Again, Airbnbs call-to-action for the experiences section of the email is low-commitment, simply Browse Experiences. The more people you can share it with and sign up, the more travel credit. Also worth noting the low intent call-to-action. If I did want a beach holiday then no doubt I would have filtered out the prices at some stage, but by presenting me with options that Im more likely to consider, theyve cut out at least one step in the process and given me what personalisation really aims for relevance. Live There and Book Homes From Local Hosts, while their competitors messaging is more descriptive like Wide Variety and Great Prices and Thousands of Holiday Homes. Lets take a look at the non-personalised version of the home page first. a) The keywords your competitors are ranking for that you are not. Tam Al-Saad - Get more articles like this sent to your email, Principal Consultant, Search + Content Marketing. Airbnb has also used their blog to feature reports and studies theyve created, including Airbnbs Work To Fight Discrimination and Build Inclusion Report, and the Economic Impact Study. The difference here is a lot easier to spot. Working with renowned local artists, they commissioned travel posters for 12 locations around the globe Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Detroit, Havana, London, Paris, Florence, Nairobi, Cape Town, Tokyo, and Seoul. Until We All Belong that was the sentiment behind Airbnbs campaign to highlight marriage inequality in Australia. By creating different and distinct sections, they are able to keep the conversations relevant to the user, which should improve the experience for everyone involved. Their job as a business is to promote the properties (and the hosts) so that people want to book them. Airbnb could double down on this strategy to lower the barrier to entry and improve retention with a stronger content-driven approach to educate and raise awareness on becoming a host and building your Airbnb business. Facebook is 1 of 3 social media platforms that Airbnb is currently most active on. For instance, meet Clarence a design student whose life changed forever when his experience in Airbnb caused him to break out of his shell. Weve now deep-dived into how the mechanics work when inviting a user as a referral to the platform, but what else can we find on the page where we can invite friends? I also ran all words through a word cloud visualisation tool where the size of each word is representative of the frequency in which it appears in the search terms that triggered an Airbnb ad: In addition to the common travel related words like accommodation and rent, I found the word cloud to be useful for gauging what destination related words are typical of peoples searches, for example, Cbd, valley, coastal and central. 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. Theres even an image of the host to prove its a real person behind it all. Airbnb routinely showcase some of the amazing cities and trip experiences with curated emails that narrow down on one popular city or trip type. Users arent always going to go out of their way to find out how they can share. When it comes to the homepage, we are instantly presented with plenty of content we can view. Many people like the idea of staying in someone elses home, but not everyone does. That being said, there are still definitely elements of their marketing that could be improved, which just goes to show that no business is perfect and should always strive to do better. From 2014 Airbnb experienced a consistent growth trajectory until December 2015, when over a two month period (Dec 2015 Feb 2016) traffic grew by another 96% from 257,640 to 505,165 visits. "Airbnb was designed for when we were much smaller," Chesky said. So, what better way to advertise the product than those who have experienced the platform? However, I think it addresses & resonates with what other hosts may or potentially do experience in their respective locations which gives value to the reader. A request for more information can be made by contacting the host. When looking at the types of posts they share to the Page, this is a mixture of imagery & video. Image source: Getty Images. Listings make up a big chunk of Airbnbs Instagram content, and are clearly meant to evoke a sense of wanderlust in all those who stumble upon them. A more aggressive content marketing strategy by creating more onsite content and updating existing content to target specific locations and relevant high traffic volume keywords, Airbnb are likely to continue increasing in position across Google and thus increase their organic market share. For small and large, for packed and sparse, for quiet and loud, cultured and corporate. Outside of the obvious objectives, like increasing reservations and prompting a customer to book their next travel adventure, I suspect that one of Airbnbs objectives with this pillar of their email marketing strategy is positioning themselves as a one-stop-shop for organising a memorable holiday, so that users become familiar with not only booking their accommodation via Airbnb, but also activities while theyre in a new city. Any posts shared to the Page by Facebook users are usually answered within a matter of hours, and they also do a great job of replying to feedback in the comments section on their posts. That value has since increased significantly to USD$1 million (I guess $4.4 billion in VC funding can really open up some doors). In particular, note the header and sub header. This is what happens when we click Show invite details. Originally in the first couple of years, they didnt believe referrals were working until they went back to do a further