1 Proven Method Used To Make Any Marketing Hugely Successful

I’ve been asked before- Jay, what makes a vacation rental content marketing campaign successful?”

There are many factors that determine whether your blog, articles, websites and vacation rental marketing will be a success or not like your consistency, research, execution, vision, and good old fashion elbow grease.

These all are important, but without this 1 thing you ain’t got a shot in hell.

Whenever I’m writing a blog or preparing a piece of content for you, I ask myself a question. What’s the 1 thing all people want? I’m then reminded, oh yeah… easy…. that’s value!

Before you write a blog, a property description or create content for your vacation rental marketing ,ask yourself this question, how does this content I’m creating provide true value for the person who will spend their valuable time reading it? What’s in it for them?

Value is what the reader is desperately looking for. It’s the only thing people care about, everything else is bull-shit.

What equates into value for your readers, visitors, followers and subscribers?

It boils down to the one question, is there something they can take away from your article and use in their own lives and businesses?

They’re looking for secrets, tips, advice, life hacks, laughs and inspiration. Give it to them in your content and provide it in abundance!

Overdeliver on value!

When I think of a source who is providing great value to their audience, I think of a TV show called ‘Hack My Life’, have you seen it?

The show basically tests different ideas submitted from people claiming to have a solution to a common everyday problem.

The ideas or hacks are designed to make your life easier, hence the name Hack My Life.

The show runs through various experiments to determine if the “hack” works. If it does, the suggested idea gets labeled a “hack” but if it fails it gets labeled as “wack”.

By watching the show you find out about interesting hacks, you learn what doesn’t work and you get to laugh a bit (at least chuckle) at the attempts to prove what is a true hack.

I learned something from the show just the other day that I’ve recently used.

Now I know that charging your phone on airplane mode charges your cell phone faster, allowing you to get the most out of a few minutes on your charger, to me that’s useful information.

You can see a clip of the show ‘Hack My Life’ below. I think you’ll find value in it 🙂

What Is Value?

Value is what will make people want to come back to your blog, subscribe to your newsletter, connect with you on Twitter and ultimately book with you.

If you offer value to my life I want you in my circle and that’s how your customers and audience will think about you. Your blogs and messages will be welcomed with open arms.

My goal is always to provide you with more than ordinary content. I want to provide you with extraordinary content.

What Is Extraordinary Content?

Extraordinary content is content that affects lives.

After I ask myself does it bring value to the person reading it, I dissect it a bit further.

I ask my staff to watch videos, read the blogs and then critique them.

I’ll get everyone’s feedback to better understand exactly how it benefits readers.

Maybe I’m a bit OCD with this but I want to ensure my subscribers love what they read and experience!

This way I can be positively confident about my content and what the person on the other end is receiving.

I believe value to be the nucleus of a successful vacation rental content marketing plan.

Understand that value is not just limited to one form of marketing like blogs. It should be the cornerstone of pretty much everything you do.

I feel like the place I see owners offering the lowest value is on social media. Many owners think me, me, me and only post content about their rental.

If you’re guilty of such social marketing sins, change your paradigm and instead think – you – them – they, and watch how your marketing Karma changes for the better.

Think VAL-YOU!

It’s all about YOU- my audience, my guests.

Before you post on Facebook, Twitter or Google + think… does it offer value to readers?

Next you should gauge the “valueness” (yeah I made that up) of each post you share.

You may think there is value to your post but there may not be enough value in it, that’s why you should gauge your content on the “value meter” using the questions below.

Your marketing material may need more meat. You successfully accomplish this by adding more value.

Value is sort-of-like the seasoning of your vacation rental marketing. It makes your content better and makes more people want to consume it.

If you train your brain to think not of what you want to say but instead what readers want to know you’ll be light-years ahead of anybody else in your circle of competition.

I regularly ask myself questions about my content, now it’s your turn. Here are 12 questions you should ask yourself before publishing content.  

The Content Value Meter

Is the content…

• Tangible
• Useful
• Executable
• Inspiring
• Motivational
• Insightful
• Funny
• Practical
• Interesting
• Thought Provoking
• Does it save them something? Time, Money Hassle?
• Does it improve something?

Your content needs to check at least 1 of the value boxes demonstrated in the value meter for people to like it or share it.

If your content has 3 or more of these ingredients baked in, you know you’re cooking up some great content.

5 or more and your content is on fire and likely better than most.

7 or more your content is prime and you’re a content marketing champion.

If you can check all of the items from the value meter, your content is untouchable and you’re a content marketing genius.

You want people to think, that was so funny, useful, easy to do and I just had to share it with others.

That is the thought process you’ll want to trigger in the minds of your readers, followers and let’s not forget viewers (video is content too).

So here is my single best content marketing tip – Create content that anyone, even someone not initially interested in booking a vacation rental, can find value in and enjoy.

Once you’ve done that you’ve officially become a content marketing Rockstar!

To help bring more value to this blog content I want to give you a practical example of how you can bring more value into your blogs, descriptions and content.

When you’re telling a guest or potential guest how great your place is and all the great things in the area tell them more about the details.

For example:

Don’t tell me that the food at “recommended restaurant” is great and I’ve got to check it out.

Instead tell me how the food tastes describe the flavors so I can determine if I’d like it and tell me what I should order on the menu.

Just know that the value is in the details!

What did you think about this post? Is there anything that should be added to the Value Meter?

Did I provide enough value here?

Looking forward to your comments. Fire them off below!