Welcome to Boostly Podcast Season 10 Episode 8. This is a recap of my Marketing Review live with four hospitality owners.
Here's the audio for this episode:
Timestamp
06:50 Tips for Charlotte
46:00 Elizabeth and her business
1:00:00 Review for Sarah Townsend
1:15:00 Marketing Review for Alicia
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Transcript from the Episode
Let's venture over to Charlotte’s Facebook page. Now, instantly, what I love is that the profile page, the profile image here isn’t of the business, it's of Charlotte, Charlotte's team. This is really key, and everybody should be doing this. But not a lot of people do this. When you have your Facebook business page, don't think that the profile image needs to be your logo. You've got to add the personality behind your business behind your brand. Don't hide behind the logo, don't hide behind your business, we are in the most sociable business that there is an industry that there is especially someone like Charlotte, who welcomes the guest every single step of the way.
A tip that I would give Charlotte straight off the bat would be make full use of your Facebook cover picture. Now with the Facebook cover picture, as far as I'm aware, I'm still sure you can do is you can have up to five or six pictures. So I would use this to showcase your property because it looks stunning. You know, it instantly has a feel to me of an old, old household manner. The windows look fantastic. And what I would be doing here would be taken full advantage of it. So you get five to six pictures. So treat this like you would maybe do your Airbnb listing, you know your first five to six pictures on Airbnb need to be spot on it, needs to sell the story, they need to go from one to the other. So your next picture could be an interior one, it could be the living space, the next one could be of the kitchen space. The next one could be one of the bedrooms, maybe another exterior shot. And then finally would be something to like what's your unique selling point.
So the first one to write down Charlotte would be take full advantage of add more pictures. If you have it. If you've got a video, replace the picture with a video because the video plays on autoplay, really popular, it just means that people will stick around in your page.
The pinned post, It's talking about Hen parties, which is nice. I would look at maybe updating this pinned post, what I would be looking to do here because this is the first thing that people see Charlotte when they come on to your business page. I would really have it especially seeing that now and Facebook seems to have got rid of the story element, you know, Facebook used to have a story page right here, a story section on their business page, they seem to have got rid of that. So what I would be looking to do, would be putting in something about you know the About Us section, so the section that you should have on your website, which is about Charlotte or about the business. So you can just literally take this. You've got a virtual tour, which is awesome.
So take something like this, and create a post around it. And you know, if you're confident you could do a video, a live video, like a walkthrough video, something of the property. So this will be the first thing that anybody sees when they come like say I'm looking at this for the first time, this is the first time that I've looked at your page, you know, so make sure that when they come to it, make sure this is relevant.
When somebody comments on your Facebook business posts, Facebook business page, try and do as best as you can, to comment on the comments. Because there's one thing that Facebook is really encouraging now is its discussion, this is one of the key factors in more posts being see by others is discussions that is happening. So if somebody takes the time to comment on your Facebook business page post, try and take the time to respond. It only takes a couple of minutes, you can do it at the end of the day, or during like work time or whatever that may be. know what it's like it can be hard to be perfect and get it done every time. But on a post like this, it's got a bit of engagement as it is with the likes, if you can take the time out to reply. If you ask a question, they get that little notification bell that's at the top here. And they will come back to it. And it'll encourage them to come back to your page. So the more times you can get people coming back, then the more time your content will be will be seen.
One thing that I realized what you've done here is a lot of people will just share a business page post on their business page to produce the content. It's a lazy way around. But what you've gone and done is you've actually gone and put the post together and you've actually tagged in the business here which is a really good way to go. So obviously, you're producing this content on Instagram and it looks like that you're just re copying it into Facebook. But again, it looks good. You've got a very instagrammable property here and so you can see why you get a lot of you can see why your content has a lot of attraction.
On Instagram Reels, as you can see, 269 plays six comments. We've got lots of love over here. We've got a nice steady amount of followers, you're doing all the things and again, you're doing the Instagram stories, which is lovely. Just document in your day to day, you know, people love to follow. And I guess especially when it's a very sociable business like this, where you get to know your guests, you know, you're obviously it's very much catered to hen parties, etc.You are in an industry where you can definitely keep in touch via Instagram, I would imagine more than others. With your past guests.
