Attractions are a popular destination for millions of visitors each year, offering a variety of fun experiences for families. With the pandemic and the acceleration of digitalization, leisure attraction operators have realized that online ticketing is an effective way to increase revenue and simplify the purchasing process for customers. However, at Smeetz, as industry experts, we have found that optimising websites and sales channels is not always easy to analyse and implement.
This blog aims to guide you through the different steps needed to achieve the following goals:
- Strengthen your online reputation and attract new visitors
- Improve your website's conversion rates
- Build customer loyalty through a simplified and personalised shopping experience
- Stimulate revenue growth through increased online sales
Let's start by defining why online selling is important for your business and what benefits you can gain from it.
The importance of online sales
Online sales have become essential for leisure attractions on several levels. Firstly, it allows customers to book and purchase tickets at any time, which greatly enhances their purchasing experience. It also allows operators to reduce the costs associated with selling physical tickets, such as printing, delivery and stock management.
Online sales represent a unique opportunity for leisure attractions to increase their visitor numbers and expand their audience. In addition, online sales encourage early bookings, with at least 3 days between the date of booking and the visit. Leisure attraction operators should aspire to increase their early booking rates, as this secures cash flow in advance, reduces queuing at the entrance, allows for better resource planning and cost containment. Finally, online selling allows leisure attractions to collect valuable data on customer buying patterns and better understand their needs and expectations. This allows operators to better target their marketing strategy and provide personalised offers, improving customer retention and increasing long-term sales.
Yet some leisure attraction operators may still question the value of online sales, believing that their site or museum works just fine without this option. However, it is interesting to note that more than 54% of French people prefer to buy their leisure tickets online, which represents an important market that should not be overlooked.
5 steps to optimise your online salesnes
Now that you understand the importance of online sales for your leisure attraction, it is time to take action to maximise your sales potential. With this in mind, we offer the following steps to improve your website and boost your online sales.
1. Simplify the shopping experience on your website
The online shopping experience is key to the success of your business. Your website must not only present attractive, visual and informative content to make your customers want to book with you, but also offer a simple and barrier-free shopping experience to encourage conversion. Indeed, customers who encounter difficulties during the online purchasing process tend to abandon their purchase and turn to your competitors. Today, the act of buying online is no longer limited to a single transaction, but rather a complete experience that includes the entire customer journey. It is therefore essential to ask the right questions in order to simplify the shopping experience on your website.
- How many clicks are there between your main page and the final purchase of a ticket?
- How easy is it for your customer to find where to buy a ticket on your website?
- What is your online conversion rate?
Here are 3 solutions to put in place to maximise conversions on your website.
Include a booking button on your website.
Integrating a booking button on your website has many advantages, including :
- Improve the customer experience: Customers can book directly from your website, avoiding the frustration of searching for information on times and availability.
- Increase bookings: By making the booking process easier, customers are more likely to book immediately, rather than looking for other options.
- Save time and money: Online booking automates the booking process, reducing the costs associated with phone calls and manual bookings.
- Optimise availability management: Integrating a real-time booking system allows for efficient availability management and forecasting of visitor flows.
- Collect customer data: The information provided during online booking can be used to better understand customer needs and develop effective marketing strategies.
In short, integrating a booking button on your website is a key element to increase bookings and improve the customer experience, while optimising the management of your leisure attraction.
Here are some rules to follow to optimise the use of your booking button on your website:
- Visibility: Your booking button should be easily identifiable on your website. It should be placed somewhere visible and accessible to the customer, without them having to search long and hard to find it.
- Clarity: The booking button should be easy to understand. Use simple, self-explanatory terms like "Book Now" or "Buy Tickets".
- Size: Make sure your booking button is large enough to be visible and clickable on all types of devices, including smartphones and tablets.
- Colour: Use an eye-catching colour for your booking button. Choose a colour that stands out against the rest of your website, but does not distract the user.
- Location: Place your booking button where customers expect to find it. For example, if you are selling tickets for an attraction, place the button on the attraction page itself.
