How To Expose Your Vacation Rental to Thousands Of Online Visitors

/in /by

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article|Online Marketing|How To Expose Your Vacation Rental to Thousands Of Online VisitorsIf you have a holiday home or if you are looking to lease a room in your house or even lease your house then this is a must read strategy guide to help you grow your vacation rental business no matter how small or large your operation.

Vacation rentals are in their prime at this time. There are plenty of websites available on which you can list your property for free and expose your vacation rental to thousands of people seeking to rent a holiday home for their vacation.

For those that are looking to get into the vacation rental business, the first question they usually ask is “Which website should I list my property on?”. Well, the answer is, in fact, an easy one if you are willing to part with a small monthly fee every month.

List Your Vacation Renal on All the Websites That Will Allow You To

You should list your property or properties on every vacation rental website that is available. That means Airbnb, HomeAway, FlipKey, Booking.com, and so on. You can find some recommendations for vacation rental listing sites here.

Why List My Properties on All Vacation Rental Websites?

There are two key reasons why you should use every available website at your disposal to list your vacation rental.

Free to list your property

This is the most obvious point we’d like to make is that on nearly all of these websites it is free to list your property. The only time you will pay any fees to the website is if someone books your property. Read about Airbnb service fees applied here for a better understanding of what you will pay when someone does book your vacation rental.

StrategyDriven Online Marketer & Website Developer Magazine


Take advantage of all the free internet traffic your website will gain from being listed on multiple websites

People looking to rent a holiday home find these vacation rental websites on social media as well as internet searches using Yahoo, Google, and Bing. The reason people searching for holiday homes are able to find these websites online is that every vacation rental website out there has a dedicated digital marketing team and budget to bring traffic to their website.

When people find the vacation rental site they like, they will search for holiday homes in the area they plan to visit. Your property, if listed correctly, will appear in these filtered searches for the area the holidaymaker wants to visit. That is free exposure for you because it cost you nothing to list your property on the website.

Now picture this. If someone chooses HomeAway to search for a holiday home over Airbnb, it doesn’t matter. That is because you will have listed your property (for free) on both these websites. Therefore, anyone searching for a vacation rental in the area your property is listed on either the Airbnb or HomeAway website will see your property as an option to book for accommodation om both of these websites.

Think about it. All that traffic on the internet coming to your vacation rental home no matter which website people choose when searching for ‘vacation rentals’.Plus, if someone sees your property on both websites, they are more inclined to trust and book your place – especially if you have already built up an established profile with plenty of positive feedback.

For more information about positive feedback for vacation rentals, check out this HomeAway vacation rental success guide.

How Do You Manage Multiple Websites?

Obviously one of the key issues here is that you need to manage multiple listing across multiple websites. Now, this used to be a headache for people that already use the strategy mentioned here. However, now you can use vacation rental website builders to manage all these websites centrally.

You can have your own branded website with a booking system or a WordPress appointment booking plugin built in. You will have a channel manager that centralizes all the calendars by syncing your main calendar with all your vacation rental website listings on sites like HomeAway, VRBO, and Airbnb so there is no risk of double bookings. Plus, you will have a central website where all your photos and listings can be stored.

Check out the Lodgify vacation rental resources page where there is a wealth of information covering how to market your website, how to optimize your website for local SEO as well as actionable SEO tips, how to increase your bookings via Airbnb, optimizing your HomeAway website listings, and how to write your own business plan.

One of the best articles here we recommend if you do decide to take our advice given in this article is to read the article titled: “Increase Direct Bookings and Save Time with Vacation Rental Software” on the Lodgify resources page. The software is actually provided by Lodgify, which is the website that provides all the resources you need to take your vacation rental business to the next level.

Top 5 Facebook ads strategies for ecom or dropshipping

/in , /by

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | Top 5 Facebook ads strategies for ecom or dropshipping | Facebook Ads | EntrepreneurshipIf you are looking forward to boost the popularity of your dropshipping business and get more orders, you must take a look at Facebook marketing. In fact, Facebook paid advertisements are in a position to provide outstanding results to you. At Strategy Driven, our favourite course for ecommerce is Franklin Hatchett’s ecom elites course. The ecom elites review on aaronsreview.com goes into great detail as to why you should buy the course.  As an alternative, you can also work with Facebook advertising agencies.

As the first thing, you need to understand that Facebook advertising is completely different from Google advertising. If you are familiar with Google advertising, you will not be able to apply the same strategies in here to end up with positive outcomes. You must be aware about the specific strategies, which can help you gain positive results in Facebook.

Here is a list of 5 such effective Facebook ads strategies that you can follow for dropshipping or ecommerce. All these strategies can provide amazing returns to you and you will be able to go ahead with any out of them.

