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I’m a Believer, Convert Me!!!

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:18:40 +0000

In a world that is becoming more and more “web-based” and tech savvy, more people are turning the web for business; Including Vacation Rentals. Now more then ever it’s crucial to put your business online. Is that enough? No. When it comes to the web there are 2 game to play: 1- Get People to your site, 2- Turn then into customers, or as we say “Turn Lookers into Bookers”.

I would like to spend a few minutes talking about website conversion. Everyone has a site, but now there are some basic rules that apply to convert web visitors to customers.

1 – Click Count

How many clicks does it take for someone to enter their Credit Card info? The optimal # would be 3 or 4. Thus giving the guest less opportunity to get lost or leave your site. With LiveRez a web guest can usually book within 3 or 4 Clicks.

2 – Find the info you need

When someone visits your vacation rental website can they find what they are looking for quickly and easily? When someone lands on your site it should be point blank for them where to go and what do do. Notice below the difference in where your eyes attact to and where you want to click first. Notice that on the first site, you dont know where to click.. on the Second you know right where to go to get the info you need.

Not a Good Example - Notice you don't know where to Click.

Notice that you know right where to Click - A LiveRez Site

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3-Make a Pathway

One very common theme that we are seeing is website leading. Instead of just letting people land on your site and pick to do whatever they want, many people are creating pathway. They do this but getting the web guest to click on what they want and then leading them down a path, creating value and options for there product before eventually selling it. You can do this by using good site structure but also color colors and layout engineering. If you follow a LiveRez Built site, we put web guest in a path to give them all the info they need and eventually asking them for a booking!

Website conversion is not an easy task but is obtainable. Directing your guests into the right direction can really help increase your website conversion and also your sales. To learn more about online bookings visit our Vacation Rental Software site and see what LiveRez can do for you to Build you an amazing site with an amazing Reservation System

Thanks!

Tyler Hurst

http://www.LiveRez.com

Niche Marketing is Good for Vacation Home Rentals, But Do Not Forget Execution

admin — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:07:27 +0000

I have discussed the importance of niche marketing, picking your target customer, and speaking to the specific needs of a certain traveler on several of my webinars. (check the out – Recorded LiveRez Webinars) One example I have used is providing vacation home rentals for participants in the Coeur D’Alene Ironman race.

I am an avid Ironman Triathlete and was surprised to see a marketing email from North America Sports (the organization that puts on the Ironman races) promoting a new website for vacation home rentals at the various North America Ironman race locations. The site: www.nasvacationproperties.com

Cool. Great idea. Very focused. Bringing vacation home rentals mainstream. Broader exposure for our industry. All good.

Then I clicked on the link. Ahhhhhh! What is that? What do I do? Where do I shop the homes? What can I click on? Are my colors messed up?

Website – always remember to follow the principles of :

Affinity (you assure me that I am on the right site for what I need)
Usability (intuitive & simple navigation and activities)
Focus (I know what you want me to do with a clear call to action)

Then I checked into the actual vacation homes. What homes are available? Where do I book? Is there only 1 home in each location? All this is doing is popping me to a VRBO listing.

Now I pride myself on being a positive person and I think you will have to look very hard to find a negative tone in any of my posts. But I cannot comment on how poor this website is and how poor the execution/delivery of the promise of a great vacation home in the Ironman location is.

Take-away: when you have the ingenuity & courage ( like www.nasvacationproperties.com has shown), then also take the time, care, and resources to execute at the highest level.

I wish NAS Vacation Properties all the best and hope they continue to improve their offering, presentation, and website.
LiveRez

January 2009 Top Ten Websites – Does this tell you anything?

admin — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:15:02 +0000

No vacation home rental sites in the Top 10! Got to change that. (back to the new years resolutions….let’s make that happen)

On a more serious note, check out the traffic. Interesting downward or even trends on the various sites, except for facebook.com and wikipedia.com. Since all the traffic on wikipedia.comis probably people looking up ’stimulus package’, ‘depression’, ‘recession’, and other uplifting economic terms, I want to focus on facebook.com.

