There are some important lessons hotel internet marketers can learn from their colleagues in ecommerce. In many ways ecommerce is more competitive than hospitality – with more focus on price and less flexibility to differentiate your offering with an exceptional guest experience.
This level of competition forces some ecommerce websites to the cutting edge of internet marketing tactics. Here’s a few ideas you may want to try:
Focus on the landing pages
A “landing page” is the first page a website visitor sees on your site. Building custom landing pages is often used together with a special promotion or advertising campaign to increase conversions. The page’s content can be uniquely written to tie into your campaign’s message. The landing page gives the visitor a good first impression and clear next step to take.
Is there collaboration between your hotel’s marketing and web development people to create relevant landing pages for each campaign?
Focus on the content
I talked about content marketing for hotels in depth yesterday, so I’ll just add this: ensure your hotel description pages are very compelling. If your room descriptions are boring, considering hiring a talented copywriter to freshen them up. (Armando wrote a nice post on writing descriptions that sell.)
Is your hotel’s website full of vivid descriptions and exciting content?
Have a strong call to action
A call to action is where you clearly ask for the reader to take a step leading to the sale. In direct marketing, this may request the recipient call for more information. On a hotel website, it begins by giving prominence to the booking module. (You’ll need to know usability expert Jakob Nielsen’s f-shaped pattern for reading web content.) I see too many websites that lack clear directions for their visitors.
Is your hotel website providing a clear “next step” for visitors?
Build the list
Many of the top internet marketers credit opt-in mailing lists as one of the most powerful tools in their arsenal. I know people that build a product, announce it through their mailing list, and make hundreds of thousands of dollars within 24 hours.
That may not be realistic for many hotels, but it doesn’t detract for the fact that email list building is essential for keeping in touch with potential buyers. You’ll probably even want to create a few lists – including one rewarding your best guests.
Is your hotel actively building an opt-in email list?
Craft an “iron-clad” guarantee
Especially with independent and boutique hotels, one of the biggest reasons people don’t book a room is because they fear making the wrong decision and wasting time and money. Online guest reviews and social media have helped eliminate some of that fear, but anyone selling anything can improve by offering a strong guarantee.
Home page of Zappos.com
In ecommerce, creating an “iron clad” guarantee is very important. In retail, Zappos.com has achieved success by offering a 365-day return policy along with free shipping both ways. This eliminates the fear of buying the wrong shoe size – something very important to their customers.
Sites selling digital information often go a step further – since their products are intangible. I’ve seen offers like “double your money back” or “money back & keep the product” work well. Of course, this more costly to do with tangible products, but it’s an undoubtedly compelling offer.
Is your hotel guaranteeing a great experience in a meaningful way?
Provide live help
Again, the Zappos screenshot above is a great example of this: “Have questions? We’ve got answers right now!” When people are traveling, they often cannot (or don’t want to) make a phone call to your hotel. But having a live person provide an answer to their question in real time may be the difference between making the sale and losing it.
Is your hotel offering some form of live help to potential guests who cannot call you?
Include real guest reviews
Again, the point here is to make a potential guest as comfortable as possible with creating a booking. TripAdvisor makes this easy with a few options for review syndication.
Important note: Only publishing positive comments isn’t nearly as powerful as including both good and bad feedback. (My radical proposal)
Is your hotel putting un-edited guest reviews on your website?
Cross-sell & upsell
Many ecommerce websites I buy from have sophisticated engines that suggest other products I may be interested in. This often has the effect of increasing the overall order amount, and is excellent for building revenue. You do need to use caution here though: Get Elastic shares the do’s and don’ts.
Is your hotel cross-selling and upselling rooms and hotel amenities?
Test, test, test
Top ecommerce sites are continually testing new things. It’s the only way to achieve continual improvement. I’ve seen examples where changing one word in a headline increased sales over 3x. What difference could a seemingly insignificant change like that do for your website?
Tools like the free Google Optimizer make this process simple – there’s no excuse to not be testing.
Is your hotel actively split-testing new website features?
Related posts:
- The #1 Mistake Most Hotel Websites Make
- SEO for Hotel Websites – Best Practices for (re)Starting Right
- SEO tips for new websites
- A Visit to TripAdvisor’s #1 London Hotel & What We Can Learn From Them
- What marketers can learn from triathlons
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