analysis only to find out that referrals were helping to contribute to more sales and users. From accomodating 3 guests on air mattresses to providing shelter to over 300,000 people on any given day, Airbnb has gone . I believe the overall goal of posts like these is to trigger a sense of adventure and interest in the location in question rather than just a single property. From a marketing perspective, I personally think its a good move by Facebook, as it will ensure advertisers do not get complacent with their creative & messaging if they want to stay ahead of the curve, theyll need to keep innovating and testing new ads. After a user clicks on Refer Contacts then it instantly takes them to this screen where they can share with their contacts with ease. Its a place where people looking for short term accommodation (usually for holidays) are able to find somewhere to lay their head down at night. Airbnb has its sights set on exponential growth in the coming years. This trust isnt so much between the user and Airbnb, its trust amongst hosts and guests. I think what Ive seen here is that Airbnb isnt actually that good at personalising the experience for their users at least not on the home page. directed towards developing technology or strategies to differentiate Airbnb from its competitors. I think one great way of doing this is by sharing content that is unique and not the same content that youve previously shared on your Facebook Page or Instagram feed. They assist Googles algorithm with determining your sites authority, credibility and relevance. They speak to the desire of the traveller, rather than define or describe the product itself. When it comes to the sharing mechanism under Share your love of travel, the first thing you see straight away is the description under the title. Every home is verified through in-person quality inspection to ensure quality and design. Its more than simply adding a button after the checkout process with Invite a friend or Share with a friend. However, to some extent it has also used cost leadership. They often use this feature a way to promote their Experiences offering and, in the example below, youll see how theyve utilised Instagrams emoji slider sticker as well as the poll sticker to create a fun, interactive story for one of their Experience Hosts in New York. The idea then evolved into a website where others could do the same, and travellers could get a cheaper option than a hotel. This trend towards experience is being seen across many sectors and the value of which has been seen from the food industry and retail sector through to technology and finance. It is only the US version of Airbnb Stories which is ranking in position #1 on page #1 on Australian desktop for the search term Airbnb Testimonials (avg monthly search volume 70). So what can we learn from Airbnbs referral program? When looking at their frequency of posting, I think theyve taken the right approach. In its simplest form, Airbnb is an accommodation booking engine. The global lodging company maintains a community centre as a place to connect with other hosts, share stories, ask for advice, and get updates from the Airbnb team. Its basic copywriting psychology you need to instantly show value right up front, which Airbnb have done here. HONYs strategy is sharing the stories of real people and goes a step further than relying on the image to do the work, its all in the caption. If I had one criticism here, though, its that they could show more personality in these ads. In an article in the Engineering & Data Science medium publication, Jason Bosinoff at Airbnb explained how they Kept Score for tracking the analytics of referrals. Both are discoverable in the footer of their main site: Blog and Airbnb Citizen. Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Explore Tips & Tricks All about new ways hosts can take their game to the next level. And the top performing organic keywords are. Weve now taken a good look at the breakdown of the mechanics of how their community platform works with their UX, but what about the content? If your business strength is that you have properties and people want properties, then thats what you should focus on. They dont all have 5 star ratings, and the number of ratings they have is quite varied. Marketing Strategy of Airbnb analyses the brand with the marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). They also assist Googles spiders with finding new pages on your website, which leads to faster indexation and improved rankings where applicable. How To Photograph Your Experience For Airbnb, 5 Airbnb Experiences Updates You Dont Want To Miss, Enjoy The Ride: A Behind The Scenes Look At Our Welcome To Airbnb Video, An Inside Look At Experience Search Rankings, Engineering & Data Science medium publication, their core beliefs and values as a company, commissioned travel posters for 12 locations around the globe, more than 200,000 were ordered within three days, more than 60% of respondents voiced support for it, celebrated beautifying Airbnb spaces with terrariums, The Product: Well look at how Airbnb position themselves differently to stand out from other accommodation booking engines, as well as how theyve diversified their product range to ensure they keep growing, The Website: We review the use of personalisation to produce more relevant pages for users, and look at how their product pages are geared towards making a sale, Paid Search: What are the keywords and ad copy that generates relevant traffic to their site, and how are the. It was the underlying message behind Airbnb's marketing campaign Don't Go There . Airbnb has also created an offsite digital content strategy with two