LiveRez Vacation Rental Software Blog » Vacation Marketing

Repeat Guests – Keep them Coming Back

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:13:44 +0000

At last week's VRMA East event, there was a wonderful discussion on Repeat Guests. In a recent industry study, it was determined that it costs 6x to acquire a new guest vs. booking a repeat guest.

That is some serious money. I can add from experience, that the multiplier is much higher in the general eCommerce industry.......more like 10-15x.

Holding on to your guests and keeping them coming back is not rocket-science according to the recent discussion at the VRMA conference. It is about making it a priority, and starting the sales process for the next visit, the moment they book with you for the first visit.

The guest experience was broken into several stages, with ideas on each stage.

Pre-Arrival - find out why they are coming, who they are bringing
Arrival - 'welcome home', let them know how happy you are to see them
Stay - treat them like family
Check-out - provide special offers
Post-Stay - stay in touch with emails, newsletters, offers

In my April Webinar, I will cover each of these areas in detail. Please join us for this event on Thursday, April 23. See details and chance to sign-up below.

Webinar: Repeat Guests - 9 Ways to Make the Most of Guest Relationships

LiveRez.com

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VRMA (Vacation Rental Managers Assoc.) & Discover Vacation Homes to Promote Vacation Homes

admin — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:19:13 +0000

I am excited. Very excited. VRMA, the Vacation Rental Manager's Association, is reinventing itself and bringing together our industry like never before. VRMA has launched a new website at www.vrma.com - check it out. It is a great source of info about the industry.

VRMA has also launched Discover Vacation Homes as a national public awareness initiative for our industry and to make vacation homes a primary vacation option for travelers.

Be a part of it! Vacation Managers have the opportunity to become a part of VRMA - check it our at www.vrma.com. In addition, Discover Vacation Homes offers vacation managers a position at the leading edge of marketing and positioning the vacation home rental industry. Don't sit on the sideline, be a part of the goings on. Check it out:

WATCH Video For More DetailsCreate more business for YOUR company, YOUR owners, and YOUR destination. Don't miss out on the many benefits of this national campaign!

Join the Cause!

LiveRez.com

Now THAT is TARGETED Marketing – Travelocity pops my trip up on a Music Site

admin — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 23:50:50 +0000

Earlier this week I was researching some travel information on Travelocity for my trip to Charlotte, NC for the Eastern VRMA show at the end of this month. I got some flight and hotel information for my budgeting plans. I will make the actual reservation a bit closer to the travel date.

The next moring, while I was spinning on my trainer in my garage and listening to music on songza......SURPRISE!!!......up pops a Travelocity ad about going from Boise to Charlotte.

Personalized Travel Ad Based on a Previous Search

This is truly amazing marketing.

Targeted marketing from Travelocity on a completely different website, on a different day, and at a different time.

: Trip is Based on a Search I did a Day Earlier

This is amazing stuff and is setting the expectations of travelers as to how they will interact with their vacation provider.

Kudos to Travelocity.
LiveRez.com

Niche Marketing is Good for Vacation Home Rentals, But Do Not Forget Execution

admin — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:07:27 +0000

I have discussed the importance of niche marketing, picking your target customer, and speaking to the specific needs of a certain traveler on several of my webinars. (check the out - Recorded LiveRez Webinars) One example I have used is providing vacation home rentals for participants in the Coeur D'Alene Ironman race.

I am an avid Ironman Triathlete and was surprised to see a marketing email from North America Sports (the organization that puts on the Ironman races) promoting a new website for vacation home rentals at the various North America Ironman race locations. The site: www.nasvacationproperties.com

Cool. Great idea. Very focused. Bringing vacation home rentals mainstream. Broader exposure for our industry. All good.

Then I clicked on the link. Ahhhhhh! What is that? What do I do? Where do I shop the homes? What can I click on? Are my colors messed up?

