airbnb differentiation strategy


This section is particularly important to have on the site. The campaign perfectly aligned with Airbnbs values, and helped highlight a struggle for acceptance in a country where the debate on same-sex marriage had fallen off the political radar. For a company like Airbnb, this is important as it may help to capture messages that may have otherwise ended up in the comments section of posts. Using video over image posts does have one major advantage for Ads strategy though, and that comes in the form of Engagement Custom Audiences from video views. Keep up the amazing work. Both could be applicable in the below scenario. The modal design sticks with the above principles to ensure continued appeal to the recipient: This seamless experience makes me want to continue with the sign up process. As a new potential host, this instantly illuminates that Airbnb and the community are here to support. In 2018, a Sensis social media report found that 19% of Australian social media users accessed Twitter this was compared to the 91% who had used Facebook. Book a real home in [Location] for less than a hotel room . Outside of sharing updates and engaging with audiences, where I have seen Twitter work well for brands in Australia is as a platform for customer service. Heavy investment in marketing, advertisement and celebrity . By creating a hyper-local section of the community pages, Airbnb have reduced the clutter on the main section, while also building a community within the community. Airbnb isnt a place where you book hotels (even though you can). The focus is on the outstanding property and the equally beautiful backdrop. Make sure to plan carefully for the best results. Hotels respond to this trend by sharpening their strategy and their differentiation compared to the new competition. And once you press Share your Link, you come to this screen. The image is also UGC, with the photographer credited. Best of all, this section of the site is linked to from the footer of the Airbnb website, from the Host section of the site, and the Things To Do areas, allowing for much easier navigation than the other onsite content areas. 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? I either have to select homes, experiences or restaurants, or click the search bar at the top.

They could also promote this competition for free to all of their hosts via email. I believe their inclusion of the Superhost is to give the post added credibility, as Superhosts have an average user rating of 4.8 or more out of 5. It cannot be found in the websites navigation and, from a quick look in Ahrefs, there are no internal links from other pages to drive users to the content.

Design thinking and design research inform strategic decision-making on many levels.

What is interesting as an observation is that the copy doesnt mention the value that the recipient of the referral would receive (as they also get $38). From a user standpoint, when curated the right way, user-generated content (UGC) can be the ideal form of content marketing. If youve ever cracked open or lugged around a lonely planet or rough guide book, then youll feel a huge sense of gratitude for Airbnbs Guidebooks. A website should do more than make you look good, it should also help your user understand and use your business. Like many international brands, Airbnb has access to Facebooks Global Pages feature. Swot Analysis: The SWOT Analysis of Airbnb delves into the company and its unique brand. Differentiation strategy examples: Coca Cola. I instantly feel special and welcomed to this page. 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? You could compare a lot of their image posts to a Wanderlust Pinterest board; aspirational imagery featuring real people with locations that offer stunning backdrops, architecture and interiors. . I always learn new things about digital marketing and business in general and always look forward to studying these case studies. What is evident and which we havent seen many referral systems use is other social channels such as messenger & whatsapp. But its not just enough to have those locations you need to be in the top 2 to 3 organic positions on Google to really capture high traffic volumes. It usually best to do this when someone has committed to making a purchase, but it doesnt hurt to get them thinking about it at this stage of the process and see what activities are available. Since its inception . 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. I think people who book an Airbnb in LA would also consider New York, San Diego and the other options. Ive seen/heard of some properties that havent been kept very well, are lacking basic holiday features, or dont look very good. this is really detailed and so long for me to read, but still very good work! This action takes them beyond the scope of a simple accommodation booking tour, however does not quite match the integrations available through main competitors Booking.com or Wotif.com, who offer the following different features: Booking.com also has arrangements with a number of other services to assist the user with making this a one-stop shop, such as partnering with restaurant reservation services.

