It’s no use having a website if your website doesn’t actively encourage your visitors to take the action you want them to.
The main issue we see in most travel websites – which can really make the difference between a successful and poor travel website – is a lack of clarity.
It’s easy to understand why so many travel websites and companies make this mistake. We all want to do our businesses justice and share all of our important information, offers, services.
This can lead to information overload. We tend to be too subjective to realise what information is actually most important and relevant for our audience.
This means we pack in all of the information and content we can fit into a page, and sit back to wait for bookings to start flooding in… only to hear crickets.
Here’s the thing – our collective attention spans are shrinking all the time. Whenever we make search on the internet, we get an overwhelming amount of information back.
Our brains have learned to filter this information at lightning speed.
We have learned to scan through snippets and make quick decisions about whether to delve deeper or keep browsing.
When people land on your travel website, the first thing you need to do is pique their curiosity. This is how you get them to stay and explore your website.
If you fail to do that, they will hit the back button in a matter of seconds and are very unlikely to ever return.
If you confuse, you lose
What is the actual, tangible thing you are selling?
A stress-free trip, a relaxing and memorable vacation for the entire family, authentic day excursions with local guides, reliable and transparent travel insurance?
Often travel businesses present their offer using poetic, cute or clever language.
But that only leads to confusion and people being unsure about what you’re offering.
You need a simple, short explanation of what you do.
You don’t need to be an extraordinary business to differentiate yourself from others – you can stand out simply by being clear on what is it that you offer.
Rest assured that 90% of your competitors are being confusing or overcomplicating it.
Always remember that people don’t like being confused or putting in extra work. If there’s any confusion, they will simply back away.
If visitors are leaving your website without showing any interest in finding out more about your offer, that means your website is likely lacking in clarity.
Clarity is the key to effective travel websites
One technique that many of the best travel websites use is that they make it clear in – a matter of seconds – how they help their customers.
But getting to this level of clarity is not an easy job. You need to think hard about how you can simplify your message, and unique offer, but still communicate the correct point.
This is why creating strategy-based websites is such fine art. Your travel website should be your key marketing asset. It should persuade and remove any reluctance that your customers are facing to book with you.
Travel websites that convert and generate bookings are built on sound marketing principles and strategies. So you need to understand marketing and sales to build a great website that actually lives up to its potential and adds value to your travel business.
If you don’t have a thorough understanding of the problems your travel business is solving for your specific customers, not only you will create a website that causes visitors to abandon you, but your entire marketing strategy will be confusing, fruitless and wasting money.
Adding clarity to travel websites
So how do you start moving your travel website towards clarity?
Here are some steps you can start taking to move your website in the right direction.
1. Know your customer persona
Everything starts with knowing exactly who your target audience is.
That’s why having customer persona profiles is so helpful for any kind of marketing.
To create a strategy-based website, you need to know who your audience is, and understand their needs and wants. You need to know what kind of information they need and what language resonates with them.
If you don’t yet have a customer persona profile or don’t know what they are, take a look at the guide we have here.
2. Make your website visitors curious
Every product and service on the market is a solution to a problem.
When it comes to the travel industry, those problems are, for example, delayed or cancelled flights, losing luggage, uncomfortable hotel rooms, bad hotel food, getting sick…
Depending on what product or service you provide, you are ultimately helping your customers to solve, or avoid problems.
When someone lands on your website, if they understand in the first few seconds what problem you can help them solve, you will pique their curiosity and they will want to know more.
3. Provide a solution to the problem
Now you have their attention, the next thing is to show how you can help them solve or avoid the problem.
If you just say you can do it, but do not make it clear and easy to understand how – you will lose them.
Explain how you can resolve the problem for them with minimal effort, and why they should choose to do so.
Once they understand the benefit of having that problem resolved or avoided, chances are they’ll be ready to work with you – if your offer is compelling enough.
→ If you’re struggling with creating a travel website that converts, get in touch and see how we can help you turn your travel website into a booking generator machine!
If you have found this article helpful, you might also want to check the following:
Tips to improve a hotel website
Five Reasons Why Your Hotel Needs a Blog
Stay safe and healthy,
Until next time,
