Major Trends for the Sector in 2015 – Part II

5. User Experience

User experience is “just” the humanization tool of Digital Marketing.

Audiences want to feel actively engaged during navigation; hence, it must be intuitive, fluid and dynamic. Conversion optimization will always depend of crucial factors as usability, performance speed, information architecture, readability, color and image. Through a robust architecture, a clear design, an intuitive navigation and quality content, its pretty much money in the bank that your Hotel direct reservations will increase significantly.

An interesting way of verifying how intricately connected user experience and conversion funnel are, is via A|B testing. Identify the pages that secure the best performance from a clean design and content evolution standpoint, including floating buttons, drop-downs, marketing messaging and banners.

6. Paid Presence In Search Engines

The crucial factor of each and every paid campaign resides on its ability to reach and explore numerous channels: Facebook, Google, Yelp or HotelFinder.

Make sure that you clearly invest in your brand promotion, potentiate the use of social media platforms and also allocate your budget with mobile conversion in sight. Tailor your messages according to your target-audiences and keep a clear focus in the importance of consumers purchase cycle.

7. Return On Investment [ROI] Measurement

Consumer purchasing cycles are currently suffering from a severe mutation, all the more reason for corporations to adjust their ROI analysis and measurement processes. With mobile research hitting an all-time high as well as social indicators, the conversion funnel is not linear at all and the decision process can happen at any given moment.

It’s adamant that Hotels are sharply aware of that fact and that messages are tailored to their respective target-audiences. Due to the constant evolution of Tracking Software, it’s currently possible to assign a ROI to virtually any channel. By having a clear idea of what’s the road taken until conversions secured, you can easily identify the value associated with each moment of contact.

8. Understanding The Purchase Life Cycle

Never alike today, the motto “Consumer Rocks” makes more sense. Either it’s in the hotel sector, tourism or leisure, or any other industry or business area, consumers recurrently use search engines, websites, official channels of social media and online evaluations before planning their trips or making a room reservation.

This is the main reason why your website must be optimized for organic searches as well as paid searches; secure a solid presence among the main social media platforms as well as a design with conversion as its main goal. By securing a digital presence along all phases of the purchasing cycle, you’ll be guaranteeing a competitive advantage.

Bruno Santos
Account Manager | HDS – Hotel Digital Strategy
bruno@hoteldigitalstrategy.com