The American Hotel and Lodging Association: Small Changes, Big Wins

The American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) serves, supports, and advocates on behalf of the American hospitality industry. It represents major chains, independent hotels, management companies, REIT’s, bed and breakfasts, industry partners, and more.

Problem: Low Event Visibility

AHLA was worried about members seeing its events.

AHLA conducts multiple marketing campaigns throughout the year to drive members and non-members to attend its live and digital events.

Part of the Association’s marketing strategy included promoting upcoming events on AHLA’s homepage. However, the organization wasn’t seeing many referrals from its homepage to its event pages, and worried about event attendance. It needed a better way to raise awareness about its upcoming events to members and non-members.

AHLA wanted to increase visibility and attendance for member events.

Solution: Stop Relying On The Homepage For Event Awareness

Accella made strategic, informed tweaks to increase visibility.

AHLA engaged with Accella, using our Foresight program for ongoing coaching and strategy. We identified that members often visited AHLA’s website to search for specific information or through direct links from Google, skipping over the homepage and promotions for upcoming events.

Timer

We decided to implement a website modal tool from Privy.com. This tool enables organizations to launch website pop-ups using intuitive trigger and targeting rules. This allowed AHLA to reach members from anywhere on its website to promote upcoming events, not just the homepage.

Accella analyzed the user experience and
performance metrics to make a strategic
decision—that didn’t break the bank.

Benefits: 400% Increase in Click-Throughs

An incremental change provides measurable results.

In one instance, the Privy modal created a 1.5% click-through rate, where a promotion for the same event on the homepage only saw a .3% click-through rate—that’s a 400% increase! Overall page views for the event went up 28% during the time that the Privy modal ran. With such success, we immediately added Privy to AHLEF.org, their foundation, as well to promote scholarship applications.

Page views of targeted pages went up 28% and click-throughs went up 400%.

While we’ve worked on a variety of projects with AHLA, both big and small, this example highlights the value of a proactive engagement through a program like Foresight. Small changes can make a huge difference for digital marketing success. The possibilities are endless—but it takes industry knowledge and vision to put the right strategy in place to create lasting results.

Is your current vendor providing ongoing insight and strategy? If not, maybe it’s time for a change. Give us a call or reach out through the form below to find out more on how Foresight can provide results for your organization.

Alyssa Hulka

Alyssa Hulka

As Vice President of Digital Strategy and Experience at Accella, Alyssa Hulka is a force in designing transformative digital solutions that elevate associations' impact. Known for her forward-thinking approach, Alyssa crafts digital strategies and high-impact experiences that drive measurable results, including member dashboards that enhance engagement and ROI.

Her expertise lies in creating meaningful, technology-driven connections between associations and their members, deploying journey mapping and design thinking to translate member needs into effective digital solutions.

Alyssa’s impact extends beyond associations, with a robust portfolio spanning the home and building industries, retail, healthcare, financial services, insurance, and nonprofit sectors. She has spearheaded digital initiatives for major players like PayPal, John Deere, Mitsubishi Power, Kwikset Locks, Waterpik, Johns Hopkins, CareFirst, AstraZeneca, NADA, T. Rowe Price, Wells Fargo, Guardian Life, Travelers, and others.

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