VANDERVIE WEBSITE

Branding // Messaging // Copywriting // Design // Analytics // CRO

Branding

Vandervie's mission is to help travelers unplug, explore, discover, and be present in the places they are visiting. I wanted the brand to reflect adventure, self-discovery, and a desire to experience places in the moment and without continual interruption from our phones. After brainstorming the core characteristics of the brand, I continually referred to these themes for image selection, key messaging and brand voice.

Messaging and Copywriting

Personalized travel for the modern explorer is the key message and tagline I chose to use most often with Vandervie. I believe this concisely communicates what the product is, and the audience for whom it is built. In writing copy for the website, the utility and value proposition had to be clear: time savings, unique experiences, and high-quality recommendations. Users needed to feel confident that Vandervie would not only provide unique and quality recommendations, but also fully consider the user's personal preferences and travel logistics for a smooth trip. The brand values also had to be clear in order to attract and connect with the right audience, and be differentiated in the crowded and sometimes confusing space of travel brands.

Design

I hired a designer to create the Vandervie logo. It's obviously a "V" but also subtly brings to mind airplane wings to represent travel, and a mountain or tent to represent adventure. The designer also made color palette and font selections, and created a basic layout to get me started on the Vandervie website. From here I sketched out (literally using Sketch) the full layout for the website and built it in Squarespace. Many of the images on the Vandervie site are my own. I also hired a professional photographer and designed a full-day shoot in Denver. Additional images are from the fantastic stock photo site Unsplash.

Analytics and Conversion Rate Optimization

The Vandervie website has been through numerous iterations. Over the 10 months the site has been live, the copy, images, page layouts and site layout have all evolved based on data from Google Analytics and A/B testing with Google Optimize. The primary goal for the Vandervie site is for the user to complete a trip request, which is essentially a survey. The most important actions on the website are those that bring the user closer to this goal, so I continually monitored how far in the process users were getting. I tested various page layouts, CTA button placement, variations of copy and images, then measured their impact on the steps to conversion.

The most important insight and resulting change was actually the number of pages and steps leading to conversion. Logical thought would suggest keeping the steps to conversion to a minimum, and I initially included several CTAs on the home page that would send users directly to the trip request form. After seeing a trend in users completing the form only to end their sessions and without submitting payment, I questioned the clarity of the value proposition and prominence of the details about what was included in a purchase. I added two additional but simple steps to provide the user more detailed information and pricing before completing the trip request. This had an immediate impact on the number of users who completed the form and paid for the service.

Challenges

I have fully bootstrapped Vandervie from its beginning. Early in the project I decided to build the website and core product with third-party tools that provide high value for a low cost. There are many advantages to this approach, but a major downside I experienced is the inefficiency of collecting and combining data from numerous sources that are not necessarily meant to integrate. Frustratingly, Squarespace does not integrate with Google Tag Manager and workarounds are necessary. Squarespace also has limitations with Typeform, the product I used to build the survey, so the Vandervie trip request form exists offsite, as does ecommerce via Stripe. These tradeoffs are incredibly inconvenient for analyzing data, but are still net positive for delivering a website and product on a tight schedule at a relatively low cost.

Results

With an intentional brand, thoughtful messaging, and design that is optimized for a positive user experience, the Vandervie website has converted users and helped to create brand advocates who are excited to share about their travels, adventures and weekends away.