By following these rules, you can maximise the use of your booking button and increase the number of online bookings.
Increase the number of "calls to action" on the different pages
It is important to multiply the "call to action" on different pages of your website in order to facilitate the booking for your potential customers. You can add one or more general or specific call-to-actions for each product or category. For example, if you offer memberships, gift cards or birthday parties in addition to admission tickets, you can create a dedicated page for each product and include a call to action.
By adding a 'shopping cart' feature, your customers can easily add tickets and merchandise to their shopping cart at the same time as they continue shopping on your website, which will have an amplifying effect on their average basket.
Adapting your website for mobile use
Adapting your website for mobile use is essential to meet the needs of your customers who are increasingly viewing your site from their mobile phones, given that over 90% of leisure ticket purchases are now made on mobile. Here are some steps to take to make your website mobile friendly:
- Use a responsive design: A responsive design allows your website to automatically adapt to the user's screen size, whether on a computer, tablet or smartphone.
- Reduce loading time: Mobile users are often in a hurry and expect your website to load quickly. To reduce loading time, you can reduce the size of your images and optimise your website's HTML and CSS code.
- Simplify navigation: Mobile users don't want to waste time searching for the information they need on your website. Make sure your navigation is simple, intuitive and easy to use on a touch screen.
- Adapt the content: Your content should be adapted to mobile users. Paragraphs should be short and concise, headlines should be catchy and content should be easy to read on a small screen.
- Test your website: Before you put your website online, make sure you test it on a variety of mobile devices to ensure it works properly and that the user experience is optimal.
By following these steps, you will be able to adapt your website for mobile use and provide a pleasant user experience for your customers who use their mobile phones to visit your website.
Nowadays, more than 90% of leisure purchases are made on mobile, which is why it is important to ensure that the user experience is just as easy as it is on a computer.
Here are a few tools that will help you analyse your website and the behaviour of your visitors.
- Google Analytics
A powerful tool that will allow you to track your website traffic and understand your visitors' behaviour. You can see where your visitors are coming from, how long they spend on your website, which pages are most visited, and much more.
- Page Speed,
A tool provided by Google that allows you to measure the loading speed of your website on mobile and desktop. A good loading speed is essential for a satisfactory user experience. If your website is too slow, visitors may be tempted to leave before the page has fully loaded.ç
- Hotjar
Is a user experience analysis tool that allows you to see how visitors interact with your website. You can see which pages are clicked on the most, where visitors spend the most time, and which areas of the page attract the most attention. This will help you better understand your visitors' behaviour and adapt your website accordingly.
2. Optimise your online booking flow
Conversion rate
The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your website who make a purchase. A good conversion rate is usually between 3% and 5%. If yours is higher than this range, it is a sign that you are performing well. If it is lower, you should ask yourself: how many steps are there between the call-to-action and the final purchase in your booking flow? The more steps there are, the more likely you are to lose customers along the way. So it's important to keep the process concise by asking only for information that is essential to your business and marketing strategy. By keeping the steps to a minimum, you can increase your chances of conversion.
Cross-selling and up-selling
When you offer complementary or similar products to those your customers have already selected in their shopping cart, you are implementing a cross-selling strategy. For example, if a customer buys a ticket for your theme park, you can offer to book a ticket for a show or a guided tour at a reduced price. Similarly, up-selling involves offering an additional product or service to increase the total amount of the order. For example, you can offer a souvenir photo option with each admission ticket purchase. By offering these additional offers directly in your booking flow, you make it easier for your customers while increasing their spend. This strategy also allows you to personalise the shopping experience for each customer by offering products and services that meet their specific needs. According to some studies, cross-selling can increase sales by up to 10-30% and up-selling can increase the average shopping basket by up to 20-40%.
However, it is important not to overload your booking flow with too many options, as this could discourage your customers and cause them to abandon their purchase. You should therefore select complementary offers wisely and offer them in a clear and concise way. By using your customers' data and analysing their buying behaviour, you can also provide personalised offers that match their preferences and buying history.