Note the substantial increase. I have also see a substantial increase in activity on my personal Facebook page. I have had a Facebookpage for well over a year and until this summer, there was never much activity. In the fall, suddenly there were lots of friend requests, updated status (some of these updates really need not be shared), and I found myself searching for old acquaintances. I admit, I even started updating my status.

Why should you care? I think we should care about anything that is growing and capturing people’s (potential guests) attention. Social media such as facebook can help us to reach our market and, maybe more importantly, to understand our market. What gets people’s attention? What are the talking about? What do they have strong opinions on?

….and if you want, you can come visit me (Ralf VonSosen – only one there) and make me your friend on Facebook.

Ralf
LiveRez.com

Targeting Your Vacation Website Visitors – 10 Tips

admin — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:00:07 +0000

Targeting, segmenting, personalizing……whatever you want to call it, I am a huge fan and believe that much of online marketing success depends on the ability to do this well. Following are 10 tips on how to look at the visitors to your website and how to target them with messages that will resonate wiht them.

Returning Visitors

Returning visitors already know the basics about your site. Help them learn more, have a richer experience, and convert faster by targeting a different experience after their first visits. For example, you might replace instructional or introductory language with more relevant content on a second visit based on what you want them to do next.

Frequent Converters

For frequent converters, give them targeted rewards – these visitors are the most valuable, and it pays to engage them more effectively.

Or, encourage infrequent purchasers to convert again by identifying them and then providing a more compelling offer.

Registered Users

Most sites devote a lot of real estate to user registration. If a visitor has already signed up, fill that valuable space with different content. A magazine site, for example, should remove the subscription sign-up content if an existing subscriber is visiting the site. If someone is already receiving your newsletter, use that sign-up space to promote something else.

User-Generated Content Providers

For visitors who contribute to reviews or discussions on your site, make it even easier and more rewarding to participate more. Highlight other opportunities to join your site’s community with layout changes or calls to action.

Weekenders

People behave differently depending on when they visit your site, so target campaigns based on day of week or time of day. If you have offers, promotions, or content that expire at certain times, targeting content based on time of day or day of week will give you an easy relevance win. Inform visitors of upcoming shipping cutoffs, show different content to lunchtime visitors, and try day of week offers to help drive conversion metrics.

Category Loyalists

Give your visitors what they are telling you they want. For the portion of your traffic that repeatedly visits the same category, make the favorite category even more prominent. Try changing navigation to put a visitor’s top category first in the list. Or deliver targeted calls to action and offers associated with the favorite category.

Searchers

Show returning visitors content related to their last site search. Or, make search functionality even more prominent for people who search frequently during their visits to your site.

Deciders

If someone provided job title as part of site registration or a request for information, focus your messaging based on that information. Create segments for different levels of responsibility to increase engagement and to identify decision makers or business owners. Speak to decision makers differently than decision influencers for greater relevance.

Locals

Even on the Internet, a visitor’s geographic location can make them likely to respond to different messages. Would you tell them something different if they were within a few miles of you?

Yahoos and Googlers

People who come from search engines may behave differently. They have used a keyword that you can use to align your solutions to their needs. For that matter, any traffic source may bring users with similar preferences. Use this knowledge to be more relevant to them.

Ralf
LiveRez

The Potential Dark Side of SEO Tricks – Link Buying, Domain Buying

admin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:19:35 +0000

Now this guys looks like he knows his SEO facts.

If you are like me, and most of the vacation home rental managers I talk to on a daily basis, you are always looking for an edge to get visitors to your website. In the spirit of getting an edge, I ran across a great educational post about walking the fine line of kosher SEO tactics. Beware the risks.

Dirty SEO tricks you should avoid by Rich Cherecwich