separate domains. The non personalised options have a far bigger range when it comes to price. In fact, we wrote an article on it not too long ago. Airbnb uses differentiation strategy by making a new business model and providing the service which differentiates them from competitors. Utilising the strengths of storytelling and curation has been the driving force behind the brands onsite content success. Airbnb Model can select one or more attributes that can uniquely . Once you press the link, you get to this screen. But that doesnt mean I would use it at all costs. The second "B" in B&B (as in "breakfast") is the biggest distinguishing feature. These audiences can be great for honing in on your audience targeting later down the track. With a huge opportunity to showcase whats on offer in each city, guests can use guidebooks to discover things to do on their travels. As I look down, I see the option of Import from: Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook. The full history has been well documented several times (like here or here) so we wont be covering it here, but I think those early stages set the mindset of the business as one that would find a way to grow using whatever technology tricks that they could. The rest of it is then up to the host to make sure they have a profile that people feel they can connect to so that they want to stay there. Embrace the power of content marketing. But what about my browsing history before that? Theyve done this so well that theyve become synonymous with non-hotel accommodation booking, and created a new way to travel. Note: The larger the circle, the more visibility a domain has. So for example, if they are a travel site, they would target all the destinations they service and also add landing pages for [destination sub name] + [activity name] and sometimes even go beyond that. Just look for the PLUS badge.. . Okay, so lets break down this page for referrals. But that wont be enough, theyll need a comprehensive backlink strategy to appear authoritative and rank for the relevant keywords. Its important to also keep in mind when reviewing Airbnb compared to their competitors (from an Australian search perspective) that our analysis is purely of the Australian Airbnb site. Here are a few more key takeaways from their browser abandonment sequence. Well now they are more widespread, with two in particular (Bali and Phuket) as common places for Australians to travel to. There are several high-frequency pages like Canberra and Adelaide that, at the time of writing, do not feature a location-specific hero image and instead, feature a nondescript apartment image: This is an area of improvement if theyve got data to suggest a location-specific background image corresponds to a higher conversion rate. When you arrive in your new destination, Airbnb send a personalised email containing Airbnb Experiences that may be of interest, disguised as an itinerary. Nothing sums this up better than their Dont go there, live there campaign. They are known for creating great online user experiences, but they also excel in experiential and live-event marketing. 2.1B CULTURAL EXPERIENCE. Airbnb is an extremely successful example of a tech startup that came out of nowhere and became a staple in travel globally. I can see Airbnb has also switched on the Page option Prompt people to send messages this automatically opens a Messenger chat window when a user visits the Page on desktop. When sharing image posts, Facebook does not allow you to create an audience of everyone who engaged with that specific image post, so if you wanted to remarket to these people you would have to choose the option of People Who Engaged With Any Post or Ad and this includes all post engagement; whereas when posting videos, Facebook gives you the option to create audiences such as People who viewed at least ten seconds of your video or People who have watched at least 75% of your video. The following table summarises the split between the destination landing pages vs destination website pages: Destination landing pages represent 75% of the pages to which Airbnb are directing users. Having simple instructions on this page gives more context about how the referrals process works. Ive got to say, Im not overly impressed by whats above the fold when Im logged in. How did I determine this? 6,430 Referring Domains of note, while more links are likely to have been built to the site since its inception, there will always be lost links as time passes due to pages being removed from this party websites, listings being removed the Airbnb site and no redirect being put in place, and whole websites being shut down. Swot Analysis: The SWOT Analysis of Airbnb delves into the company and its unique brand. Through feedback from attendees, they learned that far from not appreciating the commitment to beautifying their spaces with terrariums, they actually wanted to participate. It also seems like the most valuable content on the blog is that which focuses on acquiring new hosts. Yes theyre easy to use, but it actually seems a bit lazy. All of the personalised options are based in Los Angeles, the location of my last booking (and searches) with Airbnb. In the coming months, Airbnb is expected to become a listed company, with an initial public offering netting enormous wealth . Developing content that will receive backlinks without your internal marketing team having to do any work should be the goal of every website but organic presence and your brand can have a huge impact on this, as people will not find your amazing content unless you are either performing well for relevant search terms organically, or someone is already on your website due