Umi & a Cup of Tea

Mapping Your Customer Journey

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 11:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Harry and Jess dive into the world of customer personas and journey mapping. They unpack how understanding your audience’s psychological drivers can lead to smarter, more impactful marketing decisions—touching on examples from tech, travel, and user experience design.

They also discuss how businesses can use these insights to connect with customers in more authentic, emotionally intelligent ways.

If you enjoy the episode, share your thoughts on LinkedIn or Instagram and tag us. Let’s keep the conversation going!

Learn more about us on umidigital.co.uk

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Enhancing Hotel Experiences through Partnerships

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 12:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Harry and Jess explore how strategic partnerships are crucial for enhancing hotel experiences. Drawing on their insights from ITB Berlin, they discuss the importance of collaboration between service providers and tech companies to optimise tech stacks and create seamless guest journeys.

They also highlight creative partnership marketing strategies that hotels can leverage to build stronger connections with guests and the local community, ultimately delivering a more compelling hotel experience.

If you enjoy the episode, share your thoughts on LinkedIn or Instagram and tag us. Let’s keep the conversation going!

Learn more about us on umidigital.co.uk

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Role of an Agency in an AI Future

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 12:00:00 GMT

AI is no longer a distant concept—it’s here, and it’s transforming the way agencies work. But what role do agencies play in a world where AI can automate, optimise, and even create? In this episode, we explore how agencies (including us at Umi) can adapt, where human touch and expertise still matters most, and how to stay ahead in an AI-driven future.

If you enjoy the episode, share your thoughts on LinkedIn or Instagram and tag us. Let’s keep the conversation going!

Learn more about us on umidigital.co.uk

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We're Back! Catching Up & Looking Ahead to 2025

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 12:46:16 GMT

We’re back! After a little time away, Umi + A Cup of Tea returns for Series 2, and we couldn’t be more excited. In this first episode, Harry and Jess take a moment to reflect on everything 2024 brought, before diving into what’s ahead for 2025.

Expect honest insights, big ambitions, and a lot of laughs along the way. Grab a cup of tea and tune in—we’ve missed you!

If you enjoy the episode, share your thoughts on LinkedIn or Instagram and tag us. Let’s keep the conversation going!

Learn more about us on umidigital.co.uk

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How Performance Max Campaigns Can Boost Your Sales

Wed, 30 Aug 2023 13:14:52 GMT

Join our Head of UX Laurence and our PPC Account Manager Arun, as they dive into the world of Performance Max campaigns in the Hospitality Industry, alongside the key facts about PMax campaigns, and how we've succeeded with digital ads recently.

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Local Affiliate Networks

Fri, 16 Jun 2023 12:19:36 GMT

In this podcast, Harry Fielder and Laurence Pratt discuss Local Affiliate Networks in the world of hotel marketing. They explain how to create a local affiliate network within the hospitality space alongside collaborating with local businesses to create an ideal offer for guests to improve the overall guest experience, brand visibility and revenue growth.

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The Importance of Social Proof: Reviews and Social Media

Wed, 03 May 2023 10:53:14 GMT

In this podcast, we explore the impact that reviews have on the success of businesses within the hospitality industry, and the various strategies that businesses can use to encourage positive reviews and advocate for their brand.

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Quick Conversion Rate Wins For Hotels

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 15:52:29 GMT

In this episode, we sit down with Laurence and Harry in part two of quick conversion rate wins for hotels. Whether you're struggling to fill rooms or looking to boost revenue, Laurence and Harry share practical tips and tricks to improve your hotel's conversion rates.

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How To Create A Compelling Direct Booking Offer | S01 E16

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 14:49:44 GMT

In this episode, we sit down with Harry & Laurence to discuss How To Create A Compelling Direct Booking Offer. We dive into the world of hotel direct bookings and explore how to create a compelling offer that will attract and retain guests. With the rise of online travel agencies and third-party booking platforms, it's becoming increasingly important for hotels to develop strategies to drive direct bookings.

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Quick Conversion Rate Wins For Hotels | S01 E15

Mon, 20 Feb 2023 11:36:47 GMT

In this episode, we sit down with Laurence and Harry to discuss quick conversion rate wins for hotels. Whether you're struggling to fill rooms or looking to boost revenue, Laurence and Harry share practical tips and tricks to improve your hotel's conversion rates.

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How Can Hotels Use Automation? S01 E14

Mon, 20 Feb 2023 11:35:04 GMT

In this episode, Laurence and Harry are talking about the impact of hotels using automation even further. They will be uncovering the common problems of digital transformation and in addition some great advice on how to overcome these issues from our managing director Harry Fielder.

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How Can Hotels Use Automation?

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 13:06:04 GMT

In this episode, Laurence and Harry are talking about the impact of hotels using automation. They will be uncovering the common problems of digital transformation and in addition some great advice on how to overcome these issues from our managing director Harry Fielder.

