National Trust’s redesigned holidays website boosts bookings by 32%
Howard Lake | 29 September 2017 | News
The National Trust has redeveloped its holidays business website and achieved a 32% increase in bookings in the first six weeks.
The National Trust holidays site, which relaunched in July, is now mobile responsive and optimised across multiple platforms.
The redevelopment has been handled by Manifesto, the charity’s digital partner, and is part of a five-year digital transformation strategy. The overall aim of that is to consolidate various digital resources into a single, stable and responsive platform.
The site handled an average of 1,000 bookings a month.
Before…
… after.
The previous version of the website was several years old and the National Trust team knew that it was out of touch with customer expectations and browsing habits. As a result of this, “a huge amount” of customer traffic was being directed away from the website and to the charity’s call centre instead.
Redesign process
Manifesto and the National Trust first focused on delivering the best experience for mobile users, designing and testing mobile prototypes, before these were scaled up to work on the desktop.
Manifesto also explored the customer journey and how that fit within the holiday business’ sales funnel. Jim Bowes, CEO at Manifesto, acknowledged that the National Trust had a “complex transactional journey”.
After six weeks the site had seen traffic increase by 32.38% and bookings had increased by 32% year-on-year within the first month.
Find your autumn retreat – book a holiday cottage break and save 15%: https://t.co/OX1Q0nrK0U pic.twitter.com/XcRP26J8ny
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— National Trust (@nationaltrust) September 21, 2017
The site will be further enhanced, with the aim of integrating additional types of holiday bookings, marketing automation and personalisation.
Tom Barker, Head of Digital at National Trust, commented on the project: “The National Trust’s previous digital journey often left our audiences confused and frustrated. As a charity, we can’t sit back and neglect this vital part of the business. We have worked closely with Manifesto to rebuild our digital offering to future-proof its functionality and make it a positive experience for all users.
“The holidays website is the final jewel in the crown. We have finally brought all our web property onto one responsive platform, which is allowing us to focus on innovating and growing the charity.”
Happy Birthday, Agatha Christie! Have you ever visited Greenway, her holiday home on the banks of the River Dart? pic.twitter.com/B7YZXNeyvQ
— National Trust (@nationaltrust) September 15, 2017
- The National Trust on its digital roadmap (and moving from Waterfall to Agile) by Ben Davis at econsultancy (21 September 2017)
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.