1. Make sure that you create a sense of exclusivity

Facebook is all about exclusivity. Therefore, you need to make sure that your advertisements on Facebook are also in a position to create a sense of exclusivity. This can provide you with a clear advantage by being on a social media network such as Facebook. You should always provide exclusive content via the Facebook ads. This can consume a lot of time and effort. But when you compare it with the returns that you get, you will be able to have a clear idea about the benefits that come on your way.

2. Highlight before and after

In the Facebook advertisements, you need to highlight the conditions that exist before a specific action and the conditions that exist after a specific action. No matter what kind of a product you are trying to promote with Facebook, you need to take it out of the box and snap a photo to be uploaded to Facebook. Then you need to snap another similar photo after you use the product. Both these photos should be combined and uploaded on Facebook.

For example, assume that you are going to sell running shoes through your ecommerce store. The first thing you need to do is to take out the running shoes, keep them along with the wrapping and then capture a photo. Then you need to take another photo, which indicates a person wearing the running shoes. This photo should be taken with a nice background behind it. If you can follow this strategy, you will be able to get the best possible results out of your Facebook advertisements.

3. Receive benefits from the fame of your competitors

When you are promoting a dropshipping or an ecommerce business on Facebook, you need to pay special attention towards the competition. However, you will be able to take advantage from the fame of your competitors.

Many people worry that having famous and reputed competitors is a disadvantage. That’s because people often tend to go ahead with the brands that they can easily recognize. However, you will be able to talk about those recognizing brands and then tell that there is something even more interesting and better. With that approach, you can promote your product. This will provide you with a better opportunity to grab the attention of your audience.

All you have to do is to upload a post with information related to the product offered by your competitor. Inside the post, you can promote your product according to the above-mentioned approach.

4. Highlight the contrast

You must be selling variant or customizable products through your ecommerce store. In such a situation, you need to make sure that you upload Facebook advertisements, which highlight the contrast between them and the ordinary products available in the market.

You can even do with the help of exact same shoes as well. All you have to do is to introduce the different colors and textures, when your customer keeps on scrolling through. This can give life to an outstanding advertisement in the long run. It can also highlight all the variants that you have got for sale under your store as well.

However, you need to understand that it is not possible to receive effective results by paying attention only towards the colors. You should also take a look at the fonts and background colors as well. That’s where you need to think about handing this over to a professional designer. Then you can completely focus on promoting your dropshipping or ecommerce store on Facebook.

5. Create excitement about products on the minds of customers

Through Facebook advertisements, it is also possible for you to create excitement about your products in the minds of customers. You just need to think the most exciting moment for your customer would be in the product lifecycle. In most of the products, unboxing is the most exciting part. For that, you need to select a product and then promote it via Facebook advertisements. Due to the excitement that you create among customers, they will be tempted to visit the ecommerce store. As a result, you will be able to generate a significant income out of it as well. That’s because you can get more people from Facebook to purchase the product that you offer. It can create a positive impact on the other products available for your purchase in the ecommerce store as well.

Any ecommerce or dropshipping store owner will be able to follow these strategies. Then you can easily end up with outstanding results. You will also fall in love with Facebook advertisements due to the amazing returns that are offered to you in the long run.

5 Ways to incorporate an explainer video to your marketing strategy

/in /by

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article | 5 Ways to incorporate an explainer video to your marketing strategyAmong the marketing strategies that you can find out there in the digital world, video marketing has received a lot of attention. As you already know, a picture can speak a thousand words. Likewise, a video can speak millions of words. Hence, it is always better for you to use videos for the marketing campaigns.

Many different types of videos are being used for digital marketing campaigns in today’s world. Among those different types of videos, you can find explainer videos as well. Most of the businesses prefer to use explainer videos due to the simplicity and effectiveness linked with them. On the other hand, it costs fewer resources and a lower number of time in order to create an explainer video as well. If you don’t like to appear in front of a camera, consider animated video production to create your explainer video.

Once you get an explainer video created for the business, you need to learn how to incorporate it to your marketing strategy. Here are 5 different approaches that you can follow to get the job done.

1. Use explainer videos to communicate efficiently

Efficient communications play a major role behind the success of marketing campaigns. If you want to get your message across, you need to make sure that communications take place via an efficient path. The explainer videos will be able to help you with that.

In general, the explainer videos are created to explain a process. Hence, it can create engagement, raise awareness and increase sales volume. On the other hand, using explainer videos can be considered as an excellent method to communicate efficiently with the customers. That’s because the customers will be able to understand what you are trying to say. They will be attracted towards you’re the products or services that you offer after the understanding they get. You will also be able to highlight the specific message you want to say with this kind of an explainer video. Animation Explainers are the best animation studio in Toronto Canada.

