Try not to be too excited about constructing your vacation rental inbound marketing campaign. That’s a mouth full, isn’t it? Before you get ahead of yourself, I wanted to take a minute and discuss personas with you. If you don’t have this lined up correctly, you could be wasting a whole lot of time! Nobody wants to do that.

Now all property managers/owners have at least two personas: The owners of the properties you manage and the guests that rent them. If you want to get really good at creating a fantastic inbound marketing campaign you drill those personas into a “niche” or as I like to call them, “personalities”. Think about it. Are all your guests the same? Do they all come and stay at your properties for the same reason? Are the guests demographics the same? I am willing to bet the answer is no.

Is the word “persona” puzzling to you? No worries, it’s not that complex. A Persona is basically a short description about who your customer is. The Captevrix team goes so far as to make up a story about them. You’d be amazed about how much easier this makes the inbound marketing journey.

So, why create these personas? It keeps you focused on the end goal, your customer. You are busy doing a lot of things and you need all the help you can get to stay focused. Personas help you do just that. If you are a marketing professional then you know the challenges of focusing are all too real…SQUIRREL!

After you create your personas, you will then decide what kind of offer you want to create. Knowing and understanding that persona like your best friend is crucial. Now of course you know I am going to give an example, READY?

Let’s start with your guest persona. Now because I know you want to create the best vacation rental inbound marketing campaign ever, we are going to drill that persona down. After all, your guests are not zombies; therefore, they are not all alike.

• Step 1- We are targeting the guests.
• Step 2- Which guests?
• Step 3 – Families.

I chose an easy one for you, because who doesn’t have families coming to their properties, right?

Let’s say your property is on Anastasia Island in relaxing Florida, aka St. Augustine Beach. Many families of all sorts like to come to St. Augustine and relax at the less crowded beaches. Just a simple fact in case you are looking to visit us any time soon.

First step in creating our family guest persona – give them a name. Who normally makes the reservations? Our clients tell us, the moms do. No need for fancy studies, when our clients give us all the info we need to know, right? So let’s name our mom Martha. Now let’s pretend I ask you to tell me a little about Martha – questions like:

• How old is Martha?
• What does Martha do for a living or is she a stay-at-home mom?
• What’s Martha’s income?
• How many kids does Martha have?
• What are their ages?
• Is Martha married?
• What does Martha like to do in her free time?
• What vacation “worries” does Martha have?
• What does Martha look for in a vacation?

Basically you need to get into Martha’s head. Think of the compliments and the complaints you have had over your vacation rental career from guests like Martha. As with all business, we have to address the good, bad and the ugly.

As you think of the answers to these questions and develop more questions and answers, think about this: If Martha had a “worry” and let’s say, her “worry” is evening noise because she has two small children that will need a good night’s sleep after being at the beach all day, what would be your response to her? Your answer could simply be, “No problem Martha. At ABC Vacation Rentals we have properties that are a block away from the main strip. It’s an easy 5 minute walk or bike ride to get your toes in the sand along a road that has light, slow traffic. There is also a sidewalk for your safety. These properties are in well established neighborhoods with quiet low-key neighbors; therefore, evening noise will not be an issue.” The “worries” and the “sought-afters” have to be addressed.

Why, you might ask? This helps you come up with ideas of what people want from you in your offers.

Now you have come up questions and answers for your personas, now tell us a short story about Martha. Have some fun with it! Once you are done, you can move onto your next persona. Think of all the various guests and reasons why they visit you. Everything from executive stays to weddings. Depending on your property and location, you could end up with five or more personas.