Looking for direct booking marketing tips as a STR professional. Look no further! This is not the first time I have talked about how much I love direct bookings and why email marketing is often the easiest way to get direct and repeat bookings. I wrote about this earlier in the year here. However, I recently ran a workshop for Stacey St John’s STR Connections group which covered this topic in more detail and the feedback was amazing.
Let’s look at methods of how to get direct bookings…. building a website is all fine and well, but if nobody comes to the site and makes a booking, this is an expensive vanity project.
Hardest is often google my business, SEO, social media and FB ads. Easier would be affiliate relationships, posting in facebook groups and collective circles and the easiest, well that’s an easy answer – it’s definitely email marketing, referrals and repeat bookings at least in the case of my other business Tokyo Family Stays.
Email marketing is the best ROI on your time and resources but often overlooked. It involves some good old fashioned marketing techniques which have been around for decades. This science is well tested and I can’t take any credit with the techniques. But here is my take on how to apply this to Short Term Rentals.
How to collect email addresses – Ask and you shall receive
Firstly, how do you collect email addresses of potential guest or previous guests? Well there are a couple of options including simply asking for them. Yes even for bookings that were won using an OTA like Airbnb. My technique uses wording in my automated welcome emails where I tell folks that I need to email them PDF information that can’t be sent any other way. I get a 90% success rate with this wording. If you want a copy of my templates, you can get them here.
Another option is to use a simple Google Form to collect guest information prior to arrival. This can be sent to booked guests as a simple URL. This is allowed under the OTA rules.
Or, for a more automated method after the guest has checked in, you can use StayFi in your properties to manage your WiFi connections. This automatically collects all emails of guests who use your WiFi in your property and zap it to your email client.
You can also add a lead magnet to your direct booking website.
What is a lead magnet? A lead magnet is a fancy marketing term that relates to a very simple idea. It is a valuable piece of content – a check list, a packing list, a local guide – you offer in exchange for an email address. For Tokyo Family Stays, we have this very simple, yet effective, page. If you need any help with setting up a lead magnet, please reach out.
You then need to figure out how to store them – we use Mailchimp and Airtable but you can also just go with a text or excel file. Don’t overthink it – just do it.
Now you have the email addresses, what will you do with them? Sent out emails… but how???
My Top 10 tips for sending emails for direct booking marketing.
- Never bcc on a regular email
- Create a regular schedule – it could be monthly, seasonally, weekly, just be consistent.
- Don’t be salesy, be personal – be sure to include personal anecdotes, local information, and try to be as useful as possible
- Be entertaining and conversational but don’t waste people’s time. Most people scan emails so you want to be as useful as possible in the shortest amount of time.
- Do create a template that you can use and use creative titles to increase your open rate.
- Experiment with plain text or text with photos, see what works better for your guests or potential guests.
- Slow calendar? Send out special offers for weekday booking or advertise mini breaks
- Check in on your statistics often- see what people clicked, what the bought and focus on creating an engaged list.
- Be sure to reply to any replies you get because ENGAGEMENT is key!
- Don’t worry about your unsubscribe rates or total number of subscribers- these are NOT important or worth spending a lot of time worrying about.
Content
People open emails to be entertained..
Think of your own behaviour. You open up your email and your mouse is hovering over the delete key looking to delete emails that are too much hard work, too salesy or boring. You are looking for emails to read to waste time before you have to start work.
So give the people what they want… a friendly, personal email that allows them to remember foldly a past holiday or dream or scheme of a new adventure. Show them what is like behind the scenes of your business, pictures of your family, dog, local community. Provide seasonal information and throw in your local knowledge and tips for how to enjoy your area.
Understanding your ideal guest and why they are your customer, is the key to writing compelling and converting emails. Write to your guest as if they are sitting in front of you.
No need to offer discounts of special offers if you don’t want to. But if you have a special deal to fill up your calendar as a last minute offer, send a quick and dirty email blast. I can dive into this some more soon.
Outsource
Once you have your own style and cadence, create a template and outsource this to a VA, a family member, your kids or look for an outsourcer on a site like Fivrr.com
Consistency is the key here. Send at the same time each month and set a deadline and it will get done.
In my business, I have hired a company that gets it done. It costs less than $100 a month and they put my newsletter together and send it out. No more stressing.
Final Thoughts
None of these tips and tricks are rocket science and none of them are a magic bullet. They are all part of your overall direct marketing strategy. Understanding each part of the process and setting up systems to automate will reduce your workload and give you the result you are looking for – MORE BOOKINGS.
I would love to help you with your strategy and your workflow so you can have a profitable business that delivers exceptional hospitality without you burning out. Reach out and set up a consult so I can show you how to build profits, increase your bookings without needing to discount.
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