Posts Tagged ‘Vacation Rental Advertising’

Printed Brochures - Still an Important Part of Your Property Advertising!

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

Property Advertising with Brochures There are still a lot of uses for brochures — as much as we’ve been focused on promoting your vacation rental advertising through various online paths, people still like to see and share. physical brochures.

First, you should define how you’re going to be using these brochures, and that will determine the size and amount of information you want to include. Possible uses include:

• Local Visitors Center (if you’re not sure about yours, just Google Visitor’s Bureau or Visitor’s Center along with both your city and county. In our case, we distribute flyers in Bodega Bay, Napa and Sonoma County Visitor’s Centers. Some have small fees for this service, other’s do not.
• Local Chamber of Commerce
• In Response to Requests for Brochures
• Local Businesses
• As Part of Other Businesses Mailings
• Available at Your Property For Guests To Take
• As part of a Thank-you Mailing for Staying at Your Property

Usually Visitor’s Centers require a trifold piece….ie 8.5 * 11 folded up into three. While there are programs available for you to make your own and print them out, you should consider having them professionally printed as well. When you look at the cost of paper, color ink, and labor, it’s not that much more expensive and the quality is much better.

I personally go through over a hundred brochures a month between the local Visitors Center, handing them out to people we meet, and keeping them available in the rental units as well. I typically order 1500 brochures per year. (I will note here that your price goes down as your quantity increases….so estimate what you’ll need for a year or even two….depending on your budget and plans for rate changes or property additions / changes.)

How could a brochure help you? If you have one in place, are you maximizing its use? Or is it time to update?

For specific guidance on creating a brochure 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 printed materials are a part of how you advertise your property.

Is You Rental Advertising Listing Copy Doing It’s Job?

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

Property Advertising Effectiveness Are you creating an experience for your renter or simply listing all that your property has to offer? There’s a big difference and this is your chance to really talk about all your property has to offer.

Problem: It’s very common to see rental listings with typos and information in a list with no personality or story behind it. Information is often repetitive and little thought is given to leveraging keywords that make it easier for search engines to find your rental advertising listing.

Solution: Let your listing do its job and create an experience for your renter so it interests them enough to inquire further. Write for both your renter and the search engines and you’ll be amazed at the results.

Take Action: 1. Create a positive and compelling experience for your renter
2. Offer a benefit-rich ad that makes you stand out from your competition
3. Weave in your key word search terms that will help the search engines find your rental property faster and easier.

Ready to go through the process of really crafting an ad that will work for you for years to come, check out the Booked Solid Blueprint. It will walk you through each component of your ad listing, step-by-step, to create a powerful rental advertising listing that SELLS to both the search engines and your renters.

Have You Reviewed Your Pictures For Your Vacation Rental Advertising Lately?

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Property Advertising PicturesPictures — Everyone knows a picture is worth a thousand words… how do your pictures stack up? Do they tell the story of your property and make people want to know more? Renters often make a decision about rental property based on pictures alone, so this is a key opportunity for you to shine. Use them well and you’ll see results quickly.

Problem: Pictures that are poorly lit, poorly framed, or don’t tell a complete story. Many listings don’t include pictures of each room, and they don’t have any kind of meaningful or interesting description associated with them. Many owners don’t think about the order that their pictures are presented in.

Solution: Take well-lit pictures that really showcase your property, or hire a photographer or photography student. This small investment will pay off for years to come. A good photographer will know how to make your photos come alive.

Take Action:

1. Review your pictures and make sure they showcase your property well.

2. Choose a thumbnail picture that highlights the top benefit of your rental and reduces well (for ad listings that offer thumbnails).

3. Order the rest of your pictures to tell a story and entice the visitor to want to know more.

4. Write descriptions for each of your pictures that really add to your story, and boost your rankings in the search engines (it’s easy to do).

Want more tips like this? Check out the Booked Solid Blueprint, where there are hundreds of no-cost and low-cost tips to improve your inquiries and bookings, including more in-depth guidance about how pictures and video will help increase the effectiveness of your property advertising.

Keyword Audit for Vacation Rental Advertising - Are You Using Your Keywords Wisely?

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Vacation Rental Advertising - Selecting Keywords OK, so you’ve defined your keywords, are you putting them to good use? Here’s a tip, print out your top keywords and keep them in a place that’s easy for you to reference. That way every time you update content on your ad listing, blog, or social media, you can weave in your keywords. Don’t overuse them, once in a headline and once in your body copy is enough. You don’t want to overdue it, but have it look and feel natural to your reader. Once you do this for a few weeks, you’ll be amazed at the new opportunities you see, and your traffic will increase.

Need help defining your keywords? Check out our vacation rental keyword package and we’ll do the work for you? Or take a look at the Booked Solid Blueprint, which offers step-by-step instructions for defining and using your keywords to maximize your free targeted web site traffic.

The Importance of Proofing Your Rental Advertising

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

Rental Advertising After working with several clients this week and reviewing their ad listings, I just wanted to take a moment to highlight the importance of proofreading your vacation rental advertising listing. I think so many of us are busy, in a hurry, and are used to talking quickly about our properties because we do it so often. What I think happens is that there is a tendency to post your property information and not review it carefully. When I look through VRBO and HomeAway I’m amazed at the number of typos in both headlines and ad copy.

Why is this important? Because you’re creating an experience for your renter. You want them to be able to trust you, this is a business transaction after all. By taking the time to carefully proofread your ad, you’ll be putting your best foot forward.

Here are some actual headlines I found. You tell me, would you click through to these ads if you saw these typos? My feeling as a renter is if a property owner isn’t detailed about their advertising, which they’re paying for, what else won’t they be detailed about?

★ Greaat Mountan Home View Property

★ Close to Beach, Disconted Rates

★ Best Ski-In Comdo, Walk to Restaurants

You can take a look at previous posts that give specific direction on improving your property advertising listing, however, just take a few moments this week and carefully proofread your ads. It does make a difference!