Let's just go quickly to the website. And this is where it all boils down to so if you're spending money on Google ads, for example, and if you're driving people to your website is absolutely key that you have got a website that is going to turn lookers into bookers. If you've ever watched a marketing review live, you will, you will know that I often come back to this because it's one of the most biggest things that so many hosts do is that when it comes to their website, there's a couple of key mistakes that a lot of people make it. So it's not just you, Charlotte. But I can instantly see it.
So when your website loads up, this is the first thing that people see. This is the first impression. Okay, now, when a website loads up on a desktop, so this is what we're looking at here, this is we're looking at the desktop, the first place that our eyes naturally get drawn to is the top right hand corner. Okay, this is what's called the buying zone. The most important thing that everybody needs to do is to direct them straight to the booking page. Okay, so if it's missing from here, how are we going to really clearly state to the user that this is how we book with us.
Google Analytics is a free tool from Google. It tells you everything that you need to know. Number one, how many people come to your website, number two, how long they stick around for on your website, number three, where people go on your website, and number four, which websites are sent in traffic to your website. So Google Analytics is a free tool. And I would only recommend you get in it. Because what that will tell you is everything that you need to know to see if this website is working or not. But I can see instantly that there's too much going on in the top here. And there is not enough going on here.
Now I can tell instantly from looking at your Instagram, who your ideal customer guest is. You are set up for parties or girls weekend, you have got a very, very, very clear customer avatar, ideal guest as we call it. All right. when I come to here, I don't get that at all. You are trying to appeal to everybody. Because you're trying to appeal to everybody, you're appealing to nobody. All right. So what I would recommend that you do is this image here, this is a lovely image. Okay, but it doesn't tell me if I'm a farmer girl coming onto this website, wanting to book a luxury weekend away and weekend away or whatever it may be for any point in 2021. But what you've got to do is when someone lands on your website, you've got to continue it.
But this is what's called above default. Okay, so this is above default, this is the most important area because if you don't hook them within two to three minutes, then we've lost them. Okay. So what I would recommend that you do here is that first image that you use, change it to an experienced shot, and I'm sure you've got loads of experience shot.
Because what you want to do is you want to encourage people to either scroll down, or you want to click up here to book. I don't know how you do it with super control. But I will be definitely having a book now check availability, check rates, and this needs to be a totally different color, it needs to have a button around it, it needs to be attractive, it needs to be attractive, and if possible, have a check availability option here as well.
Get a better image make that an actual button to click or even better on the mobile have it where it appears here to book now. And make your website more appealable to mobile. You may be thinking well why should I be making a pivot to mobile. In America right now. 96% of its users use it on a mobile phone. Everybody now spends time on their phone, whether they're in the bathroom, whether they're walking, whether they're cooking, whether they're sitting down watching TV, they're on the phone. And the latest survey that came out with guest booking behavior is 86 or 87% of all hospitality bookings started, at least on a mobile phone.
Alright, so the first impression, and again, if you've got Google Analytics, this would tell you exactly what device people are using. But the over all the results have taken 86 to 87% start their search in a mobile phone. So it's super important that you and everybody that watching the that you build your website, mobile first. Okay? Now if you're not confident doing it, then find somebody who can, okay, I really do recommend it. My personal opinion is this first impression is not doing you any good. I think that with it with a little tweaking, it will mean you'll get more people on your website. But before any of that before you do the tweaking go and install Google Analytics, it's free, 100%, free, easy to do. And it will give you an if you just look at it for the rest of December, maybe even for a couple of weeks into January, you will find out over a space of four weeks, everything that you need to know.
You've got very, very little information on your homepage of your website, you're encouraging and relying on people to click. Now, when your website is loading up, if it takes longer than two seconds to load up, you've lost your potential user. If a website takes more than two to three seconds to load, the amount of people that just bounce is ridiculous, it's crazy, your website now has to load in less than one second, which is which is so hard to achieve, you know, especially if you're doing it yourself. The best way to work around it is to have 80% of your website information on that homepage, which leaves 20% to be on, you know, except two pages, the SEO pages that we like to call it.
