Webinar with Travel Tripper, Voyat, Google, and Highgate Hotels. Originally aired 22 March 2017. View the recording at: https://youtu.be/HRf9VV8ubbI ----- In a complex digital marketplaces where the major OTAs and metasearch sites claim the lion’s share of traffic and have billions to spend on marketing, can hotels still compete effectively with their own websites? The answer is yes! Even with modest budgets, independent hotels can still make smart investments in digital marketing that help to drive traffic and ultimately increase overall direct bookings. In this webinar, learn about new discoveries, techniques, and tools that will help you strengthen your digital marketing strategy and optimize conversions on your hotel website. Executives from Travel Tripper, Voyat, Google, and Highgate Hotels will discuss: Google’s own insights into the hotel booking funnel and the omnichannel traveler Search marketing and other key digital strategies for driving the right kind of traffic to your website Optimizing for conversions—how to ensure that travelers book on your site, not elsewhere Personalization marketing in a data-driven world Measuring for success—balancing instant results with a long-term marketing strategy

1. WEBINAR
Optimize your direct booking funnel
through smart digital marketing

2. © 2017 OPTIMIZING YOUR HOTEL BOOKING FUNNEL | 2
Panelists
CRAIG BISSON
Agency Development Manger
TRISTAN HEAWORD
Director of Digital Marketing
BENJAMIN HABBEL
Founder & VP Global Business
Development
IMITIAZ ALI
Regional Director of Revenue
& Distribution

3. © 2017 OPTIMIZING YOUR HOTEL BOOKING FUNNEL | 3
Agenda
Insights into the hotel booking funnel and the
omni-channel traveler
Search marketing and other key digital
strategies for driving the right kind of traffic
Optimizing for conversions—how to ensure
that travelers book on your site
Measuring for success and balancing instant
results with a long-term marketing strategy
Personalization marketing in a data-driven
world
Audience Q&A

4. Proprietary + Confidential
Craig Bisson

5. Source: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis non erat sem
Proprietary + Confidential
1 Source: eMarketer, 2015
Digital: includes time watching digital video via game console, connected TC or OTT device such as Roku or smart TV to access digital video content like Netflix.
Consumers have shifted their time significantly toward digital
Online
Video: 20
Online
Video: 68
+61%
-11%
+240% in
Online Video

6. Source: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis non erat sem
Proprietary + Confidential
Travelers are influenced by family/friends & Online
1 Source: Base: Personal Quota (n=3500)
Q6D: Which of the following sources typically inspire you to start thinking about your personal or leisure trips? (Select ALL that apply.)
Source: Google Travel Study, June 2014, Ipsos MediaCT

7. Source: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis non erat sem
Proprietary + Confidential
Search is the top source used in travel planning
Source: Google’s Traveler’s Road to Decision, 2014.

8. Source: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis non erat sem
Proprietary + Confidential
Source: Google Analytics Meta Analysis from May ‘14 to May ‘15. Data is US only.
Decreasing time per visit
on Travel mobile websites year-over-year.
Almost 2x increase in mobile conversion rates
on the Travel mobile web year-over-year.
50%+ increase in mobile searches
in the Travel category year-over-year.
Today’s traveler books their hotel online

9. 50%
82%
Incremental
clicks from
Ads
Top
Organic
Organic
2-4
Organic
5+
96%

10. Tris Heaword

11. © 2017 OPTIMIZING YOUR HOTEL BOOKING FUNNEL | 11
PAID SEARCH
Be seen by customers at the very moment that they’re searching on
Google for the things you offer. And only pay when they click to visit
your website or call.
ORGANIC
Organic search results are listings on search engine results pages that
appear because of their relevance to the search terms, as opposed to
their being advertisements.
BUSINESS LISTING (Google My Business)
A product that lets you create and manage free business listings in
Google products so that people can see your business when doing a
local search.
METASEARCH
A search engine that sifts through hotel rates and availability on other
websites and shows the combined results, all in one place.
So how do I get people from Google to my website?

12. © 2017 OPTIMIZING YOUR HOTEL BOOKING FUNNEL | 12
What are people looking at on a Search Page?

13. © 2017 OPTIMIZING YOUR HOTEL BOOKING FUNNEL | 13
What are people looking at on a Search Page?