Website - always remember to follow the principles of :

Affinity (you assure me that I am on the right site for what I need)
Usability (intuitive & simple navigation and activities)
Focus (I know what you want me to do with a clear call to action)

Then I checked into the actual vacation homes. What homes are available? Where do I book? Is there only 1 home in each location? All this is doing is popping me to a VRBO listing.

Now I pride myself on being a positive person and I think you will have to look very hard to find a negative tone in any of my posts. But I cannot comment on how poor this website is and how poor the execution/delivery of the promise of a great vacation home in the Ironman location is.

Take-away: when you have the ingenuity & courage ( like www.nasvacationproperties.com has shown), then also take the time, care, and resources to execute at the highest level.

I wish NAS Vacation Properties all the best and hope they continue to improve their offering, presentation, and website.
LiveRez

HomeAway Online Reservation Announcement – What is it to your vacation rental business?

admin — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:25:18 +0000

HomeAway Offers New Reservation System is not exactly news to those of us who follow the vacation rental industry closely. But the press announcement is out today and it seems good time to pontificate on what this means.

The Good:
Attention, publicity, and more recognition of our industry. This enables a large portion of vacation home inventory to potentially be booked online. This may spur interest in vacation homes across all kinds of travelers. HomeAway will continue to be a good sales & marketing channel for vacation managers.

The Bad:
Competition - one of the advantages the vacation manager enjoys over the 'rent by owner' has been the ability to offer an online transaction. A question comes to mind (let me know if you have the answer) - as a vacation manager, how do I synchronize a calendar with HomeAway to allow me to take bookings? Sounds like you have to use the HomeAway reservation system to be part of theonline bookings on HomeAway.

The Ugly:
Lots of individual, lots of individual home, lots of one-on-one transactions, lots of $$'s, ............ this could create an environment with more fraudulent activity and undermine the credibility and trust we are trying to build into the vacation home rental industry. Especially as it pertains to online transactions.

A comparison also comes to mind. A spent several years working fro an eCommerce solution named Infopia. Infopia provide small online retailers an eCommerce engine that allowed them to sell via their own website and via eBay. Starting see where I am going? Vacation managers have a brand (a valuable sign of quality & trust) on their own website, but no identity on directories, such as HomeAway. Just like online retailers have an online store with a brand, but are just another supplier for an 'I got it on eBay' - even with branding efforts.

Which of these online retailers were most successful ? The retailers who saw eBay as a sales & marketing channel.

Which of these online retailers were least successful ? The retailers who saw sales on eBay as their goal - they lost their brand, competed only on price, and could not build their own business. They became completely dependent on eBay.

An interesting analogy I think.

Ralf
LiveRez

Targeting Your Vacation Website Visitors – 10 Tips

admin — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:00:07 +0000

Targeting, segmenting, personalizing......whatever you want to call it, I am a huge fan and believe that much of online marketing success depends on the ability to do this well. Following are 10 tips on how to look at the visitors to your website and how to target them with messages that will resonate wiht them.

Returning Visitors

Returning visitors already know the basics about your site. Help them learn more, have a richer experience, and convert faster by targeting a different experience after their first visits. For example, you might replace instructional or introductory language with more relevant content on a second visit based on what you want them to do next.

Frequent Converters

For frequent converters, give them targeted rewards – these visitors are the most valuable, and it pays to engage them more effectively.

Or, encourage infrequent purchasers to convert again by identifying them and then providing a more compelling offer.

Registered Users

Most sites devote a lot of real estate to user registration. If a visitor has already signed up, fill that valuable space with different content. A magazine site, for example, should remove the subscription sign-up content if an existing subscriber is visiting the site. If someone is already receiving your newsletter, use that sign-up space to promote something else.

User-Generated Content Providers

For visitors who contribute to reviews or discussions on your site, make it even easier and more rewarding to participate more. Highlight other opportunities to join your site’s community with layout changes or calls to action.