The final thing that I would say to you is something that stood out here is that you do not do email marketing. You are missing a massive opportunity by not doing this because again, you've got that experienced business. Okay, so the final tip that I'm going to give you, you got an experienced business here. And again, when you've got a group of friends bring it up. And I say this to anybody, anybody that does weddings, or a place where you encourage engagements or anything like that, you've got your ability, when it comes to about one to two months. Now you can either do this on email, or you can do it on WhatsApp. And again, I would imagine that a communication with you and the guests, you get asked a ton of questions. Now if you can take our communication to WhatsApp or whatever, but if you can keep that communication going and keeping in touch when it gets to sort of two to three months away from their sort of anniversary of staying are you, a little message into one of the girls that stayed you saying hey, coming up to a year since you lost a job was Would you like to book again, you know, relive those times, you know, maybe send a picture and just go we missed it something like that you can send that in an email, that'd be really powerful to send. I think that one of the main problems that we have as hosts and hospitality owners and just business owners in general is that we are always focusing on new money new guests.
And what I believe is that for a lot of the time, the big wave is with the people that have already stayed or as the people have already you know given money to people that you've already know like and trust you, so if you can keep in touch with via email via WhatsApp, whatever that may be. And if you've just got dates that you can just box off in you know, if it's on your reminders on your phone or wherever, especially when you've got an experience type business as you have then definitely taken advantage of that free software to use MailChimp, WhatsApp is obviously free add on if you use WhatsApp,
Now you mentioned that one of the things that you wanted to achieve was to get more midweek bookings. Now the best way to get midweek bookings is business guests, contractors, business guests etc. Now I think you will agree here that the way that your whole business is set up, it's set up to be very leisure and weekend based which is why you know a lot of your calendar is fully booked I can pretty much guarantee that you're fully booked with weekends but you want to get those weekdays. One thing that I would look to do it and it especially if you have businesses around you I would even look to get a separate website a separate domain don't but again try and focus it more to the business or the contractor market. And in there, what I would be looking to do would be just have that booked for weekdays.
If you get a total different website done, aimed toward a different demographic, then that could be the difference between filling out one or two weeks. And again, if to get a return on that investment. If you get a month's worth of bookings, for weeks, Monday to Thursday, or whatever you want to do it Tuesday to Friday, Monday to Friday, whatever it may be simple return of investment 100% hands down. So something that I would definitely, consider and again, if you haven't done a bit of research already, before you start going to do this look around you. Look around where you are, where exactly are you based, let me just go on to those, you know, there's a lot of options here. 90% of the information you've got on your website is in the junk drawer. It doesn't need to be there. You've got lots to be lots to be working on here, and I'm really excited to see what you can be doing.
Elizabeth's business
The business name is Sunset Rentals of Allah Tara, and I'm going to try my best as possible to give the advice to be as mixed up as varied, I want to be given the same advice to everybody. Elizabeth has been into business nearly two years now. She's got seven properties. They are rental properties, mostly leisure, 2 people in the team. She struggles mostly with the website.
Let's just go very quickly and have a look at their website.The main problem that we have with the website is that people aren't booking now and I know Elizabeth has said that she needs a lot of help with the website but as you can as you can see here there is a lot of good things with the website but there's a lot of things that aren't done correctly. And again I think that just to double back on what we said with Charlotte just a minute ago. The book now button needs to be here now the first thing let's just go and check what it looks like on a mobile first and foremost.
So if you look at on a mobile now what do you notice everything is a little bit crazy right now. We've got WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram flow in here. The rooms and experience is not where it needs to be mobile, so you definitely need a new website. We know that but let me just give some real quick pointers. Number one, make sure your website is built. First, get away from Wix com and get a WordPress website. If you want to go check out Boostly websites let us help you. The main reason that I believe that people are not booking with you is that when they come on to here you are giving them every single reason to leave. Now when they go on to YouTube, when they go on to Facebook, when they go on to Instagram, you are literally taking them away from having a one on one conversation with them to imagine they're having a conversation with somebody that is literally on their phone. It's annoying, right? That's what you're doing when you send people to Facebook and Instagram is because there is so much noise Facebook popping things in their faces saying check me check me check me Instagram is saying check me check me check me YouTube is saying watch this video, watch this video, watch this video, so what I would be doing instantly and again as a lot of you that may be doing this is I put all social media links in what they're gonna call it storybrand the junk drawer which is down here.
