Building a community is one of the most powerful assets a company or brand can build. A firm needs to invest in market research, research and development or product development, and manufacturing or production processes to create highly differentiated products. Airbnb take unorthodox approaches to get noticed in the offline world, and when they do, its not to promote themselves or their platform directly but to promote who they are. It comes down to what feels like a Gift Experience. The difference here is a lot easier to spot. In the coming months, Airbnb is expected to become a listed company, with an initial public offering netting enormous wealth . Plus, the more they read/talk about it, the more theyre thinking about it, which should lead to less churn. 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. If you havent built a community before nor done community marketing, youre not alone. Many people like the idea of staying in someone elses home, but not everyone does. In 2011 Airbnb had to come up with an urgent answer to this very important question when a host in San Francisco reported that their house was trashed after renting it out for a week. In a previous role at a start-up it was very common to hear the question How do Airbnb do it? when looking at implementing a website change or a new tactic. What Should I Do If My Guests Arrive Late? 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. For Lectures [email protected] https://www.linkedin.com/in/shahmm. Heavy investment in marketing, advertisement and celebrity . Unfortunately, I think it misses the mark, again. By listing the properties of ordinary people, they set themselves apart by offering a different experience to travellers. To do this, Airbnb ensures there is a close alignment between their users search queries as well as their ads and landing pages. I think people who book an Airbnb in LA would also consider New York, San Diego and the other options. To understand how Airbnb referrals work, we will be diving into the core areas of Design Experience, Psychology & Measurement/Testing of building a refer-a-friend system that grows awareness and drives more bookings and sales. Social media plays an integral role in any business marketing strategy these days and, of course, Airbnb are no different. To save on time, there are other elements of this page which certainly helps with the decision-making process to take the next step. People go onto Airbnb to look for cheap properties and luxurious properties, in busy cities and remote countrysides. Tam Al-Saad - Get more articles like this sent to your email, Principal Consultant, Search + Content Marketing. Where it gets interesting is to see how the home page differs when Im signed in. And once you press Share your Link, you come to this screen. Using SEMRush, I exported 50,000 of Airbnbs higher volume search terms and put these into a pivot table, sorting this by how many times each search term appeared. 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. Explore Tips & Tricks All about new ways hosts can take their game to the next level. Precisely speaking, the success of Airbnb leans on the variety of suppliers ranging from small rooms to A-listed buildings ( Airbnb, n.d.). Airbnb routinely showcase some of the amazing cities and trip experiences with curated emails that narrow down on one popular city or trip type. 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. , Interesting read! Both personas have a very simplified UX for sharing via email or a custom link. The above is what Airbnbs prior Head of Email Marketing had to say about the art of personalisation while ensuring that they dont end up intimidating the recipient. The focus is on the outstanding property and the equally beautiful backdrop. When it comes to the homepage, we are instantly presented with plenty of content we can view. At this stage, as I havent put in any dates, Airbnb only need a couple of details to make sure its available, so thats all they ask for. SERPSTAT recommends the following amount of anchor text percentages not be exceeded for best link results without incurring a Google penalty for spammy link tactics. If your business strength is that you have properties and people want properties, then thats what you should focus on. 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. What Airbnb have done well is how easy they make it to Invite Friends or Invite Hosts via Desktop & Mobile application. The main goal of implementing a differentiation strategy is to increase competitive advantage. Airbnb has created the perfect solution for renters and providers worldwide. To counter this, they created a premium product called Airbnb Plus. Author -Boil The Ocean. The architecture of the building is unusual, the glimpse of the cozy/warm inside is very inviting and, to top it off, you can be at one with nature at this retreat. Cynics will say it comes down to price, and in a lot of instances theyre right. This is an example of one of Airbnbs Superhost-themed posts. Interestingly, direct links to the homes featured on Facebook arent included, instead a link to all properties in that location is provided. If we refer back to this sense of community and how deep-rooted it is