SELL HOLIDAY TRAVEL EXPERIENCES ONLINE?

Good Emotions Mean Good Conversion

If you work in the online travel industry, how do your customers feel when they book with you?

Booking a holiday getaway can be an emotional customer experience, and to get the best conversion rate you need to make sure your site and booking process always evoke the right emotions.

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Contents

Emotions That Reduce Conversion

FEAR OF THE UNKNOWNHow to avoid it

CONFUSIONHow to avoid it

Emotions that Trigger Higher Conversion Rates

FEAR OF MISSING OUTHow to create it

SMUGNESSHow to create it

EXCITEMENTHow to create it

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Emotions That Reduce Conversion

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F E A R O F T H E U N K N O W N

The holiday season can be stressful, especially when arranging travel that can further stretch personal budgets. So it’s natural that customers can feel some trepidation when committing a large sum of money. As a marketer, think about what you need to put in place to reassure customers.

H O W T O AV O I D I TInclude every detail of what is included in the deal. A company that sold packaged vacations wanted to save space on its mobile product listings. It tested removing a breakdown of what the holiday included to do this. Its bookings dropped by more than 30%!

Make cancellation policies clear, and offer insurance in case a customer needs to cancel. One travel company saw increased conversion when it included a more detailed table of insurance options. The change lifted conversion even among customers who didn’t actually take up the insurance.

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C O N F U S I O N

Make sure it is clear what the user needs to input at each stage in the search and booking process.

H O W T O AV O I D I T

Improve search formsFor one travel company, simply adding a one-word label to a field in a search form resulted in a seven-figure increase in annual revenue.

Before the change, the label was a placeholder inside the field, meaning that prospective vacationers who tabbed to the field didn’t see it. This left them without any signpost to identify the field. The result was confusion and abandonment of the search.

Destination

Destination

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Balance Up-Front Details with a Prominent CTAOne purchase journey for a packaged vacation had a large ‘basket’ above each step detailing the options chosen so far.

This pushed the call to action below the fold, which meant the visitor had to scroll down to see it. So, the company tested removing or collapsing the basket.

For the first few steps, conversion to the next step increased but ultimately, conversions stayed the same. Why? The confusion caused by not having the selected holiday details easily accessible balanced out any gains from making the CTA more obvious.

Emotions that Trigger

Higher Conversion Rates

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F E A R O F M I S S I N G O U T

Earlier, we discussed the bad kind of fear, but this kind of fear can help you make a quick sale and guide users towards impulse purchases.

A holiday can be a long purchase cycle, but recently, many travel retailers have started to use the tactics of scarcity and urgency to give potential customers a reason to make the purchase now.

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H O W T O C R E AT E I TAdd up-to-date information that shows that a deal is popular – so users fear that it will sell out.

The hotel listing shown here displays both the number of people looking at the hotel

“right now,” and the number of bookings today. The second listing even explicitly states that they expect to sell out soon.

Example from booking.com

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An airline found that showing the precise number of seats left on a flight significantly lifted conversion.

Visitors felt pressured to make the purchase before the seats were sold, and so didn’t have as much opportunity to change their minds or research competitive options.

Use countdown clocks where a deal or offer is limited, such as this one, to the right.

$346 Only 4 seat(s) left at this price Only 4 seat(s) left at this price

$404

Deals end in06 : 19 : 18

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S M U G N E S S

Managing to secure a holiday that seems exclusive and sought after gives your customers a sense of smugness or one-upmanship.

This might annoy their friends but is something that as a travel marketer you want to encourage!

To build on this, call out savings to the customer and make sure they are crystal clear, so they can pat themselves on the back for being so financially prudent.

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H O W T O C R E AT E I TScarcity messaging as described earlier can help to create this effect. If the deal does in fact sell out, follow up with a notification email to create this winning feeling and encourage repeat business.

Placing the savings within the actual CTA. For example, “Choose this deal and save $500” increased views on deals and package bookings for one vendor.

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E X C I T E M E N T

Prospective vacationers are more likely to part with hard earned cash if they feel excited about a deal or destination.

In addition, excited customers will often post to social media about the trip they just booked, giving you free word of mouth referrals.

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H O W T O C R E AT E I TContent such as imagery, video or travel guides can show off the best features of your holidays. Don’t however highlight this at the expense of a clear and prominent search feature. We’ve seen ugly but clear search pages perform better than design-led, content heavy pages where the search is hidden.

Social proof, like a high volume of positive reviews, also helps to hype your visitors up and turn them into customers.

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G E T T H E M O S T O U T O F Y O U R O N L I N E E X P E R I E N C E S A N D I N C R E A S E R E V E N U E .

We can help you optimize and personalize your digital campaigns for better conversions and improved business results.

Here’s where to find us:

> optimost.com

> @OpenTextCEM

> optimost@opentext.com

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