Ep. 25: How to drive more revenue, with Sagar Bhakta.
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Sagar Bhakta is joining me today to talk about e-commerce for hotels.
I started working with Sagar about 8 years ago. I’ll never forget when my boss at the time said, “Look, there’s this guy.” Sagar was a legend. He worked with us to launch high performing websites at record speeds. When we were launching a site for a beachfront bar in Hilton Head, we really needed some sort of calendar for twice daily live music that was happening. Like magic, Sagar produced a custom calendar plug in that still serves the client several years later.
Since then, Sagar’s been my lifeline. He helped me build our restaurant website, and he also helped me transition from working for one company to working with many, by hiring me to do copywriting for like—I was just counting this—two dozen hotels he was working with at the time. We’ll get to that in the episode.
Sagar built his first website when he was 15, and he hasn’t stopped since then. Some of the hotels he works with include Hard Rock Hotel San Diego, The Charter Hotel Seattle, Hotel Vitale in San Francisco, and many other small boutique hotels.
Today, Sagar owns Zambezi Marketing with a team of 10 and their number one goal—written all over their website—is to make money for the hotels they serve. Period.
From all of the interviews I’ve done over the years, with heads of marketing, hotel owners, travel bloggers, pretty much anyone in the tourism industry—they share one thing in common. I ask them what they struggle with, or what they want more of and it’s always the same thing—they want to learn how to get more business, and convert more business.
On today’s episode, Sagar is joining me to talk all about e-commerce for hotels. Sagar’s going to share some practical, actionable tips on how to increase website conversions, so with the same traffic to your site, you can drive more bookings. Who doesn’t want that?
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I really enjoyed talking shop with Sagar today. When it comes to e-commerce, my key takeaways are:
First, Sagar shined a light on some KPIs of website that I’ve seen hoteliers overlook. Sure, your website should share your story and look great, but that shouldn’t come at the cost of your need for speed, a fast website ranks higher on Google, after all.
Second, your website should be adaptable. Sagar’s sites have been rapidly updated in response to the pandemic, and all of the add ons? They’re included in his monthly cost, which starts at $150. To me, that’s a no brainer.
Third, when it comes to marketing campaigns, Sagar suggests hitting the gas on geotargeting and meta search—maybe even doubling down on the drive market while there’s less competition out there. You don’t need to sacrifice rate to get heads in beds and you can use what Sagar calls the billboard effect to actually earn more direct traffic from OTAs. So it’s not about avoiding them, it’s about using them to your advantage.
Finally, I really appreciate the business that Sagar’s built—one born out of helping his father out when he was just 16. The story of how Sagar started, and the story of giving back to mothers in Zambia with each new client onboarding, are beautiful bookends.
As always, keep sharing your stories.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Zambezi Marketing website.
