A Powerful & Customizable Vacation Rental Marketing Strategy (FREE)

A comprehensive vacation rental marketing strategy, covering the entire sales funnel and all digital marketing channels. Designed to you get more traffic and customers for your vacation rental business.
Prepared by: Eduardo Yi
Created on: March 5, 2025
Your Strategy
Primary Item (H2)
Primary Item (H2)

The Sales Funnel

The sales funnel is a visual way to understand the journey your customers take, from first discovering your business to eventually making a purchase. Imagine it like a funnel shape: at the top, many people might learn about your business, but fewer move down to become actual buyers.

Optimizing your entire sales funnel, you're able to increase the number of people who move smoothly from interested browsers to loyal, paying customers.

It helps ensure every part of your business—from your website to your follow-up emails—is designed to guide people toward buying. The clearer this pathway, the easier it is to boost your sales and grow your business.

The marketing plan below includes dozens of marketing ideas and tactics to optimize your entire sales funnel.

Your Target Personas

A target persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer, created by researching and understanding the behaviors, needs, and preferences of people most likely to buy your products or services.

Think of it as drawing a detailed portrait of your best customer, including details like their age, interests, job, daily habits, and the challenges they face.

By visualizing this customer, you're better able to understand what motivates them, how to communicate effectively, and how to reach them through your marketing efforts.

Rather than trying to appeal to everyone—which can lead to wasted resources and ineffective marketing—you can specifically tailor your messages to resonate deeply with the people most likely to become loyal customers.
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Your Target Persona #1: Traveling Trudy
Age: 34 | Education: Bachelor's in Marketing | Occupation: Marketing Coordinator at a travel agency
"I'm often overwhelmed by countless options and fear that my accommodation won't meet my expectations or those of my friends. I want something special without feeling stressed about bookings."
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Visible Goals
These are the goals your target persona would tell you about.
Find unique lodging for my next vacation
Book accommodations with amenities for comfort
Get personalized local recommendations
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True Goals
These are the real things they want to achieve.
"I want to make lasting memories with friends during our trips"
"If I find the perfect place, I can relax and explore more"
"I need to feel confident that my choice will wow everyone in my group"
🙅‍♂️
Purchasing Objections
These are your target persona's doubts about your product.
"I'm worried that photos online might not reflect the actual property"
"I don’t want to deal with hidden fees or unexpected charges"
"I’m unsure if the location is safe and close to attractions"
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Answer to Objections
These are your product's answers to your target persona's doubts.
We provide real guest reviews and virtual tours to ensure transparency
Our pricing is straightforward with no hidden costs; what you see is what you pay
You’ll receive safety information and local guides that highlight nearby attractions
✨
Transformation
In your target persona's own words, here's how your product has improved their life.
"Now, after finding the perfect rental, I can focus on enjoying my vacation stress-free. The reviews and support I received made planning smoother, and my friends couldn't stop talking about how ideal our stay was. It was truly a trip of a lifetime."
How to use this information: You should think about your target persona every time you're working on any marketing campaign. Your landing pages, blog posts, social posts, ads, videos, email copy, new products, should all be targeted at your target persona.
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Your Target Persona #2: Family-Friendly Frank
Age: 42 | Education: Master's in Engineering | Occupation: Senior Engineer at a tech company
"Planning family trips can be challenging because I need to make sure everyone will be comfortable without overspending. I often worry that we won't have the space or facilities to enjoy our time together."
🥅
Visible Goals
These are the goals your target persona would tell you about.
Book a spacious rental for my family vacation
Ensure amenities fit both adult and kid needs
Find a location with fun activities for kids
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True Goals
These are the real things they want to achieve.
"I want to create happy memories with my children during our family time"
"Finding a suitable place allows me to unwind from work stress"
"I need to feel that my family's comfort is a priority during our travels"
🙅‍♂️
Purchasing Objections
These are your target persona's doubts about your product.
"I doubt that the property will be as spacious as advertised"
"I'm concerned about booking cancellation policies"
"I’m apprehensive about the safety and suitability of the area for my kids"
👍
Answer to Objections
These are your product's answers to your target persona's doubts.
We offer detailed floor plans and videos to showcase the space you'll have
Flexible cancellation policies ensure peace of mind when booking
Families love our properties, and we provide tips on local amenities and family-friendly areas
✨
Transformation
In your target persona's own words, here's how your product has improved their life.
"With my family happily settled in a comfortable home away from home, I can finally enjoy our vacation without worrying. Every evening spent together in our spacious rental brought us closer, creating joyful memories that will last forever."
How to use this information: You should think about your target persona every time you're working on any marketing campaign. Your landing pages, blog posts, social posts, ads, videos, email copy, new products, should all be targeted at your target persona.

