How to Boost sales by 77% without Increasing Traffic

In this blog, I will walk you through an example of a structured process we used to increase a hotel’s revenue from €43K in Dec 15 to €76K in Dec 16 with only a 2% increase in visitors. 

This high-end customer asked us to improve their direct room revenue. They were getting over 30K visitors most months with a Per Session Value ranging from €1 – €1.50. They were running successful Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media and Pay Per Click Advertising programmes, all of which were performing reasonably well.

Our Digital Marketing Team compared the client’s performance with other similar hotels that had a higher Per Session Value of over €2. We recommended that there was potential to increase revenue through a Conversion Rate Optimisation programme, which the client agreed to implement.  

The first step was to understand how visitors were using the website.  We set up heatmaps and video recording and ran them for a month so that we could get an effective sample of visitors. A heatmap represents clicks and activity in a colour-coded map or diagram.

In this case, the heatmap clearly showed that the most commonly clicked on area of the home page was the Gallery which showed up in bright red with 27% of visitors clicking it. This was followed by the rooms page (13%) and then the check availability button (8%). This pattern recurred on other pages of the website.

We also wanted to understand where the hotel was losing visitors. Analysing the video recordings is a slow, tedious process. Our ‘analysis maestro’ locked himself in a room for a day and watched video after video, taking notes and recording patterns.  It became obvious that users were looking for more information and images about the rooms.  They were clicking on rooms pages and then again on gallery and often getting confused and leaving the website as a result.

It is very important to have clear calls to action which funnel visitors through the purchasing process. Too many choices can frustrate and confuse the visitor and, where there is not a clear path to their desired route, they may leave without booking.

From previous tests with other clients, we already had good data on how the customer engages best. Combining that data with the results of the heatmap and video recording allowed us to implement several A/B Tests which we ran during the month of October.

We implemented the clear winners of the A/B tests and the performance in December was a testament to the power of analysis and testing. The results prove that making the visitor journey more user-friendly increases the value of the sessions on the website and the revenue generated.

Often, a focus on Conversion Optimisation will bring a greater return on investment than a focus on increasing traffic and visitors.  At Aró Digital Strategy we will help you to understand your conversion figures and advise on how best to focus your strategy.If you would like to implement a conversion optimisation audit on your website please send an email to [email protected] or ask your account manager.