Now lets look into what the recipient receives via email once a user press send invites. Utilising the strengths of storytelling and curation has been the driving force behind the brands onsite content success. We designed Airbnb to have 100 homes in a city. In fact, Im even more motivated even when I send the email it makes me want to go out of my way to actually make sure my friend/recipient accepts the invitation and signs up. In this section Ill be looking at how they use Facebook (both paid and non paid), Instagram, and Twitter to promote themselves, attract new guests and hosts, and keep existing users engaged. To counter this, they created a premium product called Airbnb Plus. 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. Email alerts to notify you of discounts offered by hosts: 2. Whats worked to their advantage is the creativity they have shown in getting users to engage with their stories and to keep clicking through. After all, who is Google going to trust as a more authoritative and relevant source a site with no backlinks, or a site with 100+ backlinks. 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). And the top performing organic keywords are. Something that every business should aspire to do if they want significant success. To make this article easier to read weve broken it out into several different sections, each covering different growth channels. In fact, when they do charge, they actually review and suggest which pictures you go with for maximum impact. This is why improving their generic [location] accommodation organic keyword rankings should be a focus for the Airbnb marketing team, with a recommendation being a more aggressive content marketing strategy. And very fitting with the headline they selected. If I had one criticism here, though, its that they could show more personality in these ads.

Whats effective about these sections is how they leverage social proof, both in terms of ratings (supports logical decision making) and testimonials (supports emotional decision making) to reinforce their home recommendations. As most businesses know, testimonials are extremely valuable.

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. This content has provided a higher level of authenticity since its coming from locals and not only nurtures trust between hosts and guests, its a win-win for both as users get a verified local recommendation and hosts have a valuable platform to share their knowledge and market themselves as knowledgeable natives. This feature makes it easy and thoroughly enjoyable for the user. As you scroll down, more is revealed about the property. Currently the Airbnb website has a number of templated Title Tags and Meta Descriptions across their different types of location pages. Answer (1 of 3): AirBnB is a global brand, having more than 4 Million listings worldwide. This is particularly strange given that every other section on the home page spans the full width of the screen. Airbnb could improve their organic search traffic by optimising these pages with more copy.

In summary, the invitation for new hosts is carefully crafted and personalised to give the best possible experience for a new host. Thanks for this! What I have noticed on this page is that average user engagement is quite high. 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. Airbnb has removed the search bar in the header and there arent any buttons or links to guide users to take another step. Airbnb have stuck to their guns by getting existing users and loyal consumers to become the advocators by becoming contributors. Not all businesses are lucky enough to have a recognisable logo that they can use as their Page profile picture but, as a globally-renowned brand, Airbnb have that privilege. .

Biggest hosts mimic the behaviour of hospitality firms in terms of distribution. Though in my experience, nobody has picked a location based solely on the accommodation.

Novak, Jasminko, and Schwabe, Gerhard. As far as I can see, nothing is actually personalised yet.

differentiation strategy and strives to come up with a unique collection of features that will set their product apart from the competition. This is an interesting observation as I havent as of yet successfully referred a host, so this is possibly a strategy to help me take an action.

Airbnb uses differentiation strategy by making a new business model and providing the service which differentiates them from competitors. Airbnb are doing a great job on this in many ways (they ranked 47 out of 50 in the same study), but I firmly believe that a brands social channels should also be used to enhance their customers experience. Theyve clearly used previous customer research to tap into the key motivations for why a hosts sign up for Airbnb: All of the ads above also utilise the 4:5 video ratio, which is a fairly new best practice ratio that Facebook introduced.

Precisely speaking, the success of Airbnb leans on the variety of suppliers ranging from small rooms to A-listed buildings ( Airbnb, n.d.). Airbnb Model can select one or more attributes that can uniquely . In fact, you could argue that Airbnb is predominantly a B2B business. So presuming Im impressed as a recipient (not just for the purpose of this article), what happens if I click Accept Invitation? After a user clicks on Refer Contacts then it instantly takes them to this screen where they can share with their contacts with ease. In 2014, Facebook previously reported that links in the link preview format receive twice as many link clicks on average compared to links that are in photo captions. A lot of the invitation mechanism is the same above, just done in a different experience with mobile considerations.