14. © 2017 OPTIMIZING YOUR HOTEL BOOKING FUNNEL | 14
Highlight what makes you unique
Are you a luxury property, rated highly by your visitors, in a fantastic
location or just simply affordable – highlight your strengths at the
earliest opportunity
Include prices, promotions and exclusives
Click Through Rates (CTR) are directly influenced by the strength and
appeal of the offer that you display
Empower customers to take action
Every hotel has competition, even for their own brand term. Highlight
that clicking your ad is best way to get a great deal and book direct.
Include at least one of your keywords
Keywords in your ad text show your ad’s relevance to what people
want, plus it is an essential element to improving your quality score.
Match your ad to your landing page
What is it that people are searching for? Does your landing page
answer this need for that person?
Appeal to customers on mobile
Mobile searches are most likely the first contact many new customers
have with your website and brand image
Experiment
Experiment with everything – not just ad language, but ad styles,
special offer terms and landing page.
Check for mistakes
You will be amazed how many ads go live with spelling mistakes, point
to the wrong landing page or have incorrect offer details.
Paid Search: Tips & Techniques

15. © 2017 OPTIMIZING YOUR HOTEL BOOKING FUNNEL | 15
Paid Search: Tips & Techniques

16. AUDIENCE POLL
Hotels, what is your typical Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) for
search marketing campaigns?
© 2017 OPTIMIZING YOUR HOTEL BOOKING FUNNEL | 16
A. Less than 5:1
B. 5:1 - 10:1
C. 10:1 - 15:1
D. 15:1 - 25:1
E. 25:1 and over

17. Hello.
Benjamin Habbel
Founder, VP of Global Business
Voyat

18. 18
What are the key
challenges for hoteliers in
eCommerce?
Problems
Driving direct, high-margin business via your website is a vital
component of any healthy distribution strategy
The OTAs’ massive scale enables enormous technology and marketing
spend that even the largest hotel chains can’t compete with
Consumer behavior is evolving quickly – travel discovery and booking
trends change monthly, not annually
Hoteliers have a lot of tools at their disposal for acquiring traffic, but
converting that traffic can be a lot harder

19. 19
How can you turn your website into
an effective eCommerce channel?
Voyat

20. Three ways you can personalize and
optimize your website
Tips & Tricks
Use static data points like
geolocation, device, acquisition cost
and more to serve dynamic
messaging to each person
1. Smart Segmentation
Use dynamic signals like time on site,
exit intent, inactivity, scroll depth to
keep users engaged and convert into
bookings
2. Behavioral Triggers
Leverage each person’s Facebook or
Email identity to provide true
personalization across all user
devices
3. User Identity
20

21. 21
Dynamic Messages keep users
engaged & convert traffic effectively.
Dynamic Messages
Notifications & Messages Interactive Widgets Overlays

22. 22
Measuring impact is the cornerstone
or an effective eCommerce strategy
Measurement and Performance
237%

23. Imtiaz Ali

24. © 2017 OPTIMIZING YOUR HOTEL BOOKING FUNNEL | 24
Why do digital marketing campaigns fail?
Lack of strategy for
the campaign
Revenue management
and digital marketing
team working in
separate silos
Not using data to drive
the decision-making
process

25. © 2017 OPTIMIZING YOUR HOTEL BOOKING FUNNEL | 25
Types of digital campaigns
The strategy for your campaign will dictate the type of campaign you implement.
INCREASE
AWARENESS
INCREASE
CONVERSIONS
INCREASE
WEB TRAFFIC
Used to promote new and
exciting changes at your
property, usually through
email, social media, etc.
Tools and campaigns
intended to drive
conversion on your
hotel website
Bring increased traffic to
your hotel website,
whether via search ads,
SEO, banner ads, etc.

26. © 2017 OPTIMIZING YOUR HOTEL BOOKING FUNNEL | 26
Measuring for success
For each campaign, ask yourself the following
questions:
Did you achieve the goal that you set at the beginning
of the campaign?
Did you A/B test or A/B/C test your campaign? What
worked the best? What didn’t work well?
Would you run this campaign again? If so, what
changes would you make for the next one?
If the campaign didn’t achieve your goal, how would
you modify it? What would you do differently?

27. AUDIENCE POLL
Hotels, what percentage of your bookings are direct bookings?
© 2017 OPTIMIZING YOUR HOTEL BOOKING FUNNEL | 27
A. 0-15%
B. 16-30%
C. 31-50%
D. Over 50%

28. © 2017 OPTIMIZING YOUR HOTEL BOOKING FUNNEL | 28
A look into the future: Personalization Marketing

29. Audience Q&A

30. Thank you!
Please send questions and comments to
marketing@traveltripper.com.
Replay and presentation will be made available to all
webinar registrants.