Answer 10 Questions – Voila! You Have A Rental Marketing Plan

What a daunting thought of getting a Vacation Rental Marketing Plan started and how utterly boring and a waste of time.  Why do I think it’s a waste of time?   It’s  a waste of time because you probably don’t know anything about marketing,  or have a fuzzy idea about it, (as I did years ago ), you also probably don’t know where to start, and what will the end results be?  You’ll keep asking yourself……Is this the best use of my time?

Writing a Vacation Rental Marketing plan will be one of the boring parts of you business!!  None of us like to do it and if you’ve had any corporate experience in the process, it’s no wonder.  But planning is an absolute necessity if you want to be successful in your vacation rental business. So how do we reconcile our need to succeed with our propensity for procrastination?

Just re-frame how you look at planning. We hate planning because we remember the endless meetings, hours of research that doesn’t seem to get you closer to an answer and documents the size of An Historical War Novel.  But it doesn’t have to be that way. Developing a Marketing Plan is nothing more than setting goals and making a to-do list that will get you there. It’s really not much different than planning a party.

You’re basically creating a plan for inviting more people who want to spend their money staying at your vacation rental and  ( your guests will) tell other people why they should give you their money too.  Sounds like a great idea to me.  How about you?  Are you ready to join the party?

I’ve included a set of 10 questions that will help your process of creating an easy marketing plan.  Use this guide when you have 2-4 hours available so  that you can concentrate and answer these 10 questions:

Answer these 10 Questions and Voila! You’ve Created a Vacation Rental Marketing Plan

1.   Marketing Strategy: How will your marketing plan support your business goals?
2.   Mission Statement: What are you trying to accomplish, and why?
3.   Target Market: Who are you trying to reach with your marketing activities?
4.   Competitive Analysis: Who are you up against, and where do you rank?
5.   Unique Selling Proposition: What makes your business unique?
6.   Pricing Strategy: What will you charge, and why?
7.   Promotional Plan: How will you reach your target market?
8.   Marketing Budget: How much money will you spend, and on what?
9.   Action List: What tasks do you need to complete to reach your marketing goals?
10.  Metrics: How are you implementing, and where can you improve?

Once you have completed each step, you will have a marketing plan that you are ready to use as a blueprint for your marketing activities regarding your vacation rental business. What are your thoughts on the list?  Do you have any additional tips on how you developed a marketing plan? I have a simple marketing form I’d love to share with you, just comment below your interest in the form and I’ll email it out to you.  Please share your thoughts and advice below.

Happy Investing,

Maria Rekrut

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