Top of the Funnel

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Your Goal at the Top of the Funnel: Awareness
At this stage of the funnel, your marketing persona isn't aware of your product and isn't even necessarily looking for a product. They just know they have a problem. Your objective at the top of the funnel is for them to be aware of your business by providing value (without trying to get them to buy right away.)
New visitors to website
Total views on Instagram
Brand awareness impressions
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Content Marketing
Content marketing is all about creating the assets you'll promote and optimize on through the different marketing channels (SEO, social media, email marketing, and ads.) At the top of the funnel, you're creating your mass-market content, aimed to attract as many people as possible.
Content ideas:
Blog post: 'Top 10 Unique Vacation Rentals to Experience This Year'
Video: 'What to Look for in a Family-Friendly Vacation Rental'
Infographic: 'The Ultimate Packing List for Your Vacation'
Podcast episode: 'How to Choose the Best Lodging for Group Trips'
Webinar: 'Tips for Stress-Free Vacation Planning'
Seasonal email campaign: 'Celebrate Summer with Special Rental Features'
What to measure:
Page views per content piece
Average time spent on content pages
Social shares of content
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SEO
With SEO, you can get your content to rank on the top of search engines for the keywords that your marketing persona is typing into Google. At the top of the funnel, the keywords you'll target will likely have a higher search volume and will be harder to rank for.
Keyword ideas:
Unique vacation rentals
Family-friendly lodging options
Vacation rental planning tips
Group travel lodging advice
Best vacation rentals for groups
Summer rental deals
Rental amenities checklist
Local attractions near vacation rentals
How to find spacious vacation rentals
Vacation destination guides
What to measure:
Organic traffic
Search engine rankings for target keywords
Click-through rate from organic search results
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Paid Advertising
When it comes to ads, targeting is probably the most important predictor of a winning campaign (closely followed by ad creatives.) At the top of the funnel, you'll be looking for brand new audiences who have never heard about your company — these are called "Prospecting" campaigns.
Target audience ideas:
[Prospecting] Facebook Ads: Users aged 30-45 interested in travel, family vacations, and outdoor activities.
[Prospecting] YouTube Ads: Viewers of travel vlogs and family vacation planning videos.
[Prospecting] Google Ads: Searchers for 'best vacation rentals for families' or 'stylish vacation homes.'
[Prospecting] Facebook Ads: Audience interested in local attractions and events for travel.
[Remarketing] Google Ads: Visitors to the website who did not book a property.
What to measure:
Cost per click (CPC)
Impressions of ad campaigns
Click-through rate (CTR)
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Social Media
The hardest part about doing social media as a brand/business, is that you should look to not behave like just another business on social media. Your social media content should be native to each channel in tone, format, and style. Because of its mass usage, social media is perfect for top of the funnel content.
Social media campaign ideas:
Instagram stories featuring beautiful images of properties with engaging captions.
Facebook live Q&A session discussing vacation planning tips.
User-generated content campaign: Encourage customers to share their experiences.
Twitter polls asking followers about their dream vacation rental features.
LinkedIn posts sharing industry insights about travel trends and lodging choices.
What to measure:
Engagement rate on posts
Follower growth rate
Website traffic from social media referrals
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Marketing Experiments
For whatever campaign you launch, there will always be room for improvement. It's a good idea to pick a few experiments ideas and launch split tests designed to improve your most important metrics.
Experiment ideas:
A/B test landing page headlines to improve visitor engagement.
Split test different images for blog post thumbnails.
Run a survey asking visitors what content they find most useful.
Test variations of CTAs on blog posts to see which drives more traffic.
Evaluate page load speed and its impact on bounce rates.
What to measure:
Bounce rate for landing pages
Conversion rate of visitors to leads
Average session duration

