I have always liked their ‘Conversion Index’:  Conversion = 4m + 3v + 2(i-f) – 2a is a great way of looking at how to dissect the various aspects of what gets prospects to book a vacation on your site. 

Here are the definitions for the Conversion Index (above) there are four elements that are critical to increasing conversion:

•  Motivation (m) of the prospect visiting your website to make a purchase.
• The clarity with which Value Proposition (v) is expressed. After motivation, it’s the most important factor in determining whether a customer buys from a site or not.
• Incentives (i) such as specials, rewards, etc. are used to mitigate Friction–producing (f) elements such as finding information, clicking many buttons, etc. in the conversion process.
• Anxiety–causing (a) elements, such as asking for personal and credit card information.

Evaluate your vacation property rental website with these principles in mind. 

Thanks.

Ralf
www.liverez.com

In April I had the opportunity to attend the Eastern VRMA, Western VRMA, FloridaVRMA, and the Atlanta Vacation Home Expo.  I will go into some detail about all these show in future bog entries.  However, one overriding observation I have is that there is an incredible opportunity for our industry.  This opportunity comes from two direction:  (1) we have a great product, and (2) we are currently very much under-utilizing the power of the Internet and the ability to create a public movement for the vacation rental market.

One of the things I am trying to do is help educate the vacation rental community on some web marketing basics that can help us drive more bookings and awareness.  Last month I hosted a webinar on Driving Website Conversion,  this month I am hosting a webinar on Search Engine Marketing Basics.  If you are interesting in attending this free webinar, please register and join us.