Sep
2
Hotel websites are notorious for using big words where small ones will do. In trying to look or sound clever, luxurious or "high quality" they achieve precisely the opposite effect.
Because the website visitor isn't reading the words.
Up until now, it wasn't that your website visitor was stupid, it was just that their attention was the subject of challenges from all angles.
Now, however, it's getting serious. They really are becoming stupid.
Because the website visitor isn't reading the words.
Up until now, it wasn't that your website visitor was stupid, it was just that their attention was the subject of challenges from all angles.
Now, however, it's getting serious. They really are becoming stupid.
I'm reading a book called "The Shallows" by Nicholas Carr. I first became aware of it in a feature article in The Times a couple of weeks ago.
Carr has explored how the internet is changing the way we think, read and remember. His work has implications for everyone who wants to promote and sell hotel rooms on the internet.
Because increasingly "sophisticated", wordy, graphic laden websites are contributing to the problem. You're putting complicated stuff in front of people whose ability to process it is decreasing daily.
The result? In bald terms - you won't sell as many hotel rooms if you continue to do this because your message will either be lost or simply not processed. Goodness knows, most hotels are bad enough at presenting effective marketing messages. The fact that your target market online is losing the ability to process what you're saying is a real worry.
Are you worried? You should be.
You see, most hotel websites are written as though the site visitor is reading a book. But the state of mind of the book reader is very different from that of the website visitor. As the article suggests,
"The mind of the experienced book reader is a calm mind, not a buzzing one. When it comes to the firing of our neurons it is a mistake to assume that more is better."
Book readers can filter out distractions and reflect and reach judgements on the content they have just absorbed. Website visitors are overstimulated with distractions available wherever they look. "New" stuff is everywhere - it's like a kid in a sweet shop. Th article tells us that the internet plays to the human tendency to overvalue what happens to us right now. Quoting Union College psychologist Christopher Chabris,
"We crave the new even when we know that the new is more often trivial than essential".
My interpretation of this is that web pages designed to be eye candy and provide lots of diversion for the viewer will actually diminish the ability of your selling process. Buying a hotel room is essential - flitting around a website looking at pretty pictures is immediately satisfying, but does not necessarily lead to a sale. It's just as likely to stimulate another thought in the viewers mind and make them go somewhere else. When they remember they need to book a hotel room, will they return to your website? Are you sure?
The most telling sentence for me was this,
"The net is, by design, an interruption system, a machine geared for dividing our attention."
Think about it this way.
In order to have your website ranked well on Google (a necessary thing if you want to make sales), you need to be very relevant to the search terms your target market will use. Google chants the "relevance" mantra ALL the time. The moe relevant you are, the better your search engine position will be.
But consider what Google does to the person initiating the search. Does Google focus their attention on any particular website?
No. It doesn't.
What Google does is present the searcher with a page containing: 10 "organic" results; above which at least 3 "paid search" and up to 10 "local" results are positioned and beside which a number of other "paid" listings can be found.
Google takes all that relevance, makes you focus it to a point expressed by a single key phrase and then IMMEDIATELY explodes the results all over the screen, giving the searcher many options on a single page, and repeats the process on any number of subordinate pages.
Your website visitor is overstimulated, their attention is dragged and flits from link to link many times a second.
When they DO arrive on your website the first thing you try to do is demonstrate to them how clever you are.
In reality, in the real world, in your hotel today, is that what you really do?
Of course it isn't. In the real world, hotels give customers places to relax, to unwind, to contemplate, to replenish their energy.
It might be really cool if you could try doing the same thing with your websites. Because the internet is making your prospective guests overstimulated, inattentive and unable to focus on making a decision.
That decision involves them getting their credit card out and making a booking at your hotel.
And we know that the people who book to stay in your hotel aren't stupid. Are they? So why don't ou look for ways of making it easier for them to focus on that important little decision?
Carr has explored how the internet is changing the way we think, read and remember. His work has implications for everyone who wants to promote and sell hotel rooms on the internet.
Because increasingly "sophisticated", wordy, graphic laden websites are contributing to the problem. You're putting complicated stuff in front of people whose ability to process it is decreasing daily.
The result? In bald terms - you won't sell as many hotel rooms if you continue to do this because your message will either be lost or simply not processed. Goodness knows, most hotels are bad enough at presenting effective marketing messages. The fact that your target market online is losing the ability to process what you're saying is a real worry.
Are you worried? You should be.
You see, most hotel websites are written as though the site visitor is reading a book. But the state of mind of the book reader is very different from that of the website visitor. As the article suggests,
"The mind of the experienced book reader is a calm mind, not a buzzing one. When it comes to the firing of our neurons it is a mistake to assume that more is better."
Book readers can filter out distractions and reflect and reach judgements on the content they have just absorbed. Website visitors are overstimulated with distractions available wherever they look. "New" stuff is everywhere - it's like a kid in a sweet shop. Th article tells us that the internet plays to the human tendency to overvalue what happens to us right now. Quoting Union College psychologist Christopher Chabris,
"We crave the new even when we know that the new is more often trivial than essential".
My interpretation of this is that web pages designed to be eye candy and provide lots of diversion for the viewer will actually diminish the ability of your selling process. Buying a hotel room is essential - flitting around a website looking at pretty pictures is immediately satisfying, but does not necessarily lead to a sale. It's just as likely to stimulate another thought in the viewers mind and make them go somewhere else. When they remember they need to book a hotel room, will they return to your website? Are you sure?
The most telling sentence for me was this,
"The net is, by design, an interruption system, a machine geared for dividing our attention."
Think about it this way.
In order to have your website ranked well on Google (a necessary thing if you want to make sales), you need to be very relevant to the search terms your target market will use. Google chants the "relevance" mantra ALL the time. The moe relevant you are, the better your search engine position will be.
But consider what Google does to the person initiating the search. Does Google focus their attention on any particular website?
No. It doesn't.
What Google does is present the searcher with a page containing: 10 "organic" results; above which at least 3 "paid search" and up to 10 "local" results are positioned and beside which a number of other "paid" listings can be found.
Google takes all that relevance, makes you focus it to a point expressed by a single key phrase and then IMMEDIATELY explodes the results all over the screen, giving the searcher many options on a single page, and repeats the process on any number of subordinate pages.
Your website visitor is overstimulated, their attention is dragged and flits from link to link many times a second.
When they DO arrive on your website the first thing you try to do is demonstrate to them how clever you are.
In reality, in the real world, in your hotel today, is that what you really do?
Of course it isn't. In the real world, hotels give customers places to relax, to unwind, to contemplate, to replenish their energy.
It might be really cool if you could try doing the same thing with your websites. Because the internet is making your prospective guests overstimulated, inattentive and unable to focus on making a decision.
That decision involves them getting their credit card out and making a booking at your hotel.
And we know that the people who book to stay in your hotel aren't stupid. Are they? So why don't ou look for ways of making it easier for them to focus on that important little decision?
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