They may not own any of them or have significant control over what is said on the pages, but they can choose to lay them out in a way this is most likely to lead to a booking. Would be exceptional if Airbnb are basing these recommendations based on average cost per night of previous bookings or the booking value of similar users. And some other locations theyve showcased as well include: Similarly, they also send these destination emails based on types of destinations, instead of the location-specific examples above. I also obtained a few values for each search term like average CPC, estimated traffic and average position: You can view the sheet here, as well as the raw keyword data if youre interested in doing your own analysis. Thats a pretty solid looking page structure in my opinion. The home owner would then spread the word about this new booking platform. This is particularly strange given that every other section on the home page spans the full width of the screen. "Airbnb was designed for when we were much smaller," Chesky said. Top Contributors are consistent inside the 3 core content pillar pages, which we will go into detail further below. And considering they have over 6 million listings worldwide, its pretty safe to say that the limit is the sky for their keyword potential. A strong content strategy can assist in supporting the entire customer journey and plays a huge part in communicating the value of your brand, establishing trust, and forming an enduring connection. Airbnb created a whole new kind of vacation just by providing spaces other than hotels to stay. Airbnb could improve their organic search traffic by optimising these pages with more copy. The image instantly grabs your attention. I dont think this works for all posts though. In website talk, the breadcrumb structure of a website does the same thing it allows Googles spiders to find their way back to the most important page, whether that be the homepage, the category page of the product being viewed (eCommerce), or another primary page. The primary contributing factor appears to have been through keyword ranking growth, which as anyone who has followed our other case studies will know can be influenced by a number of other activities, such as onsite optimisation, backlink profile, and content marketing strategies. Be it data from our wish lists, search trends, seasonality, there is a component of every email that is rooted within data. By creating different and distinct sections, they are able to keep the conversations relevant to the user, which should improve the experience for everyone involved. If its not already clear, Airbnb are using an extensive library of headlines, and this is because most of their ads are tailored specifically to travel destinations. *Numbers are accurate at the time of writing. The primary reason is that it comes down to the decision-making process. And the top performing organic keywords are. In a differentiation strategy Airbnb Model can seek to be unique in its industry by providing a value proposition that is cherished by buyers. Moreover, Airbnb is exploring machine learning algorithms and AI to build a deeper understanding of images, improve reviews using natural language processing (NLP) and support more advanced search using NLP. To succeed at an international scale, its founders created an entire business model and rental infrastructure that competes with traditional hotel chains. [1] Gmelich, K. (2019) Airbnb Says It Made a Profit Again in 2018 Bloomberg, Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-15/airbnb-says-it-made-a-profit-again-in-2018-as-ipo-looms-large, [2] Platform Business Model explainedin under 100 words (2019) Deloitte, Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/ch/en/pages/innovation/articles/platform-business-model-explained.html, [3] About US (2019) Airbnb, Available at: https://press.airbnb.com/about-us/, Interpretivism (interpretivist) Research Philosophy, Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning (STP), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-15/airbnb-says-it-made-a-profit-again-in-2018-as-ipo-looms-large, https://www2.deloitte.com/ch/en/pages/innovation/articles/platform-business-model-explained.html. Why would the user want to send this in the first place? I thought it was great back then, it got straight to the point and helped me get to where I needed to go while still looking aesthetically pleasing, but its evolved a lot since then. Following a platform business model. With a strong digital marketing background and broad business experience, hes perfectly suited to head up Web Profits marketing initiatives as Head of Growth. READ/DOWNLOAD@] Formal Verification: An Essential, Knowledge Management Strategies A Multi Case Study Design, 5 lessons I learned as a design student that led to success, The Growing Importance of UX in Healthcare. I love free money! People Are 4x More Likely to Buy When Recommended By a Friend Nielsen. Last year, Forbes estimated the business to be worth $31bn (23bn). They assist Googles algorithm with determining your sites authority, credibility and relevance. It helps a customer to have a personalized experience. For existing hosts and prospects, Airbnb host a beautifully-designed and well-planned UX host community portal called the Community Centre. Airbnbs timeline is varied in terms of post content and types. Airbnb have built a hugely successful business off the back of understanding what their customers want/need, and then providing products that match them. Local customs dictated a more direct invite, with participants preferring a more personal overture from an official Airbnb representative before joining the activities. They utilise imagery well (especially with user generated content), and share articles regularly, but could be doing more on video given how much Facebook prioritises it in their algorithm. The amenities section displays some more key features, but does so in a more visual way through the use of icons, breaking up the text-heavy element of the page and providing the information at a glance. According to our headline analysis, key messaging for guests includes: For branded search terms, such as Airbnb Sydney CBD, Airbnb put greater emphasis on the appeal of staying with a local host: Whereas for competitive non-branded terms like Perth accommodation or Brisbane accommodation apartments, Airbnb are more inclined to showcase their starting price or one of their points of difference like their cancellation period. As you would expect for a site like Airbnb, the majority of