Activity Industry: Online Conversion Best Practices
Website tips and tricks to convert visitors into paying customers
Is it better to simply drive traffic to your website or capitalize on the existing traffic and focus efforts on online conversion best practices? Both of course. But, there’s no doubt the lowest hanging fruit is to convert your captive audience. In fact, some experts, like this one, have been able to increase conversion rates by 15% which translated into a 66% increase in sales for the company.
The overall process of converting visitors to customers is called your conversion funnel - the “path” that your customers take through your website from the time they arrive on your site through their purchase.
Consumer behavior, in particular online, can be finicky (and downright impatient). They will give up on making a purchase if given the tiniest roadblock. Your site has to be so clear, so simple, that it’s impossible not to just buy your product.
In our experience partnering with the activity industry, we’ve gathered a list of variables that seem to make a HUGE difference.
#1 KEEP IT SIMPLE!
Simplify the process, reduce the number of steps, Shorten the descriptions. This can be challenging! As Mark Twain once said: "If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter." You have so much to say, after all, we’re proud of our companies and want to communicate that with words! But, people (unfortunately) don’t take the time to read.
#2 BOOK NOW (loud and clear)
Make the call to action/conversion event (i.e. booking) the easiest and most prevalent 
thing on your site. You have 0-8 seconds to make a compelling headline and landing page. After 8 seconds, the majority of visitors leave.Dedicate the main area on your home page to 1 slider with 1 clickable call to action for that conversion event (i.e. Book Now). This can lead them to your product offerings page (and you guessed it – should also be simple).
#3 CLEAR, CONCISE PRODUCT OFFERINGS. MAKE THEM POP!
People don’t buy what they don’t understand. Visually display your offerings distinctly – with an image and a clear “BOOK NOW” button.Try to eliminate paragraph descriptions
before they hit “book now”. Give the differentiator of that offering (ex: duration, activity type and even price), and get them to click into the purchase process to learn more before getting into any more detail.
#4 PURCHASE FIRST!
Ask questions later.Conversion expert Tim Ash recommends keeping forms to only the essentials. How many times have you been ready to sign up for something, continue and see 25+ fields that you have to fill in? If you’ve gotten the user as far as wanting to sign up, it’s pivotal that you don’t let them drop off because your form is too long.Cutting out any questions that are not absolutely necessary for the initial purchase will retain visitors and prevent them from “bouncing” off your website. Questions pertaining to things like whether they have food allergies should be refrained until later or you may just lose that visitor. Keep in mind, the visitor wants to make a purchase, however, they do not want to be deterred by a bunch of inquisitive questions until later (after the initial excitement of the purchase). This keeps the excitement up and consolidates the conversion process.
#5 OPTIMIZE YOUR SITE (think mobile!)
A Snappy, Mobile Friendly Site Pays for Itself!
• As of 2016, mobile accounts for 52% of travel-related browsing
• Having a nice mobile site can double conversions
• Run through your entire funnel on varying devices and browsers
• A 1 second delay in your site speed can result in a 7% reduction in conversions
• Benefits, social proof and credibility indicators led to a 144.1% improvement on landing pages
The Flybook has specific tools designed to help you ask your customers the pertinent questions after they have paid but before they arrive. When you ask questions at the right time and in the right order, your customers feel as though they are being taken care of.
The Flybook is the most advanced activity and tour operator booking software for companies that offer any combination of tours, rentals, activities and lodging. Manage all your needs in one place with online reservations, digital waivers, guide assignment, marketing automation and more.
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