Great websites a winning strategy.
A winning website is a worthwhile investment. Like it or not your customers will form a view about you and your property based on what they see and how they interact with your website.
The first thing a potential customer will do is look for your website, on finding it they form a view about your property and service, you have a winning strategy if the third thing they do is make a booking.
What you need to do to create a winning website ?
- It’s now well established that customers select accommodation with their heart first and their head second. So make sure they fall in love with your website, it’s about an emotional connection. This means big impact, great looking photos and engaging text that is short and to the point.
- Understand what it is that your customers want and make sure they find it writ large on your home page. For a farm stay, a fabulous rural panorama or some cute animals, a seaside retreat might have a high impact photo of the beach/sea and a party town hotel some nightlife photos – it’s all pretty simple.
- OK, you know what they want and you have given it to them, now they want to book. To achieve maximum bookings make it easy to book. Your online booking button must feature prominently on your home page (“above the fold” – no need to scroll down to find it) and on every other page in a very similar position. You will lose bookings if you make it hard to find your booking button.
- Keep it simple, engaging, attractive and easy to navigate. Make a point of asking your customers what they think of your website, don’t be precious about the website it’s not for you it’s for your customers.
- Regular updates are critical to keep your website fresh and relevant, a handy way to do this is through a blog.
- A great website is a winning strategy….. a rubbish one will lose you bookings.
(look out for next weeks bite sized winning strategy “Customer feedback and Reviews”)
