How to get your website converting in the January sales - five top tips

Graham Cooke, Qubit chief executive, offers his five top tips for travel companies looking to boost conversions in January

With Christmas a distant memory and the days continuing to get darker and colder many consumers start planning their get-away to warmer climes in the New Year.

So how can travel companies make the most of this opportunity and see their conversion rates truly take off? Here are my five top tips for getting your website ready for the Q1 holiday rush. 

1. Create a sense of urgency

Scarcity makes us eager. We don’t want to miss out on an opportunity and we all want what we can’t have.

When it’s impressed upon people that others are looking at something they’re considering, or that there is a limited amount left, many visitors feel compelled to purchase.

Travel companies can take advantage of this by showing how long ago the most recent booking was and also how many people are looking at that particular booking at that exact moment.

Booking.com is a great example of a travel company that has seen results from doing exactly this.

When the bookings have nearly run out, booking.com targets users with an urgency message, warning customers that a room is nearly sold out and that 11 people are currently viewing it.

Not only this, they tack on a message informing visitors of the last time a room was booked. All of this information encourages customers to complete the booking as soon as possible.

2. Be more social

Social is a great way for people to share content and keep tabs on what their friends do. 
Furthermore, holidays are one of the key activities that people like to share online.

Travel companies can tap into this by adding a social widget to their website so that potential customers can see who out of their friends has done what.

TripAdvisor does this very well as people can see who ate at a particular restaurant or stayed in a particular hotel.

3. Clearly

Everyone loves a bargain, especially in January when people are still recovering from Christmas spending.

Demonstrate excellent value for money by following Expedia’s footsteps. The company crosses out the original cost and highlights the cheaper cost if you were to book with them.

Expedia also includes a pointer emphasising that there are a limited number of tickets left at that price.

4. Personalised cross selling

It’s typical of airlines these days to want to maximise revenue by charging customers for choosing their seat and checking-in baggage.

However, where RyanAir fails, EasyJet succeeds as their cross-selling is personalised to the passenger. The experience of the upsell is therefore more pleasant and less frustrating.

5. Implement hyperlocal deals

Hyper local is the next big phase for ecommerce as it allows websites to identify where their users are coming from so that the website can deliver more targeted offers relating to a visitor’s country, city or even the local weather forecast.

In addition, travel companies can use the person’s date and location search to deliver more compelling search results.

For example, if someone starts with a date then it’s clear that they need to travel on that date. If they start with a location then maybe they’re focused on travelling to that particular destination.

A final thought...

The above tips require a combination of personalisation technologies and real-time data to ensure that you can respond quickly to a consumer’s demand by delivering dynamic updates and targeted offers in real time.

It’s all about creating a sophisticated website which really moulds itself around individual users and presents them with the best content or targeted offers as needed.