THE TRAVELMARKETER’S GUIDETO OPTIMISATIONHOW TO IMPROVE YOUR CONVERSION RATES,CHANNEL BY CHANNEL

THE TRAVEL MARKETER’S GUIDE TO OPTIMISATION — HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR CONVERSION RATES, CHANNEL BY CHANNEL

The way people book travel is changing.

People are going online to arrange travel more than ever before. 43% of total travel sales in America and 45% in Europe come from online bookings [1]. In the UK alone, over the past 12 months, 37% of adults over the age of 16 bought their travel online and 36% booked their holiday accommodation [2].

In 2015, 106.3 million people will book travel online [3] – that’s 52% of all internet users.

This makes sense: why sit down with a travel agent or be fussed with a phone call when you can find exactly where you want to go for the best possible price in the space of a few clicks? The Internet strips out middlemen and empowers travel shoppers like nothing else.

And online travel is growing rapidly. Post-crash consumer confidence is up with net spend forecast to improve from 8% to 13% this quarter compared to the same period last year [4].

But the marketplace is saturated with

providers all vying to take those bookings. People are using metasearch engines, online travel agents and comparison sites – which are far more developed than in any other industry – to search for the best car hire, hotels and flight prices with relative ease.

Users will not stop until they have found the best deal. Savvy travel providers recognise that it is crucial to give each user a reason to stay on your site. This is only possible if you can give every individual an optimised, personalised and coherent experience of your brand online.

Stand Out From The Crowd

To get the edge over rival brands, travel providers need to be aware that the always-on consumer demands more than just an easy way to book.

To land custom and foster loyalty, travel brands must provide a consistent, personalised online journey from the moment a potential traveller lands on their website and – crucially – continue to add value past the point of purchase.

In this book, we’ll talk you through our top tips for optimising your travel brand’s online journey, channel by channel. We’ll discuss your main areas of focus moving into this key sales period and give actionable advice so that you can fly higher than the competition.

First Things First - Streamline your booking process

Travel stands apart from other verticals in eCommerce as a result of the style of website.

Traditionally, travel sites do not have a basket page; instead they have a booking page and a lengthy journey to get there, often through three or four booking steps.

This can soon feel long-winded and a chore for a user to get through - a far cry from checking out on a shopping site, where the purchase can usually be made swiftly on one page.

Streamlining the process to help each user move through these stages as quickly and easily as possible should be a priority. The balance here is that you must aim to compel a user through each stage while also being sensitive to the fact that booking travel is inherently stressful:

• Form filling can shave minutes off a booking process and make the journey more fluid for the user. If a user has entered their information once, why not auto-fill this information into the desired fields? This saves them from having to repeat themselves.

• Reassurance messaging can be extremely effective in a necessarily lengthy booking journey. Everyone stresses when booking travel so a little bit of reassurance goes a long way. Simply reinforcing your brand’s USPs such as price guarantees can also positively influence the user journey. Alternatively, if the campaign includes a voucher code, just highlighting to the customer that it will apply at the end of the process can make such a difference to their comfort levels and increase the likelihood of conversion.

• A countdown timer on the booking process can create a sense of urgency in the user, providing an efficient call to action for them to move with greater speed through the process. Only use this technology if you have already designed a robust and fluid booking process – if a user feels both hurried and frustrated they are likely to abandon their purchase. Countdown timer functionality is a proven device that connects well with travel users, who are accustomed to flash sale messaging across most leading travel providers.

TARGETING AND SEGMENTATION: TREAT EVERY CUSTOMER AS AN INDIVIDUAL

TARGET BY SESSION

Travel is unique in that site visitors rarely tend to purchase the first time they make a search. This awareness should inform the way you personalise your communication with each user based upon their session.

Inhabit the user: with so much rapid research taking place at the beginning, even if you presented them with a £10 off discount, it would probably get lost in a chaos of open browser tabs.

We analysed session durations for a major travel client and found that users stayed on site for 10 minutes on their first session and 28 minutes on their return visit. At the point of the second session, there is a higher likelihood that if a user leaves that time, they will have failed to convert. It is therefore a crucial stage of the journey that needs to be tailored and personalised to the users intent, to optimise the conditions for booking.