Middle of the Funnel

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Your Goal at the Middle of the Funnel: Consideration
At this stage of the funnel, your marketing persona is aware of your product but isn't ready to purchase. They are still doing research and comparing your solution against competitors. This is the time to build trust by giving them more information and provide answers to questions they might have. Your main objective at the middle of the funnel is to turn a stranger into a lead.
Return visitors to website
Number of leads generated
Engagement on educational content
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Content Marketing
The content you'll create for the middle of the funnel is typically called a "lead magnet." This is usually a free (or very cheap) piece of content that you'll offer to your marketing persona in exchange for their contact information (e.g. email address or phone number.)
Content ideas:
Webinar: 'How to Ensure You Choose the Perfect Family Vacation Rental'
E-book: 'The Ultimate Guide to Planning Stress-Free Group Vacations'
Blog post: '5 Questions to Ask When Booking a Vacation Rental'
Video testimonial series featuring past guests sharing their experiences.
Case study: 'How a Spacious Rental Transformed Family Holidays'
Interactive quiz: 'What Type of Vacation Rental Suits Your Family's Needs?'
What to measure:
Lead magnet downloads
Registration rates for webinars
Average time spent on educational content pages
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SEO
At the middle of the funnel, your marketing persona is likely specifically searching for information about the solutions to their problem (without looking into any specific product, yet.) These keywords are considered to have "higher intent" (aka, more valuable) than the ones at the top of the funnel, but they will have smaller search volumes.
Keyword ideas:
Choosing the right vacation rental
Vacation rental booking tips
Reviews of top family-friendly rentals
What to expect from vacation rentals
How to evaluate vacation property amenities
Safety tips for vacation rentals
Planning a group vacation checklist
Local attractions for family vacations
Customer reviews of vacation properties
Vacation rental booking transparency
What to measure:
Number of organic leads generated
Search engine traffic to landing pages
Average session duration from organic results
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Paid Advertising
At the middle of the funnel, your paid advertising campaigns will zoom into people who are already aware of your brand somehow, but haven't yet become leads. "Remarketing" campaigns are great for this (although, you might also sometimes experiment with prospecting campaigns that try to convert strangers to leads right away.)
Target audience ideas:
[Prospecting] Facebook Ads: Users aged 30-50 interested in family activities and travel planning.
[Remarketing] Google Ads: Users who previously browsed specific properties but did not book.
[Prospecting] YouTube Ads: Viewers of videos on vacation planning tips and family travel.
[Remarketing] Facebook Ads: People who engaged with educational content but did not take further action.
[Prospecting] Google Ads: Users searching 'how to find family-friendly accommodations' and 'best vacation rental features'.
What to measure:
Cost per lead (CPL)
Lead conversion rate from ad campaigns
Click-through rate (CTR) for remarketing ads
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Social Media
The social media campaigns at this stage of the funnel are designed to get your marketing persona off of the social media channel and into your own platform (e.g. your website), where you can actually capture their contact information.
Social media campaign ideas:
Facebook live discussion answering common questions about family vacation rentals.
Instagram posts sharing testimonials with families enjoying their stays.
Stories and highlights showcasing educational content like packing tips.
Twitter thread sharing tips for finding the best vacation rentals.
LinkedIn article on the importance of transparent pricing and amenities in luxury rentals.
What to measure:
Engagement on live videos and posts
Follower growth after educational content shares
Leads generated from social media interactions
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Email Marketing
Email marketing is an often overlooked channel that's critical for the middle of the funnel. Email is a very effective way to reach your marketing persona directly. The most common mistake businesses make is underutilizing email in their marketing (you should think beyond just email newsletters.)
Email marketing campaign ideas:
Welcome email campaign for new subscribers featuring our top resources.
Email series: '10 Essential Tips for Booking the Perfect Vacation Rental.'
Follow-up email after webinar inviting attendees to explore rental options.
Survey email asking for feedback on content to improve future offerings.
Monthly newsletter showcasing featured properties and guest stories.
What to measure:
Open rates for educational emails
Click-through rates for content links in emails
Conversion rates from follow-up emails
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Marketing Experiments
For this stage of the funnel, your experiments will be designed to maximize the number of leads you get from your campaigns.
Experiment ideas:
Run A/B tests on different headlines for email subject lines.
Test variations of copy on landing pages to see what converts better.
Evaluate the effectiveness of different calls-to-action on blog posts.
Monitor user engagement metrics on webinar follow-up emails.
A/B test the layout of testimonials on property pages to enhance trust.
What to measure:
Conversion rates on landing pages
Engagement metrics on email campaigns
Bounce rates on blog post pages

