So much so that it is a commonly-used verb – you’ll commonly hear holiday-goers responding on their stay, “We Airbnb-ed in Paris”. Getting a brand to rise to that kind of infamy, especially as it’s not a legacy brand such as Coca-cola or Levis, requires innovation and marketing. 

Exploring how Airbnb got to where it is today gives plenty of insight for a company looking to head in the same direction – up.

In 2014, Airbnb’s revenue was $0.4 billion; in 2019, that number had risen to $4.7 billion. Even during the pandemic, where most people were under governmental orders to restrict their movement, Airbnb’s revenue only fell to $3.4 billion.  

Looking to the massive surge in Airbnb users, the number in 2012 lay at 6 million. By 2018, that number became 150 million. 

Experiential marketing 

Airbnb rose to fame right when experiential marketing was becoming a really effective method of securing loyal customers. Before Airbnb, travel had already become the norm for most people in the western world. The number of long weekend flights away had risen. However, there was also the element of people have seen everything before. There isn’t much that sets most hotels apart. 

With Airbnb, however, lies a platform where ordinary people can let you into their corner of paradise. Some even offer to do local tours or break bread with their visitors. It’s the sense of getting off the beaten track and into an old farmhouse cottage, a geodesic dome or a boutique townhouse that oozes personality. 

All of this is bang in the centre of what people want now – experiences. 76% of consumers prefer to spend on experiences than on material items. On top of that, consumers identify “inspiration and meaning” as the most sought-after quality in brands, a 200 per cent increase from 2012 for this particular set of attributes. 

So perhaps it’s worth asking how your business can provide that experiential element – even if you’re selling products. Is there a way to give a more meaningful brand-customer interaction? Find untold secrets to brand awareness in this article.

Investment in video content

In 2019 Airbnb announced a video strategy that simply lets branding and entertainment drive profits. 

“The more we put content out there, the more you’re going to bring people to the platform,” says Chris Lehane, Airbnb’s senior vice president of global policy and communications, in the Reuters interview. 

Airbnb has partnered with Apple’s upcoming streaming service for their docuseries “Home,” which features unique homes around the world and the stories of the homeowners. Although the show’s premise isn’t new to viewers, viewers can book these locations through Airbnb.

Showcasing the most exciting properties reminds people why Airbnb is such an enticing marketplace. Video content can be a subtle way of inspiring and entertaining an audience rather than the obvious hard-sell. Using unconventional marketing campaigns helps to set Airbnb apart from the hotel industry and online travel agencies.

Previously Airbnb gambled with launching its own magazine. However print has been dwindling for years now, and there isn’t much interest in new magazines hitting the shelves. Digital, and video in particular, has been a much more effective strategy serving viewers their dream getaways – especially during a pandemic. 

Email Marketing

Airbnb saw this as a real opportunity to build a community among users and ran with it. Their emails are highly personalised, and this is largely down to the fact that they have regional teams on the ground rather than one marketing campaign for all of their users. 

Airbnb’s marketing campaigns, especially their referral campaigns, are highly successful. In the referrals, customers will receive an email offering a discount for both themselves and a new customer should they sign up using your link. A quick copy and paste of the link into Whatsapp, or just pressing the “share to Facebook” link makes for quick work and easy to share discounts for both parties. Paypal had a similar offer when they started and was the source of their surge in signups. It certainly worked for both these businesses.

Cross-selling

The most successful companies know how to showcase what a customer wants. When going on holidays, tourists will enjoy excursions, activities and experiences. Airbnb knew this and so set up Airbnb experiences – an easy to find tab on the Airbnb homepage.

Airbnb experiences are also shared on the page just before checkout. This simplifies the person’s holiday planning, making it more of an all-in-one process. Using data analytics to their advantages to provide a personalised booking process makes customers come back.

How can your company simplify life for your customers and cross-sell to increase their likelihood of becoming loyal customers? 

Influencer marketing 

You may not be aware that Airbnb invests in influencer marketing. That’s because of how subtle and enticing this content appears on the social media user’s feeds. Their most common method is to collaborate with celebrities who share snap pics of their latest Airbnb stay and post to their socials. Simple but effective and has boosted its impressive growth over the years. It is a great way to find your target market – influencers across Instagram and Facebook have their own niche, and finding one that fits your own target market gives you a direct line to them. Site traffic to Airbnb website lies at 91 million in January 2020– influencer marketing is a leading driver of these impressive stats.

Airbnb’s success is directly related to their deep and adaptive understanding of what their customers want. They understand that needs and desires change and are willing to try unconventional forms of marketing for a fresh and welcome approach to brand awareness.

Finding that nuanced approach takes experience and talent to deliver. We’re a small team here at Videoworks London with a knack for storytelling and creating video content that connects people to your brand. If you’d like to get started with a video production project that boosts your brand’s awareness, you can get in touch here.

The post The Gems of Airbnb’s Marketing Strategy appeared first on Video Production London - VideoWorks.