Personalise your message at the booking stage for the highest conversion rates

PERSONALISE YOUR MESSAGE AT THE BOOKING STAGE FOR THE HIGHEST CONVERSION RATES

KEEP YOUR MESSAGE RELEVANT TO EACH USER

TARGET BY DESTINATION

Keep your messaging relevant to a user’s search. When someone is searching for a flight to Gran Canaria, a message such as ‘Flying to Helsinki?’ is unlikely to prompt a conversion and can disrupt their journey through your site.

Instead, display messaging which incorporates their search behaviours. Travel’s all about where you’re going - not where you’re leaving from. The same should be true of how you speak to your onsite visitors.

TARGET BY TIME OF YEAR AND NUMBERS TRAVELLING

As well as where users are traveling to, consider when they intend to go and how many people are in their party.

On a travel discount search client, we served different offers to users based on whether they were searching for one person, two people or three to travel. Tailoring the incentive to different scales of group provides a more personal dialogue with each customer, increasing the chance that they will convert.

TARGET BY TRAFFIC SOURCE

If you have already paid to drive traffic from a specific site or channel, those users you have driven should be targeted with personalised onsite messaging. For example users from Metasearch will behave differently to those customers reaching your site from PPC. When a user lands on your site from a price comparison partner, you can streamline the user journey by welcoming them with offers unique to their traffic source. Such a message is obviously going to help your conversion rate as it recognises where the user came from and gives them a specialised, personable experience as a result.

GEO-TARGET

Geo-tailor and geo-target your online presence to create personalised conditions for each user landing on your page.

1. On a most basic level this means having region-specific language versions of your site which display intuitively to each user depending on their IP address.

2. Drill down deeper and the content presented to each user should be led by research into where people from that country like to go. For example, how much on average they spend on holidays, when their national holidays are, when they are more likely to go on vacation and the nature of their trip (business, leisure, family etc...).

3. Travel geo-targeting is based upon search. It is not specifically where that person is based as they will always be going somewhere else. Bare in mind: you cannot be sure someone is intending to travel from the location where they completed the search. Why not highlight the key travel options and offer in the user’s immediate vicinity.

GEO-TAILORAND GEO-TARGET YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE TO CREATE PERSONALISED CONDITIONS FOR EACH USER LANDINGON YOUR PAGE

WHICH CHANNELS SHOULD YOU BE FOCUSING ON?

IDENTIFY THE STRENGTHS OF EACH DEVICE AND TAILOR THE EXPERIENCE ACROSS ALL CHANNELS.Not all channels are created equal. As a travel marketer, you must balance creating a coherent journey across all platforms with exploiting the specific advantages of each channel that customers use to engage your brand.

In 2015, smart brands will invest in each device-specific journey and be creative with how channels can combine to facilitate purchase processes and improve overall experience as part of a joined up omnichannel strategy.

Travel brands that segment before they target stand to maintain high conversion rates because they have learnt about their users before attempting to tailor the site journey around each one. High quality layout and messaging, which speaks to each visitor differently, creates the optimum conditions for conversion.

Smart brands will invest in each device-specific journey and be creative with how channels can work together.

SMART BRANDS MUST INVESTIN EACH DEVICE-SPECIFIC JOURNEY AND BE CREATIVE WITH HOW CHANNELS CAN WORK TOGETHER

HARNESSTHE POWER OF MOBILE

By 2017 over 30% of all online travel bookings will be made on mobile devices [5]. Already, the scales are tipping away from desktop and tablet towards mobile as the dominant platform for travel research and planning. It’s clear: investing in your M-Commerce infrastructure has never been more important.

With the travel consumer looking to mobile devices predominantly for research purposes and last minutes bookings, it is key that the mobile journey is optimised. Why not utilise your mobile site traffic to inform your users about your mobile app? Alternatively work with those users that are booking last minute and encourage that future booking post conversion.

Beyond research and bookings, mobile is especially relevant to the travel industry because it can be used for a range of value-adding purposes.

BY 2017 OVER 30%OF ALL ONLINE TRAVEL BOOKINGS WILL BE MADEON MOBILE DEVICES

A CROSS-CHANNEL SOLUTION

• Mobile isn’t just another way to check out. It can be purposed to make the travel process more efficient and convenient for your customers – as an extension of the journey they began on desktop.

