This document outlines an agenda for a vacation rental marketing planning workshop. The workshop will guide participants through developing a written marketing plan, including setting objectives, analyzing their market and competitors, determining budgets, identifying target demographics, and selecting marketing tactics and evaluation metrics. Participants will work in groups to complete exercises on various aspects of developing a marketing plan over the course of the afternoon workshop.

1. VRMA
DIY Marketing
Boot Camp
2015 Marketing Planning Workshop
Amy Hinote
10/29/2014
VRMIntel

2. 2
WELCOME TO YOUR VACATION RENTAL MARKETING
PLANNING WORKSHOP
Be prepared for brainstorming and hands-on fun.
Hello, Vacation Rental Peeps!
Welcome to the first VRMA Marketing Boot Camp
One of the most important steps you can
take in implementing an effective and
efficient marketing strategy is developing
a written marketing plan.
This plan will guide your marketing
decisions and assist in allocating
marketing resources such as money and
personnel time.

3. 3
SESSION BASICS
• Your vacation rental marketing planning process:
1
Where are
we now and
where do we
want to go?
2
What tactics
do we use to
get there?
3
How will we
monitor and
measure the
results

4. 4
TIMELINE / AGENDA
• THIS IS WHAT WILL WE DO THIS AFTERNOON
Overview and Introductions
Boot camp overview, getting to know each other
and get into groups
Marketing Objectives and Market Analysis
Defining your marketing objectives and looking at your
market dynamics
Break
01:00 – 1:30
01:30 - 02:00
02:00 - 2:10

5. 5
Competitive Analysis and SWOT
Setting the foundation of your marketing plan
Determining your Marketing Budget
Range of marketing spend
Break
02:15 – 02:45
02:45 – 03:00
03:00 - 03:15
Identifying your Target Demographic
Finding your customers
Marketing Tactics
Identifying and prioritizing marketing channels and
evaluation metrics
03:15 – 03:25
03:25 - 04:00

6. 6
Break
Marketing Tactics and Evaluation
Continued…and evaluating resources
2015 Budget Toolkit
How to monitor your budget and ongoing reporting
04:00 - 04:15
04:15 - 04:25
04:25 - 04:45
Putting 04:45 – 05:00 it all together

7. 7
VACATION RENTAL MARKETING PLAN
• Just like any other industry, there are basic steps to creating an intentional and
actionable marketing plan.
Objectives
What do you
want to
accomplish this
year?
Analysis
Market Analysis
Destination Analysis
Competitive Analysis
Internal Analysis
Identify Channels
Distribution
Online
Offline
Email
Remarketing
Direct Mail
Alternative Media
Social
Partnerships
PR/Branding
Budget &
Resources
Determine Budget
Prioritize Channels
Add into budget
Create a backup plan
Systems
Reporting
But first..let’s get to know each other.
Evaluation
Identify KPI Metrics
Monitor Performance
Make Adjustments
based on data

8. 8
2015 MARKETING OBJECTIVES -EXAMPLES
• Increase overall rentals
• Increase occupancy rate
• Increase revenue and
profitability
• Increase market share
• Increase number of
rebookings from past guests
• Increase number of referrals
• Increase number of new
visitors
• Increase number of quality
properties in rental program
• Decrease distribution costs
• Decrease marketing costs
• Accumulate more data on
prospects and past guests
• Increase real estate sales
• Increase brand awareness
• Identify additional sources of
revenue and profitable
expansion opportunities

9. 9
MARKET ANALYSIS
• Analysis of your area, your market’s pricing, your competition and your
company’s SWOT analysis
Area
Analysis
Size of your market
Your market share
Economic
conditions
Government
regulation
Tourism behavior
Pricing
Historic changes
Your market
position
Discounting
Revenue
Management
Internal
Analysis
Strengths
Strengths
Weaknesses
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Opportunities
Threats
Competitive
Analysis
Top competitors
Your competitive
position
Competitive pricing
VRBO
Competitive
advantage

10. 1
0
AREA ANALYSIS
Market
Size
Market Share
Economic
Conditions
Government
Regulation
Tourism
Behavior
1
How many
vacation rentals
are in your
market?
2
How many
properties do
you manage
and what is
your market
share?
3
What are
the
economic
conditions in
your area?
4
Are you
facing any
regulatory
issues?
5
Has tourism
behavior
changed in
your area?
• An in-depth look at your area’s challenges

11. 1
1
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Top
competitors
Competitive
position
Competitive
Pricing
VRBOs
Competitive
Advantage
1
Who are your
top
competitors?
2
What is your
competitive
position?
3
How is your
pricing
different from
your
competitors?
4
Are you
competing
against
VRBOs?
5
What are
your
competitive
advantages?
• Let’s look at your competitors

12. 1
2
PRICING ANALYSIS
• Your vacation rental company’s pricing strategy
Historic
environment
Your market
position
Owner
contracts
Discounting
Revenue
Management
1
Has the pricing
paradigm
changed in
your market?
2
Where do
your prices
rank in the
marketplace?
3
Do contracts
with your
owners limit
your setting
of prices?
4
Do you
regularly
discount?
5
Does your
company
have a
revenue
management
strategy?