Weekenders

People behave differently depending on when they visit your site, so target campaigns based on day of week or time of day. If you have offers, promotions, or content that expire at certain times, targeting content based on time of day or day of week will give you an easy relevance win. Inform visitors of upcoming shipping cutoffs, show different content to lunchtime visitors, and try day of week offers to help drive conversion metrics.

Category Loyalists

Give your visitors what they are telling you they want. For the portion of your traffic that repeatedly visits the same category, make the favorite category even more prominent. Try changing navigation to put a visitor’s top category first in the list. Or deliver targeted calls to action and offers associated with the favorite category.

Searchers

Show returning visitors content related to their last site search. Or, make search functionality even more prominent for people who search frequently during their visits to your site.

Deciders

If someone provided job title as part of site registration or a request for information, focus your messaging based on that information. Create segments for different levels of responsibility to increase engagement and to identify decision makers or business owners. Speak to decision makers differently than decision influencers for greater relevance.

Locals

Even on the Internet, a visitor’s geographic location can make them likely to respond to different messages. Would you tell them something different if they were within a few miles of you?

Yahoos and Googlers

People who come from search engines may behave differently. They have used a keyword that you can use to align your solutions to their needs. For that matter, any traffic source may bring users with similar preferences. Use this knowledge to be more relevant to them.

Ralf
LiveRez

Travel Insurance against Jobloss – One way to get some bookings

admin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:40:31 +0000

On my way into the office this morning I listened to an interesting discussion about how some travel companies are utilizing travel insurance to help travelers feel more comfortable about booking a vacation.

Do not lose bookings to anxiety!

There is tremendous uncertainty about incomes, jobs, and personal wealth among our target market. In order to avoid losing potential vacationers, that will not book a vacation just because they are uncertain about their future income, we can address that anxiety by offering travel insurance.

We have all positioned travel insurance for the purpose of helping travelers in case unforeseen events prohibit them from taking their vacation. Well, the most likely unforeseen event for many travelers is the involuntary loss of income and inability to pay for the vacation. Some insurance companies will guard against this loss of income due to the loss of employment.

Take the time to find out the details about the employment requirements the insyrance company has - could be 1 year employed or even 5 years employed at the current company. Also be aware of other potential conditions.

Once this information is clear to you, offer it to customers to help them ease their anxiety about booking their 2009 vacation home. This can also become a differentiators for you and make you stand apart from your competition.

Ralf
LiveRez.com

10 Ways to Boost Your Online Vacation Home Booking Website Click-Through Rate

admin — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:50:58 +0000

"Thank you, I am fine. I am just looking." We got them all the way into our store (vacation home rental website), and they are 'just looking'. Let's put our salesperson hat on and 'make the sale'. We know they are not just here for fun (they are interested in booking a vacation home, or at least getting more information for a future vacation home). They could be having fun on www.hulu.comwatching TV shows and movies, or playing web boggle at www.wordsplay.net.

In our house, CTR stands for 'Choose The Right". Boosting CTR (Click Through Rates) is like helping our web visitors Choose The Right. : )

So what can we do to actively sell to them on the web? Here are 10 ideas (which I think are pretty good) from Reid Carr - an eCommerce expert published on iMediaConnection.com.

Read the full article: 10 ways to boost falling click-through rates by Reid Carr of iMediaConnection.com

1. Test
I wanted to cite this as tactic No. 1 because it should be at the forefront of any advice or recommendation that I outline. While there are "best practices," we've concluded through experience and testing that things are always changing and each case is unique. You have to establish appropriate rules for testing to give everything a fair shake. But once you've done that, establish a hypothesis and go. Rule nothing out. You will be amazed at what is successful. But beware: Don't let any finding become your secret sauce that you turn to for everything. Every campaign, client, product, placement, and timing causes your targets to react differently -- so be on your toes every time.

