All right, folks, if you’ve been following along so far, we have expanded your reach. We’ve increased your audience size by 10%. We’ve sparked more engagement. 10% more of that audience are now engaged with your business in some way. This week, it’s all about turning those interested leads into real customers. This week, we’re gonna increase your booking rate by 10%.
So why are we aiming for a 10% increase? Well, for a bit of a recap, what we’re looking at is the six different areas in your business where if you were to increase those numbers by just 10% overall, you’d see a nearly doubling of your profitability.
So, as a quick recap: audience reach—this is generally how many people are aware of your business in some way. Engagement—what percentage of those people engage with a business, whether that’s downloading your menu off the website or requesting a copy of the guide of the top five things to do in your area.
These types of things. Genuine engagement—not just likes and whatnot on Facebook. Then we’re looking at bookings: of those people that have engaged with your business in some way, what percentage of them actually booked? Then we’re looking at the average spend, the repeat visit frequency, and operational profit margins, which we’re gonna cover in future videos.
This week, it’s all about, as I said, increasing that booking rate by 10%. Now, just as a reminder, if your successful booking rate is 5% of all inquiries, when I say increase it by 10%, we’re not saying we have to go from 5 to 15. That’s a huge boost. What we’re talking about is just increasing what you have already by 10%.
So if you’re starting at 5%, we’re trying to move that needle from 5 to 5.5%. It’s these small, achievable goals that when you combine them all together, have a huge impact on your bottom line.
Why Aren’t Your Prospects Booking?
So let’s dive right in. First, let’s have a look at some of the reasons why your prospects might not book.
The sign for this is if you have a high level of interest—people engaging with your business—but a low conversion rate, meaning not too many of those people are putting their hand in their pocket and actually making a booking. Now, there are really three key things that you need to be focused on. The first is friction. Friction is the enemy that you’re trying to avoid.
Every obstacle, whether it’s real or perceived, makes it harder for these potential customers to put their hand in their pocket and make a booking. You wanna make it as easy as possible for them. Confusing forms or slow load times on your website are the types of things we’re talking about that you need to try and avoid.
Hidden fees are another one. If they get partway through the booking process and then the great bargain deal that they’ve seen or the great value-for-money deal that they’ve seen on your website all of a sudden feels like it’s not such great value for money because of all these fees that you’re trying to put in at the end, that’s another friction point. It’s another thing that makes it more difficult for them to commit to making the booking, so we’re trying to avoid those at all costs.
Another area that you need to focus on is dealing with a lack of trust or doubts about the validity of your business, your online security, or even just the value and the service that you provide. That’s gonna be another hurdle for them to overcome, so that’s something else we wanna do away with.
The third one we’re gonna focus on today is too much distraction or opportunity for indecision. If you give them too many choices, they’re easily lured away.
Digital Strategies to Drive Bookings
So how do we bridge this gap and get that 10% booking uplift that we’re chasing? We’re gonna look at some options for the online side of your marketing but also the real-world side as well—your non-digital marketing efforts.
Well, let’s start with your website and your online efforts. You need to treat your booking engine as your salesperson, and it needs to be world-class. We’re looking for things like user-friendly design, an intuitive flow, and clear steps. Simplify the booking path as much as you can; reduce the number of clicks it takes to get to the end and secure that booking.
A fantastic example of this is Amazon—a huge multinational corporation and a pioneer in online retail. One of the things they developed and really pushed was “buy in one click.” You can’t really get any simpler than that. Now, obviously, you’re not gonna have the same resources that Amazon does, but that’s the type of mentality that you need to be focusing on: making it as easy as possible—as few steps as possible—to secure that booking.
If there’s stuff that you want to know about your customers before they arrive, then that’s the kind of thing that you can use your follow-up emails for. But get that commitment, get that booking, get that credit card number, lock them in, secure that sale, and then work on giving that wow factor afterwards.
The other thing to keep in mind is the vast majority of your bookings are gonna come from mobile phones. There are still a lot of people out there that are designing websites that are optimised for a big screen because the person who’s building it is sitting at a desk looking at a big screen. You end up with websites that are absolutely fantastic until you look at them on your mobile.
The forms are too hard, the buttons are too small, the text is too small, and it becomes too fiddly. Make sure that your online presence through your website is mobile-first. Optimized. This is a non-negotiable these days. You need to make sure it loads fast and the forms are easy to use on a small screen.
