Aug
12
Sitting huddled round the laptop this morning, waiting for the Google adwords report to appear on the screen, I asked them what they thought their sales conversion figures would be...
All eyes turned to the hotel owner.
"Oh, about average for the time of year" he said, almost apologetically.
This hotel is actually getting three sales for every hundred website visits.
"Ah! That's above average!" He beamed at me. "That's alright then!"
It all depends on how much business you need I suppose. It also depends on how much it costs to get those hundred people to visit your website.
Who knows what "average" really is anyway?
We already know that Google analytics, wonderful though it is, never returns the same statistics as the web stats package on our own servers. Who do you believe?
You could come up with any number and call it "average". Indeed, there is a school of thought which says that nobody really knows what "average" hotel sales conversion figures are.
You either make money from this route to market or you don't.
If 3 out of 100 is "good", we risk ignoring the reasons why the other 97 didn't make a booking.
You can blame the poor sales conversion on any number of factors. Today, my clients chose to blame it on "researchers" and "tyre kickers".
That's a bit unfair. Researchers are simply potential customers who haven't made a purchase yet, but they could make a commitment to you in another way, by joining your newsletter perhaps? Then at least you could help them with their research.
As for tyre kickers? Well, they found their way to your website as a result of your efforts to attract visitors. It probably cost you money to get them there. If somebody walked into your restaurant, would you let them wander about for a few minutes, kicking a few chairs and running their fingers along your shelves before watching them amble out the door?
No, I bet you wouldn't! You'd try to find out why they have walked in and you'd find out what they want. If you can sell them a meal or a drink, so much the better. They might just want to look at a copy of the menu.
They're not your customers yet, but they could be soon.
They're not here to kick your tyres, they're here to decide whether or not you're good enough to justify spending money on.
Your website helps these visitors to decide. This particular website is making 97 out of 100 visitors just walk away.
All eyes turned to the hotel owner.
"Oh, about average for the time of year" he said, almost apologetically.
This hotel is actually getting three sales for every hundred website visits.
"Ah! That's above average!" He beamed at me. "That's alright then!"
It all depends on how much business you need I suppose. It also depends on how much it costs to get those hundred people to visit your website.
Who knows what "average" really is anyway?
We already know that Google analytics, wonderful though it is, never returns the same statistics as the web stats package on our own servers. Who do you believe?
You could come up with any number and call it "average". Indeed, there is a school of thought which says that nobody really knows what "average" hotel sales conversion figures are.
You either make money from this route to market or you don't.
If 3 out of 100 is "good", we risk ignoring the reasons why the other 97 didn't make a booking.
You can blame the poor sales conversion on any number of factors. Today, my clients chose to blame it on "researchers" and "tyre kickers".
That's a bit unfair. Researchers are simply potential customers who haven't made a purchase yet, but they could make a commitment to you in another way, by joining your newsletter perhaps? Then at least you could help them with their research.
As for tyre kickers? Well, they found their way to your website as a result of your efforts to attract visitors. It probably cost you money to get them there. If somebody walked into your restaurant, would you let them wander about for a few minutes, kicking a few chairs and running their fingers along your shelves before watching them amble out the door?
No, I bet you wouldn't! You'd try to find out why they have walked in and you'd find out what they want. If you can sell them a meal or a drink, so much the better. They might just want to look at a copy of the menu.
They're not your customers yet, but they could be soon.
They're not here to kick your tyres, they're here to decide whether or not you're good enough to justify spending money on.
Your website helps these visitors to decide. This particular website is making 97 out of 100 visitors just walk away.
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