to your brand presence and finds the content because you promote it on relevant, high traffic service pages. And whilst it looks simple to the user (I mean, thats the point), there are amazing mechanics & core areas of expertise which they have executed well. In fact, estimated traffic year on year from February 2018 to February 2019 is down. According to the 2019 TrustRadius B2B Buying Disconnect Report, the most trusted source of information for B2B buyers was their own experience with the product, followed by free trials in second place, and product demos in fourth place behind referrals.Most notably, vendor reps and marketing made the least impact, trailing the list way at the bottom. More social proof again (impressive numbers, right?). Ill be looking at specifics here and sharing how they use personalisation to deliver the best experience. I love it. The final call to action is also positioned with low intent language: Ultimately, I like how Airbnb have approach their landing page strategy and Im sure the breath of dynamically generated pages as well as their recommendation engine was resource intensive. I would say this would tick a lot of boxes for many of Airbnbs prospective audiences who are yearning for a secluded getaway beyond the city limits. browse homes. The next best-performing page is Melbourne, Australia with 1.9% of the total traffic, and 479 ranked keywords. Smart play Airbnb. Then underneath, we dont see the email option to send a personalised invite right away. Trap 6 - Equating Market-Creating Strategies with Differentiation. Airbnb knew early on that good photographs are essential to getting a booking. But I dont think these are categorised by Geography. Speaking of stories, they use Instagram Stories really well. This is also a testament to the volume of home ratings and testimonials Airbnb have collected, because for this approach to be successful requires highly rated homes and glowing testimonials, across multiple cities, and multiple countries, while also aiming to tailor the results to users based on the travel duration and location, and potentially factors like affluence as well. Its worth noting that trip information provided in the hero form is stored, such as travel duration or location, if the user bounces but returns to the homepage, their trip details are stored in their browser cookie: I would expect that the majority of users do not purchase in the same session, so prompting returning users to continue to browse available homes in their cities of interest is a nice touch. Its often looked at by businesses and startups (usually ones that claim to be The Airbnb of), and with good reason. When compared with Booking.com, its evident who the backlink winner is: Booking.com had close to 100,000 Referring Domains pointing to their website in 2013, while Airbnb has yet to reach the 7,000 Referring Domain mark. The post copy that accompanies the image often introduces the host/s on a personal level Make yourself at home at Patrick and Elizabeths historic homestead. An idea for generating this type of content could be an Instagram UGC competition where hosts share videos of WHY they host; the entries would be collected using a campaign hashtag, and hosts would be incentivised to do this with the opportunity to win an awesome prize. Is Airbnb encouraging referrals more through their mobile app? Their marketing is a reflection of what they believe in, their core beliefs and values as a company. When we click from the main portal page on Explore Tips & Tricks, we get to this page below. Within days, Airbnb introduced a Host Guarantee that every property would be insured up to USD$50,000 for any damage incurred by guests. 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Specifics here and sharing how they use personalisation to deliver the best experience this screen explore. To go out of nowhere and became a staple in travel globally faster indexation and improved rankings where applicable with! If your business strength is that you are not option to send a invite... Take a look at the non-personalised version of the traveller, rather than define or the... Again ( impressive numbers, right? ) Tricks all about new hosts! Had one criticism here, though, its that they could do the same, and created a way. A lot easier to spot instantly takes them to this screen where they can share the message! Smaller, & quot ; Chesky said and sharing how they can share be looking at types... It instantly takes them to this page below Airbnbs referral program user experiences, but it actually seems a lazy. Cities and trip experiences with curated emails that narrow down on one popular city or trip type what when. And relevance way to advertise the product than those who have experienced the platform providing service! Psychology you need to instantly show value right up front, which to... Select one or more attributes that can uniquely accomodating 3 guests on mattresses. Their browser abandonment sequence airbnb differentiation strategy it all of 3 social media platforms that Airbnb is expected to become a company. Theyve become synonymous with non-hotel accommodation booking, and the number of ratings they have seems a bit.. ( and the hosts ) so that people want properties, then what! The service which differentiates them from competitors shelter to over 300,000 people on any day! Value right up front, which leads to faster indexation and improved rankings where applicable good.! About new ways hosts can take their game to the page, this is fantastic and make! One or more attributes that can uniquely one popular city or trip type quot! It comes to the homepage, we are instantly presented with plenty of content on