their backlinks have been achieved through travel-related content, such as articles on a certain destination, links from travel-related companies, and links in media and forums. So what do the messages look like when you share with friends? Airbnb rely heavily on their brand presence to drive organic traffic and could do significantly better when ranking for accommodation-based keywords. They dont all have 5 star ratings, and the number of ratings they have is quite varied. No, it seems as if they dont get involved at all. Curated like a blog feed of suburbs within a chosen city, Neighbourhoods is a more visual version of an old fashioned street directory. There are few industries bigger than travel, and its hard to find other industries that provide such a huge opportunity in relation to organic search. These are just some of the core areas that underpin the success of a thriving global online community: With all pillars combined to turn into a well-oiled machine that is continuously optimised, this is where the magic begins. What Should I Do If My Guests Arrive Late? As previously stated, Airbnb understand the importance of maintaining a healthy supply of properties. Its their hosts which are their key customers; if their hosts succeed then they succeed. The plan provides an analysis and evaluation of Airbnb by reviewing the company's strategic management, profitability and market competitiveness. Jason began his career at Webprofits as an intern and six years later he is now one of our leading social media specialists, managing a number of our long-standing Australian Fluid clients. A lot of the invitation mechanism is the same above, just done in a different experience with mobile considerations. Needless to say, Im not impressed so far. In fact, estimated traffic year on year from February 2018 to February 2019 is down. Another benefit is that there is no perceived substitute considering that the organisation focuses on the quality and nature of the service (Arens & Hamilton, 2018). What is Airbnb generic strategy? Using your company's unique story as a distinctive feature helps . Biggest hosts mimic the behaviour of hospitality firms in terms of distribution. Besides sophisticated digital campaigns, Airbnb has contributed to traditional, even old fashioned, marketing channels in unique and highly aesthetic ways. Without a doubt, this is one of the big issues data-centric companies are battling on their quest to maximising return on marketing investment while maintaining the trust of their most valued customers particularly in light of growing concerns regarding what data is being collected by organisations and how this information is being used. Level 28 161 Castlereagh Street Sydney NSW 2000, Level 10 1 George Street Singapore 049145, 730 Arizona Avenue Santa Monica California 90401 USA, When aligned with a companys ideals, marketing can make a powerful statement, and in the best instances, be a force for change in the world. While we focused on how it was done via email invitation, its a very similar process when sharing the link directly with friends. But that wont be enough, theyll need a comprehensive backlink strategy to appear authoritative and rank for the relevant keywords. 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. 6,430 Referring Domains of note, while more links are likely to have been built to the site since its inception, there will always be lost links as time passes due to pages being removed from this party websites, listings being removed the Airbnb site and no redirect being put in place, and whole websites being shut down. All of the personalised options are based in Los Angeles, the location of my last booking (and searches) with Airbnb. Incentive I instantly see the value that I will receive if I take an action by accepting the invitation. I see social media advertising, particularly Facebook Ads, playing a major role in this strategy and being one of the best channels for Airbnb to: These two stages of the Host journey feature in what Airbnb refers to as the List Your Space (LYS) flow: Airbnbs concept of multi-touch attribution for a hypothetical user journey. Well now they are more widespread, with two in particular (Bali and Phuket) as common places for Australians to travel to. Now, this is an ok result, but thats less than 1% of their overall Followers engaging here, and I think that alone could definitely be improved upon. They just considered it rude to start making a terrarium without an invitation. Make sure to plan carefully for the best results. As with other sections, they provide guidelines for the host and let them fill in the rest. Airbnb uses differentiation strategy by making a new business model and providing the service which differentiates them from competitors. The short answer is yes, but heres why. Based on Airbnbs amount of branded anchor text, they are in the safe zone, but should be conscious of the percentage skew when progressing with their backlick strategy in the future. Through feedback from attendees, they learned that far from not appreciating the commitment to beautifying their spaces with terrariums, they actually wanted to participate. In a country like Australia thats not such a big deal, as Twitter usage is relatively low, but they could definitely be doing more. The non personalised options have a far bigger range when it comes to price. Its a simple call to action (CTA) header, and it outlines exactly what the website is set out to do: Book unique homes and experiences. And then down the bottom, I see very easy instructions with simple steps of how the process works. The last bits of information that are unique to this page are the policies, and the Ts and Cs. For example, when they share an image separately instead of using the Link Preview option, I see this as counterproductive to the objective at hand, which is to drive people to a website, and Link Previews have been created by Facebook to provide Page owners with the easiest, most conversion-focused way of doing this. This seems as good a place as any for it on the page. 