Do you want to increase the number of online bookings you’re getting? When you secure more online bookings, you end up making more money.
At Book Like A Boss, or BLAB as our fans call us, we’re known for helping business owners get more bookings online.
Today, we’ll be showing you 7 easy-to-follow steps for improving your online bookings!
Our 7 Easy Ways to Get More Bookings Online
1. Use the Best Platform
Every business is different. And every booking platform is different.
In fact, we just recently talked about the best booking apps for businesses in 2022.
To improve your online bookings, you need to start with the best possible booking platform for your business or industry.
Here are some of the top features to consider when selecting a booking platform to improve your online conversions and sales:
- Customizability: Your booking platform should let you customize it to offer clients an experience as unique and authentic to your business as you are.
- Integration: No doubt you’re already using several administrative tools, such as Office 365, MailChimp, or even WordPress. Your booking platform should integrate well with these apps.
- Easy To Use: You’re a busy business owner, not a programmer. So, you need a booking platform that’s easy to use and starts working within minutes.
Once you’re using the best possible booking app for your business, it becomes easier to customize your page and convert visitors into paying customers.
2. Design to Impress and Convert
Having a regular booking page isn’t enough to convert visitors into customers. You’ll have to design an eye-catching booking page.
Think of your booking page as your ever-helpful, always-online sales consultant.
When your sales consultant looks fantastic, is polite, and is in the know, it becomes easier to secure online bookings.
Here are a couple of the must-haves for improving your online bookings.
Include a Call to Action
A call to action is that big, prominent button that tells people what action to take next and makes it easy for visitors to book your services.
BLAB allows you to customize the call to action so that it’s easy to spot and quickly converts those fence-sitting visitors into sales.
Add Social Proof
Social proof is essential if you want to build trust with your customers.
Use social integration features, such as Facebook Comments on your booking page to tell visitors exactly why you’re so highly rated.
Share Videos
TrueList found that you can easily persuade more than 70% of people to buy a product or a service through videos. So, to improve your bookings, think about including a video on your booking page.
Use the video to quickly and easily tell customers what they’ll be getting when they book you online.
Show Off with Reviews
Use your booking platform’s reviews feature to tell visitors how your services have changed your customers’ lives.
Don’t be afraid to ask for a review. The more reviews you have and show off with, the easier it becomes for customers to book your services.
Address Sales-Blocking Questions
If your booking page doesn’t have a frequently asked questions section, what’s the point in having a booking page?
The FAQ section is essential for addressing all those sales-blocking questions.
When visitors can quickly and easily find answers to their questions, it becomes easier to book your services.
3. Make it Easy
88% of online shoppers say they wouldn’t return to a website after a horrible user experience. The same study found that 70% of online businesses fail because of bad user experience.
If you want to succeed online, it’s clear that you need to give your customers a great user experience.
Here are some clever boss-ways to improve the user experience to secure more bookings.
Share Your Schedule
While there are different types of appointment scheduling, it’s always good to share your schedule with potential customers.
When customers can quickly and easily see your availability, they can secure those time slots they prefer. Not only will it lead to an improved user experience, but it’ll also create FOMO.
FOMO, or fear of missing out, is when people realize you’re so busy and in demand that they must have what you are offering. This need will lead to more online bookings!
Activate Online Payments
Few things are as annoying and time-consuming as trying to sort out payments for your services. Not only is it an added administrative burden that you have to deal with, but it leads to a bad user experience.
Instead, use your favorite booking platform to offer online payments. For instance, BLAB lets your customers pay you online through PayPal, Stripe, and even Square.
Customers can pay you the moment that they make the booking. There won’t be any need for you to generate invoices or follow up on late payments.
4. Remind Them
Securing more bookings is worthless when customers don’t show up for those appointments.
Did you know that 60% of people would be less likely to miss an appointment if they got an SMS reminder a couple of days before the meeting?
Instead of sitting and sending out SMS or even email reminders to secure those bookings, you can use a booking app such as BLAB to do it for you.
Automated reminders will reduce the no-shows, saving you time and money. Customers will also appreciate the professional service you’re providing, leading to loyal, returning customers and more money!
5. Share, Share, and Share!
Having an eye-catching booking page with all the latest features to grow your small business isn’t enough. To increase your number of bookings, you’ll have to tell people about your booking page.
Here are our top tips to share your online booking page with new and old customers.
Email and SMS
Use an email or SMS to let your existing customers know about your booking page. Share with them how quick and convenient it is to book your services.
Social Media
Use social media to tell your followers about your new booking page. Remind them that it’s only one way that you’re trying to give them the best service ever.
Coupons and Seasonal Discounts
To create some buzz around your booking page, announce it in a newsletter. Give your customers a unique coupon code or seasonal discount when they book you.
Of course, your booking platform needs to have these features, or else you’re missing out.
Business Card or Email Signature
Do you use traditional business cards? What about an email signature?
A straightforward way to share your excellent booking page is to add it to your business card and email signature. Doing this also makes it pretty easy for clients to book you online quickly.
6. Create Quality Content
Now that you’ve created the ultimate, optimized booking page, it’s time to draw in even more visitors to your website.
The best way to increase the number of visitors is by offering them high-quality content.
For instance, if you’re an online business coach, start a blog and share some ideas and tips with your readers.
You’ll establish yourself as an authority figure within your industry by doing this. The more prestige and respect you have online, the easier it’ll be for customers to trust you with their hard-earned money.
7. Offer a Loyalty Program
This tip is excellent if you’ve got a large existing customer base. You can easily create a loyalty program to ensure that those customers turn into returning customers.
Use your booking platform to offer loyalty discounts or special rewards when customers frequently book you.
By rewarding customer loyalty, you’ll turn your customers into brand ambassadors. Brand ambassadors are people that’ll tell their friends and family about your fantastic business.
It’s free marketing, and every big business does it!
Let Them Book You Like A Boss
Let’s recap. If you want to secure more online bookings for your business, you need to:
- Use an excellent booking platform.
- Have a fantastic, eye-catching booking page.
- Offer a great user experience.
- Share your booking page.
- Run frequent promotions.
- Reward customer loyalty.
If your current booking app doesn’t allow you to do all of this, you’re losing money.
Save yourself the hassle and grab this free trial of BLAB. It only takes 17-minutes to create your first high-converting booking page.
When you create a booking page with BLAB, you’ll find it’s easy to secure more online bookings and start earning money like a Boss!
