How To Attract New Owners To Your Vacation Rental Management Company

Regardless of the size of your company, getting new owners is a challenge. With the larger OTAs claiming they can do what we do, it’s getting tougher to convince owners that doing it themselves is more than posting a listing and waiting for guests of customers to arrive on their doorstep.

If property owners are going to pay commission to a third party, they need to feel confident they have chosen the right one, and having a single page on a website telling them the bare bones of what makes you the one, just isn’t enough anymore.

If you can answer all their questions before they have to ask them, it shows you are on the ball and understand their needs.

You can do this by creating content on your website, and having a strong educational component to the information you send to new leads. However, attracting new owners to you in the first place is a challenge.

You need to know what these owners are looking for and know where they are asking their questions. Once you’ve done that research, then provide them an incentive to give you their email address in return for some valuable information.

That incentive can come by way of lead magnet creation – the free information you can offer in exchange for an email address at first, then as a follow-up with delivery of helpful articles and checklists.

In this way, you can begin a relationship with those owners who have unanswered questions and show them you are the one that can help them make a success of their business.

So, what does a lead magnet look like?

You have probably been party to an enticement to leave your email address in return for an ebook, a white paper, a checklist or a video course or similar at some time in the past. I sure have.

Some of those were absolutely not worth parting with my personal details, and I went immediately to unsubscribe. On the other hand, over the years, I’ve downloaded some life-changing information from a few blogs and websites where I’ve remained a loyal subscriber and continued to benefit from additional valuable material.

The best Lead Magnets do more than inform…

“They actually change the state and mindset of your prospects so they’re pre-framed to engage in future business with your company”  digitalmarketer.com

What makes a great lead magnet for attracting new vacation rental owners
There’s been a lot of research to establish what people will download and what they’ll pass on, and there’s a general consensus on a few tactics. To achieve good results your irresistible incentive must:

Offer good value
When someone offers up their personal information they need to get something in exchange that is worthwhile and will give them the information they could not get easily elsewhere. It should show you have knowledge in an area that will make a difference to their business.

Many new owners/investors say they don’t know where to start so a guide or blueprint that could get them off the ground would be a valuable offering, such as:

“Setting Up For Rental – Your 20 Point Checklist”

Solve a problem or answer a pressing question
Knowing what questions your prospective owners have gives you a reservoir of lead magnet ideas.

For example, the question, ‘Should I accept pets?’ could give rise to a report titled: “10 Reasons to Be Pet-Friendly”

Or, to resolve that all-consuming question about damage –‘Will they trash my place’ – you could answer with: “How to Guest-Proof Your Home – Simple Methods to Avoid Accidental Damage”

Be easy to consume
One of the primary criteria for a successful lead magnet is that it’s easy and quick to consume. A 100-page ebook may feel to you like it’s fabulous value, and you could spend hours creating it, however, a 2-page checklist on the essential items for a kitchen that could be read in a few minutes could have greater perceived value.

Be specific
It’s easy to get off track when putting together a piece. You want to share so much information that it ends up getting too wordy, or vague, and doesn’t quite do the job.

It’s better to create a whole series of lead magnets, each on a different topic that one longer one that you think covers everything.

Don’t forget you may want to send one out to one prospect and a different one to another so having a collection to choose from is better than trying to cover off all questions in one place. Let each lead magnet deal with one specific pain point.

Look professional and attractive
No-one will be interested in downloading a plain Word document or a hastily put-together PDF. Everything…yes, everything that you send to a prospective owner should demonstrate your professionalism. That means using consistent branding – logo/ colors/layout etc.

Unless you are a graphic designer, do not do this yourself. Either find a local person who specializes in this sort of work and can do the jobs economically and quickly, or go to www.fiverr.com and type in ‘Lead Magnet” in the Search Box. You may not get the right one first time, but with a little perseverance, you may find the perfect person to help create amazing and attractive materials.

It wouldn’t be fair to do a post on lead magnets without offering one so go ahead and download our [thrive_2step id='11515′]8 Lead Magnets to Attract New Owners[/thrive_2step], and get started.