Tempting as it may be for general managers and heads of marketing to make significant cutbacks to help with uncertain visitor forecasts for 2023, now is the best time to implement a better customer journey and to maximise reach with an up-to-date website that will help increase revenue. 

Investing in a new website can be daunting, the prospect of migrating content, ticket system linking, testing  and not to mention the scary moment you go live, however standing still is not an option in 2023. The public’s buying choices are going to be more considered due to overall cost of living concerns so the ability to make things simple and provide all the aspects that the ticket buyer is looking for at speed will be vital. It is anticipated that there will be less in-advance ticket sales and more in the way of spur of the moment or last-minute purchases.  Catching that visitor in a compelling way in that moment will be key. A new website should put your attraction front and centre and in the palm of their hand when your visitor is making that buying decision. 

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Myth: Websites cost £10,000s and take up to 6 months to implement  

LOOP, the new website platform for attractions, has been developed by attraction experts Semantic and can be implemented in just 10 weeks with a cost from £795 per month. The new platform keeps the site constantly up to date so no further new site development projects  will be needed in the future. This technology is alive and not a static beast like your previous web experiences. You can provide SEO rich beautiful content but in a light and agile way to maximise web rankings but also get the buying journey down to as few clicks as possible.  

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The digital world has dramatically moved forward – 5 years in 1

Forget what you knew about digital journeys, that all changed with the pandemic.  Technology advances planned for 5 year’s time were all launched then and there, and the way people buy has changed dramatically because of this.

QR Codes, Apple Pay, 2-click purchase have all raced to the forefront. The access point for a person buying a ticket is now not determined by you, but by them. To drive revenue through ticket sales in 2023 you will have to develop technology that can be accessed via your homepage but also straight to ticket, via third parties and with offers to entice. In 2023 you will have people asking different questions and with differing purchase journeys.  A lean, light website front end allows the ability for all the above to be considered. One thing that is certain is that the majority of purchases will be on a mobile phone and probably while people are distracted or on the move, so simplicity is the key.

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Getting a new website will save your attraction money

By having a more advanced website your visitors can get the three things they need most at speed – where are you, what are you and how much. Old favourites such as parking, opening times special offers and FAQs can be immediately delivered via a built-in help centre and the purchase enabled by seamless links to your existing ticket system. LOOP has been developed to work with  with existing ticket systems so there is no need to wait for ticket system contracts to expire before changing your website. 

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The numbers to think about:

• Your old website maintenance cost per month
• Your monthly PPC spend (because you are fighting fires to get attention rather than ranking because of good digital marketing and today's tech) 
• Your website downtime and lost ticket sales
• Your slow speed at being able to upload offers, upsells or seasonal changes that work
• Your huge printing costs for traditional marketing when your marketing can sit in the same persons hand via a phone
• Your lost old visitors because you have been telling the same story for years – (tell a new story with beautiful design and new content and get old visitors to return)
• Your spend on multiple agencies, staff or systems to keep an ineffective old site going
• How many visitors do you lose because your website is not designed for mobile first?

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Using LOOP, there is still time to evaluate and implement ahead in time for the main season.

‍Book a demo and have a 1-1 chat with the LOOP team. Over 25 years of attraction experience has been put to good use and will transform the way attractions do business in the future.