These business strategies, based on Airbnb marketing mix, help the brand succeed in the market. Clicking the show all link at the bottom takes me to a new page that explains that these are actually the top rated homes around the world. Developing content that will receive backlinks without your internal marketing team having to do any work should be the goal of every website but organic presence and your brand can have a huge impact on this, as people will not find your amazing content unless you are either performing well for relevant search terms organically, or someone is already on your website due to your brand presence and finds the content because you promote it on relevant, high traffic service pages. Keep reading for more detail about each of these along with business-level strategies examples for each! As this action could mean swiping left to the next Story, why not try and encourage a click-through to your website or app earlier, if thats one of your objectives with the Story? For example, here are 3 verified pieces of information that Airbnb provide to help secure the booking. Given that most of their pitch to consumers is to experience a location like a local, it seems like a very simple and logical step to offer paid activities provided by local hosts. (Note: you will see peoples contact details, we just had to blur them out). Once they had built a solid base of customers and reputation, they expanded their offering. Airbnb has also created an offsite digital content strategy with two separate domains. Ive done a fair bit of travelling in my time and I absolutely HATE it when people say theyve done a certain location. The next section makes a lot of sense jump into the upsell. I can see its about me and what I can earn if I become a host. Though in my experience, nobody has picked a location based solely on the accommodation. This is also a testament to the volume of home ratings and testimonials Airbnb have collected, because for this approach to be successful requires highly rated homes and glowing testimonials, across multiple cities, and multiple countries, while also aiming to tailor the results to users based on the travel duration and location, and potentially factors like affluence as well. They assist Googles algorithm with determining your sites authority, credibility and relevance. . It has a feeling of Wanderlust and makes me want to travel. And how do you ensure those hosts are happy enough to keep renting out their places? Here are some world-famous examples of brand strategy done right! Another clever part of having this separate is that once again it keeps from distracting the engagement in the Explore tips & tricks section. This could be a barrier to entry for prospects wanting to sign up to the platform. Certainly not at the expense of anything else that was already there. Besides the basic cost savings, the most inviting factor of Airbnb, there are many reasons why Airbnb is better than a hotel: Airbnbs often come with a kitchen so besides saving money . Does your company or brand have a community or do community marketing? After I decide to learn more, I come to this landing page specifically personalised to me and, more impressively, my location. They utilise imagery well (especially with user generated content), and share articles regularly, but could be doing more on video given how much Facebook prioritises it in their algorithm. It has to be some sort of SEO play, right? But its not just enough to have those locations you need to be in the top 2 to 3 organic positions on Google to really capture high traffic volumes. And the top performing organic keywords are. document.write(new Date().getFullYear()) Every day, Hosts offer unique stays and experiences that make it possible for guests to connect with . Airbnb does a good job at community management on Facebook, and I expect that they have a dedicated team managing this. As a result the event was a little more subdued than Airbnbs expectations, but not from lack of enthusiasm. The campaign was subsequently rolled out in 80 countries, and managed to generate an incredible global impact. Many global brands are still trying to work out ways to build & integrate successful community marketing initiatives as part of their overall marketing strategy. The whole experience was streamlined. The site is: Youd expect a business that specialises in travel to have an image laden website, but they do a particularly good job of having a lot of images without it feeling overwhelming. 11. As a long-term host Ive spent years working with different hosts and always had an amazing time. The way you invite friends to the platform is on purpose very similar to how other platforms work. When asked for his thoughts about Airbnb actively trying to get more hotels to advertise their rooms on its platform, Best Western CEO David Kong said, "I think that if I were them that's what . What is evident and which we havent seen many referral systems use is other social channels such as messenger & whatsapp. They dont use as much personalisation on their. Airbnb has also used their blog to feature reports and studies theyve created, including Airbnbs Work To Fight Discrimination and Build Inclusion Report, and the Economic Impact Study. Period. From a marketing perspective, I personally think its a good move by Facebook, as it will ensure advertisers do not get complacent with their creative & messaging if they want to stay ahead of the curve, theyll need to keep innovating and testing new ads. Simple and straight to the point, and only one action is required. I dont think this works for all posts though. Sure, they can nurture better and convert more