Resort/Hotel

Casa Del Mar Beach Resort

Vacation condominium rentals located on Longboat Key, Florida on the Gulf of Mexico. The resort is strategically located just a few steps from miles of private white sandy beaches.

A large heated swimming pool with a beautiful gulf view is just one of the many available amenities.

Challenge

The gulf coast of Manatee and Sarasota Counties are incredibly competitive vacation areas. However, the location is seasonal with a feast or famine relationship.

Vacationers typically visit from October through April leaving the summer mostly barren.

The peak vacation season are broken up into different demographics. From October through February, the primary visitors are retirees.

March and April is a mix of retirees and spring breakers with an average age of 33. May – September visitors are typically locals or families that fall within the Generation X.

Findings From The Marketing Audit

Visitors

visitflorida.org reported a record 131 million out-of-state visitors to Florida in 2017. This was a 3.8% increase versus 2016. Additionally, visitflorida.org reported a 7.4% hotel revenue growth during the same period. However, visitsarasota.com reported a 4.2% increase in Sarasota County visitors vs 2016.

Florida was a trending vacation spot, however the area was not seeing as much growth.

Website Analytics

There was a 40% shift from PC to Mobile devices. Important pages in the checkout process noticed increased bounce rates and exit percentages. Some crucial pages realized exit percentage increases by as much as 56%. Additionally, the number of single website visitors were increasing. Engagement was down in that the number of sessions that were recorded between 0-10 seconds increased by 15%.

Revenue was increasing, however the use of discounts was also increasing. Most revenue was from returning guests and there was a lack of engagement from new prospects.

Website Usability

The website wasn’t mobile friendly in that booking online with a mobile device was cumbersome. The website did not do a great job showing off the experience you would receive if you stayed at the resort. Website visitor surveys concluded that the website was difficult to use and important information was hard to find. Room availability and resort maps did not work well in mobile devices.

Social Media

Social posts were typically just room images with links to the room detail. Engagement was typically from the same people even though page likes were increasing.

Solution

1. Redesign the website with a focus on how visitor use the website.
2. Redevelop the website using on-page SEO best practices.
   1. Interlinking with anchor text
   2. Page load times
   3. Content marketing
   4. Page title and meta descriptions to match page content
   5. Add content to thin pages
   6. Add image ALT tags to missing images (5387 images)
   7. Make website ADA compliant
3. Change website usability to mobile first.
4. Take the best pictures that show off the resort and move them to important pages.
5. Develop content that tells a story or involves how the resort and surrounding areas could be used by guests.
6. Use social media to promote the content.
7. Reach out to local and national publishers, news and blogs to share our story (backlinks and mentions).

Website Home Page Before

Website Home Page After Sunbay Marketing

Results

Upgrades are still underway, however the results so far have been spectacular. No drop in prices or discounts, no increase in marketing/advertising spend.

Revenue: +44.86%
Transactions: +33.33%
Ecommerce Conversion Rate: +42.16%
Bounce Rate: -25.82%
Avg. Order Value: +8.64%
% Exit: -14.07%