• A mobile can be a boarding card or hold travel documents securely, making your customers lives easier and saving them the stress of having to dig around for those key materials in a suitcase while running to catch their flight.

• Mobile can also facilitate last minute bookings. If the journey to checkout takes too long, that spur of the moment decision to book can lose its momentum, leading to an abandoned basket. You can, for example, skip customisation steps from booking process on desktop (seat allocation, coach journeys insurance, hostels, hotels, car hire etc..), then enable those choices to be made after the fact over mobile while on the move.

APPS ADD VALUE AND BUILD BRAND LOYALTY

29% of travellers have used mobile apps to find flight deals [6]

Apps empower your consumers by providing them with necessary tools. Having an app in your mobile arsenal opens up opportunities for you to provide real time customer service, build brand loyalty and gather high value data.

APPS SHOULDNOW BEA MAJOR PARTOF A TRAVEL BRAND’SSTRATEGY

#HOLIDAY#ILOVETRAVEL#GETAWAY

SOCIAL

By 2018, 67% of the travel industry’s social network ad spend will be on mobile [7]

While 18% of all internet users have used social media to research and plan travel in the past year, that number rises to 44% among 16 to 24-year-olds [8]. A travel company that ignores social media is ignoring potential customers and missing out on huge conversion opportunities.

Enhance a user’s journey by giving them the opportunity to socially share their travel plans. By providing the megaphone to shout about their experiences, you empower your users be making them heard, building loyalty and raising the visibility of your brand.

Social sharing is especially relevant to the user journey for accommodation and hotel booking sites. Users who interact with these brands want to let everyone know that you booked with them and how good their experience was.

REFERRAL SCHEMES

A referral scheme can bring a user closer to your brand at the end of their booking journey and also bring in high quality new leads. For an airline client, we ran a ‘refer a friend’ campaign where, at the point of purchase, a user who showed Exit Intent was asked to refer and get £5 off their booking. The campaign not only gave a strong incentive for that user to convert, but also generated invaluable email leads for the client’s future remarketing activities. Lead generation is difficult for airlines as they struggle to offer discounts as a result of tight margins. A referral marketing initiative proved to be an effective solution.

USE SOCIAL MARKETING INITIATIVES TO GENERATE EMAIL LEADS

LOYALTY PROGRAMMES

Travel brands – especially airlines – have margins that are heavily protected. Everything is calculated down to the penny in terms of fuel costs, tax costs etc… making it difficult to offer discount or money off incentives. But a loyalty programme, which rewards returning customers, is a worthwhile investment in your user journey.

• Iberia Airlines incentivise users to become a member in exchange for a 10% discount. The programme gives users a strong reason to book flights through the provider into the future and reduces the drive to visit comparison sites.

• Hotels.com Welcome Rewards is an initiative that provides a free hotel stay after your 10th booking - a really good way of getting a conversion. If you were, for example, booking hotels for your business, then this represents a big saving.

• Expedia’s brand partnership with Nectar gives users a reason to conduct return custom. Their scheme enables consumers to collect 200 points on hotel, flight or car bookings and 1,000 points on package bookings. This is a strong incentive that encourages repeat bookings.

LOYALTY CARD

INCENTIVISE USERS TO BECOME A MEMBER IN EXCHANGE FOR A 10% DISCOUNT.

INCENTIVISE USERS TO BECOME A MEMBER IN EXCHANGE FORA DISCOUNT

CASE STUDY

AIRLINE COMPANY

CLIENT INFORMATION:

RESULTS:

TAILORED ENGAGEMENTWITH USERS IN THE BOOKING STAGE SHOWING EXIT INTENT.

THE PROBLEM:

Yieldify partnered with a leading UK-based airline to enhancetheir online user experience and increase the number of bookingon return flights.

We worked closely with the brand to understandtheir current challenges, how they wished to communicatewith their online customers and their main KPIs.

High rate of customer traffic coming via 3rd party referral sites,leading to increase in single flight booking and a drop in return packages.

THE EFFECTIVE SOLUTION OFFERED:

We worked with the airline to create a conversion campaign that offered an incentive of £10 off per person on return flightsto gather leads and drive incremental sales.