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 . Whether your focus is B2B or B2C, tackling this trend by placing emphasis on creating a more seamless and personalised offering will be a vehicle for growing sales and boosting margins. Marketing Strategy of Airbnb analyses the brand with the marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). I get directed to a page where a modal instantly pops-up. Thanks! The strange thing is, Im on the Australian domain so you would assume they at least have it personalised there. The search box is a deeplink that takes me directly to the associated search results for Santa Monica 9-12th April. Innovation is at the core of how we operate at Webprofits, always looking for a smarter + better way of helping our clients drive record-breaking growth through digital marketing. Listings make up a big chunk of Airbnbs Instagram content, and are clearly meant to evoke a sense of wanderlust in all those who stumble upon them. It is clear that Airbnb is becoming one of the most popular online-booking.. Any ideas, any theories? The majority of keywords ranking on page 1 for the Airbnb website are branded, with smaller volume locations ranking for generic [location] accommodation terms. Theres often value in understating things, but this isnt one of those moments. How does it help them acquire new users & retain existing travellers? 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? The Airbnb homepage is currently receiving 57.82% of all traffic to the website, with it ranking for 3,929 keywords. Why go through such trouble if not for SEO? There were several terrarium-making stations open for participants to come up and try. Airbnb differentiated its brand by offering an authentic local experience, an affordable price. Whats even more impressive with even more incentive to share? Although the event was not quite as successful as they hoped, the company did gain a valuable insight. Guidelines and tips. As is the case with most two-sided marketplaces, without supply the entire thing falls apart. We designed Airbnb to have 100 homes in a city. Targeting the consideration phase of the customer journey, the stories leave readers daydreaming about how their life could be changed from their next Airbnb. Facebook is 1 of 3 social media platforms that Airbnb is currently most active on. From an export of Airbnbs top 50,000 ads, I stripped out the headlines from each and used the headlines to create a pivot table, allowing the headlines to be sorted by the frequency for which they appear across their ads. One strength of a differentiation strategy is that it builds on the unique qualities in a product. Its certainly now motivated me to help refer a host. I think this section really goes to show their commitment to providing the user with relevant information as much as possible. Cultivating community and maintaining trust among stakeholders is one of the solid bases of Airbnb competitive advantage. A firm needs to invest in market research, research and development or product development, and manufacturing or production processes to create highly differentiated products. Community discussion forums/discussion portals, Tips can be shared easily from host to host, Featured posts which read like blog posts with relevant hosting content, Gamification of system top contributors get points for every comment they give + like they get small leaderboard of contributors, The Airbnb admins dont post often nor reply to other peoples posts regularly an opportunity to get more discussions trending. You often see this feature on many blogs around the web, but what many blogs dont get right is keeping a focus on tags and keeping the amount recent conversations limited. By reaching out beyond the LGBTQI+ community, Airbnb helped to create a dialogue that showed that Australians supported marriage equality by a wide margin. The first two boxes the navigation to specific products and the upsell to Airbnb Plus are the two things that impressed me least from the non-personalised home page, and Im surprised to see them front and centre here when I am signed in. As to how people are arriving at this section of the site, this is likely through organic search, email traffic, and social promotion. Its simple referral marketing is less costly, and has a higher quality + quantity of leads. For Airbnb, the community centre serves a purpose for hosts, both existing and prospects, to explore what its like being a host on Airbnb. 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. The main goal of implementing a differentiation strategy is to increase competitive advantage. Jordie van Rijn, Head of Email Marketing Airbnb. So what happens when you share via Facebook or Whatsapp? How do you execute a good referral strategy into your business so that customers start doing the work for you? Netflix has exclusive content, Airbnb has exclusive homes, and Cameo offers access to a su When it comes to the sharing mechanism under Share your love of travel, the first thing you see straight away is the description under the title. So, what better way to advertise the product than those who have experienced the platform? 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. If I had one criticism here, though, its that they could show more personality in these ads. Lets take a look. 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. So, what have Airbnb done to construct and generate one of the best communities in the world? Instead, they provide the mobile-friendly option of SMS (and, of course, Facebook and Whatsapp) to make it a seamless experience. The model was disruptive when it hit the market and created an ongoing ripple in the travel and hospitality industry. I now know what to get mum for her 52nd birthday . In these two views, you see Pending based on the invites sent out and Available with the Credit and coupons available to use. The booking form stands out the most, and with good reason its the quickest way for them to get information about what the user is looking for, in order to personalise their experience. It could have been something that ruined the companys reputation and destroyed their business, but they reacted strongly and turned it into a strength. It sure was a long time ago. Although they are sharing some video content, Ive noticed that this is usually content which isnt localisedand, when switching regions on the Facebook Page, you can see that theyre sharing much of the same video content across different countries. Its clear what Airbnb want the users attention to focus on. 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. Our Airbnb 2022 predictions: The "Live Anywhere" theme has crept up into Airbnb's announcements since 2020. Everything from the home page to specific pages, there are numerous core UX elements to illustrate an engaging community of hosts and desired actions. 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). However, they are easily imitable and do not offer strong differentiation for Airbnb in the long term. 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