Real Estate and Vacation Rental Internet Marketing Tips for Today’s Economy
Many of our top clients in the real estate and vacation rental industries are analyzing and adjusting their internet marketing plans and budgets. In tough economic times, it’s no secret that cuts are expected across the board – and online marketing is no exception.
As we focus on aligning marketing budgets with online marketing strategies for 2009, we are tasked to find efficiencies in our marketing plans in order to cut costs and identify the most productive online marketing channels. It’s our job to advise our clients to spend their marketing dollars where they will generate the greatest ROI.
While we may be biased, we believe that investing in your digital marketing media should be your highest priority today. Not only is online media more affordable and efficient, it is also very trackable and true ROI for each online marketing campaign can be assessed with just a few clicks with the aid of a comprehensive Google Analytics setup.
Here are few new tools we have seen come across our desks that are not only affordable, but also enhance the user experience which in turn develops confidence in your customers and drives new business.
Integrated Online Booking – Booking trips online sometimes takes people outside of their comfort zone. Let them gain confidence in your services by providing seamless online booking. Rather than leaving your site or filling out a property request form, real-time availability and online booking will be key not only for you to promote your units accurately, but also to allow the user to search by dates or unit criteria and then book it online once they’ve found what they’re looking for. Check out the Gulf Shores Plantation booking engine to see it action!
Property Reviews – Positive property reviews are an important piece of the vacation rental industry and online reputation management. People have come to expect them for hotels on sites like Trip Advisor, Orbitz and Expedia but they have not been as readily available for vacation homes and condos. Positive customer reviews for vacation rentals on sites like FlipKey are a critical piece of information to give your prospects that will also give your company the edge over your competition. We’ve devised a number of ways to leverage and grow positive reviews for our vacation rental and lodging clients.
Online Brochures – Save money and trees by passing on the next printing of your real estate or vacation rental brochure and post it online in a rich media format instead. These dynamic brochures can be set to music and can be completely customized so they look even better than your print brochures and are a fraction of the price. Check out the Seven Lakes Ranch Brochure.
For more information on how you can stretch your marketing budget by investing in digital marketing, call Blue Tent today at 970.704.3240 and take advantage of a free one-hour internet marketing consultation.