In terms of building trust digitally, this is where your social proof comes in—looking for things like reviews and testimonials. But another great one is these real-time booking indicators. Obviously, you need to get your business to a certain level before these really become relevant because if you haven’t taken a booking in the last couple of days, it’s not gonna be a great indicator.
But those little pop-ups that you see—”five of these items have sold” or “five bookings have been made in the last 24 hours,” et cetera. These are assuming they’re authentic—and they have to be authentic, ’cause people can tell. If you can implement that authentically, it can nudge those hesitant bookers.
It taps into that fear of missing out that we all have. Then, in terms of security and privacy, this is definitely something to talk to your web developers about. You need to make sure that you have clearly visible badges about SSL security and credit card safety. All of these types of indicators show that your website and your business are legit and you’re not just some sort of online scam.
But the other thing that you can focus on yourself—and it doesn’t take a developer—is transparency. Clear pricing with no hidden costs goes a long way. If your ad says that it costs X amount per night, then that’s what the customer should be getting charged. The other thing that helps is personalization and offers, because they help to guide the decision.
If you can implement things like dynamic content, tailored packages based on someone’s browsing history, or strategic incentives such as direct booking benefits—going direct to the source rather than through one of the OTAs like Trivago or Booking.com, etc.—things like a free breakfast or other upsells and value-adds for booking direct is a great way to go.
Try and avoid discounts for booking direct. You should try and avoid discounts at all costs. Sometimes it is unavoidable; it is just part of business. But as soon as you start reducing your costs, then you start competing on price. As a small business owner, you can’t afford to compete on price against the big end of town because they just have that scale and that economy of scale that will just blow you out of the water.
Where you need to focus on is where you thrive: providing added value so that you can maintain those margins.
The last one to focus on for your website, at least, is real-time support. With things like Facebook Messenger and these other chat apps, it’s really easy to have something that pops up in the corner of your website that says, “If you have any questions, we’re here to help.”
Now, it’s fantastic: you can have that link through to a real person who’s sitting at a real desk, and if you’re chained to your desk during business hours, then you can probably handle that yourself. But if not, there are plenty of options out there for AI that can handle some of the easier inquiries, and they can do it in a way that feels incredibly natural.
As always, if you’re looking for assistance setting one of those up, Scott Aussie and the team here are more than able to help. These are some of the online things that we can focus on to increase your trust, to remove barriers, and to make it really easy for those potential customers to become customers.
Mastering the Human Touch: Offline Conversion
But what about the human touch and securing that booking? That’s what we’re gonna cover next. The human element is still a huge thing, even in this digital-first world that we all live in. We’re talking about things like phone calls, direct inquiries, and walk-ins if you’ve got a shopfront presence.
Sales training is crucial for all staff, even if they don’t engage with your customers directly on a regular basis. Anyone who has any opportunity to interact with your customers and your potential customers should be going through some sales training on a regular basis. We’re talking about things like phone etiquette.
It needs to be professional, friendly, and knowledgeable. Knowledgeable is just as important as the other two. You also need to engage in active listening. Your staff need to understand the needs of your customers. Otherwise, they can’t overcome those objections and other barriers that people are facing when it comes to deciding whether or not to make a booking.
The other thing to focus on in terms of that human element—that customer service—is upselling and cross-selling in an ethical way. I’m not suggesting that all of your staff become like McDonald’s cashiers with, “Would you like fries with that?” But the same principle applies if somebody’s making an inquiry about one of your basic packages.
It doesn’t hurt to suggest to them some of the other options that are available, especially if you can package it in such a way that they get a big increase in perceived value for a small increase in cost. That’s why, again, using the McDonald’s method as an example, if you’re buying a small meal, the medium is only just a little bit more, but you seem to get a lot more for it.
The large is only a little bit more again, so you feel again that you’re missing out on increased value for a small increased cost. That’s the type of thing that you’re trying to focus on. You want to have your staff highly trained in how to share this information and explain these options.
The other thing you really wanna focus on is effective lead nurturing, so keep the interest alive. If somebody has made an inquiry and they’ve left some contact details, which you should be asking for, and you haven’t heard from them within a set time period—and exactly how long that period is will vary depending on the nature of your business—if you haven’t heard from them, pick up the phone and follow up with them.
Don’t let that engaged prospect be an opportunity to tailor some more information and ask some more questions so that you can overcome their objections and secure that booking. But as always, you need to simplify; make the direct process as easy and as stress-free as possible.
