So, how do you keep growing when everyone already knows who you are and will probably consider you as an option for your holiday, regardless of your marketing? According to the data from SEMRush, 73% of approximate ad spend goes to search terms containing ‘accommodation’. Read on to uncover the benefits of Airbnb, as well as learn which steps will lead you to your success. Once I’ve accepted the invite and completed the sign up process, I get taken straight to the homepage with a personalised message with “What can we help you find, Dan?” and in the right hand corner a notification for $76 AUD in my account. 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends, only 33% trust online ads (Nielsen). Idea to save money for your next trip: use Airbnb. As a digital platform, Airbnb rely almost entirely on their website to make bookings and sales. Booking.com offers commercial accommodation to users, such as hotels, resorts etc, which means the link opportunities are much greater. The image is great, it looks like a well designed, high quality home, but the header and description leaves a lot to be desired. As Chloe explained in our review of Xero’s marketing strategy, it’s important to run an SEO keyword gap analysis to know: This traction is reflected in the keyword gap analysis report when comparing the terms Booking.com and Wotif.com are ranking on page 1 of Google for, which Airbnb are not. Why would people globally care about tours in Melbourne, or suggest property management services in the area? We’ll likely keep adapting our roles and practice as we grow. Airbnb created a whole new kind of vacation just by providing spaces other than hotels to stay. As we can see, it’s a much longer email compared to the guest referral email, but still some core elements in the email to keep it personalised: However, there are some other elements that have been included, such as: So, why were these 3 extra elements included for hosts but not for guest referrals? Period. I would say definitely 1 & 3, a little bit of 2, and not so much of 4. Both personas have a very simplified UX for sharing via email or a custom link. This type of strategy will always have an expiry date. This period of updates was named the ‘Maccabee Update’ by Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz, and according to industry experts was focused around User Experience and impactful keyword permutations. Airbnb have also gone down this route, creating an @AirbnbHelp account which is their go-to account for all customer service related issues. The more people you can share it with and sign up, the more travel credit. However, this is not to say that their email strategy is leveraging all the data they have available, as it’s important they don’t overshare: “We make use of data in every email that we send. Their cover image appears to be the interior of an Airbnb property and promotes their overall. They knew that the most popular queries in the region were about how to search for a … This trust isn’t so much between the user and Airbnb, its trust amongst hosts and guests. Over the past several months of settling into my new role, I’ve had the chance to reflect on how far the team has come, what makes our blend of content strategy unique, and the opportunities we’re most excited about. They’ve been around for more than 11 years and are still growing at a rate that most business can only dream of. However, there is one key difference that is prioritised in the mobile app which is different to the desktop experience. We debated countless words that could describe our voice, asking ourselves whether they sounded like us and whether they could be applied to every situation we write for, whether it’s a moment of excitement or frustration. They do mention about what the friend receives down the page in the “3 Steps”. Once you press the link, you get to this screen. Both are discoverable in the footer of their main site: Blog and Airbnb Citizen. As I go down the page, I see what the hot discussion topics are at the time in the worldwide community. Lacking a strong organic search strategy and missing fundamental CRO elements: Airbnb is not activity driving organic traffic to the stories nor converting any readers which may land here. As a general rule of thumb, I think your imagery/posts should fit into at least one or more of these criteria: But how many of the above are Airbnb actually achieving with their current strategy? They decided to do a bit of advertising and found three people who hadn’t been able to find a hotel room to stay in. There’s often value in understating things, but this isn’t one of those moments. The most frequently used headlines are below: And below is a breakdown of one of their ads which showcases how the headlines appear in the search results: Guests are definitely the key target of their paid search strategy. Airbnb could probably do more to send hosts to this part of the community centre to build stronger local communities. Airbnb Inc. Report contains a full analysis of Airbnb organizational structure. If we go back to the referral page, under the “Import from: Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook”, the ability to share your referrals via a link whether direct or via social channels is evident as another option for users to share their content. 