Conversion Optimization for Hotels 3: The 5 Rules For Creating Your Landing Pages

In the introductory post to our Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) series, we defined conversion optimization and talked about its value. We established that it’s valuable enough that you need to be doing it, now. Then, we discussed figuring out what landing pages you need, and how they fit into your website’s sales funnel(s).

Now it’s time to actually build those landing page.

• Rule 1: Make An Impact
• Rule 2: Make It Easy
• Rule 3: Make It Compelling
• Rule 4: Make It Match
• Rule 5: Make It Appealing

The Foundation: Your Audience

Before anything else, always remember the invisible element of every landing page: the audience. Readers of any given landing page are coming from a very specific source. Everything about the landing page — both written and designed aspects — should address that audience.

Rule 1: Make An Impact

Bottom line: visitors to the landing page should take THE action that YOU want them to. That means the page needs to engage and push visitors to that action.

Some simple keys:

• Talk benefits over features. This is standard marketing-talk, but it has real world impact. Travelers are typically comparing between hotels that are apples and oranges. Stand out by talking about what your guests get out of staying with you, not just a list of offerings. Try this if you’re stuck or unsure: rewrite any first-person statements in the second-person. For example, “We have large, comfortable rooms” becomes “You’ll be able to stretch out and relax in our spacious, comfortably appointed rooms.”
• Don’t bury the lead. That’s journalism-speak to say the landing page needs to open with the most powerful, compelling point instead of burying it deeper in the page, where the visitor may never see it.
• Keep it short and simple.

The single most important element to make an impact, though, is a clear call-to-action.

• Only include one or two calls-to-action.
• Present the call-to-action quickly, simply and forthrightly.
• Make it easy to take this action. In fact, this item is important enough to get its own rule!

Rule 2: Make It Easy

We recommend making a landing page map, just as we mapped out sales funnels in the previous post. In this case, think through every action the visitor must take from arrival until final action. Minimize the number of those actions. For example, compare these two paths for requesting more information about a special promotion:

1. Read the headline. ↓ 2. View the image. ↓ 3. Read the intro text. ↓ 4. Follow a link to another page about your hotel. ↓ 5. Come back to landing page. ↓ 6. View another image. ↓ 7. Scroll down, past the fold. ↓ 8. Read more text. ↓ 9. (Option provided to visitor) Follow another link to your rate page. ↓ 10. Come back to the landing page. ↓ 11. Fill out a form with six fields, one field requiring them to look up information (e.g., a hotel rewards program number). ↓ 12. Wait (e.g., for a follow up email). ↓ 13. Figure out themselves where to go next.

1. Read the headline. ↓ 2. View the image. ↓ 3. Read the intro text. ↓ 4. (Option provided to visitor) Click a link that brings up a pop-up box with rate info. ↓ 5. Proceed via rate info box, or come back to landing page. (i.e., the process is designed to accommodate both possible paths) ↓ 6. Fill out a form with three simple fields. ↓ 7. Take them automatically to the next page you want them to see.

Reading:

Reading is a given, of course – but how much are they reading? How much are you forcing their eyes to jump around? How much mental organization are they having to do to understand what you’re saying?

Scrolling:

They might have to scroll – or do they? Are you presenting the call-to-action at least once before the fold (the point on the screen past which they have to scroll to see)?

Complications of Conversion:

Then, for your desired action, what’s involved: a single click? Filling out a form? How many fields? How much typing is required? Are you forcing them to search for information, either physically or mentally? The less action you require on this page, the better.

Links:

Every step listed above represents a potential point losing the visitor. They may get bored, decide you’re not right for them, or run out of time (they are presumably researching numerous hotels).  But links are doubly dangerous, because anything that takes the visitor to a completely separate page runs a significant risk that they’ll never return to the landing page at all.

At the very least, ensure that every link opens in a new window or tab. Better yet, open new windows in a pop-up box. Best, give them everything they need to make a decision on the spot. If it’s absolutely crucial that they visit another page as part of the information-gathering and sales persuasion process, add that second page to your sales funnel map and treat it like a second landing page.

Whatever you do, try your best to avoid the “any page goes” anarchy of the Home Page.

Images and Layout:

Consider F-Pattern Eye-Tracking (as recommended by Jackob Nielsen’s eye-tracking research). In short, put the important stuff where the eye will naturally go: along the top, and down the left margin. 

Figuring out:

Don’t make your visitors work. Don’t make them think through what they’re looking at. Don’t make them wonder if that text is a link because its design is unusual – color it blue, underline it, as per standard hyperlinks. Don’t make people look up information unless it’s absolutely critical to you.

Rule 3: Make It Compelling

Here’s the buzzword for Rule 3: incentivize. People are more likely to take action if they are rewarded for doing so.

In many cases, the incentive may simply be your unique selling proposition, i.e., whatever’s particularly special about your property or offering. In other words, because your USP is so unique and so desirable – and it is, right? – the user is willing to take action to get it.

But at least consider if there are other ways you can incentivize. This is why so many sales sites offer freebies. They’re incentives to take action. That might not make sense for a hotel, but what about a free night? Or some other special offer, discount, coupon or promotion? Do you have a points or rewards program? Maybe the visitor can get extra points if they take action here and now.

“Trust Signals”

This is a form of “soft” incentivizing: make the action “safe” for users. This is also sales psychology at its finest and most subtle: building trust with the page’s visitor.

Think through what you’re asking from visitors to your site. You know you’ll make good on whatever you’re offering, but they don’t necessarily. What are they risking if you didn’t meet your end of the bargain? It could be anything from lost money to compromised sensitive personal information. That’s going to give anyone pause. So meet that hesitation proactively with “trust signals”.

• Minimize or eliminate risk. By offering guarantees (like a guaranteed best rate), you make the action low-or-no risk for page visitors.
• Demonstrate that you are protective of your customers. People can be protective of their email addresses, to say nothing of financial information like credit card numbers. Make sure it’s clear you’re taking appropriate steps to protect them: privacy policies, secure connection (https:// versus http://), clear and simple problem-resolution procedures, etc.

Rule 4: Make It Match

The whole point of a landing page is to address a very targeted audience coming from a specific source. Therefore, the landing must align with the source channel in both messaging and visual cues.

It goes without saying you want to ensure the landing page is relevant and targeted to that particular group of visitors. But consider this: when they clicked from the source to come to your website, they did so with some kind of expectation of what they would find.

Your landing page must “pay off” whatever expectations you’ve cultivated on the entry channel. Meet user intent head-on. If a PPC ad promises low rates, the landing page needs to confirm that. If your social media page has a quirky, conversational tone – so should the landing page.

What elements should match? To start:

• Headline and sub-header messaging
• Colors and visual elements
• Overall tone of the page (conversational vs. formal vs. artsy, etc.)

In short, the landing page should feel like a natural evolution from the source channel, rather than a shocking new page.

Rule 5: Make It Appealing

Speaking of visual elements: keep it crisp, bright and visually pleasing. Remove clutter, both visual and textual: anything extraneous or unnecessary. This will also help the page load more quickly. People on the web aren’t patient, and they’ll leave your site if it takes too long to load.

Also, do your best to keep the page – or at least its most important elements – above the fold, which is the point on the screen past which visitors have to scroll to see. Many users enjoy large HD monitors these days; but are you going to throw those who don’t under the bus? The first 300 pixels of the screen are simply the most important.

In Short

Keep it readable, meaning short and plainly written. Get to the point. Make liberal use of bullet points. Sell benefits over features. Do not link out excessively. Make a persuasive argument for whatever action you’re building up to.  Clearly express your unique selling proposition.

 

 

 

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