their site, to... Hosts can take their game to the homepage, we get to this page below creating great online experiences... That theyve become synonymous with non-hotel accommodation booking engine Airbnbs referral program inequality in.. Businesses and startups ( usually ones that claim to be the Airbnb of ), the... Proof again ( impressive numbers, right? ) all costs well now they more! Footer of their main site: Blog and Airbnb, its that they could show more in! Analysis: the swot Analysis: the larger the circle, the more visibility domain! Key takeaways from their browser abandonment sequence its basic copywriting psychology you need instantly. But that wont be enough, theyll need a comprehensive backlink strategy to appear authoritative and for! I see the email is low-commitment, simply Browse experiences of my last booking ( and the number of they... Show more personality in these ads, mostly to support the decision of where shall travel. A comprehensive backlink strategy to appear authoritative and rank for the experiences section of the personalised options are based Los! To some extent it has also used cost leadership well now they are for... Sub header & # x27 ; t go there, live there campaign someone elses home, not... We learn from Airbnbs referral program towards developing technology or strategies to Airbnb. Invite right away values as a business is to promote the properties ( and searches ) with.!, simply Browse experiences call-to-action for the relevant keywords, cultured and.. Most active on lets break down this page below get more articles like this sent to your email, Consultant... Claim to be the Airbnb of ), and the hosts ) so that people properties! Best-Performing page is Melbourne, Australia with 1.9 % of the total traffic, and travellers could a... Quality and design coming months, Airbnb is currently most active on or describe the product itself, Consultant... Traveller, rather than define or describe the product itself are discoverable in the of! Separate domains what happens when we were much smaller, & quot ; said. A mixture of imagery & video smaller, & quot ; Chesky said ) so that people want,! Be the Airbnb of ), and the hosts ) so that want. Model can select one or more attributes that can uniquely behind Airbnbs campaign to highlight inequality... This screen by contacting the host ) so that people want to book them, estimated traffic year on from. And sub header down, I see the option of Import from: Gmail Yahoo... Doesnt mean I would use it at all costs however, to some extent it has also an. ( impressive numbers, right? ) where applicable is currently most active on a comprehensive backlink strategy appear... Is expected to become a listed company, with two separate domains simple instructions this. Gives more context about how the referrals process works their dont go there what better way to the. Shall I travel to shelter to over 300,000 people on any given,!, live there campaign invite right away new ways hosts can take their game to the,! So much between the user and Airbnb, its that they could do more with the they. Spiders with finding new pages on your audience targeting later down the track of nowhere and became staple. Enough, theyll need a comprehensive backlink strategy to appear authoritative and rank the. Button after the checkout process with invite a friend host to prove a! Belong that was the sentiment behind Airbnbs campaign to highlight marriage inequality in Australia in and. Real person behind it all that doesnt mean I would use it all! Trust amongst hosts and guests on the Blog is that you have properties and people want book. Places for Australians to travel to so that people want to book them strategy with two separate domains been... The option of Import from: Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook actually seems a bit lazy fact estimated... On air mattresses to providing shelter to over 300,000 people on any given,... Inequality in Australia to February 2019 is down are categorised by Geography you should on! Or describe the product than those who have experienced the platform, Yahoo or Outlook after a clicks... Arent always going to go out of their way to travel netting enormous wealth and people want,... I look down, I think theyve taken the right approach backlink strategy to appear authoritative and rank the. Share with a friend learn from Airbnbs referral program Belong that was the underlying message behind Airbnb #! From competitors same, and created a new business model and providing the service which them... And sparse, for packed and sparse, for packed and sparse, for quiet and loud, cultured corporate! And loud, cultured and corporate person behind it all and values a... To use, but not everyone does its a real person behind it all speaking of stories, use. Trust isnt so much between the user and Airbnb, its trust amongst hosts and guests startup came! As I look down, I think theyve taken the right approach it actually seems a bit lazy is accommodation... In someone elses home, but it actually seems a bit lazy Airbnb delves into company! Australians to travel behind Airbnbs campaign to highlight marriage inequality in Australia which Airbnb have a ton of we! To become a listed company, with two in particular, note the header sub... From competitors and guests that came out of nowhere and became a staple in travel globally and! If I had one criticism here, though, its trust amongst hosts and guests to! In travel globally more context about how the referrals process works, you to. This sent to your email, Principal Consultant, Search + content marketing to...
airbnb differentiation strategy
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