News for the Hospitality Executive |
First of all, what is a conversion? A conversion is when someone takes a desired action on your website i.e. they purchase a product, download a whitepaper, or in the case of the hotel industry, they make a reservation. You may attract a lot of traffic to your website but this means nothing if your site isn’t designed to facilitate conversions. How effective is your hotel website in
regards to
conversions? You can learn this by analyzing the metrics of your Analytics
software. Through analytics you can learn what the most popular pages
on your
site are, where users spend the most time, and where you may be losing
people.
No matter what your conversion rate is, chances are you could still
improve it.
Below is an outline of tactics that the top converting websites use
according
to The top converting
websites do the following: Does your hotel website communicate your Unique Value Proposition? What is it that makes you unique among other hotels, and how does this appeal to your target audience? Think about your unique campaign proposition too. How are you packaging up and selling your hotel? 2. They Make Persuasive & Relevant Offers Are you offering promotions and packages that are relevant to your guests? How persuasive are your offers? 3. They Reinforce Their Offer Site-wide Make sure your offer is consistent and repetitive throughout the site. If a guest sees your offer on your homepage, make sure it is repeated on your reservations page so they feel confident they are still going to receive the offer. 4. They Maintain Scent Make sure you have a consistent look and feel on every page and on every form of your website so that users always know they are on the right track. For example if a user clicks on a form it should match the previous page so they won’t feel lost. Make sure your offer doesn’t change anywhere along the way either. If you promise something, you must deliver it. 5. They Make A Strong First Impression Similar to first impressions of people, users will size up your website in a matter of seconds. Make sure your first impression is impactful. 6. They Appeal To Multiple Personas/Segments Your website must appeal to different personality types. A person who has a competitive personality is decisive and looks for the bottom line. This personality asks ‘what’ questions. Regarding your hotel, this person will want to know location, comparison to other hotels, and star rating systems. A person who has a humanistic personality appreciates a hotel with a friendly staff that is helpful and polite. This personality asks ‘who’ questions. He/She wants to feel good about a hotel and values learning about the experience of others who have stayed there. A person who has a spontaneous personality is impulsive and appreciates a personal touch. This personality asks ‘why’ questions. He/She avoids cold, hard facts and wants to know if the staff will help her, or if there is a restaurant or nightclub. This personality type will be impressed by silky sheets, quality toiletries and special touches. A person who has a methodical personality likes to see the hard facts and wants to see the information presented in a logical manner. This personality type asks ‘how’ questions. He/She is not impressed with the personal touch and will look for things such as check-out times, prices, and what comes with the room. 7. They Don’t Slice & Dice (Website) Optimization Not only should your website appeal to these four distinct personality groups, but you must also optimize your site design, content and search features in a way that meets the needs of each personality type and encourages conversions. Website optimization is the art of improving your website to optimize the visitor experience and conversion rates, not to be confused with search engine optimization, which is the process of improving volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines. Let’s look again at those personality types and see how they may navigate through your hotel website. If the different personality types cannot access the information they are looking for, the way they want to look for it, they will get frustrated and leave your site. A person with a competitive personality may go directly to the online reservations page. This person will most likely choose a hotel from the drop down menu by city and select the first hotel. He/She may also look at hotel details and the map. This personality type won’t typically look at the other pages on the site but will rely heavily on the search button. A person with a humanistic personality will look at the homepage first, and be drawn to particular adjectives in the copy such as ‘charming,’ ‘cozy,’ or ‘historic.’ This person may try to search for hotels in the city under these adjectives such as ‘historic.’ He/She will also want to see the image gallery and the video, and will most likely look at services and amenities. This personality type will also want to read reviews before making a reservation. A person with a spontaneous personality will look at the hotel brands on the home page. He/She won’t read much about the brands but may be impressed by the logos. This person will look at descriptions of area attractions such as shopping and restaurants. He/She will also look at images of the hotel and imagine if they would have a good time there. A person with a methodical personality will most likely spend the most time on a hotel website. He/She will try the registration tool and read through all the copy, which they will most likely find too ‘fluffy.’ This person is looking for facts and would appreciate a ‘fast facts’ list. This personality type will check all the maps and driving instructions and will want to find it all. To learn more about personas and personality types see 8. Leverage Social Commerce: Use Voice of Customer People love to read and write reviews. This is especially true for the hotel industry. Do not try to hide from these reviews, instead use the voice of the customer to help sell your hotel. 9. They Use (voice of customer) For Navigation Listen to what your customers are saying, and make sure your navigation caters to their needs. For example, if you host weddings at your hotel make sure it is easy for guests to navigate that section of your website. Listen to your guests’ common questions and check to see if their questions are being addressed on your website. 10. They Use It (customer reviews) For Promotions You can also incorporate guest reviews on your promotional material or e-mails. For example, you could put testimonials from meetings or weddings on your e-mail campaigns that are targeted to that segment. 11. They Use It (voice of customer) For Credibility People tend to trust reviews written by past guests. If you have these reviews on your website it adds authenticity and may even help your guests learn about your hotel. For example, if a previous guest wrote that your hotel is far from a subway stop, the next guest will be prepared to take a taxi. 12. They Use It (voice of customer) For Feedback & Research You can learn a lot about what is working in your hotel and what isn’t, by reading the guest reviews. There may be some problems with your facility or staff that you were unaware of, and the reviews allow you to identify the problems and fix them. You can also use a focus group to test your website usability. You may think your website is easy to navigate until you watch a user try to click through it. 13. They Use Persuasion Principles Like Scarcity Persuasion principles such as scarcity are very effective. If you offer a room discount for a limited number of rooms, chances are that guests will feel that they can’t pass up a special deal. 14. They Make Forms Engaging Every form on your website should be easy to use and follow a consistent look and feel. Make sure your forms are short and there are no surprises. Some websites trick the user and claim all they have to do is enter their e-mail address to receive something, but when the user hits submit, they are taken to a more extensive form. 15. They Provide Point of Action Assurances A point of action assurance will help your guest feel more confident about taking an action on your site or making an online reservation. For example, make sure the guest knows they can make changes to their reservation, show them the lock symbol when they are entering their credit card information, and let them know you are not going to share their personal information with anyone. Make sure you are responding to any lead you receive. 16. They Keep You In The Process Make sure your site communicates with the user what the next steps are. A good reference for this is the ‘ 17. They Consider Email Preview E-mail is still the number one way to reach your target audience. You should only send targeted messages to people who have chosen to opt-in. 18. They Budget For Experience Budget for some website testing and for some trial and error. What is it going to cost to improve your site, and how will that pay off? 19. They Utilize a System for Prioritization Prioritize your website goals and make sure your website design is in line with these goals. 20. They Make Data-Driven Decisions Make decisions about your website based on the data you can collect from analytics software and your testing. Too many companies make the mistake of depending on the HIPPO (acronym for Highest Paid Person’s Opinion). Collect the data of what needs to be improved and make a ‘to do’ list. And the bonus tip which also the most critical point . . . 21. They Know How To Execute Rapidly! You need to be aware of what is going on in the travel industry at all times, and be prepared to execute changes. For example, just 2 hours after Michael Jackson had died, Amazon changed around their whole website to accommodate demand for his books and cds. Focus on trends to see what is spiking up or down.
References 1 Use Personas to Increase Conversion Rates 2 YouTube – ABC News Amazon.com Milk 3 The Brooks Group 4 Robert Cialdini’s Principals of Persuasion 5 www.proflowers.com 6 Land’s End High Converting Websites Referenced by http://www.proflowers.com http://www.overstock.com http://www.mint.com sheet music plus lower my bills See Nielsen List of Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate: March 2009 If you would like to learn more about Hotel Website Design, call us at 978-465-5955 or send an e-mail to [email protected].
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Contact: O’Rourke Hospitality Marketing Newburyport http://www.orourkehospitality.com |