You're listening to Get Fully Booked with Sarah Orchard.

Are you ready to master your marketing so you can ditch your reliance on the online agents and grow your direct bookings?

I'll be sharing with you exactly what it takes to grow your direct bookings and the simple marketing steps to get more profit in your pocket.

Hello and welcome back to the Get Fully Booked podcast.

I'm your host, Sarah Orchard.

Thank you for joining me today.

Whatever you're up to, walking the dog, cleaning a hot tub, or perhaps doing a changeover, I'd love to know.

Do come over and connect with me over on Instagram etfullybooked.

Now, let me ask you a question.

Have you ever looked at your website, seen very few bookings coming through and immediately thought, my website isn't converting?

Or perhaps I need a new website, I need better photos, I need a better booking system?

Perhaps.

But what if the real problem isn't conversion at all?

What if nobody is actually visiting your website in the first place?

The reality is you cannot convert visitors that you don't have.

And today I'm going to be talking about one of the biggest mistakes I see accommodation owners making when it comes to their marketing.

They're trying to fix a conversion problem when they actually have a traffic problem.

So let's get started.

So one of the first questions I always ask a client when I work with them one to one, is particularly when they tell me that their bookings are down or that they're struggling to get direct bookings.

And I'll say to them, how many people have visited your website in the last 12 months?

And do you know what the answer usually is?

Silence or typically, I have no idea.

Yet they're convinced the website isn't working.

So imagine owning a shop on the high street.

And I use this analogy a lot.

You've got a beautiful window display, you've worked really hard on stocking it with fantastic products, you give excellent customer service, but only three people walk through the door each day.

The issue isn't that nobody is buying.

The issue is that hardly anybody is seeing what you've actually got to sell.

And your hospitality short term rental website works in exactly the same way.

So before you start redesigning pages, changing your booking software or rewriting every piece of copy on your website, you need to know three key things.

So write these down, or if you're driving at the moment, get to where you're going and then write these down.

How many visitors are coming to your website, typically in a month, and then look a bit longer, like over a 12 month period.

Compare it to last year.

What percentage of those visitors are inquiring or booking?

And where are those people coming from?

That's your traffic sources.

And without those figures and that information, you're simply guessing.

And making marketing decisions based on guessing will end up costing you money.

And I often see hosts obsessing over tiny website tweaks when they're getting only 100 visitors a month.

So let's say your website converts at 2%.

And by the way, the industry average is actually closer to 1%.

Yes, you heard me right, 1%.

So that would just be two bookings.

Or if you're in the average one booking, you see the problem.

Even if you somehow doubled your conversion rates to 4%, that's only four bookings.

And what if you increased your website traffic from 100 visitors to 1,000 visitors?

Suddenly that same 2% conversion rate becomes 20 bookings.

Your biggest business opportunity is often just getting more eyeballs on your website.

Here's an interesting fact.

Research consistently shows that most website visitors don't convert on their first visit.

Many people visit a website multiple times before making a purchase decision.

So think about your own behavior.

When you're planning a holiday.

Do you immediately book the first place you see?

Probably not.

I spend hours looking at places to stay.

I also save a load into Pinterest as well so I can come back to them.

You compare, you browse, you save options you might show a partner or a friend.

You'll come back later.

Which means if you're not attracting enough people into your world, you're dramatically reducing the number of future bookings that can happen.

Your website needs a steady stream of visitors entering this first vital step.

It is really the lifeblood of your business.

Which brings me nicely onto I want to share five ways that you can actually increase your traffic to your website.

So number one, I'd say, and this one most people will have heard of but don't always tackle, is improving your search engine optimization.

And obviously these days that's also geo, which is improving it for the search engines.

SEO simply helps the search engines understand what your business is all about.

So if someone searches Luxury Treehouse in the Forest of Dean, hopefully, or the Y Valley, hopefully they'll find my business or a family glamping site in the Lake District.

You want to appear for the terms that people are searching for.

And that means having useful Pages, location, content, FAQs, and specific keywords that reflect how your guests search.

SEO isn't about tricking Google, it's about helping Google Understand your business.

If you'd like to know more about this, do Check out episode 56 where I talk about SEO and GEO and how that looks in today's world.

Number two Create helpful content.

Every blog post is another opportunity to be found online.

Think beyond your actual physical accommodation.

Write about the best walks nearby from your location, romantic weekends away, but obviously relate it back to staying in your type of accommodation.

Family activities, dog friendly attractions or beaches that are within walking distance of your place.

Maybe seasonal events that might draw people to the area.

These are your ideal guests and they're planning a trip so you just need to meet them earlier on in their journey so that they discover you.

Number three Build an email list.

Now I harp on about email all the time, but email does remain one of the highest converting marketing tactics that is available to you.

And every time someone joins your mailing list you're creating a future traffic source.

You may not get an instantaneous booking, but you're investing in bookings for the future.

And with your own email list you don't need to rely on the algorithms.

You can send people straight back to your website.

Whenever you launch an offer, you've got late availability or you're announcing something new.

You're not reliant on Instagram or TikTok.

Liking it and showing it to people.

If you haven't started email marketing yet, do go and check out episode 36 of this podcast where I share five ways to grow your email list fast.

I think you'll find that one really useful.

Number four Use social media.

But use it strategically.

The goal isn't here for just getting likes.

The goal is clicks.

We want profile visits and clicks.

We want every piece of content.

Should encourage people to take the next step.

