Pool your monetary dollars to spread the word about houfy far and wide!
Hello houfies!
For those who don't know me, I'm Stacey and I've taken it upon myself to devote my efforts in marketing toward building the houfy brand while I conduct direct book marketing activities for my property. Heartshire Retreat in Surprise, AZ (did you see what I did there? Brand building link :-D)
I purchased Heartshire Retreat in Dec 2019. I had originally intended to live in the home but like many people out there I was made unemployed by the pandemic and so had to look for ways to get the expenses paid. Truth be told, my budget got blown as I had to make renovations to the home right away to get it in guest worthy shape in a short amount of time. It's been a lot of hard work and bookings have been hard to come by at the expected levels for my location, so everyday is a struggle to make ends meet but I am hopeful that eventually things will turn around for the better if I can only make it through to December 2021. I also truly love the project work behind making it all a dream come true!
On the brightside since it is my one and only property and is less than one mile from my current residence, I've had the very special opportunity to spend time with my dear mom who lives with me, to build up my process improvement consultant business and allow me to show great care to my guests. My goal is to make them feel cared for in every way. I want them to be pleasantly surprised by their level of feeling 'at home' so that they desire to return year after year.
My problem:
Bookings. I need to get my calendar full of wonderful guests who want to book my property year after year. My ultimate goal is to get twelve 28 day bookings per year on houfy.
Now I understand that is not fully an achievable goal in the short term so it's something I'll have to build up to over time. In order to maximize the time and energy I put into the task, I'm developing a listing strategy to fill in my calendar with stays that are less than 28 days with the intention to increase them every year.
My listing strategy:
- Advertise to 28 day booking guest 13 months out. (28 day stay Houfy listing) Continue advertising until calendar is booked with 28 day guests.
- Open vrbo calendar to 28 day bookings 9 months out. (Passive advertising) Does not necessarily drive bookings but does create more opportunities for SEO.
- Open airbnbMAIN calendar to 3-27 day stay bookings 6 months out. (Passive advertising) . Set Smart Pricing minimum to your PEAK rate. Turn on instant bookings (all criteria selected). Do not be tempted to be the 'low price leader' to get bookings. The goal here is boost your search rankings high so that you show up when people are searching in that area and then look you up using google.
- Open airbnb2DAY calendar to 2 day 'orphaned days' only bookings 3 months out. (Passive advertising)
We'll notice in this approach that the primary focus of my time/energy is best spent advertising to fill the larger time slots first. So this is where the creative of advertising comes in, spending a finite amount of time to create content that draws the ideal guest avatar to my property. And I've found houfy blog stories are a perfect way to do that!
My Marketing Strategy:
I wrote an article recently about the upcoming Spring Training season and making a clear link for them to view my listing. You can read that article here
Targeting on interest categories is essential
Here's the results of the ad I ran from my facebook page for Heartshire Retreat in Surprise, AZ. I use a very targeted approach to select my audience for the ad with the interest of Spring Training Baseball and select location targeting to potential guests who have interest in the nearby teams. In the example below, I'm targeting audiences in California, Washington, and Texas.
You'll see a lot of positive connections with future potential guest in link clicks, page likes, and post engagement. They can choose to book a 28 day stay with me on my 28 day houfy listing or book shorter stays on my 3-27 day stay houfy listing.
I've developed the Houfy Hospitality Hub page for YOU.
You can find out a little more details about the HUB here "Introducing the Houfy Hospitality Hub page for facebook "
The objective of the houfy hospitality hub facebook page is to get your houfy blog stories shared and in front of your targeted audience.
Targeted guest avatar : the 'family' unit travel planner. generally women 35+, have interest in planning to travel to specific attractions in/around your short term rental property.
Build a lasting impression to those who are most likely to book
The results below show how an ad on my houfy listing did. Short term rental properties tend to get mixed in with long term rental audiences because technically they are classified as a 'housing' ad.
This is how my ad performed when classified as a 'housing' ad. Note that the dollar amount i spent on this was just $10 so there are some differences in the reach effectiveness. It is not say that the money was wasted, as it still allowed my branded name to be out there drawing attention towards my listing at some point the future but it's definitely not the best approach to attract my ideal guest avatar.
Now, I know you're thinking. "I don't have time to spend doing all that marketing stuff." I know...it's very time consuming! So let's pool our time and effort talents to the greater good of houfy branding!
- Write houfy blog stories to post on your facebook page. You can "Share" the post into facebook groups.
- I'll take your houfy story and share it to Houfy Hospitality Hub page.
- Your houfy story will get exposure to the targeted guest avatar audience.
Here's how you can help both your own marketing efforts plus those of houfy...
DONATE TO THE HOUFY MARKETING FUND
Your donation will allow me to run paid ads that promote great houfy stories from the Houfy Hospitality Hub page so that we can pool your monetary dollars to spread the word about houfy far and wide!
Sign up over at improvemyvr.com
To see more content like this one in the future, connect with me over on linked in at https://www.linkedin.com/in/staceylmueller/
Report this postOther posts by Stacey
