverse toolbox. These foundational tools were used immediately to shape their communications and guide their marketing efforts.
• Launch a new email program, including a monthly newsletter, event newsletter, and lead generation campaign to get leisure and wedding prospects to sign up. This email program became a central source of news and information for Pelham’s audience and prospects.
• Institute a strategic planning process to serve as their ongoing marketing North Star. We set the groundwork for a strong foundation, setting up organizational goals, and build marketing strategy, tactics, and budgets to meet those goals.

And how’d it perform? Pretty darn well:

• In the first year of the new Google Ads program, website traffic from paid search surged 300%, and ads achieved a 10x return on ad spend, turning ad dollars into significant revenue gains.
• Online booking revenue climbed 36% year-over-year.
• Total website traffic during the first year increased by 55%.
• Following our relaunch of The Pelham Times, the newsletter achieved an open rate that was 59% higher than previous emails.