Families are one of the biggest buyer personas for vacation rental companies in the United States. According to a Google Consumer Surveys report, parents took more vacations lasting 5-10 days in 2014 than non-parents did. To tap into the profitable pool of vacationing families, here are a few steps your vacation rental company can take to attract these prospective travelers and turn them into potential customers.
1. Create a Downloadable Content Offer
By generating content that families will find useful and beneficial in their quest for a vacation or to use during a getaway in your vacation area, you can satisfy a need or answer a question for them, both of which will help to attract vacationing families to your company and establish you as a knowledgeable vacation professional.
Entice them with a downloadable content offer in one of many forms, such as eBooks, whitepapers, webinars, or videos, to name a few. EBooks targeted towards vacation families could have topics such as:
- “Surviving the Car Ride: 25 Tips from Real Parents on How to Turn a Road Trip with Kids into a Success”
- “A Guide to Educational Activities for Kids in [Insert Your Location]”
- “20 Reasons Why [Insert Your Location] is the Best Place for a Summer Vacation for Families”
- “Don’t Let it Rain on Your Parade: 30 Things to Do in [Insert Your Location] on Rainy Days”
2. Create Blog Posts and Landing Pages
Next, you should create a blog post with a call to action (CTA) in it that invites the reader to download the offer. A CTA is a message, usually in the form of an attractive image, which entices the reader to take action by clicking in order to receive the free downloadable content.
When CTA is clicked, it should link to a landing page where they fill out a form in order to download. A landing page is a web page created to offer your downloadable offer in exchange for information about the visitor. Be sure to include an attractive image on the landing page so that the image appears when you post a link to the landing page in social media (which is discussed further below).
Good qualifying questions for a landing page to obtain information from families looking to download an eBook about vacations would be:
- “Which (insert destination) activities do you enjoy?”
- “When do you plan to take your vacation?”
When someone fills out the form and downloads the offer, your company will have their contact info and you can follow up with them via email or phone. Having the answer to their qualifying question will help you to target conversations and content to that prospective customer in the future.
Blog post topics to attract vacationing families to your rental company could include:
- “5 Best Kid-Friendly Restaurants in [Insert Your Location]”
- “Free Activities for the Entire Family in [Insert Your Location]”
- “Best Beaches for Your Pooch in [Insert Your Location]”
By targeting your content to your desired persona, you will have of attracting them and thus increase your chances of them engaging with your vacation rental company.
3. Post Your Blog Post in Social Media
Post links to the blog posts that contain CTAs in your social networks. Facebook ads work well to promote blog posts. We’ve seen companies spend as little as $100 – $150 on Facebook ads a month and get hundreds of website visits each month from ads that promote the companies’ blog posts. For more details on how to create these kinds of Facebook ads for your vacation rental company, check out:
4. Post Link to Your Landing Page in Social Media
Post a link to the landing page that offers your content offer in social media. Be sure to give a brief description of the offer in your Facebook post. It will be much more effective than posting the link alone.
5. Follow Up with People who Download your Content
Finally, follow up with the prospective customers who downloaded your content. Their answer to the qualifying question on the form will give you an idea of what information to follow-up with via email or phone.
Complete these 5 steps and you will be well on your way to attracting more families to your vacation rental company. For more information, visit our Vacation Rental Marketing blog.