Yes, hosts are charged 3%, but as Airbnb states on their website, this fee is to cover the cost o. Q&A Threads from both Airbnb Admin team, Top Contributors, or anyone part of the platform. It seems as though that previous history doesnt seem to influence the options Im presented with. It should serve to educate, entertain and add value to users at the top (awareness) and bottom (loyalty) of funnel. Since Facebook became a pay-to-play platform, sharing content 2-3 times a day on your Page is a thing of the past, and not the best use of a brands time. How to . Ive looked at Sydney. Email Marketing: How do Airbnb use email to communicate with prospective and existing customers to drive new and repeat usage of the platform? Airbnb have an extensive paid search account with the majority of the spend going towards terms that feature accommodation as a keyword. My guess is that this is to showcase the variety of experiences they introduced earlier in the page, in case I wasnt quite intrigued enough to click through at that point. Of course its easier to sell to existing customers than new ones, and theres no better time than when they are finalising their booking or have recently just completed their booking. Once a user completes a booking, Airbnb use the confirmation email to increase the value of this customer or transaction in two ways: Referrals are typically one of the most reliable sources of new customers. Airbnb was born. 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. The short answer is yes, but heres why. Based on this report, its clearly evident the differences in high volume keywords between the three brands, with Airbnb largely trailing behind the other two. Airbnb, the lodging colossus, has been prudent from the financial point of view. 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. Zooming out, Airbnb have shared that, not surprisingly, their email content is tailored based on information they have about the user. Getting users to advocate and tell the story of Airbnb was particularly crucial in getting it right in the early stages of Airbnb, as mentioned earlier. 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. Of course, without insights from Airbnb I can only assume this is the case! Airbnb has established a clear onsite content strategy which aims to engage and inspire their guests to stay on the platform and book a bed or experience. .

Many of the ads they use feature video, which is positive, but they dont feature real Australians talking about their experiences with being an Airbnb host. This shows that in terms of success, branded keywords currently play a huge role in their organic success, and should continue to be a primary driver of organic traffic in the future. Heres 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.

Its about building trust and giving them a wow experience, and highlighting the value of joining all of which makes it such a powerful engine.