The campaign specifically targeted users who were alreadyin the booking process. The overlay dynamically adaptedto the use in question, with the copy changing dependingon the airport of origin.

Campaign Running Time:20TH JUNE - 16TH JULYOverall Site Conversion:8% TO 13%

Visitors:+3 M

Clicks:20K

Impressions:105K

Conversion:105K

Revenue:£2.8 MILLION

WE TARGETED CONSUMERS AT SEVERAL DIFFERENT STAGES OF THE BUYER JOURNEY.Our most successful conversion stage took place when consumerswere in the search process. On this particular page Yieldify convertedover 1.1K of users to customers that would have otherwise abandonedtheir search altogether.

Our second most successful conversion stage occurred at a pointin the journey where consumers were required to enter their fulltravel details.

Typically users would exit at this stage, faced with repeating the entire booking process at a later date without prompt or incentive to completetheir booking. Similarly Yieldify rescued abandoning users during travel date selection pages, reducing the threat of competitors gaining more market share when customers leave to research pricing via meta-search sites.

As a result over 800 incremental bookings were made.

Campaign Running Time:20TH JUNE - 16TH JULYOverall Site Conversion:8% TO 13%

RESULTS:Campaign Running Time:20TH JUNE - 16TH JULYOverall Site Conversion:8% TO 13%

Clicks:20KCampaign Running Time:

20TH JUNE - 16TH JULYOverall Site Conversion:8% TO 13%

Visitors:+3 MVisitors:+3 M

Impressions:105K

Campaign Running Time:20TH JUNE - 16TH JULYOverall Site Conversion:8% TO 13%

Visitors:+3 M

Conversion:23%Visitors:

+3 M

Impressions:105K

Revenue:£2.8 MILLION

We worked with the airline to create a conversion campaignthat o�ered an incentive of £10 o� per person on return flightsto gather leads and drive incremental sales.

The campaign specifically targeted users who were alreadyin the booking process. The overlay dynamically adapted to the userin question, with the copy changing depending on the airport of origin.

KEY TAKEAWAYSSO WHAT CAN TRAVEL BRANDS LEARN FROM THESE INSIGHTS INTO THE BUYER JOURNEY OF A TRAVEL CONSUMER?

Take action to improve the efficiency of your booking process

Use advanced segmentation and targeting to tailor and personalise the journey to each of your users

Cultivate your presence on all channels to create a joined up omnichannel experience for your users

[1] PhoCusWright http://econ.st/1qxIQbW[2] National Statistics Office http://bit.ly/14hv4lf[3] eMarketer http://bit.ly/1v345Wl[4] Travel Weekly http://bit.ly/1zQIuSb

[5] Euromonitor[6] i-Phone developer http://bit.ly/1xnIQPx[7] Socintel360 via eMarketer http://bit.ly/1wxvc6N[8] eMarketer http://bit.ly/1xX9f3e

THE WAY FORWARD

Here at Yieldify we partner with global online brands to convert visitors into customers.

We do this by tearing down the barriers between businesses and their customers – across all channels.

We use our real-time analytics to allow businesses to mould a personalised buyer journey for the modern, omnichannel consumer.

REAL-TIME PERSONALISATION

We can track and target consumers at any point in the user journey. Bringing users back from the point of abandonment with our Exit-Intent technology, provide dynamic, user-specific in-page recommendations; or rescue abandoned baskets with e-mail retargeting tailored to each individual user’s basket.

Personalise the online customer experience for each of your users by targeting across a wide range of user metrics – session, basket value, page or product interest, geolocation, device, even the weather.

Get in touch to request a demo.

BOOK A DEMO

ABOUT YIELDIFYYieldify is an ecommerce solution that converts visitors into customers.

We harness our multi-channel abandonment analytics platform to mould personalised buyer journeys for the modern, always-on consumer. Our expert teams build, manage and measure tailored on-site and email campaigns, across every channel. Our technology creates incremental value for top global brands by optimising their online conversion rates and driving lead generation.

Founded by brothers Jay and Meelan Radia in June 2013, Yieldify is among the fastest

Sydney coming soon – Yieldify enables ebusinesses around the world to communicate better with their consumers.

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NEW YORK OFFICE

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