Mr. Boni

Technology

Improving Conversions Starts with Reaching and Engaging Consumers

By Paolo Boni, President & Chief Executive Officer, VFM Leonardo, Inc.

As travel shopping continues to fragment within the online space to a myriad of channels, devices, and platforms the role of the hotel marketer is becoming increasingly complicated. Today, audiences are jumping from online travel agencies to review sites to social media and so on, using their smartphones, computers and tablets to do so. This makes for a complex web of touch-points for hotel marketers to explore and take advantage of. Success requires balancing a number of priorities and activities that make up a hotel’s greater marketing strategy. Included in this strategy are activities that convert website traffic to bookings on the hotel’s own website and third party websites.

Driving Traffic Versus Converting Traffic

Converting website traffic involves getting website visitors to take a desired action, or in this case, book hotel accommodation. This is one area that is often off balance in hotel marketing. Currently, marketers tend to put more effort and dollars toward driving more visitors to their sites by implementing tactics such as search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising programs than they do to converting the visitors to hotel guests.

Employing these types of programs to drive traffic as well as using online visual merchandising creates the complete marketing cycle and increases the number of visitors who actually book your hotel. This article focuses on the latter part of the equation – improving conversions through visual merchandising. What is visual merchandising?

There are two main components of visual merchandising. The first is reach, the second is engagement. The result of these two components being executed successfully is improved conversions which means a couple of things – gaining a higher number of bookings overall and/or increasing the value of each conversion. By showing consumers the value that your hotel offers, what they will experience, and what sets your hotel apart, you are able to get more bookings and convert guests at higher rates.

Hoteliers who have grasped and employed online merchandising practices take their listings and web properties as opportunities to reach consumers with a great, compelling experience. Visual merchandising ensures that what hotel shoppers see makes them want to take the next step and book with you. Regardless of which site they’re visiting, from transactional online travel agencies to social media channels, a well-merchandised hotel listing with informative, rich, engaging content can significantly improve conversions.

What Today’s Hotel Shoppers Want

Today’s hotel shoppers typically visit a number of sites during their research process and the decision to book a certain hotel can be made on any number of sites. Yet, hotel marketers notoriously spend a tremendous amount of time, money and effort on initiatives designed to get more bookings through brand.com and hotel vanity websites, often underestimating the importance of reaching and engaging consumers on third party sites like online travel agencies, social media sites and review sites, among others.

Regardless of how much you invest in driving consumers to your sites, you cannot abolish their tendency to visit other sites while researching and comparing their hotel options. One important thing to keep in mind is that a hotel shopper can make a decision to book your hotel or not based on what they see on any one of thousands of sites. The fact is that most consumers will check out your hotel information, reviews and prices on other sites. What happens when they do? What do they experience? What do they see?

In many cases, hotels appear undifferentiated on third party travel sites, with the exception of price. These dull, undifferentiated listings do not help win over the discerning hotel shopper. When price is the most obvious differentiator, you run the risk of either losing bookings to a lower priced competitor or becoming that lower priced competitor. Travel shoppers don’t know the difference between you and your competitors unless you tell them, or, better yet, show them. Online hotel listings have the potential to be so much more engaging.

What makes a hotel’s online presence more engaging? The story you tell. The visuals and text combined that capture the interest of travel shoppers and the way it is presented. On the internet, we only have a matter of seconds to capture our audience’s attention and keep them on the page.

For example, say you click a link on an online travel agency to see photos of a hotel you’re considering and you get a page with small, low quality images that you have to click through one by one. It’s more annoying then engaging.

Now consider the alternative, while browsing, you spot another hotel listing that has a link to view a video about the hotel. When you click, you’re presented not only with a video, but also a short, succinct description of the video and hotel right beside it. You also have the opportunity to browse photos and virtual tours all within the same multi-media player. Which one gives you a better impression? Which one holds your interest for longer? Research and user-experience tell us that the latter is what travel shoppers are looking for.

Improving conversions is all about providing a visual merchandising platform that engages the shopper by telling a better story… the richer the experience, the more effective the conversion from shopper to hotel guest. Moreover, you want the shopper to engage with you whether they’re using an iPad, Smart Phone, or on Facebook.

Mobile

Of further consideration is the use of mobile devices for hotel research and booking. It’s important to ensure a seamless and enjoyable experience for consumers viewing your hotel website on their smart phones and tablets.

In fact, 42% of travelers research or book accommodations on their mobile device, according to TripAdvisor’s mobile device travel survey. Because so many people are now viewing your property from a mobile device, it is imperative that your online presentation be mobile-friendly.

In terms of social media, Facebook is becoming more than just a social network. It is a hub for information, conversation and conversion. In fact, 15.2 million visitors were referred to hotel websites in 2010 from Facebook (400% increase from 2008) and 568,000 of the 15.2 million resulted in a booking. That’s a 4% conversion rate.

Of course posting on and monitoring a Facebook wall is a large part of a hotel’s Facebook strategy – which is also a part of the story - there are additional ways to make Facebook a more effective outlet for conversion. In fact, the easiest way to enhance your presence on Facebook, as well as on other channels, is by adding rich, enticing content.

Facebook is proving to be a lucrative channel for hoteliers who extend their visual stories to it. With the ability to include images, rich media and marketing copy right on their Facebook page, it becomes an interactive, engaging and rich experience for their friends and fans.

The Path to Improved Conversions - Reaching and Engaging Consumers

Improving your conversions is the result of an online presentation that reaches consumers AND engages them. To get started, take the content you already have, package it up into a story and get it out there. Travel shoppers are finding you every day and are making decisions based on what they see. There’s no need to wait until you produce that new video or get new photos taken – you can always update later. The best way to ensure the broadest reach and highest engagement possible is by using a solution that makes it easy for you to manage both elements to improve your conversions.

Visual merchandising is an ongoing practice, when done well, can significantly improve booking conversions.

Paolo Boni has lead VFM Leonardo’s vision and strategic direction since 2001. Under his leadership, the company has expanded globally and now has over 80,000 hotels, over 30,000 travel related website partners worldwide and the largest online visual content distribution network for the travel industry. As a recognized travel industry expert, Mr. Boni frequently speaks at major travel conferences on subjects relating to online travel marketing, online hotel merchandising and rich media. He holds an LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School and a B.A. Economics from McGill University. Mr. Boni can be contacted at 1-877-593-6634 or press@vfmleonardo.com Extended Bio...

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