Semantic, a company that designs and optimises websites for visitor attractions worldwide, has shared some insights into how attractions can stand out from the crowd, stay fresh, and encourage return visits.
The UK-based digital agency helps attractions create a great impression online to drive traffic, engagement and guest revenue and has recently launched its new LOOP platform, an innovative approach to getting attractions online or improving their existing online performance.
Creating a relevant value proposition
Attractions, whether they are zoos, aquariums, museums, theme parks or other destinations, need to ensure that they stand out from the crowd, particularly at busy times such as school holidays or around seasonal events. In order to do this, it is important that they stay fresh and offer something new. This also helps operators to encourage return visits.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. For instance, a heritage attraction or zoo could add a family activity trial as a quick upsell at the gate, or add seasonal, collectable merchandise. According to Semantic, this will be even more successful if it is available online, or bundled with special family tickets.
Attractions also need to showcase their value, and their web presence is a great way of doing this. Having a user-friendly and appealing website makes it easy for guests to understand what an attraction can offer, and it can also be used to sell relevant bundles to make visitors feel like they are getting a special deal.
When designing a website, Semantic says that storytelling is key; operators need to keep in mind things like tone of voice and brand positioning. They can also target different landing pages to different audience segments, and adjust the content accordingly.
By positioning their website as an integral part of the experience, attractions can blur the line between on-site and off-site experiences, making their guests feel special at every stage of their visit.
Addressing visitors’ pain points
School holidays can be stressful for parents and carers, so attractions should make life as easy as possible for potential guests who are planning a day out. For example, a good attraction website should make it easy for guests to navigate to key information, with shortcuts, clear navigation, search and help centre capabilities.
Parents also want to know what experiences are suitable for their family. Tying relevant content and attractions together to minimise the number of pages guests need to work through before they have enough information will make things more straightforward for the guest. Similarly, combining information for key guest types will make the experience better, for instance, by pulling relevant content into landing pages which target key visitor types.
The website, systems and content should do the work, rather than making users trawl through too many pages.
When it comes to the weather, attractions can also prepare a series of assets, pages and tickets that can be activated quickly if the weather forecast is unfavourable. Outside attractions could even consider a rainy day guarantee offer or similar.
It is also important to make it easy to find accessibility information. For example, operators should ensure that disabled and companion tickets are easy to find and book, and collect all of the relevant content together to ensure all visitors have a great experience.
In addition, attractions should make sure that their websites themselves are accessible for everyone, with suitable contrast, font sizes and accessibility shortcuts. Semantic recommends setting up an accessibility user focus group or asking the design agency to check the accessibility setup.
Offering compelling upsells
Attractions must also ensure that pricing is clear on their websites, as well as offering compelling ticketing upsells. These should be clear, relevant, and targeted to specific ticket types and shows at relevant points in the booking /post-booking process), advises Semantic. Operators can also create bundles for VIP / premium tickets, which can increase guests’ perception of value and increase the average order value.
When it comes to pre-booking, which has many advantages for the operator, attractions can offer incentives, such as making sure the benefits of booking online outweigh the drawbacks, thanks to better prices, more flexibility, beating the queue, discounts etc. Flexible pricing can target peak days, and attractions can provide ticket, membership, or experience packages that tie in with the budgets that each of their visitor types is likely to have, to maximise the revenue per person at various times of year.
Meanwhile, multi-visit offers target secondary spend. Families are looking for value, so Semantic says that operators could consider taking a hit on entry across multiple days but making more on secondary spend. For example, visit before Christmas and return next year is a great offer to consider, so long as return visits are limited to be outside of super peak periods.
An attraction’s website can also help to capture relevant data, therefore assisting operators in building relationships. For instance, attractions can take advantage of pre/post trigger messaging, email targeting and personalisation.
A joined-up approach
Semantic believes that many attractions, zoos, theme parks, museums, heritage and leisure attractions are leaving money on the table by not joining up their value proposition, website and on-the-day experience.
By taking a few of these ideas, attractions can help maximise their revenue even whilst families are super mindful of the cost of living challenges. Stepping back and thinking about their value proposition, how their pricing is presented, and ensuring their website clearly explains this, with fast ways to book will help keep them ahead of the competition and thrive in these challenging times.
“We always say that your website should be an enabler,” says Neil Lewin, managing director of Semantic. “It should help glue all your marketing together and let you easily try new content, ideas or strategies online.
“Having fast and easy-to-use systems is key when times get busy, so we are thrilled our new LOOP platform is helping more attractions to give their guests a great experience online. Your website should be an integrated part of the guest experience, helping them to find key information, decide to visit and easily book tickets and events. It’s often the first interaction with your brand, so making sure it’s fast, reliable and easy to use is key for creating a great first impression, and helping you stand out from the crowd.”
Last month, Semantic announced that it had secured its tenth client for the new LOOP platform. The LOOP platform for visitor attractions makes website development quick and easy. Through an innovative combination of design, technology and sector expertise, the platform provides optimised websites with features designed for the attractions industry.
