Buffalo Peaks B&B Lodge and Cabin Case Study

During our business consulting discovery phase with Buffalo Peaks B&B Lodge and Cabin, we found that they thought the only way to increase their gross revenue using marketing services was by increasing their number of bookings. Through our research we presented something they hadn’t realized was an opportunity that would prove to be key to increasing their gross revenues. They were one of the less expensive B&B and cabin rentals in their area. Our marketing services would not only increase their number bookings, it would allow them to raise their room rates through our comprehensive and balanced marketing plan. So we asked ourselves what can we do specifically to help them raise their prices. The answer was to elevate their brand using professional photography and identifying who their ideal customer is.

Professional photography for hotels is extremely critical as travelers will base their decisions, whether they are interested in staying at a place, in a matter of seconds of viewing photos of the rooms. Using amateur photography was losing them more business than if they had paid for professional photography.

Next in the discovery process we focused on who was their ideal customer. Is their ideal customer business travelers, couples, groups, etc.; are men or women making the reservation; and what is the age-range. By answering these questions, and many more, we homed in on our marketing efforts including what marketing channels to use. This is what we call a comprehensive and balanced marketing plan. Our comprehensive and balanced marketing plan includes social media marketing, organic internet marketing, local business maps, and Paid-Per-Click (PPC).

We know from studies that a well-designed website and user experience (UX) has huge impacts on a business’s conversions. This became a priority to increase their gross revenue.

With everything in place for design, photography, and marketing the next important aspect of what we do is collecting data. Having a strong analytics report regarding your website and users is how we continually improve the website and marketing conversions. Without proper analytics, you’re flying blind with your marketing.

By elevating Buffalo Peaks B&B Lodge and Cabin’s brand, they were able to raise their prices by double and not doubling their workload. Then with our targeted internet marketing, their traffic soared, further allowing them to attract higher paying guests to stay at their B&B.

Branding

The Buffalo Peaks B&B Lodge and Cabin is named after the beautiful Buffalo Peaks visible from the lodge near Buena Vista, CO. With the peaks being part of their name we thought it would be perfect to capture the peaks in their logo design. For the branding colors we captured the mountain theme and the lodge decor. All the rooms and the cabin is full of custom hand cut and hand built wood furniture. We sampled part of the furniture wood to create a brown and cream color for their branding. For the main font we employed a unique western serif typeface to match their timeless mountain decor. We balanced the main font by pulling in a personal touch with a casual-feeling script font to represent the friendly bed and breakfast atmosphere.

Website Design

For the website, we carried over the branding elements to build a strong and cohesive design. When selecting the fonts to be used in the logo design process, we made sure they could also be used on the website and in other marketing collateral. This is critical for keeping the professional quality throughout all marketing, as many fonts do not have scalability to maintain design integrity.

With the website design and build we also focused on their ideal client and user ability. To do this we addressed all elements of the website including, engaging headers, content, professional photography, and easy-to-use layouts to maximize conversion for both mobile and desktop platforms. Our goal for this website is to give the users quick and easy access to view the rooms and cabin with just one or two clicks. From there it’s also important to have the ability to get to the booking engine no matter what page you are on with one to two clicks. Bottom line, easy navigation for users to access what they want to see, professional photography that showcases the business, and ease to book at any point in their process of using the website, is paramount to this business having higher conversions.