Create New Visitors to Your Website & Turn them into New Bookings
How can you generate more direct bookings for your business without hitting the pocket hard? The booking season has started in earnest and many are now looking forward to booking their holidays or grabbing a short break away. Make sure you are being seen and attracting visitors to your website and helping turn them into new bookings and customers.
Here are 5 Inexpensive Marketing Tips to Attract New Customers
1 – Update & Refresh your Photography
Check out all your photos, look at them from a customers’ perspective. Do they highlight show off all your best features and picture what guests can expect to see themselves when visiting you. A few things to consider:
- Are your interior photos all up to date, well-lit and inviting?
- Can you see what your property looks like in the sunshine?
- What are the views like from the decking or patio?
- Do you show some of the local area & highlights that guests can enjoy?
- Show the log burner flaming away, get the hot tub bubbling
- Lay the table up for a romantic candlelit dinner just awaiting guests
- Show off your typical welcome pack – fresh eggs, wine, biscuits, cakes, etc.
Look to get some new photos taken and freshen up your website and post them onto your Social Media and Google listings too. Spring and early summer is a great time to do so as you can add in some wonderful colours.
2 – Get Your Customers Marketing Your Holidays for You
Encourage your customers / guests to ‘promote’ your holidays for you. Your guests can be one of the best sources of new customers and profitable business and the more they tell others about their wonderful stay the more new customers you are likely to get.
When you follow up after a guest has stayed you can send them ‘Refer a friend’ offer or provide them with a ‘Friends & Family Discount’ that they can share on their social media. Set up a #Tag that they can include in their Instagram or Facebook posts that will reference your holidays.
3 – Reviews & Customer Testimonials
You are probably doing this already, if not it is a great source of potential new business. Potential guests will always check you out and it gives you credibility. Encourage your customers to review your holidays and their stay with you. Send out a thank you soon after they have stayed with you whilst their memories are still fresh and ask for them to review their stay and what was the best part? You will potentially get some great ideas from them for you to share.
Your best customers are a great way to help spread the word as they are likely to mix with like-minded friends and colleagues and recommend staying with you.
4 – Establish your Social Media Presence
Create an engaging social media presence, post regularly (once a week is fine) with interesting information, good photos, holiday ideas and thought provoking questions. Make sure your Social Media pages are optimised, good web links, updated good quality photos and offer the ability to sign up to your newsletters. The most popular social media sites are Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Join groups where your target audience and potential guests may hang out such as ‘Dog Friendly Holiday Accommodation’ or ‘UK Cottage & Lodge Holidays’ for example and post appropriate comments & appealing content or respond to questions posed as this will help raise your profile and credibility.
5 – Engage with Your Customers & Potential Customers Regularly
When was your last email or letter out to your customers? Email marketing is still a good way to communicate with your customers but to stand out and be different send out a personalised note in the post to your favourite and best guests.
If you can personalise your communication even better with may be a memory about your guests stay o that you look forward to seeing them and their dogs name again soon!
Your communication should be about useful information such as news, events happening this year, great things to see and do, guest highlights from last year and also add in any special offers that you may have such as an early booking discount or ‘friends and family’, discount if shared on social media etc.
Make a Simple Marketing Plan then Go Ahead & Do It
None of these actions need cost anything or very little, just a little bit of time is required. Make your plan, prioritise your actions and make a start.
Encourage guests to review their holidays and share their experiences with their friends, this will help give you increased credibility, exposure and good quality referrals.
By freshening up your website, adding new content to your Social Media and engaging more with your customers and potential new audiences will help drive more traffic and bookings to your website.
Go on, do it and enjoy the results.
Related Articles:
- 13 Essentials to Include in Your Informative Local Visitor Guide
- Excite Your Guests with Informative Correspondence for Holiday Rentals
- Spring is Here – Tips to Freshen up Your Holiday Home Photography
- Bring your Holiday Location to Life with an Interactive Map
- Find Your Way to an Exact Location with what3words
- 6 Expert Tips to Writing Engaging Copy for Your Holiday Rental Description
- To AirBnB or not to AirBnB?
- How to Create a Helpful Guest Information Folder
- How to Make Up a Great Guest Welcome Pack for Holiday Cottages
- Get More Direct Bookings with ‘Google My Business’