2. Use explainer videos to create brand awareness

Without enhancing the visibility and presence of your brand, it is quite difficult for you to attract new customers or retain the existing customers. Therefore, you must look at all possible options that are available for you to create brand awareness. Explainer videos can assist you with that as well. According to a recent study conducted by eMarketer, it has been identified that more than 56% of people say that they are interested spending their money on the brands that they are familiar with.
The explainer videos can help you to promote your brand via interesting visual content. You just need to think about incorporating your brand colors, brand logo or product and service specific visual content to the explainer video. You will also be provided with the chance to combine all the different branding efforts that you have into one single message. It will be a powerful message, which can provide outstanding results to you. Hence, you will be able to reach your brand awareness goals in an effective manner as well.

3. Use explainer videos to educate the visitors of your website

After getting the explainer videos created, you can think about adding them to your business website. When you add an explainer video, you will be able to allow the visitors to spend more time on it. In other words, you will be getting a better level of attention from the visitors of the website. Hence, you are provided with an ideal opportunity to educate the audience in an effective manner as well.

The explainer videos are packed with a lot of useful information. People are attracted towards the valuable content that they can receive out of an explainer video as well. This can help you to deliver the exact same message you want to give out as well.

You must also understand that most of the people in today’s world prefer to watch something, instead of reading. Hence, you should think about providing them with what they want. Explainer videos can help you with that. You shouldn’t load your website with unnecessary content. All you have to do is to replace them with the explainer videos. This strategy will help you with transforming the official business website into a lead generator as well.

4. Use explainer videos to attract new prospects

If you don’t put an extra effort to attract new prospects, you will find it as a difficult task to ensure the overall sustainability of your business in the long run. You can easily attract new people towards the business with the explainer videos. That’s because most of the people in today’s world tend to do a research before they select a company to work with.

Even if you take a look at the search engine algorithms, you will notice that videos are provided with a high priority when indexing on the results pages. Therefore. You must think about getting some effective explainer videos created for the business and published them online. Then you can see how they are generating new prospects, which can heavily contribute towards the future success of your business.

5. Use explainer videos to engage on social media

No business can survive without social media these days. After creating your social media profiles, you should also take appropriate steps in order to engage with the followers. Explainer videos can assist you with that. That’s because the explainer videos can easily provide you with the opportunity to grab the attention of the followers and keep them interested about your business.

You can add questions and other engaging elements to the explainer video in order to make it more appealing for your social media followers. Then they will interact with the videos and help you to further increase your brand visibility. Therefore, you will be able to cover up your investment within a short period of time.

Take Advantage of These 7 Marketing Tips and Grow Your Business in 2019

/in /by

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Marketing|Take Advantage of These 7 Marketing Tips and Grow Your Business in 2019When money is tight, marketing is often the first area where cuts are made, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up on promoting your business completely. There are many ways you can market your business on a limited budget. Traditional advertising techniques can be very expensive, and nowadays they’re not all that effective. Thankfully, technology has come to the rescue, much like many other areas of our lives. Digital tools are available to help you market your small business on a shoestring budget.

Utilize Social Media

Do you realize how many people use social media? According to the latest research it’s estimated that there will be almost 3 billion social media users around the globe in 2019. That’s a huge audience you’re not able to talk to if you’re not yet using social media. The most popular social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Snapchat. Each of these platforms has its own advantages and disadvantages, and each offers its own unique way of engagement. It would be impossible to master them all at once so choose a few you like and try to master those first. Your choice of platform also depends on the ones your target audience is using.

Content is King

All your potential customers are going to love good quality content, and so is Google and other popular search engines. Publishing content on your website and social media pages is a very effective way to share information. Try your hand at blogging, creating videos, hosting podcasts, designing infographics or submitting articles to online authority sites. It’s a great way of getting free traffic and improving your authority as an expert. If there are complementary websites, you could offer to be a guest blogger or be interviewed on one of their podcasts.

Offer Free or Discounted Products or Services

A great way to draw in new customers is to offer something for free or at a discount. Grocery stores have been doing it for many years, and they call them lost leaders. Offering something such as bread at a really low price might lose money on that particular line, but it’s bringing in customers who are likely to spend money in other areas. Free trials or free software apps are more ways to attract prospective customers. Giving them the opportunity to try something for free is very useful.

Ask Customers for Reviews

If you’re a little unsure about the relevance of customer feedback, it might interest you to learn that as many as 54% of people visit a website after reading positive reviews and 84% of people trust reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Reviews can carry a lot of weight because they build trust and credibility for your business. Make sure you find space for them on your website because they also improve your search engine ranking.

