Marketing
MARKETING YOUR PROPERTY
You can have the most desirable holiday property in the world – but
you won’t get the clients if you don’t have the right advertising
strategy. Don’t ever lose sight of the fact that good marketing
is the key to success in any business. It’s vital to get it right.
Most owners use one of the following three ways to market their
properties – and some use a combination of these methods to ensure
a fully-booked rental season.
Marketing – 1. Using a Letting Agency
If you’re using a letting agency, they will handle the marketing
of your property for you and their advertising costs will be built
into their commission.
Some agencies have brochures with colour photos of each property
for rent – but in many cases properties are not advertised individually
so clients may not be sure what they’re getting until they turn up
on your doorstep.
This can cause problems as your guests may arrive with false
expectations, especially if they haven’t seen photos of your
property in advance.
Find out the extent to which your property will be individually
advertised. How much information about the property will prospective
clients be given? Holidaymakers want to know exactly what they’re
getting for their money.
If you want all-year-round bookings for your property, check that
your agent has a marketing strategy that will bring you clients
outside the main holiday season. Some letting agents only target
high season holidaymakers because of the higher commissions they
receive in peak periods.
Is the agent’s marketing limited to newspaper advertising?
How many countries are they advertising in? Are they marketing
on the Internet?
Marketing – 2. Using the Print Media
There are various forms of print media you can use to advertise
your property. Many British property owners place a small advert
in a national newspaper but be warned – it’s expensive and many
owners say they have been disappointed by the response.
The problem here is that you’re not reaching a specific target
audience – it’s unlikely that many readers have bought a
particular newspaper specifically with a view to finding a
holiday property to rent.
If you decide to try newspaper advertising, choose your newspaper
carefully – decide what kind of customer would be attracted to your
property (and what kind of customer YOU want to attract!) then
advertise in the newspaper which they are most likely to read.
Before making your decision, phone a few of the big circulation
papers and ask the advertising department for ad prices, circulation
figures and a readership profile.
A classified ad in the British quality newspaper The Times /Sunday Times
(circ. 3.2 million per day) costs between 35-70 UK Pounds for a 3 line
ad for a one-day insertion. A boxed ad in the property section giving
the most basic details of your holiday together with contact information
would cost at around 150 UK pounds ($260) for a one-day insertion.
The use of colour photos, tariff tables, itemised facilities etc are
really out of the question in newspaper advertising – the costs being
prohibitive for the majority of ordinary mortals!
A quarter page ad in The Times, for example, with colour photos of your
property would set you back 15,000 UK pounds ($21,000). A half-page black
and white ad would cost 30,000 UK pounds ($52,000)!
If your holiday property has special appeal for particular groups
- e.g mountain climbers, golfers, honeymooners etc – you may decide
to advertise in a specialist magazine or newspaper.
Again, the costs are high and it’s not a particularly well targeted
form of advertising. The sporting enthusiast who buys the magazine
you’re advertising in isn’t necessarily looking for a holiday home.
An eighth-page black and white ad in a typical specialist magazine
(e.g Fly-Fishing & Fly-Tying, a British bi-monthly with a circulation
of 30,000) costs 110 UK pounds ($158); a colour photo of your property
would push the price up to 250 UK pounds ($360).
The drawback here is that you’re ignoring a much wider audience of
potential clients. Although your property may have some special appeal
for fishing enthusiasts, there are obviously many other kinds of people
who would appreciate it.
Effective advertising needs to reach as wide and as targeted
an audience as possible.
Marketing – 3. Internet Advertising
The Internet has quite literally opened up a whole new world in
terms of marketing, giving advertisers instant access to a vast but
highly targeted global audience.
To gain some idea of the sheer size of this market, just look at how
Internet use is exploding before our eyes.
In 1997, 48 million people worldwide were using the Internet.
This year (2006) the figure had grown to 1.1 billion – and the number
of users is increasing by the minute with 182% growth from 2000-2005.
Holidays on the Internet – UK
Source: Mintel International Group Ltd.
The Internet has well and truly proved itself as a major distribution
channel for the travel industry. The UK online travel market is expected
to reach €7.3 billion by 2007, up from €2.2 billion in 2002.
This growth can be attributed to growing Internet penetration as well
as increased confidence amongst users, together with improved technology,
products and content from online travel firms. As an intangible product,
travel is an obvious choice for online purchasing and with the right Web
content and advertising, a holiday can be sold as effectively as with a
brochure and/or a personal conversation.
Some 44% of holidaymakers used the Internet to research a holiday,
with 32% making an actual booking. Thus there is still potential to
grow in the market as initial ‘lookers’ are turned into ‘bookers’
by effective Web management
Internet use in the UK has rocketed in recent years. The amount of
business generated on the Internet is gowing daily. Whatever people
need in today’s world, they’re increasingly turning to the Internet
to find it.
Internet advertising offers a wealth of opportunities which are
simply not possible with traditional marketing methods – and it’s
considerably cheaper, especially when you consider what you get
for your money.
You can display full details of your property – with colour photos
and comprehensive descriptions – and promote it to a global audience,
24 hours a day all year round…all for less than the cost of a small
ad in a British national newspaper.
One of the great advantages of this form of advertising is that you
have a vast market and one that is also highly targeted.
People only tend to visit web sites advertising holiday properties
if they’re seriously looking for a holiday let – and a good web site
will be attracting thousands of these potential clients each week.
But be careful which Internet marketing company you choose.
