How to Increase the Conversion Rate of a Travel Website? Red Collar’s Guide, Part 2
Red Collar is here once again! We are excited to share our second guide on how to create a travel website that sells effectively.
Here you can read our first guide. So, let’s hit the runway with the homepage first.
The Homepage-The face of your business
The homepage has a grand influence over users’ decision to book a tour and ultimately complete the transaction. It serves as the pivotal first step in the interaction between the visitor and your travel website.
Banner and Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
The banner should be visually appealing enough to arrest the viewers’ attention, all without coming off as too “salesy”. It should clearly communicate your USP- the value you intend to provide your customers with.
Banners help prospective clients determine if a travel website operator is suitable for them or not. Essentially, they ‘warm up’ a customer.
Search Forms and Filters
So, a person has viewed the basic information, gotten interested, and is inclined to find out more about your services. Obviously, they will be interested in using the search function to find if you have something interesting that suits them. This is the first best way to capture leads.
The search form and clear filters allow visitors to search for tours of interest without having to be subjected to too many unnecessary clicks. These features should be strategically placed, as they are crucial in delivering information.
Do not hide or minimize them, as it will only lead to needless scrolling which, truth be told, could be burdensome for the modern users who are used to speedy transactions on other sites. Moreover, the filters should be sorted by importance, starting with dates and prices, and ending with additional services.
To add to that, the search function should be lightning- fast and equipped with all the key points that can help visitors choose the right offer.
Best Deals, Tours, and Hotel Picks
Best offers, tours, and hotel picks make it easy to find and convert ‘cold’ visitors to ‘warm’. This information helps visitors know some of the best travel packages and destinations on offer, and their respective prices. Even better, you as the owner can get a better grasp of what many of your visitors are interested in.
These pages should not be dead-ends or purely informational; instead, there should be buttons or banners that redirect the visitors back to the booking path.
News
Not mandatory, but it’s still an important web conversion facet. The news section often serves your already converted clients who are simply curious about your latest travel packages, tours, destinations, and any other interesting piece of information. For new users, this section tells them about a brand’s activity and for how long it has been around.
Testimonials
Reviews are more important for new users as they put their minds at ease. This, in turn, speeds up their decision-making process. In short, testimonials “warm up” visitors and build trust.
Feedback
This feature can be presented in the form of a consultation with a human resource, in a convenient manner, and through multiple contact points. It is important to ensure that once a visitor reaches the end of the page and is provided with the right feedback, there should be a way to smoothly redirect them back to the booking path.
The Tour Page
This is the customer’s landing page where the most important transaction takes place-conversion. Hence, it must meet certain requirements. First, the page should have all the information that users are interested in, such as travel dates, prices, hotels, nearby attractions, and photos.
This information is crucial for the booking process. It is also vital to provide feedback on each specific tour to help users have a detailed understanding of their choices.
All the information on the page should be arranged in an easily digestible manner to avoid last-minute change of mind.
Each step on the homepage needs to prompt the user to the next. There needs to be a section for collecting visitors’ contact information for assistance or future marketing. This is a crucial stage in terms of conversion.
Where possible it is ideal to integrate supplementary services on this page, such as plane tickets purchase or other transportation options, booking trips, or ordering a taxi. These extra services should be seamlessly integrated-just ensure not to disrupt the booking path.
Booking and Automation
Once the user is satisfied with everything, he/she will proceed to place a booking. Usually, this request from the website is transferred to the sales office, and further communication is handled by the staff.
Some customers prefer to inquire about several details with a customer care team before settling for an option-particularly an expensive package. Nevertheless, it’s very much okay to have the entire booking process online to avoid lengthy processes.
Here’s something worth noting. Balance is key. Provide visitors with detailed information to relieve anxiety, and build trust while collecting sufficient data for processing. This way, operations can easily be automated thereby reducing your staff’s workload.
So what’s the most important factor when designing the main page for a travel and tours website?
There are two; the homepage and the search bar. If well designed, they are sure to retain the visitor on the booking path. If not well designed, your bounce rates are likely to give you sleepless nights.
The tour page is the main contact point and as such, it should be easily accessible and richly endowed with all the necessary information.
Remember to pay attention to the conversion and “warming” blocks of the site. Audiences come with different levels of interest (“warmth”) and therefore need their own personalized routes. Doing this ensures all your customers are adequately catered for. Should you find yourself in a pickle while designing your site, Red Collar is here to help.
That’s it for today, until next time, toodles.