customers, but they needed a way to keep growing their revenue that isnt reliant on just one product. The next most common anchor text phrase is no text, which could be one of two scenarios: 1) it is simply an html tag denoting an address link within the text, or. However, to some extent it has also used cost leadership. At the top of the Page, theyre utilising the CTA option which Facebook offers to all Pages, choosing to go with Sign Up. The form itself is also very simple. Using information from the reviews theyve generated from previous guests, they can inform future guests that the host does a great job of making them feel comfortable, and that others have said the place is clean two often important pieces of information. All of this means peace of mind for any prospective guest. The plan provides an analysis and evaluation of Airbnb by reviewing the company's strategic management, profitability and market competitiveness. As widespread COVID-19 vaccinations make a return to travel more likely, here are three use cases where travelers may choose Airbnb over hotels. Among . Why would the user want to send this in the first place? Signing up can take a bit of time. Although the last few years have ushered in shifts at the product and organizational levels, design principles still guide us everyday. I see value for both brands and customers when offering customer service through a platform like Twitter, as any response you provide is then in the public domain. Airbnb first launched their referral features in 2011, and below is the original look and feel. Heres an example of Airbnb adding to the conversation in the comments of one of their posts. Their referral strategy is so easy that even my grandma has used it before with referrals from her friends. Ideally, wed look at this in terms of a breakdown of spend, but unfortunately there is no way to accurately gauge Airbnbs spend, so were best using frequency as an indicator of spend. Its beautifully minimalistic and I know who its from. Im being highly pedantic but with the level of personalisation they go to elsewhere on the site (which Ill come to soon), Im holding them to a higher standard. Great job. The three generic business strategies suggested by Michael Porter are : Cost Leadership strategy ( lower costs/broad target market), Differentiation strategy (product differentiation/broad target market) and Focus business strategies (lower cost or differentiation/narrow target market ). . directed towards developing technology or strategies to differentiate Airbnb from its competitors. Hosts write their own descriptions and so, to a degree, Airbnb are at their mercy to help influence the booking, but theyve taken a few simple steps to claim back some power and ensure that useful information is provided to the user. Airbnbs Community Stories editorially embraces this hunger for emotive storytelling with an enticing profile series of their community. The biggest competitive advantage for Airbnb is its brand recognition that continues to attract users and hosts to the platform, solidifying its market leadership. Check!). Booking.com offers commercial accommodation to users, such as hotels, resorts etc, which means the link opportunities are much greater. First thing that strikes me is just how simple it is. "This is a key problem. A Differentiation Strategy Requires Capital. The final call to action is also positioned with low intent language: Ultimately, I like how Airbnb have approach their landing page strategy and Im sure the breath of dynamically generated pages as well as their recommendation engine was resource intensive. By commoditizing trust between property owners and short-term renters, Airbnb has become one of the most recognized companies in the hospitality industry. Integrated low-cost differentiation - competing by using both low cost and differentiation. Its no secret that most travellers appreciate a good story. Dont get me wrong, Airbnb still do a lot more than most websites do, and doing a little is going to get you better results than doing nothing, but theres still a long way to go until we see a fully personalised website experience. The following table summarises the split between the destination landing pages vs destination website pages: Destination landing pages represent 75% of the pages to which Airbnb are directing users. Nothing sums this up better than their Dont go there, live there campaign. So why was it perceived as being so different to the booking engines that were already around at the time, and are still huge today. Great read! This section is particularly important to have on the site. When it comes to the homepage, we are instantly presented with plenty of content we can view. Nothing quite catches the eye and so Im not 100% sure what the obvious step is to do next. Lets take a look at Melbourne, for example. The use of the word unique is what I find particularly interesting they could have gone with a number of different adjectives that could be used to describe a home. If Airbnb Plus is an example of a product upsell, their Experiences are a great example of a cross-sell. Many of the ads they use feature video, which is positive, but they dont feature real Australians talking about their experiences with being an Airbnb host. aesthetic well cultured, colourful, and stylish. How to . Its a great way to incentivise. And think about it for a second would you share referrals like this via email? Theyve clearly used previous customer research to tap into the key motivations for why a hosts sign up for Airbnb: All of the ads above also utilise the 4:5 video ratio, which is a fairly new best practice ratio that Facebook