29,000 backlinks from ‘VisitNsw’, which are primarily content or image-related links. If it is, I like the strategy. They don’t all have 5 star ratings, and the number of ratings they have is quite varied. Airbnb recognise some travel credit associated with my account and insert this into the email to remind me. Airbnb does not own any real estates it lists, not does it host events and experiences it offers. Okay, so we’ve gone into detail of what the invitation mechanics, design & UX looks like for guests, but what about hosts? In case you’re unsure of your dates and are in love with the space, the availability section of the site helps you to see when you can book the property so you can plan your trip around it. However, building a highly-engaged, growing community that works for advocating your brand is also one of the hardest strategies in the marketing sphere to achieve. You don’t want just share something your friends to do a “favour” for you. Then we second-guessed ourselves and asked questions like, Why would we come across as spirited in an error message? I’ll be looking at specifics here and sharing how they use personalisation to deliver the best experience. It genuinely makes me consider wanting to explore more through these actions, even if I don’t start a conversation. With Available, this view shows who has successfully accepted and signed up to the platform from the users invitation. If they were a service business, they would target [city name] + [service A] and then [city name] + [service B] and so on.”. Airbnb has also used their blog to feature reports and studies they’ve created, including Airbnb’s Work To Fight Discrimination and Build Inclusion Report, and the Economic Impact Study. So as soon as the user has enough information they need to make a decision, they are immediately able to act on it. Content Marketing: We look at how Airbnb use articles and videos to keep their guests and hosts engaged with the platform, Social Media: We breakdown how Airbnb use Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to build and convert an audience of guests and hosts. Airbnb is actively social on all of the most used social networking sites. And we landed on principles that, from an aspirational standpoint, further our mission, and on a practical level, help us make strategic and tactical decisions. Airbnb brand strategy / positioning case study If you want to get access to Airbnb brand strategy analysis including brand essence, brand values, brand character, brand archetype and expert commentary register or log in. 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. It’s not as easy as you think. Airbnb are using Instagram mainly to promote their listings, Superhosts & Experiences. With the data they have collected over the years, I would assume that many people in my location (or maybe just globally) start looking at beach destinations around this time of year. Nathan Blecharczyk is the co-founder, Chief Strategy Officer, and Chairman of Airbnb China. They also follow best practice by attempting to resolve the complaint out of the public eye and moving it to a personal message “Can you please send us a PM with your email address…”. L28, 161 Castlereagh Street Sydney NSW 2000, Webprofits Australia Or just looking to make a little extra cash? The content gives instant value that there is content for hosts wanting extra support through toolkits or webinars which help with their hosting experience. Like many of the startups that emerged in those days it was practically unknown. Create your own website. These 300-400 word stories are poignant snapshots of how an Airbnb user’s life has been impacted by using Airbnb while travelling and immerses potential travellers in the spirit of adventure, curiosity and connection. This further increases the scope of potential links they could be achieving.For example, Booking.com has 7 backlinks from the Referring Domain ‘, Taps into the aspirational elements of travel through engaging imagery to encourage bookings, Encourages property owners to become an Airbnb host. Airbnb is an online marketplace where hosts around the world offer their properties and services for travelers looking for unique local experiences. Community: How do Airbnb maintain and grow their online community, and what part does that play in their business growth? After I decide to learn more, I come to this landing page specifically personalised to me and, more impressively, my location. Thanks for this! In this section of the article I’ll be dissecting pages piece by piece to see how their website helps to drive growth. This is clever by Airbnb. The layout and the functionality of the site is what makes it so easy to use. For example, when they share an image separately instead of using the Link Preview option, I see this as counterproductive to the objective at hand, which is to drive people to a website, and Link Previews have been created by Facebook to provide Page owners with the easiest, most conversion-focused way of doing this. It’s a place where people looking for short term accommodation (usually for holidays) are able to find somewhere to lay their head down at night. It looks like this isn't a valid email address. But there’s a great selection here in terms of price range. No matter how far you scroll down the page, the booking form is always visible. The blog doesn’t follow a set template for articles and there are several broad categories such as “Wanderlust” and “Hospitality”. Not only does community management help brands find opportunities to address complaints, but it also helps