The Approach
Knockranny House Hotel originally signed up as an Aró client in 2006 for website and hosting services. In January 2015, the hotel began using Aró’s digital marketing and account management services, as well as commissioning a new website and upgrading to the responsive booking engine. The website design focused on introducing key reasons to book direct beside the large booking widget and directing users to the booking engine with clear call to actions on each page, all the while displaying the unique elegance of the hotel.
Improving special offer presentation was a key concern. Aró had developed a new CMS and responsive booking engine since the launch of the hotel’s last website. Updating to this system made it easier for the client to create, update and monitor the performance of special offers. The packages are also to the forefront of the home page design: eye-catching imagery with simple, clear descriptions act as compelling call to actions. The new design also included an improved cataloguing and presentation of the offers into groups that were easy to navigate and streamlined the purchasing process.
The website went through an intensive SEO launch, as all of Aró’s websites do, ensuring a healthy end-product in terms of best practice on-page SEO. This work has been built upon since: in 2016 the digital marketing professionals focused on optimising the site for specific long-tail keywords. While the number of searches for these keywords were low in volume, they brought quality traffic to the website, which is reflected in the higher conversion rate and a reduced bounce rate.
These technical improvements, combined with an integration with Siteminder, has eased the management of room allocations, rates, promotions, content entry and other duties, allowing the client to spend more of their valuable time on improving their marketing and sales campaigns. Collaborating with the team on email marketing, promotions, implementing recommended strategies, as well as Aró's optimisation and management of their PPC campaign, has all contributed to surpassing goals for revenue growth over the last two years.
Read more: Top 5 Ways to Improve your Online Strategy's Performance