There are some property advertisers on the Internet offering
incredibly cheap deals – but you need to take a close look at
exactly what kind of service they’re offering.
Don’t just plump for the cheapest advertising rate you can find
on the web; you may find yourself paying for a second-rate DIY deal
which fails to result in the bookings you want.
Some of these deals can seem attractive at first glance – but you
need to check exactly what you’re getting for your money.
Look at several different Internet companies and examine the level
of service offered by each one; you’ll find enormous variations
from one company to the next. Look for an Internet advertiser with:
* An established reputation on the Internet
* The willingness and ability to supply site visitor statistics.
* A high profile on the major search engines
* targeted search features
But there’s much more to successful Internet advertising than
a high profile on the web…so it’s worth shopping around.
You want an advertiser who can help you get your property on the
Internet quickly and easily with the minimum amount of fuss.
You should be able to pay and submit your advert details on-line
and have facilities for you to modify your own Ad for frequently
information like availability, tariffs etc.
The best companies will take the time and trouble to ensure that
your on-line property web page looks truly professional.
Your advertising fee should include, for example, access to specialist
advice on the use of photos and a photo processing and enhancement.
Owners find that the use of a good selection of colour photos makes
all the difference in terms of attracting potential clients. The
ability to use photos – in a way that would be prohibitively expensive
in print advertising – is one of the major benefits of Internet marketing;
so steer clear of any companies that don’t use pictures of each property.
You should be able to itemise your property’s facilities and you also
want space for descriptive text about both the property and surrounding#
area. You should be offered advice about the use of particular key words
which will bring visitors to your web page. Good Internet advertisers
will also offer a copywriting service.
If the advertising company is doing its job properly, you won’t need
any special knowledge about the Internet to advertise. Everything will
be explained simply and clearly and all the technical side will be
handled by a team of experts so you don’t even have to think about it.
Make sure your property web page includes a tariff table and full contact
information so visitors can get in touch with you quickly and easily.
You’ll want an email link so visitors can send you a property enquiry
directly from your property web page Ad.
This is a bonus for your potential clients because they can reach
you quickly and cheaply from anywhere in the world.
In this, and many other respects, you need to make sure your Internet
advertising company has a web site which is user-friendly – both for
you as the advertiser but also for those all important site visitors
looking for a holiday property.
Is the site attractively presented and easy to navigate with useful
search features so visitors can easily find exactly what they want
in the area of their choice? Does it offer visitors an on-line
currency convertor so they can see at a glance how much
your property costs?
Another thing to bear in mind when using the Internet is that your
property advert is probably going to be on-line for many months at
a time – unlike a newspaper advert. So what if you need important
changes in that time e.g a new contact telephone number? The best
Internet companies provide you with the facility to make key changes
to your advert yourself whenever you wish. So you can alter prices
at any time according to how well your bookings are going during
the year; and you should be able to change your own email address
and other contact details (you’ll want to be able to do this if you’re
going away for a few days so you don’t miss any booking enquiries).
A state-of-the-art Internet company will be able to offer you your
own on-line availability chart so Internet surfers can see at a
glance those dates when your property is available for letting or
booked. This kind of service is popular with Internet users who
don’t want to waste time making enquiries about dates that are
already booked and it cuts down the number of fruitless enquiries
that you as the owner have to deal with.
You may still receive enquiries about dates that are already
booked from holiday seekers who haven’t bothered to consult your
availability chart. For this reason it’s a good idea to create
a standard response which can be used repeatedly on these occasions
- so you won’t have to put much effort into it and you may still
reap a new customer in future! (Refer to our section on Handling
Property Enquiries). But don’t forget to personalise your message
- at least by using the name of the enquirer who could be one of
your future clients.
Generally speaking, as long as your property is described in sufficient
detail, you shouldn’t be bothered with too many time-wasters. A good
property web page should answer nearly all the questions a prospective
client might want to ask – so the majority of your enquiries should be
from people either wanting to arrange a firm booking or asking a very
unusual question (such as: “Will I be able to find a halal butcher’s
near your villa?”. Believe us, you’ll be asked stranger questions
than that!) You may find you have late availability on your property,
possibly through a last-minute cancellation, in which case you’ll want
to be able to let people know about it. Is your Internet advertiser
geared up to giving your property a special plug to help you fill gaps
in your rental season?
The better companies offer all this and various extra promotional
services which you can make use of when the need arises e.g hot links
from their Home Page (under headings such as Property of the Month
or Late Bookings) to draw more visitors to your property web page and
boost your rental enquiries.
You may want to market your property to particular target groups
- e.g golfers, honeymooners, families wanting beach holidays – in
which case you’ll want an advertiser who can offer you special
promotion under specific holiday headings.
Make sure your Internet advertising company offers an on-going
level of customer service which shows it really values your business.
Will the company keep in touch with you throughout your advertising
period, perhaps sending regular client newsletters with helpful hints
about maximising your rental income? Beware of companies that lose
interest in you immediately after you’ve paid your advertising fee!
The cheapest DIY-style Internet advertising packages start from
around 50 UK pounds ($88) for 12 months advertising – but for that
money you won’t get all the “extras” and the personal level of service
described above.
Expect to pay around 140-160 UK pounds ($238-272) a year for a top
quality advertising package – cheap at the price when compared with any
of the traditional advertising methods.
Most good companies also offer attractive discounts if you advertise
more than one property with them…so the more properties you put on
the Internet, the cheaper your advertising costs.
The Black Art of Buying Property in Cyprus™ ®
The Cyprus Informer™ ® ©
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