to foster positive conversations, which in itself can create and maintain more happy customers. But unless your story resonates with your ideal customer audience, then while people will read your content and engage with the piece, they won’t necessarily engage with your brand. For example, one of Airbnb’s guidebooks is ranking in position #1 organically for the term ‘Melbourne shopping centres’. The image instantly grabs your attention. If there’s one big takeaway to think more about, it has to be their simplified UX experience with keeping personalisation in mind. Given the saturation of online paid media & costs to acquire new customers, Airbnb identified that building an engine to create more word-of-mouth from those who had experienced Airbnb was crucial to finding a solution. It ensures prospects know that Airbnb have got them covered (in their words!). And then down the bottom, I see very easy instructions with simple steps of how the process works. As Jacqui mentioned in her search analysis, we’d 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. In a country like Australia that’s not such a big deal, as Twitter usage is relatively low, but they could definitely be doing more. And we’ll find ways to make our messaging more spirited, reminding ourselves that people often come to our site thinking about getting away and wanting to be inspired. Social proof to ensure those interested that other people are happy with their experience as a host. We helped one company grow from $25M to $190M revenue in 4 years, and we work with challenger brands that want to make a serious impact in their industry and have the resources (and the will) to make it happen. Work With Us This format allows you to take up as much real estate as possible on a person’s Feed. What Airbnb offer isn’t a cheap place to sleep when you’re on holiday, it’s the opportunity to experience your destination as a local would. It’s simple – referral marketing is less costly, and has a higher quality + quantity of leads. It keeps it consistent for the user to know where key pages are. This is an awesome reception. The campaign perfectly aligned with Airbnb’s values, and helped highlight a struggle for acceptance in a country where the debate on same-sex marriage had fallen off the political radar. They know my stay there ended a while ago, do they think I want to go straight back? Simple and straight to the point, and only one action is required. Airbnb have a ton of content on their site, mostly to support the decision of “where shall I travel to?” This is fantastic and helps make Airbnb feel like a one-stop-shop for travel but they could do more with the content they have. Acquiring hosts through the hosting community is paramount when it comes to scaling the platform globally and, equally as important, retaining them. That structure covers. They charge for that service now that it’s been proven to work (and they have enough properties that look good so they don’t need to worry about the ones that don’t), but you can see why they suggest it when photos are front and centre on the property pages. It was designed to represent four things: people, place, love, and the “a” of Airbnb. This can definitely have a positive effect on your company’s public perception/reputation, especially if you do a good job. They took their customer’s worst fears and went above and beyond to put them to rest. Here’s a summary of each: A well-rounded and entrepreneurial individual with more than 10 years experience in working with and launching startups, Tam is skilled at managing multiple products simultaneously. Also worth noting the low intent call-to-action. *Numbers are accurate at the time of writing. Interesting. Meanwhile, the hosts are all rated 4.8 or above. They have a huge site so it wouldn’t be easy, but there are a number of on-site optimisations they would need to make if they want to compete against the likes of booking.com or Wotif. This is the only thing that I think Airbnb have occasionally been guilty of, as I’ve seen the same content across their Facebook Page, Instagram Page, and Stories. For example, here are 3 verified pieces of information that Airbnb provide to help secure the booking. Does your company or brand have a community or do community marketing? It took me a moment to realise it, but that structure isn’t a watch tower (maybe I’ve been watching too much Game of Thrones), it’s a home. As an experienced marketing consultant, Dan continually strives to perfect his craft in producing high-performing, data-driven and results-focused campaigns for his clients. The experiences section is very clear – these are the top rated experiences around the world. The answer is in their Business Model Innovation. When it comes to keywords, Airbnb is limited only by the locations in which they have a presence. 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. It also means I get to build a really diverse team of people who have backgrounds in product, support, editorial, brand, or marketing; and eventually, we may not just rely on translators, but also have more content strategists writing in other languages. I did a little digging and found that this “Other” visibility for … The goal of this campaign was not necessarily to promote Airbnb, but to reflect the heart and soul of the destinations they serve, as well as inspire people to explore the individual cities further. 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’.