The Challenge

Umi Digital was founded in 2011 on the premise that independent hotels needed their own websites and booking engines to reduce OTA dependency. As the market matured and OTAs scaled their ability to outbid independent hotels, the expertise needed to compete became more specialised, split across paid-media and traffic acquisition and design, conversion and process expertise. That expertise existed in individual specialists’ heads, with no single, unified, teachable document that could be handed to clients or onboarded to new hires.

The Outcome

Delivered a formally published, three-pillar strategic framework (Platform, Traffic, Revenue Optimisation) that unified previously siloed expertise into one coherent, client- and new-hire-facing document, moving the agency from strategy existing only in specialists’ individual knowledge to a repeatable, teachable system.

The Approach

Synthesised existing expert knowledge held separately across the team into one structured, published system: a three-pillar Direct Booking Strategy framework. A colleague contributed the specialist paid-media and traffic-acquisition expertise (funnel-staged advertising covering awareness, consideration and decision, including RLSA, Performance Max, and metasearch integration).

I authored the Platform Optimisation section (guest persona and research, direct booking offer design, website CRO, reviews and social proof, local affiliate partnerships, retention and CRM segmentation) and the Revenue Optimisation section, a single repeatable diagnostic template (ideal guest, local context, offer, partnerships, landing page, promotion) applied consistently across 7 distinct revenue verticals (Groups, Weddings, Corporate and Meetings, Functions, F&B, Health and Fitness, Gift Vouchers), and structured and integrated the whole framework into one coherent document.