Welcome to Boostly Podcast Season 11 Episode 159. This is a recap of my Facebook live where I helped a Self Catering property get more visible.
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Transcript from the Episode
For those of you that have tuned in the last few days, we will have started in Australia. We went to Portugal and now our number three will come into the UK will go into the lovely little city of Ipswich. And we're gonna be helping Mel.
If you're tuning in for the first time, welcome to the Boostly podcast every day, in 2021. I'm going to be uploading a podcast video audio blog post to the Bosostly network to help hosts just like you not only survive what has happened over the past 14 months, but thrive. On the other end. It's a challenge that I have set. We have now into August, we have well past the 300 podcast mark on brutally overall which is insane. And for the next round of inspiration. I'm doing mini marketing reviews.
As I explained in the first episode, normally when I do a market review, it's a full live episode, we get the host on a zoom call, we share the screen, we get everybody into a room and we just bounce ideas. It's a lot of fun, but it's a lot of work. And with these daily podcasts, I wanted to be short, sharp sweet to the point under 10 minutes. So that host doesn't matter how busy you are consuming at any point any time in the car, walk in breakfast whenever you can tune in. So this is where the idea of mini marketing reviews came from.
What I love is that we're having a real nice mix up every single day. So we're nice and diverse on the different types of properties nice and diverse in the locations around the world. And this is obviously going to be in Ipswich. So Mel has got one apartment one property it's called stone lodge apartments. Mel started the business up just before March 2020. Obviously before COVID hit hasn't had a lot of bookings mainly been is that again Mel has said that truly and honestly time aspect, knowing what tasks to do how to put much time to it in a previous life used to do this in Spain with over listings A long time ago. But obviously back at what obviously in Ipswich and doing this so majority of the guests have been leisure versus have come from VRBO and this is all Mel's word. took part in one of my five day challenges. So is now on MailChimp which is good but it's just all about making sure that the property stone Lodge is visible bookable and recoverable.
So let's delve in let's go first and foremost to the website. Now I'm not sure on what platform This is built on. I do know that the PMS is free to book which is good, we love free to book really simple, easy to use cost-effective for one property, etc etc. But what I would be looking at here is where everything is okay and again it's really important that when you have a website, you want to make sure that everything is really easy to use and understand as soon as somebody hits that website not only on desktop, but also mobile and tablet as well and for those of you that have been following me for a while you will know that I prefer to have all of this down in what's called a junk drawer here so I think this should be more incentive to get rid of this on the side I have done large apartments up here and then have that book now check prices right here in the top right-hand corner because that's where our eyes naturally diverted.
One thing I do know is is the why hashtag book direct I do love that well the Mel at the more people can talk about direct bookings, the better. But in all honesty, 80% of your information, like I said needs to be on that first page of Google people don't read big blocks of text like this. So I would be definitely looking to get 80% of the information on that first page of Google.
Book direct to get the best prices and save money. Outstanding self-catering holiday rentals for over 40s So I would definitely look to amend the title a little bit. Again, a lot of people don't know what book direct actually means. So what I would be looking to do is how can you make that a little bit better, but I won't be putting it straight away at the top here. definitely mentioned in it as in, you could do some cool little icons here benefits of booking directly with us as IE earlier, check in time, best rates, you know, more money, it's a local community, etc. People do care and love about that. But I won't be putting it straight away at the very top. But in all honesty, again, I think your problem isn't so much the website, the PMS is fine, etc, it would be how are people finding you. So obviously, we know from what you've told me that you are listed on the table. But we don't know where else you are listed as well.
So what I will be doing, again, this is something that I recommended to Carolina, I want to make sure that you're on all the best listing sites for you.
Social media content wise, well done for using Boostly content creator do keep sticking it definitely do keep sticking on it. Last one was three days ago, which is lovely. But before that denied a name so you know, nice and consistent, which is which is fantastic. And again, just do a little bit more of you know, behind the scenes a little bit more about you a little bit more about the business owners a little bit more about why you what you offer, etc. And I've only got one follow up. But if you keep doing that, then more and more people will come and stick around. So again, I just did a little search for stone lodge apartments, Ipswich, which is here. And again, what the Facebook page which is obviously doubling up from Instagram, which is, which is good. But again, I think the wind for yourself, if we've had a lot of people that stayed with you at the present moment in time for leisure, I definitely really would be looking seeing that we've got quite a lot of space here in the calendar. How can you be tapping into maybe contractors, business people in and around Ipswich area? What can you be doing there? Have you had any guests over the course you know, since COVID began? who stayed you who were maybe keywork as business people, etc? Can you reach out to them and ask if I know anybody who is going to be going back to the area. Also, as well use that that Google YouTube video on how to make sure that you're listed on all the right places because free to book is good, you know, a very good channel manager it will connect you to all the places to make sure that you are visible.
And then what can you be doing maybe pricing software wise to make sure that you're not either underpriced or overpriced in yourself. So again, price labs will house which is recommended and it's available in its which I believe. And it's free. Can you plug that in? Number one, which would be really fascinating. And again, tap into the people that have already been staying with you because we know I can see that we've had at least five people because they've left the reviews and you've synced in from VRBO can you get in contact with a couple of things, ask for a referral or even maybe do a survey. So do a quick survey to find out why they stayed with you etc etc. So again, all that content that you need Mel is available in Boostly content creator, I know you have access to it, those email templates are there. And please do go and put them into action as soon as possible. If you need any help or guidance, you know where to find us but hopefully that you do get to see this and I hope that all is well and I shall speak to you very soon and to anybody else that is tuned in again. What can you take away from this?
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