PowerPoint Presentation

DIRECT IS ALWAYS BETTER SERIES #2

How to Turn Your Property Website into a Revenue Generating Website

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Your Speakers

Alison HayesManager, Digital Marketing Design

Margaret MastrogiacomoSenior Director, Creative StrategyMariana SaferSVP, Marketing

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Agenda:

Design TrendsContent TrendsThe Science Behind the Design

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DESIGN TRENDS:

MOBILE FIRSTMINIMALISMSTANDARDIZATION OF UI PATTERNSANIMATIONSFULL SCREEN FORMSSUFFICIENT COPY

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MOBILE FIRST

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MINIMALISMAKA: Flat Design or Material Design

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Hamburger navigation Long-scroll websites Visual cardsSTANDARDIZATION OF UI PATTERNS

The next design trend is standardization of UI pattern, which is about creating designs that are intuitive to navigate.

Im going to explore three patterns: hamburger navigation, the long-scroll website and visual cards.

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Long, continuous flow Sections separated visually with different backgrounds

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Video Small Scale Animations Large Scale AnimationsANIMATIONS

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Heres another small animation where the weather details appear when the user hovers over the weather icon. Users really appreciate the small, customized details, even if its subconsciously.

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And lastly, are large scale animations, things like parallax sites where the whole website is animated as you scroll down.

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Booking widgets Email signups Contact usFULL SCREEN FORMS

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Multi-Property Hotel Special offersVISUAL NAVIGATION

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The battle of fewer words vs. SEO: Minimum 100-150 words on the page to allow for at least two core keywords Read more buttons and linksSUFFICIENT COPY

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CONTENT TRENDS:STORYTELLINGDESTINATION CONTENTSITE WIDGETSINTERACTIVE SITE FEATURESSOCIAL CONNECTIONS/FEEDSBOOK DIRECT CALL-OUTS

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Featured Specials Card Layout Social FeedSTORYTELLING

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1. Contact info/email sign up2. Featured Specials 3. Event Calendar

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4. Destination Content5. Card Layout6. Social Feeds

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Interactive Maps Creative Itineraries Things to DoDESTINATION CONTENT

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Weather Chat Destination MapsWEBSITE WIDGETS

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Site WidgetsWeatherLive ChatDestination Maps

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Accommodations Social Feed Social IconsINTERACTIVE FEATURES

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Interactive Feature: Accommodations Layout

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Design Incentive User ExperienceBOOK DIRECT CALLOUTS

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Book Direct Call-Outs

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THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE DESIGN:

Your website needs to be more than a property pretty face. It needs to generate direct revenue.

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Budgeting: Design vs. Technology

Design: 40%

Technology: 60%

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The Hotel Website: The Perfect Balance Between Beauty and Science

Beauty Large, rich hero image or imbedded video Promotional tiles Long-scroll storytellingInteractive map, events, and blog/social featuresVisually engaging destination content Lifestyle imagery with people

Science Website Technology PlatformMerchandisingRooms & Meeting/Venue Showcase Module Smart Booking WidgetsReservation Abandonment Application SuiteSmart Personalization Engine

Long-scroll storytellingLifestyle imageryLarge, rich hero image or videoPromotional tiles

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Merchandising: Every Page Should Sell

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Specials and promotional tiles should be prominently displayed on your websites home page, and lead to a landing page with more details. Again these dont have to just be discounts, they can be tiles that feature meeting and event amenities, your restaurant, spa packages for instance.

More than just a design aspect of the website, promotional tiles and special offers should be controlled through technology that is focused on serving hotels. You want technology that allows you to create promotional tiles on the website, landing pages dedicated to each special or promotion to focus the website visitor, personalize the special offers based on the website visitor (more about personalization in a bit), and also be able to turn specials on and off with automatic publishing and un-publish dates.

Even better, you want to be able to A/B test your specials and promotions, and set rotations so that people are exposed to the maximum number of these promotions as possible. 49

Choosing Your Website CMS Technology

Can I automatically target website visitors with dynamic promotions tailored to them?

Does it integrate with booking engines/CRS, PMS, RFP and loyalty programs, spa and dining reservation technologies, Social Media Feeds, Weather feeds, etc.?HOSPITALITY SPECIFIC?

Has it been designed around hotel distribution and marketing needs?MERCHANDISING:

Does it allow me to communicate my value proposition and sell on value and not on rate?PERSONALIZATIONTECHNICAL INTEGRATIONS

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Pre-populates based on:Property needs: seasonality, advanced purchase, length of stay, etc.Return visitors previous selection.Arrival & Departure Dates

Pre-populates based on: Property needs: 1 guest to push business, 2 guests to push leisure, etc.Return visitors previous selection. Number of GuestsPre-populates based on return visitors previous selection. PROPERTYSmart Booking Widget

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Rooms Showcase Module

How is the hotel website selling your rooms?

About 2/3 of people wont get to the booking engine to see room details.

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Meetings/Event Venue Showcase Module

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98% of your website visitors do not book. How will you get them back?

Reservation Abandonment EmailReservation Abandonment Lightbox DisplayRecovering Abandoned Bookings

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Smart Personalization Engine

Real-time, automated targeting with dynamic promotions to website visitors.

CUST SEGMENT | NEW VS. RETURNING | FEEDER MARKETS | PAST STAYS | OCCUPANCY NEEDS | LOYALTY MEMBERS

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Personalization Key to Increasing Conversions87%of companies see a lift in key metrics when personalizing85%Internet users expect personalization

eMarketerVB Insight

75%get frustrated when content NOT personalizedJanrain

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On-Property Version of Your WebsiteInform and connect guests; generate incremental revenues through a Guest Portal

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Cloud Hosting: What to Look For

Elastic disk space to host large format images/videos

Flexible Bandwidth accommodates spikes in web trafficConversions & SEO Depend On Fast Download SpeedsCDN (Content Delivery Network) + Start-of-the-art CMS technology = 2.5-3X Faster download speedsDedicated virtual server & IP address, no interface from other sites

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Content to Empower Hoteliers: Now Available from HeBS Digital

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Thank You

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