introduced. You could argue, why does this matter to me? This is high, and suggests that the term accommodation best reflects how users are searching and what resonates with their target audience, instead of language like home sharing or holiday home. Visual content is the holy grail of authenticity and shows the extent that brands should be willing to go when selling to their audience. The experiences section speaks to Airbnb moving horizontally to become a one-stop shop for travellers. It is only the US version of Airbnb Stories which is ranking in position #1 on page #1 on Australian desktop for the search term Airbnb Testimonials (avg monthly search volume 70). Building a community is one of the most powerful assets a company or brand can build. The first two boxes the navigation to specific products and the upsell to Airbnb Plus are the two things that impressed me least from the non-personalised home page, and Im surprised to see them front and centre here when I am signed in. Overall, its a great channel if users or potential users are looking for extra information. Although I think these are good, short messages that speak to the pain points that come with booking/saving for a vacation, I think theyre missing out on an opportunity to call out different users in a more fun and creative way, for example: With this in mind, its always important to stay true to your brands tone of voice, but the more that you can make a connection with your audiences in an authentic, human way on social, the more likely they will be to proactively seek out your business for their needs. This is strategic corporate giving at its best. There are several marketing strategies like product innovation, pricing approach, promotion planning etc. You can try this out for yourself by visiting the Ads Library tool. Like you go out to an unknown place, where food options are limited. Content marketing is a marketing strategy based on creating and sharing relevant content. These work off rules which you set within the software, leaving you time to focus on the more important things. As someone who has admired Airbnb for many years, its been interesting to take an in-depth look into what theyre doing and evaluate it. This is an excellent strategy as it essentially allows them to give their audiences a little extra nudge down the sales funnel. By creating a hyper-local section of the community pages, Airbnb have reduced the clutter on the main section, while also building a community within the community. This sequence is triggered when a user logged into the website starts looking at a city they wish to visit, or particular homes in that city, but has not proceeded to check-out. At the top section, its a different layout compared to the guest referral page. As Jacqui mentioned in her search analysis, wed recommend taking a much more aggressive content marketing strategy to drive organic search traffic for branded and non-branded keywords to really ramp up search growth. Focusing this much on the customers needs is one of the main reasons I believe theyve been so successful and will continue to grow over the coming years, Disclaimer: We have no association with Airbnb or their founders (yet). In addition to the cost of the room, Airbnb charges a guest service fee that typically maxes out at 14.2%. Airbnb have kept the mechanics simple when it comes to referrals. Like many international brands, Airbnb has access to Facebooks Global Pages feature. Airbnb rely heavily on their brand presence to drive organic traffic and could do significantly better when ranking for accommodation-based keywords. The community that Airbnb has built is impressive, and the UX flow to tackle various discussions around the platform can be easily found. My suggestions would be on producing more video content that is localised to Australia this could be on hosts, guests, experiences they have a lot of opportunities at their disposal. The company analyzes the specific product and compares it with similar products offered by competitors. It really does feel like youre receiving a special gift from your friend. It seems as though that previous history doesnt seem to influence the options Im presented with. This action takes them beyond the scope of a simple accommodation booking tour, however does not quite match the integrations available through main competitors Booking.com or Wotif.com, who offer the following different features: Booking.com also has arrangements with a number of other services to assist the user with making this a one-stop shop, such as partnering with restaurant reservation services. The Airbnb business model is a multisided platform that connects travelers with hosts from all corners of the planet. They are known for creating great online user experiences, but they also excel in experiential and live-event marketing. If I had one criticism here, though, its that they could show more personality in these ads. With this guarantee, Airbnb have assured hosts that should the absolute worst happen, they will be covered by the company that enabled the transaction. As you can see in the screenshot above of organic visibility above, the brand first began to gain keyword traction in January 2014, when traffic grew by 133% month on month. This seems as good a place as any for it on the page. Unfortunately, I think it misses the mark, again. For this reason, I think Airbnb have been smart to not make Twitter an integral part of the Australian Airbnb strategy. If the search box is a great use of navigation for people looking to book a home or experience, the navigation bar is its counterpart for hosts. 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