How to increase your revenue with personalized messages

According to a Hubspot survey, personalized and relevant content is no longer just a nice gesture to customers nowadays, it’s something that most people expect.

Consider how customization has become an integral part of your daily life!

When you sign in to your Youtube account, you will receive video suggestions that interest you. Facebook also shows you articles and posts that are relevant to you.

Just like Netflix has a customized list of films that it specifically recommends for you.

It is now natural for us that these big brands adapt their content to our past interests and behaviors. And they do it with very successful business outcomes. 

So why not personalize the content of your website too, if you can not only enhance the user experience, but increase your revenue at the same time?

Let me show you how to provide a customized visitor experience with HotelHood without having to change your entire website.

Collecting visitor data

In order to show personalized content to your visitor, you need as much information about him or her as possible.

What country are they from? What source did they come from? What content do they visit on the site? How much time do they spend on the site? When do they exit the website?

This is only a fraction of the user data and behavior monitored by HotelHood that we use to deliver the most personalized content possible.

Personalized website content

Here are a few examples of how we can effectively use these data to personalize your content.

Communicate differently with new and returning visitors

A first time visitor to your website does not know yet what your most popular services are or what benefits other guests most appreciate about your hotel. So it makes sense to highlight them for new visitors.

Second-time or third-time visitors, however, are already well aware of your services and USP. What they are most probably interested in is your rates and offers, that’s why it makes more sense to show them your direct booking benefits.

Personalize based on traffic source

You are running a promotion on Facebook and want your visitors from the social site to see this promotion on your website?

Or do you highlight your direct booking benefits on Google Ads? Then show these visitors the direct booking benefits when they click through to your website.

Use geo targeting

If you know that your potential guest is domestic, you can highlight the free parking as a great advantage.

Free parking might also be relevant to visitors from neighboring countries, as there is a good chance that they might arrive by car too.  

Guests arriving from further afield may be interested in your hotel being close to the airport or that you provide airport transfer upon request.

Distinguish between subscribed and not subscribed visitors

If you’re not collecting subscribers on your hotel website yet, it is high time you got started! A.S.A.P.

But make sure not to promote newsletter sign-ups to visitors who already subscribed because you will be irrelevant and annoying.

So only target visitors who are not on your list yet. And if you want to increase your sign-up rate, be sure to offer something valuable in exchange for their email address. It doesn’t have to be a discount necessarily; there are also other ways to get more subscribers.  

Enrich your website content

An effective way to enrich your content is to monitor the visitor’s behavior on the site and display additional valuable content based on their interest.

For example, if your visitor has been browsing the restaurant page for minutes and has also viewed the menu, there is a good chance that he or she will book a table if you pop up a table reservation form on the page.

Similar incentives might be offering a sauna seance for guests browsing your spa page, or highlighting discounts for children on family-friendly contents.

Retarget on your website

Most people associate remarketing with Facebook and Google. But your own website is just as an effective remarketing platform as these giants… and you don’t even need an online ad budget for it.

Because whatever content a guest visits on the website, we can monitor it, and that way,  learn about the visitor’s interests. That makes it possible to retarget them with relevant messages and offers based on previously viewed pages and contents.

Filter based on devices

A few years ago came the turning point, when the number of mobile visitors exceeded the number of desktop visitors. And since then this trend has continued to grow in favor of the mobile.

However, the booking rate on mobile is still not close to the number of bookings made on a desktop.

It’s no coincidence that booking.com has also introduced mobile only rates as an exclusive discount for mobile users.

Use our solution to maintain your price match against OTA mobile rates, or showcase your own mobile-only booking promotion.

Personalized message formats

We have a variety of pop-up formats and 200+ templates for displaying personalized content, all customizable to match the design of your website.

Embedded contents 

The most authentic way of displaying personalized content is to embed it into the website.

This solution allows the personalized message to appear as an integral part of the website.

The difference between embedded, dynamic content and static content on a website is not noticeable to the visitor at all. 

This can be an excellent solution to highlight different benefits or services for different types of visitors  (new/returning, domestic/foreign, families/couples).

Pop-ups

The use of traditional pop-ups is most effective if you want to draw attention to an irresistible offer or discount.

With pop-ups it is particularly crucial to have valuable and relevant content, and the timing also needs to be perfect.

A good example to use this format is to collect subscribers or promote sweepstakes. It also works great in case of exit-intent because it can be very effective in encouraging visitors to stay.

One version of the pop-up window is the full screen popup, which displays as a layer over the entire webpage.

Clearly, that’s the format with which we can communicate messages most emphatically.

The full screen format is ideal for highlighting seasonal offers and special deals.

Floating bar

The floating bar (also called sticky bar) can be both displayed at the top or the bottom of the page, which scrolls along as you scroll up or down the page.

The floating bar, just like any other format, can be closed or reduced to a small teaser. The latter solution enables the visitor to reopen the popup and review the previously closed message.

This format can be ideal for displaying your Covid safety policy, opening hours, and other guest information. But also for displaying personalized messages based on traffic source or for retargeting within the site.

Side messages

Unlike traditional pop-ups, this format, like the floating bar, does not obscure the substance of the web page. As such, it allows us to display valuable information without hiding any essential web site content from visitors.

As the above examples show, these solutions all allow us to enrich our hotel website with unique content that is the most relevant to the guest. They are an excellent way to showcase personalized incentives to encourage direct booking.

Conclusion

In today’s particularly competitive environment, the right message, for the right person, at the right moment can be crucial to winning a new direct guest.

With smart personalized messaging, you can build trust, grow your email list, and increase direct bookings without having to change anything on your website. Just by using our HotelHood solution.

All this with an extremely high average ROI (Return on Investment) of 10-20x.

Would you also like to increase your hotel revenue with a personalized visitor experience? Book a free consultation where we will share our best practices with you.

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