When we rolled out lead gen, there were 4 types of leads.  We have heard from clients that there is less of an appetite for top of the funnel research phase leads who download category level content and have therefore removed these leads from being available to vendors.  

Instead, we will be nurturing these leads through marketing automation to get them further down the funnel and convert them with higher intent as price quote, demo or quiz/matched leads with direct purchase intent.

This means that you may notice a decrease in lead volumes; however, all leads will now have placed a direct request (eg. price quote, demo, quiz recommendation connections or RFP).

Interested in research phase leads still?

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Type 1: Research phase leads

• What is it? The hotelier is researching content in your sub-category on Hotel Tech Report and has explicitly stated that they are in the market within the next 12-months.
• Stage of the purchase journey? Early, just beginning initial research.
• Why are they valuable? The earlier you spot a potential lead the sooner you can work your way into their consideration set as they do their research.
• Follow-up tips: DO NOT HARD SELL! These hoteliers are open to talking with vendors but have not explicitly asked to speak with you and depending on your brand awareness may not even be familiar with your brand.  Therefore it is important to frame your approach as being a trusted and knowledgeable advisor there to help them learn about the category and selling your product should come as a byproduct of them trusting you and wanting to learn more.  Check out the template at the bottom of this article for inspiration

Over the past few months we've been hard at work collaborating with 20 top companies to create a new industry standard to help buyers make safer decisions while helping vendors who deliver excellent customer support standout.  

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Everything you need to know to succeed in the 2020 HotelTechAwards

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TheHotelTechAwardsare the hotel industry’s only data driven awards platform that recognizes companies who impress the judges who really matter - their customers.  Each year more more than a hundred of the top companies in the global hotel tech community compete to be finalists or win their respective categories.
HotelTechAwards updates center
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​VIEW THE OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE​

Not registered yet? Register now

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WHAT'S INSIDE:

• What are the benefits of registering?
• What’s new this year:New scoring, hotelier awards, nominees and more...
• What are the key dates and deadlines for the competition?
• The official guide to setting your strategy and winning the HotelTechAwards

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What are the benefits of registering?

Winners, finalists and nominees receive a suite of benefits including press, proprietary content, marketing collateral, sales enablement tools, badges and promotion on Hotel Tech Report to help differentiate and promote their businesses to prospective (and existing) clients.

• What is a winner?For each category there is an overall winner and regional winners.  Winners receive the highest overall score in their categories (or in the People’s Choice competition).  In addition to the benefits above, winners also receive content opportunities like an exclusive option to sponsor their category’s annual budget season buyer's guide for a fraction of the cost.
• What is a finalist?Finalists come in 2nd and 3rd place in their respective categories.
• What is a nominee?Nominees are registrants who achieve the minimum threshold (10 reviews during the awards period) but do not place in the top 3 places.

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What’s new this year?

New scoring variables, hotelier awards, nominee designations and more

NEW BONUS SCORING VARIABLES

While theHotelTechScore(aka HT Score) is still the primary metric looked at to determine winners, this year there will be several new bonus scoring variables that allow for companies to earn additional points for achieving milestones indicative of company viability and customer engagement.  New bonus variables that total up to 26 additional points will be added to participants' HT Score on December 15th when the awards period closes to determine winners.  The new bonus variables include:

1. Customer Advocates (3 points): Company with the most verified customer reviews in the category
2. Global Reach (1-3 points):# of countries where the company has at least 5 verified clients reviews
3. Peer/Expert Recommendations (2-4 points):# of peer recommendations from industry partners including consultants and vendor partners
4. verified  integrations in the categoryIntegrations (3 points):Top 2 products in the category with the most
5. Certified Customer Service (1-4 points):Verified customer support certification tier based on the Global Support Certification Standards
6. Employee survey linkEmployee Happiness (2 pts):Top 10 companies in the Best Places to Work competition in the HotelTechAwards

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NEW RECOGNITION OPPORTUNITIES FOR PARTICIPANTS

• Nominee designation:New this year we will be recognizing nominees who meet HotelTechAwards standards (10+ reviews, 80%+ client satisfaction) an official press release about nominations.
• Breakout companies designation:Companies who didn’t final last year and achieve more than 25 reviews (80%+ client satisfaction) during the awards period
• Startup watch designation:Exclusive recognition for startups that achieve nomination status (startups must be: under 15 employees or less than 2 years old)

Read the official press release
Not registered yet? Register now

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What are the key dates and deadlines for the competition?

Beginning September 1st and throughout the awards period participants will receive notifications with coaching tips and guidance as to exactly how to maximize their chances of winning throughout the awards period.

Aug 1:Regular registration opens
Aug 31:Regular registration closes
Sept 1 - Dec 15:Official campaign period to gather reviews/earn points
Sept 15:Partner recommendations link sent to participating companies
Oct 1:Best Places to Work surveylink sent to participating companies
Dec 16: Voting closes and data exported for analysis
Jan 2:Winners are notified
Jan 14:Public announcement of winners

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The official guide to setting your strategy and winning the HotelTechAwards

• 9-key variables to maximize your score
• Examples, tips & explanations for each variable
• Scoring calculator

​Download the checklist​

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In case you didn't notice, Premium Profiles just got an all new look! Check out our 1-minute tutorial on How to Customize Your Premium Profiles

In addition to the existing native advertising that category sponsors receive, sponsors also benefit from additional banner advertising throughout hundreds of targeted pages that will 2x brand impressions of sponsorship.

Learn more about category sponsorship

So your team spend lots of time and money building out integrations but designing a slick page for your website and keeping it up to date is a marketers nightmare.  You see some companies with fancy marketplaces on their websites showcasing their integrations and wish you had one too but who has the time, am I right? Well...now you can!

See how it works

Want to save time copy/pasting new leads into your CRM and following up manually? Turn on CRM forwarding and automatically send new leads right into your CRM to be parsed and sent on automated followup campaigns.

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Want any easy way to make the content on your profiles more relevant while also boosting your review recency to improve your HT Score and get prep'd for this year's 2020 HotelTechAwards? We've got great news for you, now you can! With a single click you send a request to clients to confirm and refresh their review.  If you like this feature you can thank your fellow Premium Member Leif @ Atomize for requesting it

See how it works