Bottom of the Funnel

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Your Goal at the Bottom of the Funnel: Purchase
At the bottom of the funnel, your marketing persona already knows your product and is ready to make a purchase decision. They already have all the information they need. Your objective at this stage is to address purchasing objections and convince them to take that last step and become a paying customer.
Conversion rate from leads to customers
Average order value (AOV)
Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
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Content Marketing
The content you'll create for the bottom of the funnel is purposely design to get your marketing persona to purchase. You don't have to be afraid to be sales-y or about talking about your product directly.
Content ideas:
Landing page: 'Why Our Vacation Rentals Are the Best Choice for Your Family' featuring testimonials and photos.
Video walkthrough of popular properties highlighting unique features and amenities.
Blog post: 'Navigating Booking Fees: What You Need to Know About Our Transparent Pricing' that outlines pricing details.
Email campaign: 'Last Minute Specials on Your Favorite Rentals' showcasing available properties with limited-time discounts.
Case study: 'How Traveling Trudy Found Her Perfect Stay' with detailed insights on the booking experience and outcomes.
Facebook Live: Q&A session addressing common concerns about safety, fees, and property conditions.
What to measure:
Conversion rate on landing pages
Engagement rates on video content
Click-through rates on promotional emails
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SEO
At the bottom of the funnel, your marketing persona will be searching Google for information about your product (for example: reviews, pricing, features, etc), which is why you'll be optimizing for a lot of "branded" searches — these are searches that include your brand/product name.
Keyword ideas:
Vacation rental booking transparency
Affordable family vacation rentals
Safe vacation rentals near attractions
Reviews of [Your Brand Name] vacation properties
Your Brand Name pricing details
Virtual tours of vacation rentals
Best vacation rentals for families
What to expect when booking with [Your Brand Name]
Family-friendly vacation tips
Common vacation rental booking mistakes
What to measure:
Organic traffic to property-specific landing pages
Keyword rankings for branded terms and relevant queries
Lead conversion from organic search traffic
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Paid Advertising
At this stage of the funnel, you'll be running conversion campaigns to get purchases. These will be your highest revenue campaigns, where you will be keeping a close eye on your return on ad spend (ROAS.)
Target audience ideas:
[Remarketing] Facebook Ads: Visitors who viewed property pages but didn't book, emphasizing limited-time offers.
[Remarketing] Google Ads: Users who clicked through comparison articles, highlighting customer reviews and testimonials.
[Prospecting] YouTube Ads: Targeting users searching for vacation planning content, directing them to tour videos of properties.
[Prospecting] Google Ads: Keyword targeting around specific phrases like '[Your Brand Name] reviews' and 'Best vacation rentals'.
[Remarketing] Instagram Ads: Engaging users who interacted with previous posts, featuring special promotions on properties they viewed.
What to measure:
Cost per acquisition (CPA)
Return on ad spend (ROAS)
Conversion rate from remarketing campaigns
🚀 Help me execute this paid ads strategy
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Social Media
The bottom of the funnel campaigns will usually only make up a small minority of your social media content.
Social media campaign ideas:
Share user-generated content featuring happy guests at properties, promoting the comfort and value.
Instagram stories showcasing last-minute deals with swipe-up links to booking pages.
