Finding novel and effective ways to increase the revenue you make on your vacation rentals can seem challenging, even for property managers with decades of experience.
If you’re new in the industry, it can be difficult to establish your regular guest base. Seeing your bookings (and revenue) plateauing can be equally frustrating.
Smarter execution of your digital marketing efforts combats this! Marketing tactics, when implemented effectively, can have an outsized impact on your bottom line. Using a clever marketing strategy boosts your brand visibility and reputation, creating loyal guests and recruiting new ones to your fan base.
Below we cover four ways you can use digital marketing to grow your business.
Watch these tips covered in our webinar here:
Optimize your property management system
Your property management system sets the foundation for your vacation rental business. Having a technically sound, traveler-centric direct booking website makes all the difference when growing your business. Your direct booking website is your space to differentiate yourself from the OTAs and other competitors in your market.
Oftentimes, your website determines your guests’ first impression of your business and your brand personality. Put your best foot forward with a well-designed and search-engine-optimized website that allows users to find you and want to book with you.
For example, include key features on your website such as keyword-optimized property titles, keyword-dense property descriptions, high-resolution images, and a consistently updated availability calendar.
Remember, better descriptions of your rentals lead to actual interest! Give prospective guests a detailed feel for what the experience of staying at your property will be like.
In addition, it’s also helpful to let your guests know what your occupancy looks like to encourage a quicker conversion. Our Streamline software allows property managers to configure this view easily on their direct booking website. This creates a sense of urgency around booking if their selected travel dates begin to book up quickly.
Create an email marketing strategy
Having a solid email marketing strategy pays off immensely if done correctly. Email marketing has evolved beyond batch-and-blast newsletters and traditional stay-cycle emails.
Perfecting audience segmentation in your email marketing will enable you to book the modern-day traveler. It helps to group past guests based on unique characteristics, such as if they’ve had a history of reserving your pet-friendly properties.
Segment that audience and send more frequent, more targeted emails with content regarding that characteristic. In this example, that email campaign could contain tips for traveling with pets, notifications when a pet-friendly property is available during certain dates, or sales promotions on pet-related expenses during their next stay (because those dog toys aren’t always cheap!).
Other key components of email marketing strategies can be as simple as formatting fixes. You could add a sign-up for our newsletter button on every web form. Including enhanced sharing features on your listings encourages email capture as well. Another tactic that yields high conversion is automating booking abandonment emails, which reminds prospective guests to book!
Your direct booking website should have standard sharing options that allow guests to easily email their favorite properties for an upcoming trip to friends and family. This option makes planning group trips more seamless and more enjoyable, which furthers your property brand’s authority.
Bluetent and Q4Launch websites have enhanced sharing and custom quote sharing features that make this group trip planning possible.
Invest in search engine optimization
Lastly, the ins and outs of search engine optimization (SEO) can get very technical and convoluted, but the end goal remains the same: SEO makes your direct booking website visible to users and favorable to Google. Remember that SEO is a long-term commitment and takes time and effort to master.
As Google becomes more ‘human’, it rewards content, page structure and taxonomy, and overall domain reputation according to certain standards. Constant Google algorithm updates shift which factors affect your website’s rankings and by how much.
However, if you keep reviewing how your guests arrive at your website and tailor web pages to answer their needs, you’ll stay on the right track in Google’s (and your guests’) eyes. Starting with your all rentals page and your landing page should be first priority in your SEO efforts.
Moreover, you could consider supplementing your SEO efforts with paid marketing to give your website’s visibility an extra boost.
Bottom line
Unlocking the power of digital marketing can benefit your property management business greatly. An optimized direct booking website, effective email marketing strategy, and solid SEO can substantially increase your booking revenue.
For more information, connect with our digital marketing partners below: