Lord Nelson Hotel and Suites
Challenge
Lord Nelson Hotel and Suites As Halifax’s most historic hotel, The Lord Nelson has done an incredible job in preserving their elegant and timeless persona since 1928. Ramping up to a huge renovation of the hotel’s interior, it was the perfect time to revamp and redefine their online presence. Challenge The Lord Nelson is a maritime landmark hotel that needed to reinvigorate its digital presence to compete with local players in the booming Halifax hospitality industry. While undergoing renovations to the interior of the hotel, it was perfect timing to up their online game and offer an improved customer experience through an enhanced look & feel for their site as well as a more streamlined information architecture. Leveraging their new digital property, our goal was to increase sales, reinforce their value proposition and bring supporting images and copy to the forefront. The new website needed to support off-line bookings as well as help drive online bookings, acting as the organization’s top marketing tool and brand vehicle.
Solution
Overhauling the website we were able to revamp the entire digital experience for Lord Nelson’s customers. This included rethinking the main online entry points that any potential guest may be coming from. Website The new website was built using the Drupal platform and integrated with Booking Engine to support online bookings. Our updated information architecture focused on creating specific landing pages for each type of room and amenity. Dedicated landing pages with keywords help users find the content they’re looking for when using search engines - and quickly! Whether a guest is looking for a Deluxe Suite for a romantic getaway or an extended stay option for a business trip, we’ve created custom landing pages on the website to pull the user in, and page linked directly to the booking engine for a quick, easy-to-navigate booking experience. To modernize the look of the site, our designers moved away from the gold, Victorian elements heavily used throughout the old website and created a lighter, more airy feeling site; now more in line with the new renovations and updated overall look. The new site still maintains the same sense of elegance and air of sophistication but with a modern flare. Booking Engine The booking engine was reskinned to stay inlign with the new branded website. We also improved the mobile experience, including implementing red buttons to indicate next steps in the process, providing a better user experience while guiding users through the online booking process. Email Template To make sure the branding stayed consistent, we implemented the new digital look and feel into an email template for the Lord Nelson’s confirmation email system. Now customers will receive a confirmation email that contains all their pertinent reservation details that now also includes key upsells to help upgrade their stay. Search Engine Marketing To capture the attention of consumers shopping for rooms online, we undertook a full search engine marketing (SEM) campaign. Our main objectives were to compete against other local hotels for optimal search engine results, and ultimately increase bookings on the Lord Nelson platform. The SEM exercise included keyword research specific to the local accommodation market in Halifax. Identifying high traffic keywords that are relevant to Lord Nelson’s target audience in an effort to drive traffic to the new website, gain greater brand awareness for Lord Nelson, and increase bookings through the online platform. Based on selected keywords we developed corresponding ads and campaigns using Google AdWords.
Results
The result is a fully immersive, digital experience that is true to the Lord Nelson brand every step of the way.
Want fresh marketing stories in your inbox?
Get the weekly email that makes you a marketing genius.
Stay informed and inspired, for free.