Marketing and your guest’s booking journey

02 - Marketing and your guest’s booking journey

[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to episode number two of the direct booking success podcast .

Marketing what do you think when I say that word, do you think of people selling?

Do you think of spam emails? Do you think of junk mail through your letter box?

Imagine you're single, you're at a bar, just having a drink and enjoying yourself. When you notice someone across the bar giving you a bit of a smile. Yeah, they look nice. You smile back. They motion as if to ask if you know you could, they come over for a chat and you nod. They come over and sit at the stool beside you. You both introduce yourselves and you start to have a chat. You ask each other lots of questions and at the end of the evening, you exchange phone numbers and go your separate. For the next few days, you exchange some text messages and maybe have a voice or video call. [00:01:00] You're getting to know each other and you like what you're finding out. You have a few more dates and you're both really liking each other.

You're taking your time and starting to think that this person might be the one for you. Days turn into weeks and then in a months you've gotten to know each other so well, you're now spending all of your time together. You trust each other one day, you both decide that you wanna spend the rest of your lives together.

Now, why am I telling you this? You're thinking that just sounds like a typical dating story. Um, because this is marketing. Marketing is just like dating. Okay, your guests need to know you like you and trust you before they book with you. Now, I can't tell you how long this process is gonna take.

It might take a few weeks. It might take a few years. It [00:02:00] might only take a few minutes. Sometimes those on the first date, you know, go home with each other and that's it, you know, but it's not gonna happen every time. Okay. We're not gonna go home with each other on the first date all the time, your guest booking journey takes as long as it takes.

This is why you'll always be told that marketing is the long game. You are getting your guests to know you exist. To like what they see trust you are, who you say you are and then they will be ready to book.

When you're listed on an OTA, an online travel agent, like Airbnb, they've done some of this work for you. They give you the platform for you to be found on and because the guest is booking through them, then they need to have trust in. And we all know how Airbnb treats their guests they'll do anything to keep them happy. So when you go after direct [00:03:00] bookings, you have to do it all yourself, everything guests need to know, like, and trust you to then take action and book.

Don't despair. I didn't tell you all of this for you to think that you can't compete with the likes of Airbnb and the other OTAs, the online travel agents, because you can, yes, you really, really can.

It does take some time. It does take some effort. It does take some work and you can do it.

If you are listening to me now, I know you wanna get started and maybe you've already gotten started. Well done using marketing to increase your direct bookings, mean that everything you do needs to help guests know like trust and book with you.

If you're posting waffle or nothing that sits with this, then you're wasting your time. An example, [00:04:00] I always use with clients is happy cupcake day. You know there are such few examples when happy cupcake day would be relevant.

If you're spending your days posting waffle like this on social media, that doesn't help your guests move down this no like trust book funnel, then you're wasting your time.

You need to use your marketing to meet potential guests, where they are in the no like trust book process, it can be also referred to as a marketing funnel or a sales funnel. The no part is about being everywhere you can in order for potential guests to know you exist, then you want to provide content that allows potential guests to start to like you. And like what they're seeing and hearing [00:05:00] after light comes trust, potential guests need to know you are who you say you are and you will give them the stay that you promise and then guests will be ready to take action and book when guests are ready, how will they know what to do? That's something I'm always asked.

How do guests know to book. Well, you're gonna tell them that's right. You have to tell them, you need to tell your guests what you want them to do. This is called using a call to action, a CTA, tell them, tell them to book direct now, once you are showing potential guests, how to know like trust and book and only then will the direct booking start to roll in.

Join me for the next episode of the direct booking success podcast, where I'll be [00:06:00] sharing what I wish I had known throughout owning and managing my own short term rentals.