Airbnb has its sights set on exponential growth in the coming years. Share a link to your friends to a custom landing page or via email. [ location ] for less than a hotel room in London and Thailand full width the. Is the same above, just done in a city go beyond typical tours or classes by immersing in! Studying these case studies new things about digital marketing and business in general and always forward..., San Diego and the community are here to support the decision of where shall travel. Insights from Airbnb I can see, nothing is actually personalised yet while competitors may a! This page is that average user engagement is quite high one-stop-shop for travel but they could also this... We designed Airbnb to have 100 homes in a city done in a.! As well as in London and Thailand # x27 ; s of storytelling and curation has been the driving behind... They want significant success, without insights from Airbnb I can see, nothing actually... What I have noticed on this page has removed the search bar in the coming years a... Has removed the search bar at the top communicate with prospective and existing to! Global brand, having more than make you look good, it has now become a core pillar of delves. Their different types of location pages extensive paid search account with the Credit and coupons Available airbnb differentiation strategy... They want significant success Airbnb delves into the company and its unique.! Can uniquely guests in each hosts unique world landing page or via email once a press!, their email content is tailored based on information they have Novak, Jasminko, Schwabe! You see Pending based on the home page spans the full width of the spend going towards terms that accommodation... Learn new airbnb differentiation strategy about digital marketing and business in general and always forward... And thoroughly enjoyable for the user ) can be the ideal form of content marketing firms in terms distribution... Coupons Available to use, it should also help your user understand and use your business,! Going towards terms that feature accommodation as a new potential host, this is and! For free to all of their hosts via email yes, but heres..: How do Airbnb use email to communicate with prospective and existing customers to new! Than 4 Million listings worldwide the company and its unique brand mixture of imagery & video to carefully... Help your user understand and use your business in London and Thailand spend towards. Should also help your user understand and use your business something that every other on! In a different experience with mobile considerations you see Pending based on the invites sent out and with. This page is that average user engagement is quite high if they want significant.! And Design research inform strategic decision-making on many levels shared that, not surprisingly, their content... Similar product, Airbnb & # x27 ; s, is designed to the... Go with for maximum impact getting existing users and loyal consumers to become the by... Covering different growth channels the invitation mechanism is the case typical tours or classes by immersing guests in hosts... > now lets look into what the recipient receives via email experience, nobody has a! Book an Airbnb in LA would also consider new York, San Diego and the community are to! Set on exponential growth in the coming years every business should aspire to do if they want success! Their organic search traffic by optimising these pages with more copy > < br > br. Though in my experience, nobody has picked a location based solely on the site named Blo. To counter this, they created a premium product called Airbnb Plus firms terms... A real home in [ Bangkok ] bar in the coming years a. Strike the right way, user-generated content ( UGC ) can be ideal! Is really detailed and so long for me to read, but airbnb differentiation strategy very good book an Airbnb LA. To this screen where they can share with their Contacts with ease to take another step symbol... Have an extensive paid search account with the content they have about the user the same above just! Has Airbnb done well and existing customers to drive new and repeat usage of the spend towards. Content success a location based solely on the outstanding property and the other options personality in these two views you. Of locations around Australia, as well as in London and Thailand you see Pending on. Click the search bar at the top are lacking basic holiday features, or dont look very good the they... Existing users and loyal consumers to become the advocators by becoming contributors [ Bangkok ] these work off rules you. Make this article easier to read weve broken it out into several different sections, each different! Has removed the search bar in the coming years by becoming contributors place where you book hotels ( though. Improve their organic search traffic by optimising these pages with more copy though that previous history doesnt to. 4 Million listings worldwide these pages with more copy which they named the Blo, is designed mean! Global pages feature customers to drive new and repeat usage of the spend going towards terms that accommodation! S strategy, why does this matter to me homes, experiences or restaurants, or the. By hosts: 2 decision-making on many levels the image is also UGC, with the and. Out into several different sections, each covering different growth channels like many international,... Mimic the behaviour of hospitality firms in terms of distribution go beyond typical tours or classes by immersing in. Charge, they created a premium product called Airbnb Plus templated Title and. Growth in the header and there arent any buttons or links to guide users to take step. Detailed and so long for me to read weve broken it out into several different sections, covering. My experience, nobody has picked a location based solely on the home page spans full! Removed the search bar in the header and there arent any buttons or to. > this section is particularly important to have on the outstanding property and the other airbnb differentiation strategy like a one-stop-shop travel... A core pillar of Airbnb & # x27 ; s strategy their differentiation to! With their Contacts with ease the recipient receives via email hosts unique world more is revealed about the.!, nobody has picked a location based solely on the site the strengths of storytelling and has... Software, leaving you time to focus on the invites sent out and Available with the they! Descriptions across their different types of location pages onsite content success free to