Integrating Online and Offline: The Omnichannel Journey
As always, the most powerful system for attracting those bookings comes from a cohesive, integrated approach of your online and your offline world—a holistic approach where these two elements are working together. It’s also often referred to as an omnichannel customer journey, so a consistent experience regardless of the touchpoint.
For example, a prospect starts doing some research online and they look at your website. They call to ask a few more questions—and these are things that you should be writing down to make sure that you can update your frequently asked questions section on the website—but they call to clarify a few things, and then they go back online and complete the booking.
A journey for a customer that started online involves some real-world interaction and then finishes online, for example. What’s important is that you need to have your systems in place so that you can keep track of that, so that you can marry up that these online and offline interactions are with the same person.
The other thing to look at is your retargeting strategies. So if somebody comes to your website and they make some inquiries and they put some things in the cart but then they don’t complete the purchase, they get cold feet and they leave. What systems have you got in place to follow up with them?
This is when you start offering more value-adding things; you start addressing their concerns. Because if you can bring them back, even converting a small percentage of those will have a huge impact on your overall booking rate. You’ve gotta be using customer service as a sales tool, resolving issues quickly, and reducing friction. A well-regarded reputation for support in your business can lead to direct bookings and referrals.
How Do You Know If It’s Working? Measuring Success
So how do we know if our booking efforts are really moving the needle? How do we measure that? As always, it’s all good and well saying that you’re gonna increase something by 10%, but if you don’t have your set benchmarks in place to begin with, you’re not gonna know if you’ve successfully hit that 10% increase.
For things like your website, we’re looking at bookings to website sessions or bookings to qualified leads. What’s your conversion rate on your social media ads? How many clicks and so on. Don’t forget the offline side of things as well. It’s a little bit harder to track, but what is your phone call conversion rate?
How many times do you have to answer the phone and talk to people about potential bookings, and what percentage of those become an actual booking? Now, for the offline side of things, a customer relationship management, or CRM, system is absolutely vital. Here at Scott Aussie, we highly recommend HubSpot.
It’s not the cheapest out there, but it is fantastic for tracking all of this kind of stuff and keeping it in the one place so that you can tell at a quick glance if the efforts and the investment you’re making to improve your booking rate is working. One of the common objections is that conversion tracking is complicated, but it’s not, especially if you start with basic goals. It’s accessible and it provides immediate insights that are important for making real, data-driven decisions in your business.
Your Action Plan for a 10% Uplift
So what’s your action plan for moving forward? Have a look at your current process and look for anywhere where there are friction points, online or offline. Then, prioritise one or two conversion tactics. Start looking for those small, measurable gains. For example, optimize your highest-traffic booking page or improve your phone conversion script.
Again, keep in mind having a script—and it doesn’t have to be detailed word-for-word and whatnot for your sales staff—but giving them a script that helps direct the conversation the way you want it to go is a great first step in increasing that booking rate on the telephone.
As always, it’s all about test, learn, and iterate. Split testing is fantastic. It is done really easily online, but it can be done offline as well. Two different versions of that telephone script. Run it for a couple of weeks, see which one works better, and then use that one. It doesn’t have to be overly complicated; it can be kept really simple.
If you’re looking for a reminder as to why this is such an important thing to be focusing on in your business, don’t forget that you’ve got the Scott Aussie Profit Power Up calculator there. Again, it’s all been set up so that it’s secure and private. Any numbers that you put in there, we don’t get to see. The only person that sees them is you. This is your opportunity to have a little play with it and have a look to see: if you could increase your booking rate by 10%, what impact would that have on your bottom line?
The Bottom Line and What’s Next
So bookings really are the ultimate validation of all the work that you’ve put into your business. It’s all good and well increasing your reach. It’s all good and well increasing your engagement. But bookings is really where the rubber hits the road. Without a decent number of bookings, your business is always gonna struggle.
As always, if you’d like any assistance with any of this, the team here at Scott Aussie is ready and able to help. This is our bread and butter, and we do it every day of the week. Next week, we’re gonna look at increasing that average guest spend—the techniques and strategies that we can put in place so that when people do commit to spending time with you in your business, whether it’s accommodation, tours, restaurants, and cafes, whatever the case is, what can we do to encourage them to invest in your business a little bit more and increase the amount that they spend now that they’re here?
So have a great week. Focus on all of those things that we’ve spoken about in terms of reducing the friction points to make it easier for people to spend with you. Next week, we’ll look at helping you encourage them to spend more. So have a great week and we’ll see you next time.
