Marketing activities are critical for any small or large business looking to increase profits. If you want to drive more traffic to your own vacation rental and get more bookings, you will need to get ahead of the hundreds of properties on listing sites. The following suggestions will assist you in developing a basic digital marketing strategy that is tailored to everyone’s needs. It’s simple, free, and will undoubtedly draw attention to your vacation rental. Because 83% of travelers prefer to book online, digital marketing is critical.
Are you ready to attract new customers and increase your bookings at no additional cost to your company? Here are 6 simple tips to help you get there.
Digital Marketing Tips for Vacation Rentals
Participate in vacation rental forums and social media groups
Vacation rental forums can help you grow your business by teaching you how to better manage your rental and you can also use word-of-mouth advertising to promote your rental. Your fellow hosts will be more likely to look out for you and send you business if you remain active in the community. It is critical to work on increasing your credibility so that other hosts can trust you enough to send you referrals.
Create your own website for direct bookings
Your own website would be the primary marketing tool for your vacation home. Accept direct bookings, market your property, provide information, grow your brand, showcase your amenities, and generate new leads with a website. A company that does not have a professional-quality website will fall behind in an internet-driven market. If a customer cannot find your vacation rental online, they will almost certainly be unable to book it.
Creating a website has never been simpler. As a property owner, you must have your own property website and promote it everywhere.
Hostaway helps you build your own website in a few simple steps, alternatively you can use our WordPress plugin and our affiliation with Webready to create premium-looking websites at a fraction of the cost.
Request reviews
Why spend money on marketing when you can have happy customers do it for you? Reviews are social proof that most people look for before renting a vacation home. So you require them.
Make sure renters are well-cared for and satisfied during their stay, and then ask them to leave a review. The influence of online reviews increased by more than 20% year on year. Even Google is beginning to exclude businesses with less than four stars.
Higher-rated properties will receive more views on listing platforms and may even qualify you for a program such as Airbnb’s Superhost.
Email promotion
This is one of the most effective and cost-effective ways to connect with your visitors. Email marketing campaigns are an excellent way to keep previous customers up to date on upcoming deals, special offers, or promotions.
A newsletter, for example, is an important component of hospitality marketing because travelers can become distracted by daily tasks and the abundance of options available. There are numerous free platforms available, such as Mailchimp, that allow you to create personalized newsletters and send them to your entire email list for free. You can even set up an online signup form where your guests can subscribe to your mailing list. This form can be embedded on your website or social media.
A more direct alternative is to use a service like StayFi’s vacation rental wifi marketing. Through the WiFi login process, hosts can collect guests’ names, emails, phone numbers, and any other data they want – all while providing a better WiFi experience for guests. Furthermore, StayFi connects with the majority of major email service providers, allowing you to use one of your choice.
Social networking sites
Social media is one of the most convenient and cost-effective ways to reach your target audience. This way, not only can leads be generated, but also a community of loyal customers can be formed. It is important to remember that the latter have come to know and trust your brand through their preferred social platform.
Many potential guests use Instagram or Facebook to find deals, plan their ideal vacations, and, of course, read vacation rental reviews to maximize their vacation experience. As a result, social media is one of the most rapidly growing digital marketing tools for the travel industry.
However, keep in mind that attempting to target all social media platforms would be a waste of time and resources. It would be ideal for you to identify and specify your guests’ preferred platforms so that you can focus all of your efforts on one or two social media platforms.
Facebook is known to attract the most searches of any social media platform available because its content is a one-stop-shop.
You must first create a Facebook business page for your property in order to do so. There, you can share the amenities provided, the best photographs of your property, as well as a repository of future reviews. To facilitate direct bookings, include a “Book Now” button that redirects to your personal website.
Search Engine Optimization
SEO is an abbreviation for Search Engine Optimization, and it is a powerful strategy for being found when someone searches online.
SEO, regardless of the size of your company, is critical to attracting new customers.
Optimizing your website for search engines is much easier than it appears. Begin with some basic keyword research to determine which terms you should target across your site. Once this is completed:
Where possible, update your website’s page titles and meta descriptions to include these keywords.
Rename all of your image captions with descriptive text (alt tags)
Learning SEO is difficult, and even SEO agencies struggle to help small businesses become more specific about their audience and keywords. However, there are numerous resources available to assist you along the way.
In Conclusion:
Even the most inexperienced can benefit from these six suggestions. Of course, there are more expensive strategies, such as Google Ads, that you can consider when you’re ready. Estimate the amount of time and money you want to spend on it, as well as the outcomes you want to achieve.
Though the first steps have been mentioned above, that is just the beginning, so don’t expect to become an online success overnight.
Our final piece of advice to owners is to not be afraid to get involved and implement some of the concepts we’ve discussed. The truth is that the majority of it is simple. However, keep in mind that once you have your own website, digital marketing is required to build your web presence.
You don’t have to be a seasoned expert to begin working on your marketing strategy, nor do you have to put all of these ideas into action in one day. Simply take one step at a time, set yourself achievable goals, be patient, and enjoy each day as it comes!
We hope that this guide has helped you understand the true value of having your own website and why digital marketing is so important for your vacation rental. We hope it has piqued your interest in the various ways you can help direct visitors to your website using effective techniques such as social media, email marketing, and SEO.
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