2. Change your units (Ralf comment - units to us would be vacation homes)
In the first few days or weeks (depending on volume), you should be able to tell which units are performing. However, be sure to review this on a placement level because different sites cause users to navigate and scan differently. Deduce which are your stars and which are your dogs to make quick, ruthless changes. Go with the winners, and you'll immediately experience a lift in click-throughs for the campaign. Note that if one unit is consistently underperforming, you should objectively review the creative to see if there might be a different issue in play.

3. Don't try to do too much
I think we all get a tad ambitious with what we'd like to communicate to our audience when we're advertising. For once, it is where we get to control what is said about our product, and we decide how it is said. But, realize that our audiences are still truly in control. When they're consuming our ads, they are actually doing other more important (to them, certainly not to us) things. When producing your ads, distill the message to the most important point and think about a user driving by a billboard at 65 mph. What is their single most important takeaway? Remove everything else (including the darn "click here").

4. Be permanently consistent
In the relatively short life of most campaigns, it can be hard to build off of prior recognition that the brand may have. However, if you maintain a consistent, permanent theme -- not just between ads but also between campaigns -- there's a greater chance that your target will remember you for the long haul. Consistency builds long-term trust and affinity. Building trust and affinity increases click-through and conversion rates. People want to do business with companies that they feel have been around and will continue to be around to support them. If you're constantly changing what you say and how you say it, customers lose faith. Think of your brand as a politician -- your target audience is voting with its money.

5. Reconsider rich media
If your campaign's success measurement is all about the click-through and conversion, you will want to reconsider integrating rich media into the mix. Rich media is often more about engagement than it is about direct response. However, if you do opt for rich media on a direct response level, consider bringing content to the ad to reduce the barrier of the click-through.

6. Try static ads
If you find that you're abandoning rich media, you might as well go all the way to static versions. The surprising thing is that you might even find you like them. In a world where we in the industry are inspired by the latest and greatest technology, bells and whistles, and video, sometimes our target needs a change of pace. Throw static ads into the mix and see what happens. For example, in a recent campaign for a wireless carrier we ran in Q3 this year, static ads running in equal rotation with similar Flash ads had a .07 percent CTR, while the Flash ads received .06 percent. When everything else is moving, your target just might react better to the simpler things. In many cases, they are looking for the static content on a page when reading an article and may tune out all shiny, flashy objects.

7. Rethink social media and news placements
In my article "Why Low Engagement Can Be Good," I addressed this topic in greater length. However, the basic premise is this: If you're trying to improve your click-through rates, you may not want to be placing your ads within engrossing content. When users are managing their profiles, interacting with friends, or engaged in a story, they will tune you out. A study from the IDCechoed this by saying, "U.S. online consumers who use social networking services (SNS) such as MySpace and FaceBook are less receptive to SNS ads overall, click less on SNS ads (57 percent) than they do on other forms of web advertising (79 percent), and make fewer purchases as a result." If you want people to click on your ad and arrive at your campaign's landing page, you may want to select media placements that are more passive, or ones dedicated to helping users navigate to other information related to the on-page topic and, subsequently, your product.

8. Design for the placement
ItHowever, designing for the placement can make a big difference. It can be as simple as black on white or white on black, or recognizing the difference between a placement on The New York Times website versus Heavy.com. Clearly these destinations have different audiences. Thus, they are also vastly different in terms of what will pop off the page and be noticed by readers. In the case of a broad media plan, rather than trying to appeal to every placement and risk diluting the creative, consider producing unique creatives for some of the bigger, more arresting placements. Rotate those creatives to see if it makes any difference.

9. Add behavioral targeting and retargeting
We have had mixed levels of success with these media options. However, at least we've seen pretty consistently higher click-through rates for behavioral targeting. Retargeting has been solid for us in terms of boosting CTR, and we've seen outstanding conversion rates. (Ralf - this refers to reusing campaigns for different target audiences.)

