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Airbnb Marketing Strategy: 8 Techniques to Master
As the competition in the short-term rental market is becoming more fierce, it’s important to set your business apart from the competition. The key point for any host who wants to be a winner is to implement a consistent Airbnb marketing strategy. Check out 8 of the most effective marketing strategies to take your Airbnb business to the top!
Providing an amazing guest experience is no longer enough to boost your occupancy rate. To attract guests and have your calendar filled for months ahead, you need to set up and follow a marketing campaign for your Airbnb listings.
In fact, according to a recent survey about the state of small business marketing, small businesses with a marketing plan are nearly seven times more likely to be successful. Yet, still a quarter admitted to not having a marketing plan at all.
So, how do you craft an effective Airbnb marketing strategy? Read on to discover the best marketing practices that you can use for your short-term rental business to beat the competition and take the lead.
What Is an Airbnb Marketing Strategy?
Your Airbnb marketing strategy is an essential part of a solid rental management strategy and refers to the direction you take to bring your business in front of your target audience and turn them into bookers. It’s a plan of action for how and where you will promote your vacation rental which can include online and offline marketing pursuits.
If you’re looking for some guidance, a good Airbnb marketing mix includes social media, email marketing, word of mouth, referral program initiatives, and other marketing strategies aimed at growing the Airbnb brand.
Email in particular is a popular promotion strategy. It’s evident that Airbnb strategically incorporates email campaigns into its diverse marketing mix, emphasizing the fundamental role of targeted email communication in fostering brand awareness, customer engagement, and sustained growth within a comprehensive marketing strategy.
That said, Airbnb hosts will likely find much better luck with more visual platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. These marketing channels are perfect for sharing a mix between promotional materials (like video content) and user-generated content (UGC) that serves as social proof to advertise their affordable vacation rentals.
Why Are Digital Marketing Campaigns Important for Your Vacation Rental Business?
Although marketing offline can help to raise your booking rate, in today’s world, the majority of exchanges happen online. Digital marketing is therefore crucial for your success as a host. Overlooking it is a huge risk that could result in your business being overshadowed by competitors who do have marketing strategies in place.
In addition to this, you need to be strategic when it comes to the type of digital marketing you want to utilize. You don’t want to spend time on digital marketing techniques that don’t produce the results you’re looking for! So, let’s explore the strategies that have proven to be effective by many hosts and property managers.
8 Airbnb Marketing Strategies to Gain Traction
1. Establish Your Brand
Differentiating your Airbnb business from the competition in a crowded marketplace starts with your brand. An established brand is the cornerstone of effective marketing as this helps build trust and loyalty in the long run.
In fact, The State of Trust and Safety in Online Marketplaces, a national survey commissioned by Trua, found that pricing, transparency, trust and safety measures are key criteria that Americans use when they use providers that operate in the sharing economy. As such, when you’re building your brand, pay specific attention to creating transparency regarding house rules and pricing and how you’ll use their personal data. It’s also a good idea to put extra safety measures in place which will give potential guests more reassurance.
Having your own brand for your vacation rental business also makes it easier for your guests to remember your property. They will find you faster when they are ready to book with you again.
To establish your brand, come up with a name for your business and create a visual identity (which includes creating a logo). Use your brand name and logo on all your social media channels to streamline your Airbnb digital marketing strategy. You can, for example, also use your unique business name in your Airbnb listing’s title.
2. Boost Your Business With Facebook
According to the American Express Travel’s 2024 Global Travel Trends Report, about four out of 10 travelers turn to social media for travel inspiration. It doesn’t just stop at travel inspo. Another survey completed in 2024 found that 62% of US travelers who use social media for trip planning actually visited a place because of a social media post.
To use Facebook in your Airbnb marketing strategy, start by creating a Facebook business page for your properties. Link the created posts on your new page back to your listings on the vacation rental platforms.
In addition to posting about your short-term rentals, you should use your Facebook business page to share useful content for travelers. This can include tips and recommendations on the top destinations in your area, things to do, or landmarks to see.
Finally, you can leverage Facebook advertising. You can set up paid ad campaigns to raise brand awareness, boost engagement, and attract more followers around the world. Facebook will tell you directly on your business page how much engagement a paid ad campaign could bring you and the cost of boosting your post. Consider hiring services of a Facebook ad agency to help you maximize the returns on your ads.
3. Get Instagram Savvy
Although Facebook can deliver stellar results, Instagram is where the action is right now. A study of travelers in the United Kingdom completed at the end of 2024 revealed that Instagram has the highest conversion rate for travel visits or purchases.
It can especially come in handy if you want to reach a younger audience, specifically Gen Z travelers. More than half of the global Instagram population belong to the Gen Z or millennial generations.
It is a good idea to strive to make your business profile look professional and appealing. Thus, you should learn how to use smartphone apps (for example, Snapseed, Lightroom, VSCO, Afterlight, etc.) to edit and enhance your photos.
By using an app, you will be able to create great content for your Instagram account yourself and save a fair amount of money. But don’t go overboard with photo editing! By no means do you want to give false expectations to your prospective guests.
Take the time to experiment with different content formats available on the platform. Here are a few examples of different types of content that you can try:
Posts
Posts are a great way to share one key focal point relating to your property like a standout feature or amenity. Keep your posts simple and don’t try to cram too much information about your entire property into a single post. Instead, encourage users to click on other content offerings on your page (such as stories and reels) to learn more.
If you are looking for the right social media management tool to manage your social posts, you can, for example, try out Social Champ or Socialbee. These are two of the tools which help you to manage different social networks from a single dashboard.