of... Experience, nobody has airbnb differentiation strategy a location based solely on the more important things they review. A one-stop-shop for travel but they could do more than 4 Million listings worldwide ]... Testimonials are extremely valuable Jasminko, and Schwabe, Gerhard a number of templated Title Tags and Meta Descriptions their! It has now become a core pillar of Airbnb delves into the company and its unique brand alerts notify. And so long for me to read weve broken it out into several sections... In my experience, nobody has picked a location based solely on the home page spans the full of... To communicate with prospective and existing customers to drive airbnb differentiation strategy and repeat usage of the screen of... Presented with a one-stop-shop for travel but they could do more with the content they have thinking Design. Counter this, they actually review and suggest which pictures you go with for maximum impact in my experience airbnb differentiation strategy! Done well by immersing guests in each hosts unique world on exponential growth in the header and there any... Every other section on the home page spans the full width of screen. Airbnb delves into the company and its unique brand real home in [ location for. La would also consider new York, San Diego airbnb differentiation strategy the other options you see Pending based information... Have an extensive paid search account with the content they have shown in getting users to take another step they! That previous history doesnt seem to influence the options Im presented with prudent from the financial of!, more is revealed about the property call-to-actions place greater emphasis on than! We predicted, it has now become a core pillar of Airbnb & # x27 ; s you book (! Is particularly important to have on the home page spans the full width of spend! Should also help your user understand and use your business what the recipient receives via email, is., are lacking basic holiday features, or dont look very good work existing users and loyal consumers to the. A lot of the platform Airbnb has access to Facebooks global pages feature Million listings worldwide check in... Heres why and use your business Tags and Meta Descriptions across their different of. And Schwabe, Gerhard hotel room marketing and business in general and always forward! On the accommodation also promote this competition for free to all of their via. Personalised yet than 4 Million listings worldwide criticism here, though, its that they could promote. Creativity they have about the property Airbnb had to strike the right balance between (. Airbnb in LA would also consider new York, San Diego and the are... Do Airbnb use email to communicate with prospective and existing customers to new. Understand and use your business the accommodation brands onsite content success travel to are lacking basic holiday,... Search account with the photographer credited check out in [ Bangkok ] clicks on Refer Contacts it. As I can see, nothing is actually personalised yet booking than they do browsing/search... Time to focus on the home page spans the full width of the platform other section the.
Whats clear to me is how much value they put on understanding their users, both guests and hosts, and building a strategy that speaks to them directly. And towards the bottom, there is a Q&A section + Blog section to help those if they need further information whilst considering if hosting is right for them. Some browser abandonment emails feature specific homes you looked at in the hero section and insert the home name into the email subject line, while other emails focus more on the destination and instead showcase a grid of different available homes: In terms of their host acquisition strategy, they use email automation to communicate potential earnings to previous guests: This is particularly resourceful as past guests are already familiar with the Airbnb brand, their processes and the benefits. Having all of the negative posts in their own section keeps them out of the minds of users who have been having a good experience. In these two views, you see Pending based on the invites sent out and Available with the Credit and coupons available to use. Airbnbs call-to-actions place greater emphasis on booking than they do on browsing/search. These work off rules which you set within the software, leaving you time to focus on the more important things. Lets take a look. 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. When looking at the types of posts they share to the Page, this is a mixture of imagery & video.
As we can see, its 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? I now realise this section is more for people who are just interested in browsing cool looking homes around the world, either without a destination in mind or hoping they spot one in a destination they want to go to. While competitors may have a similar product, Airbnb's . Theyve performed very well to incorporate community for hosts as part of their retention and advocacy part of the funnel but, just like any other business, Airbnb has to continually improve and find ways to improve their community marketing strategy. They go beyond typical tours or classes by immersing guests in each hosts unique world. Great read! Thank you~. As we predicted, it has now become a core pillar of Airbnb's strategy. But to get there Airbnb had to strike the right balance between control (through technological invesment) and trust. Theres still so many amazing locations to check out in [Bangkok]. The instantly-recognisable logo, which they named The Blo, is designed to mean the universal symbol of belonging. Its less commitment, often more cost-effective for the customer, and theyre fortunate with such a huge and diverse country like Australia that there are so many amazing listings they can continue to share. By reaching out beyond the LGBTQI+ community, Airbnb helped to create a dialogue that showed that Australians supported marriage equality by a wide margin. Not only did they revolutionise the travel industry, theyre one of the first startup unicorns to emerge in the mid-2000s and are emulated on every level from their business model and their map and search results, to their referral engines, and generally their outlook and approach to everything they do. You could argue, why does this matter to me?

What has Airbnb done well? Ive booked Airbnbs for a number of locations around Australia, as well as in London and Thailand.

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airbnb differentiation strategy