It doesn’t matter how long you spend on post through social channels or cranking up on your ad spend. Not unless your brand stands out from the crowd. Otherwise, your brand isn’t going to reach its potential.

Brand awareness is one of the main pillars of building a successful business; that includes B2B as well as consumer-facing brands. Have a think about it; when you go to buy a car, you’re likely to be much slower to opt for the obscure brand that you’ve never heard of before.

That said, if you’d seen some crisp, professional ads displaying this car as the newest in motor performance and you’ve consistently seen trustworthy reviews, then you’re far more likely to at least be open to learning more about this car brand. The same can be said for any industry. Consumers are smart. They’re reluctant to invest their money into unknown products and services. Brand awareness is where you can build real momentum and start standing out from your competitors.

Top methods to build brand awareness

1. Referral strategy

Referral marketing is an incredible option because you have the opportunity to generate brand awareness and acquire new customers at the same time. There’s not a whole pile of other methods that have this capability.

Also, you’re working with your loyal customers. Those that trust and admire your business are the ones that will be spreading the word to their friends, family and perhaps their social media followers.

AirBnb is an excellent example of what can happen when a business focuses on its referral programmes. They committed to making the referral programme as simple as possible for customers to partake. This included the ability to share across multiple channels, so whether it was via a link, Facebook or email – people would still find it easy and quick to spread the word.

AirBnb also found a difference when A/B email testing with one crucial element. Each invite needed to appear as a gift, not a promotion. And that applies to a lot of referral marketing. Making it sound inviting rather than pushy, will make people a lot more open and excited about joining in on the programme.

Taru Bhargava, author at AppVirality, describes just why this person-to-person referral experience is so effective:

“We tend to follow the footsteps of those whom we value. Sometimes these actions imitate ‘the monkey see and monkey do’ approach. According to a Nielsen report, 84% of people go by recommendations from friend and family. If we observe it carefully, word-of-mouth via mobile app referral follows the same trend. In Airbnb’s case, it was further elevated by a personalized landing page, when a user installed an app via a referral link.”

2. Create a brand awareness campaign

It’s not going to shock any of you reading this that campaigns these days primarily involve video.

Here are the three reasons that hold businesses back from creating video campaigns:

• 66% of marketers don’t make videos because they think it’s too time-consuming.
• 41% of marketers don’t make videos because they think it’s too complicated.
• 37% of marketers don’t make videos because they think it’s too expensive.

If this is what’s holding your brand back, then it’s time to open to the advances in technology.

A good smartphone can create videos. The quality won’t be cinematic, but it will still effectively get your message across.

Another key to creating a campaign within budget is organisation. If your team has decided that the video quality needs to be impressive, then a top-quality video production crew can create multiple campaigns in a batch. This makes each campaign more cost-effective and saves time. It’s also great for a business to have content ready to roll out in advance. Having professionals in the creative process will provide refinement in defining and connecting with your target audience. It also gives you the expertise to make your brand memorable within these videos.

There are many formats to play around with, here are just a few:

• Animation videos
• Brand introduction video
• Event videos
• Explainer videos
• Interview video
• Testimonial videos
• Tutorials/How to videos
• User-generated content
• Vlog

This is just a taster, yet it still gives plenty of scope on different angles that enliven your business and allow prospective customers to see into what makes your brand worthy of their attention.

3. Epic storytelling

No matter what format or platform you choose for your content, even the simplest photo tells a story, has a mood, conveys meaning. According to research by Headstream, if people love a brand story, 55% are more likely to buy the product in future, 44% will share the story, and 15% will buy the product immediately.

A memorable brand tells wonderful stories that connect with the audience, invokes emotions, and sparks interest. Creating stories that make your brand unforgettable, and you’ll win the interest of your audience.

4. Retargeting Campaigns

Retargeting campaigns fosters brand awareness so effectively. This strategy reminds your website visitors of your products and services after they leave your website without buying. After visiting specific pages, it allows you to retarget them and show your visitors relevant visual or text ads when they visit other websites. These are your audience segment that have a high potential of becoming customers. They’ve browsed your website but perhaps need time to consider the purchase. Drawing from the infamous rule of seven, it takes an average of seven interactions with your brand before a purchase will take place.

Retargeting enables your brand to focus on perspectives that are most likely to become customers. This refinement boosts brand awareness and also offers personalisation in the content that you use to interact with this segment. They will see your content across various websites and social channels that they use. People will have a conception that your brand is successful and reliable as they’ll become familiar with your branding and learning more about your business ad by ad.

Brand awareness isn’t rocket science. If you follow these steps and ensure that your content is both high-quality, engaging and has a strong storytelling core– then you’ll see tangible evidence of growth in brand awareness. If you’re looking for a professional team of storytelling content creators, you can get in touch with us here at Videoworks.

The post The Untold Secrets to Building Brand Awareness in 2021 appeared first on Video Production London - VideoWorks.