Case Study: InterContinental Sydney

We always hear people talking about ‘good content’ being vital to success in the online world. That’s halfway between being a bleedingly obvious statement (duh, it’s ALL content) and infuriatingly vague – what specific content are we talking about? At what point does it become ‘good’, and when does that make a difference?

Today we’re taking a look at one venue partner – InterContinental Sydney – and how they revamped their online presence in one corner of the internet – VenueNow – in order to increase function bookings by about four times.

Everyone loves a success story, right? Especially if you can replicate the best bits for your own success.

InterContinental Sydney's story starts with a VenueNow listing featuring some information uploaded, along with some imagery. While enough to garner a handful of function booking requests, it frankly wasn’t nearly enough for us at VenueNow, or at the InterCon to be happy about the way the listing was performing.

To be precise, we wanted more than one or two booking requests a month for a venue as impressive and as well-known as the InterContinental Sydney.

By updating the content visible on their listing, InterContinental Sydney went from receiving a smattering of relatively low-budget booking requests a month during Q1 and Q2, to tripling that in July, and then quadrupling it in August and September. As far as dollars value go, the value of the enquiries received in Q3 doubled that of the entire year up until that point.

While that huge jump in booking requests can be related in part to a steady rise in customers across the VenueNow platform in general (especially amongst corporates), we can also attribute that directly to updated and impressive content on the InterContinental's listing.

And for those of you playing at home, throughout the year, roughly 70% of those booking requests were for corporate events. Not bad for a couple of afternoons adding useful information and high res images to an online dashboard!

So. Where do I start?

It’s worth noting that the more information and useful content present on a VenueNow listing, the higher that venue will be ranked in our search results. The higher a venue's 'Content Quality Score', the more visible they will be. And you can bet that this is the case with other internet platforms too. 

When it comes to your venue’s presence online, think to yourself: would I book my function, have dinner, or enjoy after work drinks at this venue after seeing these images, and seeing this information?

First things first, the InterContinental Sydney listing was in need of attractive imagery. As useful as pricing information is, as insightful as FAQs and reviews can be, that will be for naught if images are pixellated, awkwardly blurry, or a cluster of placeholder images. The team at InterCon Sydney not only added a couple of images per function space, but a high res cover image also, to grab customers' eye as soon as they land on their listing.

You'll also note that 'starting' prices for cocktail-style events and dinner events are located before the ‘fold’ (the point in which a user needs to start scrolling). A venue’s cover image and that pricing information is the very FIRST thing customers see; they’re immediately making split-second decisions about your venue's aesthetics and its price points. 

Make sure those decisions are in your favour. We all know function packages can be altered and tailored – but we also know VenueNow customers are far more likely to make an enquiry for their event when they can see how that venue’s pricing fits in with their budget.

Speaking of which: minimum spends. Via the My VenueNow dashboard, the InterContinental Sydney team added min spends for Fridays, Saturdays and the rest of the week for each space. Minimum spends act both as search filters – to ensure all booking requests are qualified and worthy of the team’s time – and as another useful piece of information for customers.

But my venue is different!

Every space is different, every menu is different, every function package is different. How will you let customers know your venue is unique?

Upload function package PDFs, menu PDFs, and any other piece of information that might result in a customer picking your venue over another. We recommend uploading packages and menus with pricing information present; every piece of intel counts.

Next, InterContinental Sydney added FAQs – these simple question and answer fields in My VenueNow are a simple way of conveying any extra information about the venue, or even specific spaces.

Everything’s looking good – now what?

It’d be misleading to say ‘the team at InterCon Sydney updated their content and they booked every event immediately, the end!’

Customers on VenueNow send function enquiries to multiple venues per event they organise. As you can imagine, it's competitive.

The team at the InterCon Sydney met with the VenueNow Marketplace Growth team, to chat about their internal processes and how they could integrate VenueNow booking requests more seamlessly in order to maximise their chance of winning that business. There's really no use in updating one's content to maximise enquiries, and attracting the most desired portion of the market for your venue (corporate events, in the case of InterCon Sydney) if the customers aren't being responded to.

We picked the brains of the InterCon Sydney team a recently, to see how they found the process. Here's what they said:

VenueNow: Did your process within the team alter to accommodate the higher number of VenueNow enquiries being received and/or for enquiries coming from other platforms in general?

InterContinental Sydney: We now have a dedicated team member looking after and managing our online platforms, such as VenueNow, and also slight restructure to our meetings and events team to streamline the inquiry process.

VM: Would you have any tips for other venues looking to improve their presence / content on online platforms?

ICS: Think from the customer's perspective - what would they want to see and how would they like to see it? Keep your content relevant as it is key- ensure all key information is up to date, visuals are as stimulating as possible and your properties positioning is strong. This adds immense value and drives the right leads to your property.

VM: Any highlights event-wise from the 2016 end of year event season?

ICS: Of course we hosted a high number of spectacular festive events, however one event comes to mind as a definite stand-out. We had a high profile after award-show party in Supper Club’s rooftop lounge on our 32^nd floor, which overlooks the iconic Sydney harbour.

The team put together a ‘Tokyo- Disco’ themed event with specially designed cocktails from our resident mixologist John Toubia, costumed wait staff, Japanese inspired décor with a contemporary disco twist and a host of innovative additions tonight. It was a one-of-a-kind event that the team executed to perfection.

VM: What does 2017 have in store for InterContinental Sydney? 

ICS: Stay tuned - a refreshing update coming soon! 

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Your venue's process may very well differ from that of InterContinental Sydney's; there's no denying the scope of venues large and small on the VenueNow platform, with teams that differ just as wildly in size. What we can say though, is that the most successful VenueNow venue partners – the ones that lock in the most events – have integrated online platforms, and not just VenueNow, to their daily processes.

Where that starts though, is by attracting the enquiries in the first place. And how does that begin? Through beautiful and informative content!

To recap, that includes:

• High res cover image to grab attention immediately
• Beautiful imagery of function spaces and previous events
• Starting prices visible before the 'fold' of the profile
• Minimum spends to filter out unsuitable budgets
• Menu and function package PDFs
• Useful Frequently Asked Questions

Always consider: would YOU enquire at your venue after seeing the content present on your listing?

And remember: your venue doesn't have to be a sprawling hotel or part of a well-known group to win those booking requests!

If you'd like to chat to a member of VenueNow's Venue Marketplace Growth team.