Okay, now it is cool to have your WhatsApp there because again, if you can get somebody to go on to WhatsApp, and if you're pretty decent with WhatsApp and you've got always somebody paying some attention, then sending people to WhatsApp is a great idea because then you take everybody from the slow lane to the fast lane. So the slowlane is when someone lands on your website the slow lane is when you get somebody on your Facebook page. the slow lane is when you get somebody on your Instagram, your YouTube or wherever the fast lane is when you get someone to sign up to your email list, the fastlane is when you get someone messaged you on WhatsApp because you're taking that distraction away from here right to a one on one conversation and if they tap the WhatsApp, then they are a hot hot lead as they would call it in a sales world. Okay, so that's not so bad, but I would really encourage you to get this book now button up here, looking shiny. move this down into the bottom right hand corner. The bottom right hand corner is where you traditionally get people to do chat. So WhatsApp is one chat option. There are so many live chat options.
Now your pictures are amazing a dreamy part of a letter getaway. So many people do this, so many so many people do this and it's a big error, do not have scrolling pictures, scrolling pictures, you cannot pay attention to it and it detracts people it gonna give them information overload. You can go and just google this, watch a YouTube video on this. But you want to be making it as simple as possible without having to, to make people think too much on how to book with you and why they should book with you.
There should be a static image, it should be your best image. Now the cool thing about your property Elizabeth or one of your properties, if this is just one is that you have got some instagrammable location, you've got stunning views. I mean, I would love to be right now sat here, having a drink having some food. No kids, just me and me and Laura sat out looking over that view that would just be a dream, and I can picture myself sat there. The problem is, is that as soon as I think that, it goes to the next to the self one image. So again, main thing to sort of, and I've mentioned this before property highlights when we put this in and when we recommended this to all of our Boostly clients.
Now you say that you focus a lot on Instagram, and influencer marketing and you're also on the air b&b. We're getting nice little likes on the images. So very active, which is good and again, stunning, stunning pictures. So you really are what I would call a destination ambassador. You really sell in the location. But what I would be looking to do would be again to be documenting the sort of day to day now if you're not on the island, all that much if you based elsewhere, then I would be looking to maybe reach out to somebody who isn't maybe it's somebody who's on your property management team, or it's somebody like in a clean team, or just whatever and train and get people to sort of post daily on the social media.
And again, I'd be looking to get in your personal profile here, the team's picture in here, and sort of starting to document the day to day what it is like on the island, even now, when people may not be allowed to travel that I don't know what the local rules are, where you are. But try and document what it is like, because it's definitely a destination, you know, this is a place that people will come back to year on year on year, because it is stunning, where you need to start to document your day to day a lot more. which is again, what people come back for. It's what people like, and it's the same way with your Facebook, get your picture in here, or get your team picture in here. Yeah, and I get it, it looks very same of the same thing.
So you've got pitches premiered, adding things in, looks like you're gonna get a bit of a live on there, which is cool, but again, it's very much just talking about the area, try and talk about a little bit about you and your team about your story about why people book have you featured some of your guests as well. So this is a cool thing that so many people don't do is if you've got guests that are staying with you at the moment, and you're on property you're on site, maybe ask them if they fancy doing a Facebook Live and just have a chat with them, like a video chat, just hold your phone up. Not everybody will do it, but some will and guess what those will go down so well, because this is that social proof life. But so many people like to say and again, when they finish doing the live with you, they'll jump on, they'll watch it and they'll share and say hey, so we were on holiday and Elizabeth asked us to do a live. So again, this is definitely something we'll be doing and again, take advantage of the fact that you communicate with your guests via WhatsApp. So I can pretty much guarantee that a lot of people will do that. So by doing that, then communicate with them. So again, let them know if you've got a post coming up on Facebook or something, try and keep in touch with them don't just when they leave, that's it.
