Tailoring websites to the user for increased conversion: Case study of Wild Dunes Resort

Establishing an emotional connection with one’s audience is essential to evoke a need for the product as a first step in the buying process. This paper describes the case of Wild Dunes Resort, where the goal was to evoke a need for a vacation, to hold a meeting or to spend more time with loved ones. Although the property’s proprietary website systematically exhibited positive results in every measure of performance, a directive to increase revenue from specific market segments brought a much-needed fresh look at how well the website was serving the needs of its various users. In order to increase conversion, the resort needed a website that would give all users the ability to quickly identify the resort as a viable option for his or her need, provide important information concisely, and build confidence in the resort’s ability to deliver on the desired experience. To this end, the resort’s marketing team worked with its web developer to launch a behaviourally-targeted website that would serve dynamic and relevant content to each audience. The resulting website helped the team achieve nearly 200 per cent of the revenue goal in year one alone.