second porch, the new word of mouth
DESCRIPTION
Second Porch has built the first referral and repeat customer marketing engine for the vacation rentaTRANSCRIPT
Vacation Rentalsin 2011: Ready or not!
Who are we?
We’rethe newest channel partner.
Over 100 countries
“Social reach” greater than 30 million
Our first year
“Second Porch is tackling the vacation rental trust issue head
on…”
The ‘it list for 2010 travel
NEW TO TRY: The Portland-based service helps you
track down rentals through your Facebook
connections
The structure of the Web has changed…and your business is about to change.
“Nine out of ten (90%) have a page posted on Facebook…”
“One out of four (24%)has stayed in a vacation home or condo rental…”
"I get informationfrom my peers”
Soraya Darabi, Former NYT social media marketing
The vacation rental industryis experiencing growing pains.
Word-of-mouth inherently solves most of these issues
“Word-of-mouth endorsements have been and remain the most believable endorsements…
“The most credible are personal testimonials from friends and family members”
“Marketing programs that leverage this credibility typically enjoy a much higher probability of success.”
http://blog.ypartnership.com/?p=306
Creates interest: “I wonder what the home that Beth just rented was like?”
Makes search easy: “If that home satisfied Beth, it will satisfy me too!”
Removes the risk: “I know exactly what to expect in our vacation rental”
And it solves two of the industry’s biggest hurdles: building awarenessand overcoming trust issues.
We loved the beach house we rented!
Why “word of mouth”is perfect for vacation rentals:
“73% of inquiries come from friends, family, past guests & referrals”
The RBO secret to success…word-of-mouth!
Word-of-mouth is the key to your success starting now…
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/global-advertising-consumers-trust-real-friends-and-virtual-strangers-the-most/
Recommendations from known people
are by far #1
Make sure your company really internalizes this and agrees to focus on this opportunity
1
You need to plan and budget for programs. This needs to be intentional now.
Guest referral network:friends and friends of friends
Word-of-mouth on steroids
Time duration
Reach and influence on audience
Review sites
Ad hoc
Reach greatly increases since everyone with a social
profile can participate with a single click.
Influence increases when socially relevant information
is highlighted
Given two equally suitable homes, people will choose the safe bet…
“Looks nice online but how do I know it will
really be nice?”
“I know someone who knows this place is great”
or
Each home’s“word of mouth”social circleis enormous
1,690,000 Friends of friends
13,000 Friends
Assuming 100 guests
Word of mouthSocial reach:507,000
Word-of-mouth drives your marketing costs down. Way down.
Rental Portals
Paid Ads
Typical marketing channels
Half the renters might become repeat customers
The other half fade away with little value
Rental Portals
Paid Ads
Opportunity for smarter marketing
Social network adds 130 direct connections + 17,000 friends of friends!
Non-repeaters have the same valuable “word of mouth” social reach
+ Word of mouth
Your bookings funnel determines your profitability
New customer acquisition spending Repeat customer
Lower budget spending, higher staff training cost
High budget items focused on Google SEO, SEM, and VR portals
No competitive advantage, vulnerable to others spending more, better message
$$$$$$
Social word of mouth becomes
a self-growing and self-sustaining strategy.
Competitive advantage: Your Guest Referral Network
cannot be duplicated
Spend less on Google, increasing profitability.
Changing the shape strengthens your business
$$$$$$
New customer acquisition Repeat customer Word-of-mouth referrals
Smarter marketing
Web site 30%
Google 30%
VR portals 25%
Customer mktg 14%Word of mouth 1%
Booking sources today
Smarter marketing
Web site30%
Google20%
VR sites25%
Customer market-ing
15%
Word of mouth 10%
Future booking sources:
Word-of-mouth impact long term:
• Your business will be more profitable
• Less resistance to competitors
• New VR customers will have better experiences
(and tell more friends about it)
• Our industry starts a flywheel effect
• We will double the industry in the next 5 years.