in Airbnbs values, I think they are missing an opportunity to share more stories that focus on this aspect of their brand this happens between people. The self check-in box also puts at ease people who worry about having to coordinate being at the property at the same time as the host in order to get access. Why is this the case? Term. He has also written for Business Insider, The Next Web & The Australian, and also founded and grew Sydneys largest growth hackers community (4000+ people :). most recent stock sale values them at USD $35 billion, even paid for hosts to have professional photographs taken, https://www.facebook.com/AirbnbAustralia/, Engagement Custom Audiences from video views, Airbnbs Work To Fight Discrimination and Build Inclusion Report, The King Valley: The Australian Valley That Flows With Prosecco, Beaches, Beats, And Bunny Chow: Diving Into Durban, Meet Your Host: Bushwalking in Bundeena With Dianne, Experience In The Spotlight: Freestyle Football In Paris With World Champion San Garnier. Its important to do some of the work for them. Remember the days when the home page was a scrolling image with a big search bar? 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. 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. 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. Having this content ensures retention by keeping hosts engaged with other users of the platform. The short answer is yes, but heres why. There are several marketing strategies like product innovation, pricing approach, promotion planning etc. For example, if Airbnb shares a video which relates to Japan and this gets 50k views, creating an audience of viewers who watched 75% or 95% of this video would be great for their next Japanese-themed post, as they know these people are interested in video content to do with Japan. When we delve more into why Facebook is perfect for top & middle of funnel objectives, it relates to 3 things: Looking at the messaging theyre using in Host ads, I like the angles that Airbnb have chosen to run with. Although I think these are good, short messages that speak to the pain points that come with booking/saving for a vacation, I think theyre missing out on an opportunity to call out different users in a more fun and creative way, for example: With this in mind, its always important to stay true to your brands tone of voice, but the more that you can make a connection with your audiences in an authentic, human way on social, the more likely they will be to proactively seek out your business for their needs. Airbnbs tend to be cheaper than hotels, and so the cost-conscious traveller would prefer to pay less and go without some of the frills and security that you get with a hotel. To achieve this, theyve either used Dynamic Keyword Insertion or have closely tailored ad groups that have strong alignment between keywords and ads. Smart play Airbnb. When we turn our attention to the caption, were met with some descriptive copy which helps to further set the scene, but theres also a mention of the Superhost, Manuela, whose amazing property this is. The second "B" in B&B (as in "breakfast") is the biggest distinguishing feature. Notably, they havent made use of a Facebook Cover video, which is a missed opportunity to introduce new users to their brand in a creative and engaging way similar to the homepage of a website. In terms of call to actions, Airbnbs most frequently used call-to-action in headlines is Search and Book Now. The Growth Team at Airbnb have 3 main Philosophies when it comes to growth: Its no secret in the growth marketing world that one of Airbnbs key ingredients to product growth success was referrals. Even if this is not done on purpose, I think this is clever, as it allows the user to imagine themselves there. As these stats show, Twitter adoption in Australia has been slow and has not seen the same kind of growth that Facebook & Instagram has in recent years. Why would people globally care about tours in Melbourne, or suggest property management services in the area? Another clever part of having this separate is that once again it keeps from distracting the engagement in the Explore tips & tricks section. Embrace the power of content marketing. Its showing that Airbnb hosts have a thriving community of hosts who want to connect and share their positive experiences. Available for free on the Airbnb website, more than 200,000 were ordered within three days of the campaigns launch. However, there are many businesses who never seem to nail it. This ramble has probably given away the fact that Im a huge fan of Airbnb and have used it frequently, but this just goes to show the power of differentiation. This trust isnt so much between the user and Airbnb, its trust amongst hosts and guests. You can see why Airbnb purposely placed Facebook & Whatsapp icons next to the short link. A platform business model can be defined as a business model that focuses on helping to facilitate interactions across a large number of participants[2] In case of Airbnb, participants are host who offer their properties or organize experiences for guests and travellers who use their services.
airbnb differentiation strategy
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