The Secret I Learned at New Media Summit

This past Thursday and Friday, I went to New Media Summit organized by Matt McGarry and his team, with the main goal of learning how to make my newsletter Unique Stays better and to meet new people.

I got so much more than that.

There were many awesome speakers and so many interesting attendees building something unique, often very niche. People came from various cities, flew in from across the country, and even from abroad.

Today I want to share one lesson I took away that I believe applies to vacation rentals as well as practically any business.

The presentation was by Matt Paulson, founder and CEO of MarketBeat, a financial media company with millions of subscribers.

Impressive person. Impressive company. I took notes.

One of the first things he mentioned was this: when are newsletter subscribers most engaged? The answer is when they sign up.

When You Subscribe, You Get Free Access To Weekly Deals, News, And My Favorite Finds.

Let’s apply this quickly to vacation rentals. In our case, it is when someone books the property, the moment they make the decision to reserve their stay.

It is essential to capture that opportunity.

On the newsletter side, it means effectively using thank you pages and a welcome email sequence to provide valuable affiliate offers that add value to the reader and bring the creator an additional source of revenue.

On the vacation rental side, that could look like add ons included right on the checkout page that enhance the guest experience and bump up your ADR by $20, $50, even $100. Think about early check in fees, experience packages, and even physical products like merch.

You can partner with local businesses and provide deals to your renters, kayaking with one company or a boat tour with another.

How many times have you been asked about the best place to eat or where to find entertainment?

Those are all your customers’ pain points.

If you are collecting guest emails with tools like StayFi and using their splash page, each new subscriber can be redirected to a thank you page with affiliate offers from local vendors.

You can test different affiliates, double down on the winners, and replace the ones that do not perform.

Now what if you amplify this experience even further?

Let’s say you have three main customer profiles: couples, families with kids, and groups celebrating a bachelorette party.

What if you create a tailored itinerary for each, outlining the perfect day with recommended places, businesses, and activities?

You will provide additional value for your guests and also increase the conversion rate of your affiliate offers. And that is just the affiliate relationship you can maximize outside of your rental.

Now think about what happens when the guest is staying at your property.

We have been asked many times about the pillows we use, the mattress brand, and other items. That is an affiliate opportunity amplified. Someone staying in your rental can experience the product firsthand, see if it fits their needs, and move much closer to the decision to buy.

We often focus on the customer journey, how to make the guest experience amazing from discovery to booking, to check in, to stay, and then check out and post stay engagement.

But how often do we focus on the revenue funnel?

On each touchpoint that maximizes revenue without taking away from the experience, but instead enhancing it?

I have a lot to think about here for both my newsletter and vacation rental business. I hope this helps you spot some opportunities as well.

That's all for today.

Till next week, dear readers.