I really want everybody here to sort of get into your marketing, that you're going to be emailing them, whatever software you're going to sign up to. So again, another person who doesn't do email marketing, please do. It's one of the most cost effective forms of marketing that there is and if you if you really do want to achieve what you say, that you want to achieve, which is to stop the over reliance on Airbnb, and you've got to start building your house on your own land, get people on your email list, start communicating with people start talking about the benefits of booking direct, because again, I didn't see that on your website at all so this is something that I definitely want you to to do.
So number one, your big takeaway get a new website, you can spend all the money in the world trying to promote a market. But the end of the day, if you're sending someone to your website is not sticky. You want to have a sticky website somewhere that keeps people. If you can get someone on your website for a long period of time, the longer someone's on your site, the more Google will go. Yeah, that's a good business and again that's where you'll be more visible without doing anything fancy for SEO, that's how you get more traction have a sticky website I call it like have a mousetrap website.
Review for Sarah Townsend
Now, Google is what a lot of people may say, and a lot of people do say Google is your new homepage. Okay, so Google is your new homepage. So what I mean by that the amount of people right now who are googling your business name is a lot higher than you think. Now you may be thinking, Well, how do I go and check that? How do I know that? Well, there's another free tool that Google gives you. And it's called Google business listing. Now, if you currently use Google business listing, what I want you to do is come into the the mobile app. Google business listing specifically for a bnb for a hotel, even for rental properties is really important because number one, you will see how many people are searching for your business or searching in and around your business. every single month. You can see what people are typing in. But most importantly, you can change this information here. You can change this photo, you can change what people see. You can change the amenities. You can see what your reviews are, you can respond to reviews, but this Google business listing here will also appear in what's called the map pack. f you're doing the work right, then you will start to appear in here.
If you get the reviews, if you update your listing, if you respond to reviews on here, then you will start to appear higher up in here. And again, if you start to get the reviews, a lot of them then you will start to appear in the top rated places on Google. Now this is Google starting to make a play on the OTAs. This is Google wanting a piece of the pie. So the quicker you can start getting in amongst this, the sooner you will start to be not only visible from here, but people will then be able to book on your property via Google. Now, if you're already with free to book as an example, then they will already be doing the Google Hotel Ads for you. I believe you may have to opt in, I'm not 100%. But do go and check with them if not, because what that will mean is that when somebody does a Google search for your b&b, and I'm going to touch upon the fact that you may be assuming that people don't, as you can see here, when it comes up, and you check on check availability, or here, it's sending people back to booking.com.
What we need to be focusing on is your website. Now you've said it, and everybody can see it, you need a new website, this style of design is what was popular in the late 90s, early 2000s were nearly 20 years old this website is looks like it's very boarded. So as you can see here, this is not what websites used to look like evolved. Go find a new website designer, whoever it may be, if you want to come to boostly we can definitely help boostly.com.uk/website.
But what you need to be doing. Number one, you need to be designing your website for mobile first, it needs to be more up to date. And it can't look like it was around from the early 2000s. Now, I know that you're going to say well, you know I'm struggling to get filled up for x, y and Zed. But what I do know what I will I definitely know without even looking at your stats is that you will have people be looking to stay with you. I know it, you may be getting people come in who have stayed with you in the past, you may have got people coming or being recommended. So you never know who is talking about you whether it's online or offline. Facebook groups could be talking about you word of mouth could be talking about you.
What we need to be starting to do here is get your visibility or get yourself a better website have the confidence when somebody lands on your website that they're going to turn lookers into bookers and they don't get that right now and again. Please do not dismiss the amount of people that will be coming on to this website. Number two, utilize email. People are saying that they are not utilizing email marketing. This is a message to everybody. Please, please, please do start utilizing email marketing. It's free MailChimp and you'd have to keep in touch once a month. That's all it literally needs to be stayed at top of mind and again, if you've never done it before, just start and if you want to get started, but if you don't know how next week on the training that we're going to be covering in a five day challenge, I'm going to show you how to get started how to get set up on MailChimp, and how to use it to your advantage.
