The Most Underrated Skill in Short Term Rental Marketing

Marketing's most underrated skill is funnel mapping.

What is funnel mapping?

Think of it like dating and marriage.

I'm not married and I'm actually quite lousy on dates. But, my grandpa was a famous(ish) marriage counselor so I feel qualified to make this comparison.

Before getting married, we must do a few things:

1. Go on dates

2. Introduce them to our weird hobbies

3. Meet their parents

4. Travel with them

5. Get drunk with our friends and do the whole "she's the one!" spiel

6. and bam! married.

Just like marriage in traditional terms, people have to "date" our brand before financially committing.

Before becoming a guest, people will take valuable actions like:

• Signing up for our email list and becoming a lead

• Following us on social media

• Liking, commenting and sharing our content

• Starting the booking process to gauge pricing

Outlining these steps as "micro-goals" is funnel mapping.

Knowing the number of micro-goals needed for a booking is the "golden equation."

But we will talk about that at the bottom of this article.

I want to share the valuable actions or "dating steps" people take before booking a stay with you. But first, you must understand how a funnel map is organized.

The Three Parts of a Funnel Map

• Top of funnel

• Middle funnel

• Bottom funnel

Here are the valuable actions people take in each funnel part.

Top of Funnel

People entering the top of your funnel are just hearing about you for the first time. This is the awkward dating phase.

Here are ways they hear about you:

• Instagram ads

• Google ads

• Influencer partnerships

People get to know you better and move closer to bottom funnel with these valuable actions:

• View your website (website views)

• Follow you on social media (followers)

• Becoming a lead through a lead magnet (lead)

Middle Funnel

This is where people get to know you before committing. Subconsciously, they are looking for reasons not to book with you. This is like the meeting-the-family or traveling period of dating.

Guests get to know you better through:

• Email marketing

• Social media posts

• Local guides and other blogs

The valuable actions they take during this time are:

• Starting the booking process to gauge pricing (booking start)

• Liking, commenting and sharing your posts (engagement)

• Clicking on the links in your email (email click)

One by one, people will trickle down into bottom funnel after enough time here.

Bottom Funnel

This is where people are ready to book. Or, the getting-drunk-with-your-friends and ring shopping phase. These are the ways I influence people to finally book.

• Offer a deal (i.e. "get % off when you book 2 nights")

• Instagram retargeting ads with that deal

The only valuable action in this funnel part is bookings.

Guests are either going to marry you or walk away at this stage.

The Golden Equation

After getting enough people into your funnel, you'll find the golden equation.

Here's how it works using a real Lodge Social client as an example:

In a month, they need:

• 318 website visits

• 3 leads

• 4 booking starts

To get one direct booking.

Knowing these numbers helps me find my A+ problems.

For example, 4 people starting the booking process out of every 318 is bad. So that's what my team and I have spent the last 30 days trying to fix.

Why?

If we just double the "4", we get more bookings without any additional marketing spend.

That's the power of funnel mapping and finding the golden equation.

Click here for access to my full funnel map cheat sheet. It lists all the marketing tactics I use to get people into my funnel and the valuable actions I measure.

That's all for today. I'll see you in the next article.

Before you go

I just launched my brand new direct booking marketing agency, Lodge Social.

We help rental operators get more guests to like, share, and book.

Apply to work with me and my team here.

Links you might like:

1. I just subscribed to the Here newsletter. I love it. You might love it too.

2. This is how I make advertising not scary.

3. I did 3 things to 2x followers in 30 days. Read my full breakdown here.

4. I’m starting to document the build of Lodge Social. Check it out on Instagram.