Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 26 – Converting After The Conversion: Making Your Thank You Pages Work

Hoteliers, and marketers in general, think the conversion process ends once a booking takes place.  This thought process is not only wrong, but it is costing you in lost revenue.  Why? Because once a person converts once, they are much more likely to convert again. On top of that, it is 5 Times more cost effective to retain current guests than find new ones.

In today’s podcast we’re going to cover an excellent article on CopyHackers.com with tips, tricks, and hard data on making your thank you pages convert your guests a second time.

Here’s the original article, by Talia Wolf:
https://copyhackers.com/2016/09/thank-you-pages-retention/

CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON BELOW TO START LISTENING.

If you like what you hear, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends, and also leave a review.

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In The News

Hurricane Update – How should your property handle a PR crisis.  Listen to episode 15:
https://www.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-15-how-to-deal-with-a-social-media-or-pr-crisis/

HotelsTonight Launches New Loyalty Program
http://venturebeat.com/2016/09/29/hoteltonight-launches-loyalty-rewards-program/

Wyndham Tops The List For Best Hotel Rewards Program
https://skift.com/2016/10/06/wyndham-rewards-tops-another-list-of-loyalty-program-rankings/
Survey done by travel consulting firm IdeaWorks
(also top of the U.S. News & World Report list → http://travel.usnews.com/Rankings/Travel-Rewards/

The AirBnB Community is awesome:
http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article106023807.html

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Show Notes:

BEFORE YOU LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE, PLEASE CHECK OUT TALIA’S ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE:

Use these 7 hacks on your thank you pages to boost retention. #3 is beyond easy.

Typical Conversion Funnel

• The typical thought process on the conversion funnel goes one of two ways:
  • Marketing > Site > Signup Form
  • Marketing > site > Booking Engine > Checkout Page
• This misses a key component for revenue generation, the thank you page and thank you/confirmation email.

Why The Thank You Page Is So Valuable

• Once your guest begins nodding their head with a booking, keep them nodding their head with additional sales opportunities. Customers begin to bond with a brand once they book, they feel connected and at no other point are they more engaged. *Successive approximations – “foot in the door approach”
• A great thank you page will help minimize cognitive dissidence (a fancy phrase for post-purchase doubt).  Use this opportunity to reinforce what a great choice your guest just made.
• It’s our job as marketers to help our customers feel good about their initial commitment to us. Most commonly known as ‘choice supportive’ bias, this trigger affects our tendency to persuade ourselves, through rational argument, that the purchase we just made was a good one. – “Post Purchase Rationalization” – Good place for testimonials / reviews
• This is your FIRST chance to begin forming a personalized relationship (Thank you {name}!  Our agents are working on your estimate for {start date} through {end date}…
• The thank you page and thank you email is more likely to be printed, saved, and shared.

How You Can Make the Thank You page Work for You:

Type 1 Conversion Events (Email Signups, Contact Forms, Sweepstakes, Etc)

• Gather additional customer data to better target for the future
  • Reinforce their good decision (example: value of getting a newsletter
  • Drive visitor to a revenue generating conversion event
  • Drive visitor to share socially
  • Thank you page giveaways:
    • Example for golf package company is they give a free round of golf on the thank you page for anyone requesting a golf package quote.

Type 2 Conversion Events (Bookings, Revenue Generation)

• Incorporating The Thank You Page As The Start Of The Next Conversion Funnel
• In the accommodations space, trip enhancements are relatively cheap compared to the original purchase.
• Customer Mind: “Sure, I’ll pre-pay $7/day for breakfast. I’m on vacation and it’s only $7. Plus, I’m saving over the $10 i’d be paying at the resort. Hey, this is my vacation we’re talking about!”
• Setting up a well thought out drip campaign is critical to help customers add add-ons, upgrades, et

In All Uses Of a Thank You Page (type 1 and 2):

• DO: Focus on design
• DO: Personalize
• DO: Continue to lead customers down a conversion path
• DO: Promote other areas of your site
• DO: Set expectations
• DO: Test
• DO NOT: drop the visitor on a dead end
• DO NOT: Assume that they have converted you are done converting

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Question of the week:

Jeremy’s Adventures @JeremyWo “What is your suggestion to a property whose revenue manager does not see the benefit of keeping rate parity?”

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