10. Add other tactics and mix
Anyone who is invested in online advertising needs to recognize the synergy between online advertising and other promotional tactics including offline. For example, it is widely noted that display ads lift search click-through rates. While it isn't widely highlighted in our space, it has been our experience that click-throughs for online display ads increase while similarly branded offline promotions are running. That means when our client Rubio's radio ads for this month's crispy shrimp burritos are running, our display ads promoting coupons for those same burritos are more likely to get clicked on.

The method here is all about timing and evaluating a media plan as a whole rather than in silos. When all cylinders are firing, you're more likely to see improvement across the board.

Read the full article: 10 ways to boost falling click-through rates by Reid Carr of iMediaConnection.com

Holiday Numbers. Amazon is up 17%. What can you learn from that?

admin — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:32:22 +0000

Some of the numbers coming in are a bit scary.......like my weight gain as tracked on my new Wii Fit. It measured me at a stout 'overweight' to start my 2009 training. My wife and kids have found this to be quite amusing - some of you are aware of my Ironman triathlon racing and can probably also see the humor in this.

Numbers can be deceiving. As I have posted before, the media is having a grand time with the economic news and their doomsday predictions. Remember, they only sell papers and get viewers based on sensational numbers in the negative or the positive. They have to be sensational.

The 2008 Holiday retail numbers for the brick & mortar stores are definitely dismal. Sales are down in the 10-15% range across the various big stores like Target, Walmart, and Macy's. They are down even further in the luxury category, to the tune of 15-25% for stores such as Nordstrom and Tiffany's. No question this is bad news. Got it.

But, Amazon.com has reported another record Holiday shopping season. Amazon is UP 17%. Why? I cannot say for certain, but based on what I have read and discussed with experts in the online retail business, it is based on the ease of shopping. That includes the selection, checkout, delivery, and service. All these have been communicated to customers through effective marketing efforts.

What can you learn for your vacation home rental business from Amazon? Look carefully at what differentiates Amazon from other retailers.

Amazon provides a seamless and complete online shopping experience.

Selection is almost limitless - this is difficult to accomplish for vacation rentals, but you can do much through your descriptions and marketing of properties to provide variety
Checkout is simple - make it a seamless and easy process that inspires confidence to your guests
Delivery is reliable - ensure that you follow up on all actions taken by prospects and guests
Service is great - share the love, and make sure that everyone interacting with your guests shares the love

Certainly there are many more lessons to be learned from Amazon, but these are a couple that are at the top of the list. Look to the winners in the current economy for lessons on how to get more 'heads in beds' and how to find the marketing messages that will inspire guests.

Happy Holidays. On a closing note, here is a picture of me taking my two older kids on some snow-rafting.

Rafting.....in the snow in Idaho.

Ralf VonSosen
www.LiveRez.com
www.LiveRez.com

Holiday Love……make sure everyone shows it to your Vacation Home Guests

admin — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:50:51 +0000

What else is there to think about during the holidays but 'love', and how we show it to others. As we strive to be a part of our guest's very special time with family and friends, we should remember how we can show our hospitality and gratitude to them for choosing us.

This should really be a theme for us all year round, but it seems that we always remember it even more during this holiday time.

Also make sure that all those associated with your business are aware of how you want to show hospitality & friendship to guests. During their stay at your vacation home, guests will interact with many individuals, from travel agents, to restaurants, to your staff, and many many more. Ensure you know the complete experience of your guest.

Recent Article on CNN.com about what traveler's should look for in a travel agent.

This made me think about how important it is to know where your new guests are coming from and who is part of your guests 'value chain'. The Value Chain is the collection of all the components that make up the guests vacation experience. Travel agents can be an important part of that value chain.

9 Signs of a Bad Travel Agent
1. Demands you pay in cash
2. Acts funny when you bring up commissions
3. Has no certifications
4. Adds a booking fee to your bill after you've decided to buy a vacation
5. Doesn't know a thing about where you're going
6. Has a Better Business Bureau rap sheet
7. Is impossible to reach
8. Doesn't listen
9. Other warning signs