Supercharging your hotel's conversion rate by analysing large chunks of data can be a tough nut to crack. How do you convert all that data into the kind of numbers you really want—bookings? Thankfully, there are lots of very powerful and cost-effective tools on the market which can give you far deeper insight into how and why our marketing activities are working. One of the most important ones you can have in your toolkit is a customer persona. Here, we'll teach you how they can help you, how to build them and how to use them.

1. Brigitta Antonyi, Net Affinity
ANALYTICS UNLOCKED:
HOW TO USE
GOOGLE ANALYTICS
TO FIND YOUR PERFECT
CUSTOMER

2. In today’s presentation, we’ll be looking at:
 Why you need a Customer Persona
 How to use Google Analytics to get the right data
 Creating Personas with your data
 Creating a Targeted Strategy with your Persona
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

3. They’re the
foundation for
your hotel’s
strategy
WHY YOU NEED A
CUSTOMER PERSONA

4. A customer persona is:
“A fictional character created to represent the different user
types that might use a site, brand or product in a similar way”
For hotels, this means using your data – from your booking
engine and Google Analytics – to find your ‘ideal’ guest.
A guest persona is the person most likely to come to your site &
stay at your hotel, based on real data.
FIRST OF ALL, WHAT IS A PERSONA?

5. Is the backbone
behind your strategy,
from sales &
marketing to
website design
Helps build more
direct bookings by
effective targeting
Lets you create a
more gripping
experience for
guests by keeping
them in the centre
of your plans
CREATING A PERSONA….

6. It’s not as
hard as
you think!
HOW TO CREATE
CUSTOMER PERSONAS

7. 1. Gather and analyse data
2. Use the data to
formulate personas
3. Use the persona to
create a strong, targeted
marketing and sales
strategy
HOW TO CREATE CUSTOMER PERSONAS

8. WHAT
DOES YOUR
IDEAL
GUEST
LOOK LIKE?

9. GATHER AND ANALYSE DATA
Google Analytics gives a ‘5 star’ view
of your website users and their
interests, needs and desires. It also
shows you sources they use to get to
your site.
This information plus your own
knowledge & intuition gives you
everything you need to make an ideal
customer persona!
Make sure you
have both
e-commerce and
demographics
tracking enabled
in Google
Analytics. If not,
talk to your
marketing team!
BEFORE YOU
ANALYSE:

10. This report shows you age, gender & location– all
segmented by visits, bounce rates, conversion and
more.
Use this info to find who your most profitable
buyers are (e.g. females age 25-44) and your
visitors with the highest conversion rate.
REPORT 1: USER DEMOGRAPHICS

11. Start building a few personas:
For example, if females give you the most revenue but convert
less often, build a female persona to drive them to book more
frequently. For your male persona, you might focus on upgrades
or packages to encourage more spend per booking.
On the other hand, maybe your higher conversion rates on
smaller bookings mean you have more guests travelling solo for
business, and you should market towards a business persona.
The bottom line? You need more data!
HOW TO USE USER DEMOGRAPHICS

12. It’s pretty much a
no-brainer if you’re
a hotel, so we can
move on.
REPORT 2: INTEREST &
IN-MARKET SEGMENT
Users in the given categories in this report often buy
things in those categories. For hoteliers, travel or
hotels & accommodation usually have the highest
visits and revenue.

13. REPORT 3: SOURCE & MEDIUM
Now let’s look at the different channels (sources) your
guests tend to use before they book on your site.
For example, here’s what a female’s experience on a site
might look like:

14. REPORT 3: SOURCE & MEDIUM
And here’s what a male’s experience might be:
You can also segment referral traffic by gender.

15. Okay, that’s a lot of data
you’ve just collected … what
next?

16. You’re
going to
need online
and offline
sources!
CREATE PERSONAS
WITH YOUR DATA

17. Here’s a rule of thumb: 90% data, 10% knowledge
Knowledge comes from your reservations manager and
reception staff – they can personify the customers they deal
with, both in person and over the phone.
Use their experience to give your data an extra kick: are they
generally impatient? Brusque? Are they there on business or
pleasure?
USE ONLINE AND OFFLINE SOURCES

18. Analyse your BKE and PMS systems to discover
what packages and room types are most often
booked.
This information plus your analytics and
knowledge will form the basis of your customer
personas.
The amount of detail you use is up to you, but
the more you know, well… the more you’ll know.
USE ONLINE AND OFFLINE SOURCES

19. Here’s an example using
Hubspot’s handy persona
builder. Give it a try
yourself!
CREATE YOUR PERSONAS

20. TIPS WHEN CREATING PERSONAS
 Give them a name. It will help you refer to them
throughout your marketing plan, and make the
process a little less impersonal
 Hotels usually build 4-6 personas, but this
depends on needs and wants – there’s no
minimum or maximum!
 Share the personas with all key stakeholders in
the hotel, so everyone’s on the same page

21. Here’s how
to use all
this info for
more direct
bookings
CREATE A TARGETED
STRATEGY WITH YOUR
PERSONA

22.  Identifying the demographics of valuable customers
is useful when creating content for your website.
 Is your content engaging with all your personas? Is it
easy to find necessary information? Is your call to
action prominent and engaging?
 Here’s some advice on designing your
site and crafting copy that you can tailor to your
personas’ needs.
TAILOR YOUR WEBSITE CONTENT

23.  Do you offer things your personas would buy?
 Do you have a range of offers and packages
available for each persona?
 Are your rates, packages and booking engines easy
to access and understand, and are you selling them
effectively?
TAILOR YOUR PACKAGES

24. Make sure you’re targeting your personas through all
relevant channels.
 On social media, make sure you’re engaging with the
demographics relevant to your key performing personas.
 In your email marketing, create offers unique to your top
performing personas. Ideally, you’d segment your
database based on each persona and market different
offers to each.
 In your paid marketing efforts, tailor your campaigns to
capture your top performing personas.
TAILOR YOUR MARKETING ACTIVITY

25. It’s vital to monitor & test
your personas and user
experience – they may
change by the season!
If you need a little
help, take a look
at the Google
analytics support
pages or get in
touch with our
experts.
GOOD LUCK!

26. Get in touch
with us to
give your
hotel
superpowers!
THAT’S ALL FOR NOW.
GOOD LUCK BUILDING
YOUR PERSONAS!
Net Affinity is an international award-winning
Technology, Design and Marketing Company
who work exclusively with hotels.
We drive more direct business to your hotel,
and develop client relationships that allow us
to consistently cultivate and develop your
business. Your success is our success!