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Hotel Brand Consistency in Integrated Marketing | S01 E12

Fri, 11 Nov 2022 13:11:47 GMT

In this episode, Laurence and Harry are talking about the the significance of brand consistency within the hospitality industry across online platforms, as well as common problems which occur. Additionally some excellent advice on how to resolve these issues from the head of user experience at Umi Digital.

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Remote Leaders: Dana's Experience as Umi's Operations Director | S01 E11

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 12:13:36 GMT

Dana is Umi's Operations Director and works fully remotely from Germany. Dana and Tina discuss the impact of remote working on senior leadership roles, what challenges Dana faced as a remote director, and how team members can support each other.

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Capturing & leveraging data effectively for hotel marketing | S01 E10

Fri, 19 Aug 2022 10:33:58 GMT

Today we're talking about the importance of using your data to map the customer journey across different tools. We discuss the need to understand your guest better and to create actionable insights. And to make it practical: how to acquire and use first-party data to help you target your customers, personalise your campaigns and grow your direct bookings.

We’re joined today by Yogesh, who has been heading the marketing department at Safestay, the hybrid-hotel chain, for a number of years with great success. During his career in lifestyle hospitality and hotels, Yogesh has overseen both the strategic brand and digital marketing process. He was a guest speaker at the Direct Booking Summit (hosted by TripTease) and shares his thoughts on what is needed to build loyalty. Yogesh offers some practical tips on how to capture real guest data to power your CRM.

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Why targeting the youth traveller is essential for hotels? S01 E09

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 08:42:07 GMT

Youth travel is regularly ignored beyond inter-railing and hostels. We often forget, however, that the young travellers of today are the corporate and luxury travellers of the future. This might even be as soon as 3-5 years time as they enter highly paid entrepreneurial roles that regularly require global travel and luxury accommodation.

By creating an authentic and accessible brand for young travellers, you maximize the future potential in the guest relationship and create lifetime brand ambassadors.

The youth traveller today is very different to that of 5-10 years ago. Learn more in our interesting interview as we identify several tactics that can be adopted by hotels and hospitality brands.

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We're talking TikTok! Hotel learnings from a content creator. S01 E08

Tue, 07 Jun 2022 14:37:15 GMT

A study from HubSpot recently highlighted the two primary social media objectives in 2022 are to reach new audiences and engage a community. Direct selling and overt marketing is becoming less of a priority, and businesses are beginning to turn to platforms with a deeper sense of authenticity.

TikTok has evolved significantly since 2020 and far and above the fast-growing social media channel right now. Approached in the right way, it can be immensely valuable to business looking to achieve the aforementioned goals.

Inessa, a content creator with > 1.8 million likes and 93k followers, explains how businesses can leverage TikTok.

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Why we need a mindset shift towards website development S01 E07

Wed, 11 May 2022 10:22:30 GMT

Today we are exploring why the traditional approach of long development cycles are not an efficient approach for hotels to manage their digital assets. Harry presents the mindset required in order to achieve shorter development cycles and more effective innovation.

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How do we approach wellbeing and mental health? S01 E06

Wed, 04 May 2022 13:49:30 GMT

Dana and Tina discuss wellbeing at work – its importance, Umi's approach and how companies benefit from embracing it. They also share their own their experience with wellbeing at work.

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What's the deal with GA4 and why is it important? S01 E05

Wed, 27 Apr 2022 16:31:30 GMT

Tom and Harry sit down and discuss what GA4 is all about and why it's important for the future of performance tracking.

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Leadership through COVID and beyond S01 E04

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 08:27:10 GMT

A brutally honest chat with Harry and Steve. COVID was tough on team members, while also being tough on those trying to lead through the crisis. The duo explore their own experiences of leading throughout the pandemic and discuss the following point

What were the highs and lows for you through Covid as a leader?
What do you think is the biggest thing leadership within hospitality will have learnt from Covid to use going forwards?
How has a leader have you changed - what have you learnt - and do you think your leadership style would have changed now permanently
How did you you deal with communication within the team with regard to the worrying and negative state of affairs? How did you find that?

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What keywords should I bid on in Google Ads? S01 E03

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 13:26:46 GMT

Sometimes selecting the right keywords can be challenging and quite overwelming. Harry and Tom discuss how you should decide which keywords to bid on and how you should make sure that these work for your business.

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How do I sell the dream for luxury hotels? S01 E02

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 13:30:21 GMT

What does luxury mean to a digital user? How should you shout about it? How does this affect your advertising strategy?

Harry & Tom chat about how Umi try to show the intangible & exciting elements of luxury for our clients.

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To advertise or not to advertise? S01 E01

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 11:04:00 GMT

Harry and Tom explore when is the right time to advertise in your hotel or travel. We cover topics such as:

What do we mean by digital ads?
When is it a good idea?
When is it not a good idea?
What types of ads should we use?
Where is the low hanging fruit when starting out?

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