Achieve more holiday home bookings with improved copy

Last Updated on August 3, 2015 by admin

When someone visits your website the words you’ve written about your holiday cottage and the way in which you’ve written them can be the difference between a booking and a missed opportunity.

Encourage lookers into bookers with enticing holiday home website copy

We take a look at how to achieve more holiday home bookings with improved copy to make sure your website’s words do your cottage justice, and entices those potential lookers to eventual bookers.

People browse online

People like to browse; they like to know their options and how each of those is suited to their own needs and requirements. With this in mind, yours is likely to be one of many websites a potential booker visits. The success of your copy will depend on conveying that you are the right choice for them, and potentially a better fit than the others they visit.

Write down a list of features your holiday cottage has to promote; we’ll use this later.

Creating a visitor persona

The first port of call for most people when writing website copy will be ‘what have we got’ rather than ‘what do they want’. To really engage with visitors we want to focus on the latter, so what do your potential visitors really want?

To know this we want to build an idea of your average visitor.

Most businesses will say this could be anyone, but in reality you should be able to create a broad stereotype that will represent the core demographic you appeal to. Is it young families? Keen surfers or hikers? How old are they?

Put together a description of your average visitor, and then make a list of what it is they want when they visit (even use the feedback you’ve had from visitors to make sure this list is as accurate as possible).

People make decisions based on logic

People don’t make holiday decisions on a whim; they make them in the same way as other important decisions in their life. They are measured against certain criteria and with a degree of logic.

Your potential booker will have a variety of different requirements, each with a varying level of importance to them:

1. Essential Requirements – a cottage near the beach, something suitable for a young family, three bedrooms etc.
2. Desirable Requirements – is near to a local pub and have plenty to do within a ten-minute radius.
3. Added Value Requirements – a hot tub, free surf lessons with a local surfing school.
4. Fears – how far off the beaten track is it? How far is it to the beach? Will they have to drive everywhere?

Take the list you’ve just created of things your visitors want and divide it into these categories.

The next step

So far we have a list of what your holiday cottage has to offer, and a separate list of what your potential visitors want, divided into how much they want each of those things.

It’s time to bring the two together.

Match the list of items your cottage has against the list your visitors want, so you’re left with a single document that tells you who your average visitor is, what they want, and how your holiday cottage answers each of those needs.

Now the actual writing starts!

Review your own copy or write new copy!

Every page of your website should have the visitor in mind, so every page should be conveying how your cottage answers their needs. Begin with explaining how you meet their essential requirements, then their desirables and tip the scales with the added value you bring.

Don’t forget they also have fears; small things that could prevent them from booking. Make sure there’s no misunderstanding or reason they shouldn’t book with you.

Do all of this and you’ll make sure every paragraph you ever write is hitting the spot!

And the bookings will follow! If you have found this blog post on how to achieve more holiday home bookings with improved copy of interest do check out our other holiday home marketing posts by following the link – Holiday Home Marketing

Boshers offer specialist holiday home insurance to holiday letting owners across the UK. For more information on how a specialist insurer can help and support your holiday home business, please give us a call on 01237 429444.