Marketing Review for Alicia
What I love is that again, you're doing like a little bio. You can put in number one, the links to your website, Facebook page wherever you want it to go. You've got 200 characters to work with here but please do utilize it. Don't just put nothing in there. Because again, if you are utilizing a market in your business properly and say Facebook groups, that was one of the main marketing tools this year, with all the restrictions, and everything that was going on Facebook groups had been a great platform to get bookings from even during lockdown. And again, the people have done this so well as those that do rent to rent, serviced, accommodation, whatever you want to call it, rental advertise, I don't care what you call it. But those are doing really well because they were able to, to move really quickly, and were able to get key workers in their properties, where in the past, they may have relied on leisure or corporate or business or whatever it may be, even in March and April and May, when nobody could travel. But the only people that could were key workers, they were able to very quickly do this.
So the best way to get those bookings and you could ask anybody, one of the best way was Facebook groups. Now when you comment when you interact in Facebook groups, it's your personal profile that you interact with. So when you do that, you're naturally going to get people come and click on here, they're going to look at what you're about. And again, as much as you are going to use your business to document you're also going to be doing it on your personal as well. Now, you may say, Well, Mark, you know, I really want to keep my Facebook separate, I don't want to just have friends and families on there. When I'm afraid that if you're a business owner, you need to be document in your business, if you just want to have a social media, that is just friends and families create another account, create a total separate Facebook account, that will literally you will only give it to friends, very close friends and family. So because what you will, what you will find is that when you post on a personal page, you will get much more reach than when you post on your business page. The reason being is that Facebook wants to monetize business pages as much as possible. So that is why when you put a post out on Facebook, and it's on your personal page, more of your friends will see it. But if you put a post out on your business page and put a post on your business page, I believe it's like not point A or 1% of your followers will see it which is a crazy low amount. Because what Facebook's trying to do is it's trying to monetize you and it's once your business to put more money into it, I was raised around it. Email Marketing being one WhatsApp another way around it.
First and foremost, you've got book online. So book online, arrange view when it comes to here. Now, if you are trying to do service accommodation, or whatever you're trying to do here, wherever it's, I'm confused. So you've already lost me. All right. If you're trying to get people to book with you, you need to have the instant book feature. So I'm not sure how you're doing this. But if you have not got a PMS property management software, it's one of the first things that you need to do. Whether you're using Toki super control free to book I mean, there's tons of them. But find one that's good for you but you need an instant book feature on your website. The reason being is that maybe 10 years ago, a customer would find your website a customer would like your property, they would email, wait for a response. And then book from there. That's how Airbnb stayed. That's how the majority of these rental companies online started homeaway, etc.
This is why all of these big sites have switched to instant book. It's why Airbnb pressurize you so much to switch to instant book, because they know that somebody wants to find a place they want to book now, they don't want to wait for you to get back to him. So this is the same for you, Alicia, so whoever PMS you're with and if you've not got one, get one. Make sure that when they click on book online, that they actually book online. Right now all they're doing is filling in a form and waiting for you to get back to him that's not booking online that is that's just filling in an inquiry form. That's literally all that is. So you're already confusing me so you've already lost me so that already will bounce. All right. So that's one of the first things that I would definitely do.
Your Google brand ranking, you're gonna have a lot of competition here. So what I will be really looking to do, again, would be looking at utilizing maybe bid on brand. So it looks like a when someone's Google city state rentals, London, you've got city state apart uk.com, which is coming up here, which is above the map pack and all of that. But as you can see here, apartments in London gets a volume search in the UK of nearly 15,000 every month. So as you can see you've got a very competitive area. But with a bit on brand, what your main, what you'll find is that the software will be there.
But coming back to the website, it needs to be super clear. What you're about and who you're trying to speak to the website is very thrown together. It confuses me, it doesn't give me any confidence in what you're doing. I know you've got a mailing list, which is which is great. be really interesting to find out if you are utilizing it. But like I say, I think that what you need to do is to get your website proper. And what you should be looking to do with it is to really figure out who you're talking to. And just like with Charlotte, if you're trying to appeal to landlords or estate agents to grow your property, then have a total separate website for that. If you're looking for property management, that's separate. If you're looking to speak to guets have a different website, it will do you the world of good in the long run because at the moment and you know I speak this because I've learned this this year.
I would really look to your website where you're sending people to, what I'd be looking to do would be to separate it out. Please do go and and utilize email marketing and utilize all those amazing tactics and tools and look at the bid on brand one and again.
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