How To Market Vacation Rentals On Facebook

52% of Facebookers Inspired To Travel By Vacation Photographs. A Rental Marketing Must! Check The Stats

I have been asked this question on many occasions “does marketing vacation rentals on Facebook generate rental bookings?”

Well, that depends.  If you are marketing vacation rentals on Facebook the wrong way it definitely won’t work.

However if you are different, creative and listen closely to what makes your followers tick you can peak their interest.

After-all followers are just people and people do travel. The trick to learn is how to get Facebookers interested to book your vacation rental?

I sometimes hear of professional marketers telling owners that Facebook doesn’t bring in bookings and not to waste their time with social marketing.

You know I must call them out on this one.  I know first hand that the right social marketing campaign can generate interest and ultimately bookings, it’s worked for us.

Facebook has helped us book rentals we would’ve never reached if it were not for Facebook.  Now there are third party statistics that prove these  ” professionals” wrong (be wary of the marketing advice you follow).

Did you know?

Google’s algorithm considers your ‘social relevance” when determining the ranking of your vacation rental website?

If that single reason isn’t enough to develop a social marketing strategy than consider these statistics.

According to a study from the flight comparison website Skyscanner; pictures have an extremely powerful  influence on Facebook users travel planning.

With more than half (52 per cent) stating that seeing their friends’ vacation pictures has inspired them to book a vacation to the same place. (That’s the part that is interesting!)

These statistics will mean nothing to you except of course if you decide to adjust your Facebook marketing appropriately.

Then you can truly benefit from using Facebook as an advertising website to get rental bookings.

The study reported 52% of Facebookers were interested in visiting the places they’ve seen their friends visiting.

Their friend’s vacation pictures inspired them to take a vacation.  Most owners are not advertising their vacation rentals like this on social platforms and for this reason they lose out on the impact of social marketing.

Social marketing is all about being social and share-able and vacations are something Facebookers share with their social groups.

They brag and boast about what a wonderful time they had on vacation.

They share their vacation photographs with family and friends and if you have a way to get your property, logo or website recognized in front of these people you now have a ton of free vacation rental marketing.

This is where having a Facebook page and a little branding are important for your vacation rentals social marketing. Having a brand will help those friends and followers to make a connection with your rental business.

Why does this type of social marketing work so well?

To answer this question let us reference Sam Baldwin, Skyscanner Travel Editor commented:

“They say a picture is worth a thousand words and here is the proof. Facebook is the perfect platform for two very powerful influencers of travel; a personal recommendation combined with alluring images.

From Orlando to Australia, seeing our friends’ adventures can certainly plant a seed that later leads to a trip to somewhere you never previously thought about visiting.”

Let me ask you this….are you inpiring people on Facebook? Are your previous renters helping to inspire travelers for you? Or are you just trying to sell your followers something?

These are just some of the questions you’ll need to ask yourself before you can fix your Facebook and social marketing efforts.

Understand one thing about social marketing, it isn’t anything new. Its about building relationships with real people in a virtual way. It is through the relationships you build from your social marketing that you develop your leads .

When it comes to marketing vacation rentals on Facebook vacation rental owners and managers tend to get it wrong.

Facebook is NOT an ad blaster for your vacation rental,  it is a network of ” Real People”.

Do people really want to be hit with a daily barrage of your advertising? Of course not! If your messages are just advertisements of your vacation rental or management company, your likely being ignored. 

If you rethink your social marketing strategy and refocus on people you will have better results with marketing on Facebook.  

Stop thinking about yourself and focus your thoughts on your followers that is the mantra of social marketing.

Think of ways you can help people on social networks? Try it out for your advertising and you’ll see a much more favorable response and deeper interaction with people.

Here are a couple of other interesting travel statistic to support the importance of social marketing

A recent study released by Eye forTravel indicated that 7 out of 10 travel brands professed how social media has not only generated a remarkable amount of direct bookings from social media sites, but has also significantly improved engagement with customers. If they can generate bookings couldn’t you?

If you learn how to advertise your vacation rentals on Facebook the right way, you’ll be able to take advantage of the fact that some owners aren’t on Facebook at all.  

And you’ll be able to do better than the majority of owners because most owners marketing on Facebook are doing it wrong.

If you develop your Facebook and social marketing now you’ll have a leg up on your competitors, check the stats.

A report by World Travel Market revealed that by 2016, social media will be in the forefront as a primary way to generate travel bookings and revenue for half of the travel industry.

The report also indicates:

22%, of travel companies generate revenue from social media efforts

27% are planning to make strides in social over the next 5 years

Are you going to get left behind? Do you have a strong social marketing plan in place, if not chances are you will.

When in doubt resort to statistics because opinions are like belly buttons everbodys got one.

If you need help bringing your vacation rentals marketing to its highest performance contact us we can help. – 1-800-856-8641

Villa Marketers

https://villamarketers.com