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Video Marketing Strategy For Vacation Rentals

 

Say Hello to John & Anna Nowlan my friends from Canada.

They’ve also been my clients for years. It was about that time for John and Anna to have their existing vacation rental website redesigned.

They were recently in town so they stopped by the office. We talked about where they were at in their vacation rental business and where they wanted to go.

I like to do these sit downs in order to help clients in their plan to do even better for the upcoming year…. we should always be moving toward improvements, the consistent effort is what produces success.

The vacation rental marketing campaign John and Anna are members of, include a brand new website to be designed every couple of years for them, free of charge.

We do this at Villa Marketers because we want to make sure our clients have the most advanced online tools, so they can keep their competitive edge.

In that conversation I suggested to Anna (and to you) she amp up her “about us” section on her website with a “meet the owner” video but she didn’t bite on the idea.

Anna was totally uncomfortable with even just imagining her picture on her website and even more of shooting a video.

Anna was one of those owners I nodded to at the end of the blog I wrote called “Where In The World Is Jay William – His Private Stories Gone Public.

In that blog I declared to live my life in public, stepping out from behind the curtain to let people see who I really am. My most recent blog  “Why I believe in Miracles a Real Life Death Defying Story” shows I am continuing to live my life in public….

I made this public declaration to set the example for other owners like Anna to hopefully follow. I truly believe it will transform their vacation rental businesses, if owners only dare to be daring.

I knew she would be reluctant but for two reasons I went ahead and asked Anna if she’d mind giving a video review of the service we’ve provided for her over the years.

She said Jay, I’d love to give you a review but I’m extremely camera-shy. After a moment she took a deep breath and said “let’s do it Jay!”

After shooting the video, she told me that she felt more comfortable with the idea of doing a meet the owners video, despite the discomfort she felt in front of the camera. Way to go Anna and John!

I want to congratulate Anna for stepping up and showing she is willing to do whats uncomfortable and conquer her marketing fears.

The first reason I asked Anna to provide a video review was to help her breakthrough her marketing fears. Thank you for allowing me to help you Anna!

The second reason is, if you truly provide a great service to your guests than we should ask our customers to provide a review for us.

I wanted to show her (and you) that she should be doing the same, after all no one can say how great you are like your customers.

But would you dare to ask your renters for a video review? I suggest you begin thinking of this as a vacation rental marketing strategy. If you haven’t heard about the power of video marketing than check out this video I created.    http://youtu.be/g7E7id_rwO4

Now take the power of video marketing and mix it with word of mouth advertising from reviews and now you have a kick butt marketing tool other owners don’t!

Consider this marketing statistic

Word-of-mouth marketing works.
89% of consumers believe that customer testimonials are the most effective content with 70% reviewing online customer reviews first when they consider a brand.

 

vacation rental owner marketing reviews

I’m going to meet John & Anna at their vacation rental in Lake Berkley and shoot the video of them by their private pool. I’m predicting a marketing breakthrough!

I’ll share it when its done. Have you thought about shooting a video but you’re way too camera-shy?

Are you using a meet the owner video if so, is it helping?

Would you dare to ask travelers for a video review or are you uncomfortable asking them for one?

What do you think?

MURDER YOUR MARKETING FEARS!

5 Comments

  • Josh says:

    Another great post Jay!

  • Jeffrey Rollin says:

    I usually just observe but I want to try this for our properties, how can I get travelers to give me a video review without coming off annoying or weird? I think I would be hesitant to ask.

  • Jay William says:

    Jeff, welcome!

    Customers in general only care about whats in it for them. In this case it’s OK to bribe them! One little trick is to include an offer of a vacation rebate in your emails maybe $50 to $100, if they submit a video review of them enjoying your home or explain why they enjoy the home, with iphones this is a “snap” for travelers. The cost is cheap for such a powerful piece of content.

  • Bert Simonis says:

    If you’re going to do this – please invest in an inexpensive lavaliere (lapel) mic. It will make it sound so much better. Remember the old film maker rule – bad sound = a bad film.

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