Helping this host focus on their Pet Friendly Niche

Welcome back to another episode of the Boostly podcast and I'm gonna do another marketing review live for you right here. So what is a marketing review? Hosts who are part of the hospitality community, they get offered a free marketing review. When they join, all they do is they fill in a form and I just pick someone at random and I do a marketing review and I put out a little bespoke plan for them to be able to put into practice. But I find that when I do this and I put it on the podcast, then I guarantee there's going to be at least one person who is watching this who can put these tactics and tips into their business as well. So let me share my screen. We've got the form filled in right here. So, Heidi, Heidi Ruddle, based in England. Thank you very much for filling this in. So let's go through the answers that I asked. Heidi, how many years you've been in business? 1. How many properties do you own or manage? 1. So, as a single rental property, what is the breakdown of the guests that they mostly attracted a property, which is leisure. What is the average nightly stay? 3 to 5 nights and the average rate is 80 pound. Which of the best describes how you interact with your guest? Hands on. So guest confirmation, email. I contact them and I welcome. During the property, how many people are in the team? One man band and we've got a Facebook business page, an Instagram account on a website. I will definitely go and check out them in a second. Who designed your website? I did. Well done, Heidi. When was the website created? It was this year. Do they have access to Google Analytics and they're getting less than 500 people a month. Are they happy with the website? Yes, which is great. And who is the provider is bookalette. So if we've got any book alert members who are watching this, tuning into this, leave a comment below. Do you email your guests after their stay with special offers are news? No. So we're gonna. That's definitely something I recommend. What is the overall occupation levels? So in the past 12 months, it's been a very healthy 76 to 85. But what percentage of total bookings was direct? 0 to to 15 on average. How much money do you spend in commission costs? So between 0 and 200 pounds. And the online travel agents they're listed on? We've got bookings, we've got Verbo and we've got Airbnb. On average, how much money do you spend? Advertising, which is zero. And are you using a price pricing software tool? If so, which company. So Hydra just looks at a local area and price matches which of the following you're doing right now to proactively promote your business. So she's networking with local businesses, which is great. And how does your booking calendar look for the next 12 months? It could be better. Struggling with getting ahead around social media marketing. So Heidi, thank you very much for filling that in. If everybody can just say thank you Heidi in the comments. If you're watching this on the video, if you want to, if you're tuning, tuning into the audio and you want to jump into the video, come and join in a conversation. Find us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, you name it, we are there. All right, so let's have a little, a little look, shall we? So first and foremost let's go to the website. The website was one that was being created this year and I think first things first, looking at this, having a, having a occupancy of very high 85% but then the, the rate being only 80 pound. I honestly think that first and foremost what you need to be doing is, is looking at a pricing software tool. I believe that you could be charging more here. And so with that in mind, main bedroom, one king bed, you've got a single bed, etc I think that you could definitely be looking ID a char more. I would really look to see which pricing dynamic software tool links in with book Alexa. I guarantee there will be. So let's do a dynamic pricing booklet. So if there isn't one right now, then there should be one on the way. But have definitely have a chat to them. So the website itself, let's go to the homepage. So Spaniel Cottage holiday home. So instantly from the name I am getting vibes that this is a pet friendly property. There we go. Now the thing for me and I think you should be looking to do is instead of having a picture of the front of the door, I should be in my opinion from the off have that picture of the pets further up to really nail down that you are a pet friendly property. And obviously spaniel etc. Does sort of give the game away. I love that you've put the YouTube video here on the website with a nice little bit of music. This definitely does help when other people are looking to maybe book with you at the property. A video definitely does more than just pictures. So I think first things first, change the picture here. I would get the picture of the pets up here. So you really do state that you are a pet friendly accommodation and I would get it in words as well, because pictures do tell a thousand words, but it's always good to have a very clear word in here. And also as well, I say this quite a lot. On the homepage here, there is no button that is obvious to a guest, a book now. So I would get a book now button here or check rates, check availability, a button right here that will drive people to the book alert booking page. In fact, the only way to book I have to come into here when you get to the calendar. So again, what I would be looking to do, Heidi, just again, we've got to make it really simple, really, really simple for a guest to land on this page and then want to go and make a booking. I would in all honesty, I would get, keep this, keep this and get rid of the rest and then have it mostly on the, on the homepage and then have a nice big book now button. It'll take them to booklet where they can book from there. I can see you've recently been doing a giveaway which is fantastic. Which, which is lovely. I wouldn't be putting it on your website, I'd be just focusing on having it on your social media pages, which I can see that you've been doing so here, which is, which is great. And you've also been, you've got the Instagram as well, which really does highlight the cottage. One thing that you can do is you can, you haven't got a lot of content on here. What you can be doing is you can link up your Instagram to your Facebook. So when you post on your Instagram account it will instantly update your Facebook. It just saves you a lot of time by doing so. And you can connect it up in the settings page of your Instagram account. So again, it's easy to do and it just means it'll all be synced. Now coming onto the social media page, coming onto the Facebook again, I would be focusing here on, on the fact that you are pet friendly. Spaniel Cottage holiday home. Having that picture of the, of the spaniels in the boot is a great example. You can in a, in a photo album, focus on the cottage. So you can really fine tune these albums and you can have one that's of the cottage, one that's of the surrounding area. And if you have guest pictures that guests have shared with you, you can have a guest picture album as well. By making it more simple to use it, it really does help a guest land on your page and know instantly what, what, what you're about and who you serve best. And I think that is definitely something that I would be looking to do. As far as website load speed. I did a quick check on tools.pingdom.com so I put in your, your URL. Obviously we're going to test it from the UK and it, it loads really, really quick. Um, ignore all of these. This is the main thing that, that you're looking for and as long as it's loaded under three seconds, that is, that is a, that is great work. But I really do think that the above the fold, which is what we're looking at here, that can be simplified by really nailing down as soon as somebody lands on it, the picture of the spaniels and having it as pet friendly accommodation in Stoke Subhan. So again, just nail it down exactly who you are and where you are. Because the people that land on your website and this is really important for everybody here, the people that land on your website for the first time are going to be a recommendation, it's going to be social proof as in somebody's mentioned you, so someone's come and stayed at your property, had a great time and has gone home and recommended you given the website or it's a combination of good work on social media or you've driven them from an OTA listing back to your website. So instantly from the off you need to make sure that you, you, you tell everybody who you are but most importantly how they can book with you. And at the moment what, what we have on the page as present is, it's not super obvious. So there's a couple of takeaway tips that I would give to yourself Heidi. Number one, definitely start to utilize email marketing. It is free. Mailchimp.com Number two, I would be looking at working with booklet to try and see if they have dynamic pricing software, a tool that they work with because I believe 80 pound a night is too low for you. Number three, I will be linking up Facebook and Instagram so it can help you navigate away from the social media worries that you have in the navigation of it all. And definitely keeping in the world of the hospitality community. We've got so much more help and advice that will definitely help you but most importantly guide you in a bit of community as well. So Heidi, I hope that's helped. I'll make sure that you get tagged so you know that this is here. This has been Boostly marketing review. If you would like a marketing review for your business, all you need to do is go to Boostly Co UK review, fill the form in. I pick one person every month and you never know, you might be featured on a boostly podcast episode in the coming weeks or months. Thank you so much for stopping by and tuning in. I'll be back tomorrow.