One of the biggest battles of building a great travel website is getting your new visitors comfortable enough to take their first step. I don’t know of any buying lifecycle that’s completed in only one step, so no doubt you’ll require a few pages to educate your readers on your offering and then entice them to actually take you up on it.
First, establish the context. We’ve talked about this before – it should only take a matter of seconds – two or three maximum – for a user to know where they are. The easiest way to do this is to have a clear, simple strapline under you header or logo image. ”London’s best value for money B&B on the sunny Thames River.” ”Award-Winning Historic Walking Tours of New Orelans.” ”Affordable Travel Packages and Services for Aruba and Venezuela.” Those are so clear, you don’t even have to go to the website to know what they’re doing.
Second, tell them what to do. When someone arrives at your site, what do you want them to do? Craft the ideal journey, then send them on it. For example, you might introduce yourself, then say, listen to what other customers have said. Or just show them the packages and options. What’s your unique value? If it’s YOU, then go to the About You page. If it’s how your customers rave about you, send them there. If you’re about budget and value, send them to the discounts page. But tell them – with text, images, and a link.
An Example
A good example of how to solve this ‘where to go’ problem is the “What’s On” widget on Winnock Hotel website. Here’s what they’ve got on right now:
I purposely left this out of context, but I’ll briefly mention the hotel website does have a standard menu (Home, About Us, Rates..etc..) so this is the option you have after reading a brief paragraph about their services. What I like about this:
- Each icon/item is differentiated by colour and font. It’s subtle enough to not be tacky but visually it gets your attention.
- Notice how there are a few options here: special events at the hotel, special events happening nearby, and regular items (I assume special offers is always available). Reminds people why they should choose you.
- Six options seems like plenty. (5 or 4 would have been better – the Valentine’s Break one has expired but it’s still on the website – so if you’re going to have this type of feature, it must get updated on a timely basis!)
While the location of this item on their website isn’t ideal, it’s a terrific tool for funneling people based on how they wish to self-identify. But there’s also the regular menu above, so if I just want to know the rates, or a map of the area I can still get to that if I want.
To Learn More
Is your website performing as well as it could, or should? Why not find out with our website content and usability resources, including our popular website review coaching and our guide to Google Analytics.
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