Look After Your Loyal Customers

One of the keys to business success is your customers, so it’s vital you look after them and encourage them to stay loyal. Nurturing your loyal customers is also more cost effective than trying to attract new ones. You can keep them loyal in a number of different ways. For example, communicate with them regularly on social media, via your blogs or e-news. Providing follow-up after a sale is made is also important. Remember, if you make a promise to follow through, don’t be afraid to go the extra mile and exceed your customer’s expectations. You might not always want to hear what your customers have to say about your business, but even the most negative comments have value. They should be seen as an opportunity to improve services and customer experience.

Set Marketing Goals and Budget

You can promote your business without considering what you want from your efforts, but it’s much more effective to set marketing goals. Having SMART goals is going to help you develop the best strategies for growing your business. To be classed as SMART goals they have to be:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Attainable
  • Relevant
  • Time-Based

As well as setting your business marketing goals you also need to set aside some money for your marketing efforts. Your budget needs to include website development and maintenance, SEO strategy, branding, promotional material, advertising, sponsorships and perhaps marketing staff.

Make Personal Branding Work for Your Business

One of the most valuable assets your business will ever own is your brand. Think Coca Cola, Amazon, Nike and you’ll appreciate what we mean. A survey undertaken by Nielson found out that 59% of customers prefer to buy from familiar brands. You’re probably wondering how you go about building your brand. It’s more than having a cool logo or advertising in the right location. Building your brand is more of a process you have to go through, but the result is a long-term relationship with your customers.

First, you have to define your target audience. Are they single moms, tech-savvy millennials, college students, a busy housewife, or professional executives, for example? Once you’ve identified your audience you can work on creating a brand, they understand and can relate to. Other branding aspects you need to consider include, establishing a brand mission statement, researching what others in your industry are doing, outlining the qualities and benefits your brand offers, forming your brand voice, building a brand message and elevator pitch. One final feature you need to look at is your domain name and extension. The name of your website should be informative, clear and concise if you want to know more about the benefits of choosing the right domain name look here for more details.

Hopefully, now you realize that marketing your business is something you can do even when your budget is limited. All that’s required is some effort on your part and some creative thinking. The marketing tips that have been shared above are just the tip of the iceberg but think of them as ideas to get the ball rolling.

Using Video to Boost Online Sales

/in /by

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Video Marketing|Using Video to Boost Online SalesVideo is becoming a much bigger part of the internet, with even the most casual of users viewing videos online. We watch video advertisements. We tune in to Vloggers on YouTube. You might use instant videos to communicate with your friends and followers on platforms like SnapChat. Social media platforms like Facebook and even Instagram are seeing much more extensive use of video, and it’s almost impossible to scroll down your feed without viewing an online video. We stream our favorite TV shows on mediums like Netflix and Amazon Prime. We even use catch up services online to watch our favorite terrestrial shows. More families than ever are reporting that they no longer subscribe to any traditional TV package, instead choosing to stream all of the TV and films that they watch at home. On top of that, there are more specialist video services like Twitch, which are growing in popularity all of the time.

Research from online marketing outlet Digital Sherpa shows that video increases audience understanding by 74% and around 30% of everyone’s online activity is spent watching videos. It’s easy to see why using video is important, but if you are a small business, without much experience of creating your own online videos, or using videos in your digital campaigns, it can be a little overwhelming. Fortunately, description services can take out some of the hard, and more tedious work, and help you to ensure that your videos can benefit everyone. But, you still need to get stuck in for yourself. Here are just a few of the ways that your business could use video to boost sales.

To Build Trust

Building trusting relationships with your customers is essential if you want your business to grow. Without loyal and trusting relationships, you are always spending time trying to find new customers. You won’t have repeat custom, you won’t have a fanbase that spread positive word of mouth, and you won’t have clients that trust you enough to try new things and support your business through the inevitable ups and downs.

But, building this trust isn’t just about offering excellent products and services (of course, you should be doing that too), you need to provide more. Video gives you a fantastic way to give your customers more, to engage with them, to let them in a little more, and to make them feel as though you have a personal connection. Video gives you a chance to be more than just a faceless, souls brand. It makes you real.

To Explain and Educate

A brief description alone side a photo of a product or title of a service isn’t always enough to really show what you are offering. Video lets you explain your products and services. It can be a great way to troubleshoot and to give your customers advice. Video is much easier to understand than text, and many people find it easier to learn this way.

To Have Fun

Video, and vanishing videos especially, give you a way to have some fun with your audience. We focus so much on trying to be professional and serious, but it’s important to remember that people connect with other people, and they like to see more than the professional facade. Film some behind the scenes footage and let people in.