Posts Tagged ‘how to market rental property’

Note Paper - Another Important Print Component for Your Property Advertising

Monday, September 28th, 2009

How to rent your houseWell, since I’ve been writing about the importance of print components in your property advertising, I thought I’d round it out with a comment about the importance of having note paper in your rental as well. When you print brochures and / or postcards, this is an easy thing to add on for little additional cost.

Hotels always have note paper in their rooms….it’s handy for the guest and it provides ongoing promotion for the hotel. The same is the case for your rental, it’s just another way to keep your name out there….and it’s very inexpensive. Guests appreciate the little personalized touches, and paper is something they always need.

Here you want to consider a simpler drawing or photo of your house….and you can go black and white or color. You could invest in a line drawing of your house, or you could use a black and white or one color photo (B/W or 1/C is typically less expensive to print).

Since notepaper is about giving the user space to write….I just include our address, phone, and web site along the bottom of the paper.

For specific guidance on creating a note paper for your vacation property marketing, check out the Booked Solid Blueprint, which will guide you through content creation as well as give you some great resources for inexpensive and quality production. Whatever you decide, make sure that printed materials are a part of how you advertise your property.

Post Cards - Another Great Communication Tool for Rental Advertising

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

Everyone still loves to send postcards to friends and family, and they’re also great vacation rental marketing pieces. You should have them available to your renters, and also use them as thank you cards and local hand-outs.

property-advertising-postcard

The example here takes the unique feature of the rental (staying on the water) and expands on that experience with additional thumb-nail photos. Depending on your location, you can include a picture of your house, or a key feature of your house.

You want to think about the one thing that will appeal to people renting your house (IE if it’s a condo at the base of the mountain, you might include a picture of the mountain with a headline over it that says “Luxury Ski-In Condo at Beaver Creek with Resort Amenities”.) Remember to create an experience for the guest. In this case, the name of the rental is not as important or memorable as the experience you want to create of staying on the water. That’s what will captivate them and interest them.

For specific guidance on creating a postcard for your property advertising, check out the Booked Solid Blueprint, which will guide you through content creation as well as give you some great resources for inexpensive and quality production. Whatever you decide, make sure that postcards are used in your property advertising!

Effective Property Advertising - Reviewing Your Amenities List

Monday, August 24th, 2009

how to rent your homeWhen was the last time you looked at your amenities list? If you’re like most vacation rental owners, it’s not high on your priority list, however, amenities are very important to your renters, so why not take this opportunity to take a look at your amenities list and make sure it’s up-to-date? Take one ad listing a day, or do them all at once. Just make sure you take a good look and revise and update as necessary!

Rental Property AdvertisingThis is typically a database driven list that covers everything for BBQ’s to beach towels. You don’t need to repeat amenities within the context of your ad. I would say the one exception to this is if you have a major selling point, or amenity you get a lot of questions about. A hot tub or free WiFi for example.

1. What’s your competition doing? Take a look at your key competitors. Are they all offering a specific type of amenity that you’re not? A recent example would be iPod Docking stations. An inexpensive add, and one that’s asked for a lot.

2. What do your renters ask about the most? It might be something as simple as confirming a coffee pot or hair dryer, but if it’s asked about they’re not seeing it in your ad description and it might be worth a repeat.

That’s all there is to it! It’s so valuable to revisit this information periodically. Effective rental property advertising really includes revisiting ads on a regular basis to see how they can be improved or updated.

The Booked Solid Blueprint goes into more detail about amenities, and dozens of other ways you should be talking about your rental property! Check it out for yourself!