Case Study

Brief

Following an analysis by RedEye through web analytics, Macdonald Hotels became aware of several opportunities for improvements on the website relating to registration, hotel search and the online booking process. Macdonald Hotels looked to RedEye to improve these critical procedures and improve ROI.

Strategy

Macdonald Hotels implemented RedEye’s conversion optimisation process. The solution combines usability, email and analytics. RedEye implemented usability and analytics to fully understand the behaviour of online users. Using this information RedEye pulled together an effective marketing strategy for Macdonald Hotels including implementing specific online changes to improve the relevant areas on the site and incorporating behavioural email to improve customer engagement and increase the number of bookings.

Execution

RedEye carried out an Expert Usability Review of the website incorporating analytics research on the user experience. Clear evidence-based findings and recommendations based on this activity were put into an optimisation report. This information enabled Macdonald Hotels to fully understand the issues customers were experiencing on the site and implement the proposed changes quickly and efficiently.

Two of these improvements were:

• Embedding registration into the booking process
• Introducing a ‘please wait’ animation for the hotel search

In addition RedEye investigated areas to use email to re-engage users who started a booking but failed to complete it. A specific abandoned booking process was devised to understand the behaviour of these users and a behavioural email campaign was designed to communicate back to them in a targeted and timely fashion encouraging re-engagement.

Results

From the usability improvements recommended by RedEye and the email marketing campaign implemented by RedEye the following results were achieved:

• Abandoned process behavioural email program received 40% click-through
- 40% of users receiving the initial email clicked through to the site
- Of these, 65% actively searched for a hotel and 4% went on to make a booking

• Over £350,000 in increased revenue was received over the first year
- There was a 12.15% increase in conversion of people searching on the website
- If all these additional searches went on to book it would equate to an additional 6,089 opportunities to book each month, equalling a huge £1,273,757.91 sales opportunities per month
- Based on the current average conversion (2.52%), an extra 153 bookings could be made per month, equalling around £32,006.07 worth of sales per month; an annual increase in revenue of £384,072

• Registrations doubled without affecting conversion
- The exit rate from the booking page was not affected and the average pages seen on site and the time taken to book did not change. This indicates the changes did not have any negative affect on the overall user experience
- The registration rate from bookings almost doubled from 36.1% to 71.6%

• Overall ROI of the optimisation project was 4700%
- For every £100 spent on optimisation Macdonald Hotels received £4,700 in additional revenue

Next steps:

Impressed with the results, Macdonald Hotels has chosen to continue their optimisation project with RedEye focusing on the following activities:
• Investigate how hotel information is integrated into searching for room availability
• Apply RedEye’s recommended strategy for increasing registration uptake on the site

“We’ve been working with RedEye for a long time and have always been impressed with the results they achieve. RedEye’s conversion optimisation process has really helped us get the most from our website. Through a thorough usability analysis based on both testing and analytics we now know exactly what activity will work for us. I think the results from the activities implemented speak for themselves. We are looking forward to continuing optimisation work with RedEye to ensure we are constantly improving our site.”

Pamela Robertson, Marketing Manager, Macdonald Hotels