Technological advances in artificial intelligence allow for state-of-the-art tools to automate cross-selling and up-selling recommendations based on your visitors' buying behaviour and preferences. These recommendations can then be offered at the right times and through the most relevant channels to ensure an optimal experience for your visitors.
Safety first and foremost
To make life easier for your customers, make sure you have an easy and secure online payment process. It is also important to find a payment provider that suits your business and does not cost you too much. There are many payment providers on the market, each with different advantages and disadvantages.
By researching and comparing offers, you can find a payment provider that suits your needs and budget. If you want to know more about payment providers for leisure attractions, it is worth reading articles and guides that can help you make informed choices. You can also check with other amusement attraction companies to see which payment provider they use and whether they are happy with it.
Ultimately, it is important to find a reliable and affordable payment provider to provide a seamless online booking experience for your customers.
3. Communicate your pricing strategies to your customer
To optimise your pricing strategy, it is important to clearly communicate information about ticket prices, discounts and promotions on your website. Customers need to know exactly what they are paying and what they are getting.
You can use comparison charts or graphs to make the information easy to understand. In addition, to create a sense of urgency among customers and to encourage them to buy tickets, you can highlight limited or exclusive offers. For example, you can offer discounted tickets for a limited time or a special promotion for bookings made before a specific date. This can encourage customers to book early rather than postpone their purchase. Remember that transparency is key.
Customers will appreciate having a clear idea of prices and current promotions. This can also help to build customer confidence in your business and increase customer satisfaction.
4. Target and tailor your marketing strategy
To further improve your marketing strategy, here are some suggestions:
- Use analytical tools to understand your customers' demographics, buying behaviours and preferences. This will help you create more effective marketing messages and personalise your campaigns.
- Use the data you have collected to segment your target audience into distinct groups based on their preferences and behaviours.
- Use targeted marketing campaigns to reach potential customers based on their preferences, purchase history and browsing behaviour on your website. Create quality content for your website, emails and social media.
- Use attractive images and videos to attract the attention of your target audience and make them want to know more about your events.
- Use remarketing campaigns and personalised emails to encourage potential customers to return to your website and buy tickets. By using personalised communication, you show that you take into account the needs and preferences of each customer.
- Use a CRM to collect information from your customers and better understand their buying behaviour.
- Use this information, for example, to contact customers who have abandoned their shopping carts and provide them with targeted offers based on their preferences.
- Use analytics to track the performance of your marketing campaigns. For example, connect your Meta Pixel to your ticketing system to track the results of your Facebook and Instagram advertising campaigns.
By applying these techniques, you can improve your communication with potential customers, increase conversion rates and get better results from your marketing campaigns.
5. Leverage social proof with customer reviews
Social proof is a key concept for leisure attractions. Potential visitors need to be convinced that your park or attraction is a fun and safe place to visit. By using social proof, you can build credibility for your attraction and encourage more visitors to buy tickets.
One of the most effective ways to use social proof is to collect visitor reviews. One of the most effective ways to use social proof is to collect visitor reviews. You can post them on your website or incorporate them into your marketing campaigns. Positive reviews will help potential visitors feel more comfortable and confident about booking tickets.It is also important to collect reviews proactively. For example, you can ask recent visitors to leave a review on your website or social networking pages.
You can also send a follow-up email after their visit to ask for their feedback and offer them an incentive for their next visit.Finally, don't forget that social proof can also be presented in a visual way. By posting photos and videos of visitors having fun at your attraction, you can show that people are having a good time at your attraction.In short, social proof is a key tool for leisure attractions. By collecting and displaying positive reviews, you can convince more potential visitors to book tickets and experience your attraction.
Would you like to learn more about the Smeetz unified commerce solution for attractions??
Contact us at sales@smeetz.com to find out how we help cultural and leisure attractions take their sales to the next level.