Ideally visit the website, download a guide, join the email list, check availability.

Too many hosts stop at reach and engagement.

They get obsessed with actually trying to create content that goes viral that everyone loves.

They get hooked on the vanity metrics, but that doesn't win here.

You need movement towards your website.

Number five Partnerships.

I am a huge fan of partnerships.

I was a partnership marketing manager for about five years when I worked for Avis and I will always look to create strategic alliances and partnerships with other businesses.

Look for businesses that also have a similar ideal guest.

They could be attractions, wedding venues, restaurants, activity providers, food and drink people.

You know the list is endless.

But the right partnerships can introduce hundreds of ideal guests to your website every year.

They could have a large email list or social following that you can leverage too.

I hope you find those Tips useful.

Okay, my last point is once you have got the traffic, you have to convert it.

So let's assume that traffic isn't the problem.

So you've looked at your website numbers and you've got a good healthy number of website visitors coming every month or over 12 month period.

People are arriving but they're not booking and this is where conversion comes in.

And there are some relatively quick fixes to look for here.

You need to really make it clear within the first six seconds who your website is targeting.

People do not hang around these days.

They need to know exactly what you offer and they need to immediately identify that it's for them and what makes you different and that they create sparks that interest in them.

Don't make people hunt around to try and find out how many bedrooms you've got and how many, you know, how many you sleep.

If you've got like group accommodation or what types of glamping units you've got, you need to get that across really fast.

Make sure you've got great photography because people buy emotionally.

We all like to think that we're really rational and that we make decisions based on, you know, rational facts, but, but we buy because of emotion.

Photos and these days, more importantly video do the selling for you.

So investing in professional photography and content for your website is always money well spent.

And actually my web developer that I work with says that if a client hasn't got good photography and video, she'll send them off to work on that first before she'll actually try.

Consider building a website for them because it's really hard to build a great converting website if you haven't got those foundations in place.

Make sure that you remove any friction in the process of people actually booking.

So sometimes your booking system can be the problem.

You know, can people check availability easily?

Can they see the prices?

Can they inquire?

Can they book online rather than having to contact you?

I have come across websites still where people are asking people to email in or telephone to make a booking.

That's just asking for trouble because no one is going to do that these days.

People are surfing online at like 2 o' clock in the morning.

We get bookings that come in at really weird o' clock times and you know, I'm not going to be around to answer the phone at that time.

But if you make life difficult, if you create friction, you will lose the booking and somebody else will win.

I've talked about this one before, but build trust.

Guests want reassurance.

You're not airbnb you're not a brand that they've probably heard of.

So make sure you include things that give very strong trust signals to your visitors.

Reviews, testimonials, awards where you've been assessed and given an award where you've been featured in the PR and you've had some media mentions, frequently asked questions and also your about page.

You know, make sure that you actually tell people who you are so that you look you are a real person and you you know and tell them why you're a host so that you build that trust with them so it avoids hesitation.

And I talk about that in episode 54, so you can go and check that out as well.

Give people a reason to book Direct as well I think people often feel like, well I don't want a discount, I don't want to give people a reason, but why should they book through you and your website instead of an OTA?

You know, Airbnb booking.com VRBO gives them confidence.

So why why would they pick to book direct with you?

So perhaps it's giving them things like a best price guarantee.

Maybe you give them a complimentary breakfast or welcome hamper, more flexible cancellation or a lower deposit amount.

Maybe you give them some exclusive extras on their first direct booking.

But give guests a compelling reason to book direct.

So I hope you found that helpful.

But if your bookings are feeling slower than you'd like right now and it is tough out there at the moment, here's the questions I want you to ask yourself.

Do I actually have a conversion problem or does my website have a traffic problem?

Because most hosts jump straight to fixing conversion and fiddling around around the edges when the reality is far fewer people are visiting their website than they think and then you actually need to be visiting your website.

Remember, no traffic equals no bookings and more traffic creates more opportunities to get those bookings and also to get those lovely direct bookings where we don't have to pay any commission.

And your website's job is to convert those opportunities into paying guests.

So if you're doing things like list, you know their job is to get traffic to you.

Your job as the business owner with your website is to convert those visitors into bookings.

So start by checking your website analytics.

Go and have a look at GA4.

Look at your visitor numbers, look at your conversion rates, look at where your traffic's coming from and understand where the bottleneck really is.

Because once you know the actual problem, finding the solution becomes far easier.

One of my fully booked business club members has been focusing on this and knowing his website numbers and much traffic he needed to generate to get the booking numbers that he needed has had a phenomenal effect on his occupancy and his direct bookings.

So if you're struggling with this and if you'd like my eyes on your business, why not book a one to one bookings boost session with me?

Together we can really get under the skin of your website traffic and see how we can boost your bookings quickly.

Details of how to book one of these is in the show notes below.

Thank you for listening today.

If you enjoyed this episode, you know what to do.

I'd love it if you could leave me a review because you know how much us hosts love those five star reviews.

Next week I'm back with a fabulous guest, Lisa Rhodes, a short term rental business owner on a mission.

You're going to want to join us for that conversation.

See you next week.

Thank you for listening to Get Fully Booked with Sarah Orchard.

If you want to see if you are ready to ditch the likes of Airbnb and grow your direct bookings, put your business to the test with my free direct booking Roadmap quiz.

Head to my website, get fully booked.com quiz and let's get you more direct bookings and more profit in your pocket.