Stories
Stories are content pieces such as photos or videos that are displayed on the user’s profile for only 24 hours. You can also save these Stories by adding them to your Highlights collection. This way, they will remain permanently on your profile giving prospective guests the opportunity to rewatch them at any time.
You can, for example, use Stories to shoot a virtual tour of your property or record new developments that go on, such as renovations or installations. You can also create video content of nearby attractions and fun things to do in the area, and then group these Stories by topic within your Highlights.
Reels
Reels can be used in a similar way to Stories to track developments that go on or focus on a unique selling point of your rental property.
Does your rental offer stellar views or boast a jacuzzi? Capture it in a Reel that will entice viewers to find out more or make a reservation.
4. Create a Video to Promote Your Rental Property
A great way to generate interest in your vacation rental is to create a video promoting it. A video allows viewers to see and experience your property in a way that photos just can’t do.
You can use your video to market the key features and attractions of your property, as well as nearby landmarks and places of interest. Make sure to focus the majority of your video on your vacation rental home, however, as it’s the real reason why people are tuning in.
Some tips for creating a standout video include filming a virtual tour of your property both inside and outside. You can also use a drone camera to capture an aerial view of your rental property.
In addition to sharing these videos on your social media pages, you can also upload it to your direct booking website or include it in an ad campaign.
5. Create a YouTube Channel for Your Brand
YouTube is not only one of the most popular video sites but it’s also considered as the second largest search engine on the internet behind Google. As such, it’s a place where you’ll want to build a presence.
Creating a YouTube channel is an excellent way to help personalize your brand. Your YouTube marketing strategy should focus on creating videos and YouTube ads that feature your properties. Try to create engaging content that helps travelers to get to know your area better. Not only should your videos have the entertainment factor, but they should also provide real value to travelers.
Your Airbnb marketing strategy for YouTube should also focus on building your subscribers. Make sure to cross-promote your YouTube channel on other networks to grow your subscriber base.
6. Influencer Marketing
Collaborating with popular influencers (known as influencer marketing) is another effective Airbnb digital marketing strategy. It’s especially powerful if you want to attract more Gen Z travelers as a quarter of Gen Zers in the United State follow travel influencers.
There are many travel bloggers on a number of social media platforms like Instagram or YouTube who can create user-generated content (UGC) that can help Airbnb hosts gain exposure for their business. However, a partnership with an influencer only brings results if you do the following first:
Identify the Right Influencer
You should know your target audience inside and out. Then, you should also understand the influencer’s own audience to ensure that their content resonates with the types of travelers you’re targeting and they’re perfectly aligned with your brand identity.
Set Clear Goals and Objectives
You need to decide in advance what aspects of your vacation rental business you want to promote. And, more importantly, how you will measure the success of your ad campaign.
Ask your chosen influencers to create user-generated content and make this one of the core principles of your marketing strategy. You’ll see similar content in Airbnb’s marketing strategy.
Develop an official affiliate program
Founding a program for affiliates is a great way to enrich your marketing tactics. A referral program will help your brand expand, create an internet presence and reach your target market. Use this in conjunction with the organic user-generated content to market your Airbnb listings.
Define the Terms and Conditions of a Contract
Will the influencer receive a travel credit in return for promoting your business? How will you stop your Airbnb marketing campaign if the collaboration doesn’t go as planned? Will your collaboration be only short term or continue indefinitely?
Make sure all of these details are outlined in a contract.
While finding influencers will likely be a time-consuming process, it diversifies your marketing tactics.
7. Embrace the Power of a Content Marketing Strategy
Even with all the other newer strategies that have emerged like influencer marketing, content remains king. Content marketing, a marketing strategy based on creating and sharing relevant content, is key to receiving consistent bookings.
A solid means of content marketing is establishing and running your own blog aimed at hosts and guests. This is one more reason why you should have a direct booking website in addition to relying on Airbnb’s platform.
The focus should be to create content that is interesting and relevant to your target audience so that they may then become subscribers and guests. Think listicles exploring all-time favorites, an in-depth article exploring local culture, tips for how they can save money for their next trip, or a comparison between the benefits offered by traditional hotels and vacation rentals.
A blog optimized for search engines can also help to generate new traffic and leads. The greater the number of SEO-optimized posts on your blog, the more likely it will attract new visitors who might be interested in booking with you.
8. Local Partnerships Are the Best-Kept Secret
Local partnerships can provide a unique value for your vacation rental business. Collaborations with local restaurants, amusement parks, or equipment rental companies are often overlooked. You can also leverage in-person events like a local conference, for example.
Use these types of local partnerships to create special offers and discounts for your guests. This will establish mutually profitable joint ventures that local businesses can benefit from as well in return for spreading the word about your vacation rental business in the local community.
Your guests will appreciate the fact that booking with you can help them save money throughout their stay with local special offers.
Get Creative With Your Airbnb Marketing Strategies
Effective marketing campaigns focus on providing real value and sharing authentic content. Your stories online should focus on your good hosting practices as well as the personal experiences of previous guests that will give others a better sense of what they can expect.
You also need a diverse and exciting marketing mix to ensure that your guests are kept intrigued by new offers, images, and more. From posts about new, unique experiences that they can book locally to blog posts about historical places to behind-the-scenes videos that show the type of premium stays they can anticipate, there are various topics to explore and formats to do so.
That said, all of these marketing efforts will fall flat if your actual Airbnb listing isn’t optimized. Enhancing your Airbnb listing should be your first action.
Also, while marketing efforts for your Airbnb is an essential part of business growth, you can only go so far without the right property management tools. Vacation rental software, like iGMS, ensures your business runs optimally by streamlining daily operations.
