Ok, so we’ve covered the data about landing page elements and navigation options. The general consensus is that the visitor is likely being presented with too much, too fast. As I mentioned, when you give a visitor more choices, rather than encourage them to take action, the number of visitors that take any action at all goes down. More choices = less action = lack of website efficiency.

So, how do you overcome that? Well, it’s time I do some actual suggesting from my own bag of marketing tricks. I have been sketching out and poking around with something this week that I call the “Custom Website Experience” .

CUSTOM WEBSITE EXPERIENCE
As far as I can tell, there isn’t a single resort that uses anything like this, so this might seem a little bit radical and different. However, with a background in a half dozen industries outside of skiing, maybe I can bring a slightly varied perspective to the table.

The goals I wanted to meet were as follows:

• Meet the needs of multiple types of visitors
• Limit the number of options a visitor is presented with
• Simplify the presentation of information

Here’s my idea…

The visitor arrives at the website as usual, peruses things for about 5 seconds and then this appears on the page (just a lightbox effect hovering on the site itself within the browser, not an actual pop-up, an example):

It offers to simplify the process for them by them answering some basic, multiple choice questions about what kind of skier they are, saving the visitor a few minutes, and giving you a chance to put a customized page full of offers, deals, and solutions in front of their nose in seconds. It even builds your email list. This might be what it looks like:

The results page would pull items from a database of possible answers / solutions to what the visitor needs that you have written previously including:

• A trail map with highlighted runs and lifts the skier would enjoy based on their level
• Lodging deals and options if they are coming from out of town
• Group and family deals if they will are coming en-masse
• Rental information for just about anyone, but especially beginners
• Lesson information for beginners
• Ticket deals and offers
• An option to change the search parameters and refresh the page

This idea is in its infancy and the sketches above are crude, but I think you get the picture. Let your website do the work for them, save them some time, gather a few email addresses, and give the visitor a custom, streamlined experience that helps them find and use the information on your website.

So there it is, I’ve done it, I’ve made a recommendation on SlopeFillers, whew :) I’d LOVE to hear your feedback on this about what you like, dislike, would add, take-away, etc. Just leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

NOTE: Although I did some basic HTML/CSS/PHP coding for the screenshots, the back-end is not yet coded or functional.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.