13. SWOT
1
3
Your company
STRENGTHS
For example:
Awareness
Market Share
Longevity
Technology
WEAKNESSES
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
For example:
Remarketing
Acquisition
Distribution
For example:
Awareness
Market Share
Technology
New company
For example:
Weather
Economy
Ebola
Regulation

14. 1
4
DETERMINING YOUR MARKETING BUDGET
Typically vacation rental managers spend 5%-12% of rental revenue on marketing.
Properties Rental Revenue Marketing Budget
Average
Annual
Rental per
Property
$15,000 $27,000 $35,000 $15,000 $27,000 $35,000
• If your budget includes salaries, distribution costs and marketing technology, you might be on
the higher end.
• If your budget does not include salaries, distribution costs and marketing technology, you
might be on the lower end.
Low (5%) High (12%) Low (5%) High (12%) Low (5%) High (12%)
50 $750,000 $1,350,000 $1,750,000 $37,500 $90,000 $67,500 $162,000 $87,500 $210,000
100 $1,500,000 $2,700,000 $3,500,000 $75,000 $180,000 $135,000 $324,000 $175,000 $420,000
250 $3,750,000 $6,750,000 $8,750,000 $187,500 $450,000 $337,500 $810,000 $437,500 $1,050,000
500 $7,500,000 $13,500,000 $17,500,000 $375,000 $900,000 $675,000 $1,620,000 $875,000 $2,100,000
1000 $15,000,000 $27,000,000 $35,000,000 $750,000 $1,800,000 $1,350,000 $3,240,000 $1,750,000 $4,200,000

15. 1
5
DETERMINING YOUR TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC
Income
HH $75k+
Household
Families
Girl Getaways
Golfing Trips
Business Travel
Geography
Top Feeder Markets
Secondary Feeder Markets
New Markets
Gender/Age
Primary market
Secondary Market
Other
Behavior
Other
Destinations
Products
Media
Your vacation rental
company

16. 1
6
DETERMINING YOUR TARGET GEOGRAPHIC MARKET
Outer Banks
Gulf Shores
Mt Hood
Lake Tahoe
• Are you in a drive-to market or a fly-to market?
• What is your primary market area?
• What is your secondary geographic target market?

17. 1
7
TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC
Household
Makeup
Families
Girl Trips
Golf Trips
Singles
Business Travel
Gender/
Age
Behavior
Activities
Strengths
Where Weaknesses
they travel
What products do
Opportunities
they buy
What media do they
see?
Income
Level
HH Income $100K+

18. 1
8
CONTENT MARKETING
Content creation: Key to all marketing channels and the most
critical part of your vacation rental marketing plan.
Offline
Online
Content Distribution
Technology
Website
SEO
PPC
Social
Email
Blog
Titles
Descriptions
Responses
Non-text content
Direct Mail
PR
Print Ads
Catalogs
Sponsorships
Area Info
Autoresponder
Communications

19. 1
9
MARKETING CHANNELS
• How we will look at potential marketing tactics
Logic
What is the logic behind using
the tactic?
1
Objectives
Which of your objectives does
this accomplish?
Elements
What are the elements of the
tactic?
What is new
What are the new elements
and considerations for 2015?
What are you doing now?
And what would you like to do?
Competition
And what would give you a competitive
advantage in this element?
Current Spend
What are you currently spending on this
channel?
Proposed Spend
Do you want to increase or decrease
your spend on this element? How much?
Resources
What resources do you have in place?
What resources do you need?
Evaluation Metrics
What metrics can you use to evaluate
performance?
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

20. 2
0
ONLINE MARKETING
• Online Marketing Channels
SEO Social Email
Website PPC Blog/Area Info

21. Print Ads Direct Mail Sponsorships
2
1
OFFLINE MARKETING
PR Catalog/
Collateral
Partnerships

22. 2
2
MARKETING -DISTRIBUTION
Payment
Threshold
Integration Channels Response
Remarketing/
Data
1
What are you
willing to pay?
2
Which
channels can
you integrate
with?
3
Identify 3rd
party
channels.
4
What is your
process for
response to
inquiries?
5
What is your
plan for
collecting
data and
saving the
customer?

23. 2
3
MARKETING -TECHNOLOGY
Lifecycle Autoresponder Mobile
CRM -
Segmentation
Social Big Data

24. 2
4
Tools
Marketing Workshop
Online Tools
MARKETING
PLAN
WORKBOOK
MARKETING BUDGET
TOOLKIT
FILL IN THE BLANK
MARKETING PLAN
MARKETING
WORKSHOP
PRESENTATION