Facebook posts asking for questions about the booking process, encouraging interaction and trust.
Create a series of blog-style social posts discussing what to expect during stays at your rentals.
Monitor mentions of your brand and address any guest inquiries or concerns promptly.
What to measure:
Engagement rate on booking-related posts
Click-through rate on social media links to booking pages
Number of inquiries received via social media
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Email Marketing
Email is perfectly tailored to run bottom of the funnel campaigns. After you've provided value to customers via your other email campaigns, you can run sales and promotional campaigns to get conversions.
Email marketing campaign ideas:
Post-booking confirmation sequence providing useful tips and reminders about the stay.
Follow-up email offering personalized recommendations for local attractions and activities.
Email series for past customers highlighting new properties and upcoming discounts.
Survey email collecting feedback on the booking experience to improve future services.
Thank-you email after the stay with a request for a review to enhance credibility.
What to measure:
Open rates on post-booking emails
Click-through rates on property recommendation emails
Feedback response rates from surveys
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Marketing Experiments
Your bottom-of-the-funnel experiments will have the objective of maximizing your profits. That could be by getting more first-time customers or increasing the amount of money you get from each customer on their first purchase.
Experiment ideas:
Run A/B tests on landing page designs focusing on different testimonials.
Test varied formats of pricing structures (e.g., upfront vs. categorized costs).
Experiment with different headlines on booking confirmation emails.
Optimize booking buttons' color and placement for higher visibility on property pages.
Evaluate different call-to-action (CTA) placements throughout the booking funnel to see which drives conversions.
What to measure:
Conversion rates from booking pages
User engagement metrics for all types of outreach
Abandonment rates during the booking process

Retention

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Your Goal at the Retention Stage: Increase Lifetime Value
In the retention stage, your marketing persona is already a customer of your product. Your objective is to increase the value you can extract from them directly by generating repeat purchases, upsells, or reducing churn; or indirectly by improving brand image or promoting referrals.
Customer lifetime value (CLV)
Repeat purchase rate
Net promoter score (NPS)
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Content Marketing
The objective of the content you'll create at the retention stage is to keep your existing customers happy by providing ongoing value (even after purchasing.)
Content ideas:
Monthly newsletter featuring new properties, promotions, and guest experiences.
Blog post: 'How to Make the Most of Your Stay in Our Rentals' focusing on local attractions and tips.
Video series: 'Guest Stories: Memorable Moments in Our Vacation Rentals' highlighting past guests' experiences.
Interactive online survey asking guests for feedback on their stay and suggestions for improvement.
Post-stay thank-you email with special offers for returning customers and a request for review.
What to measure:
Open rates of newsletters
Engagement rates on guest story videos
Feedback response rates from surveys
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SEO
At the bottom of the funnel, you'll want to make sure your marketing persona can find all the information she needs to get the most of your product (e.g. knowledge base articles), or to solve any problems that may arise (e.g. support/contact page.)
Keyword ideas:
Post-stay survey feedback
Vacation rental return visitors tips
Best local attractions for families
Guest testimonials for family-friendly rentals
Safety tips for repeat visitors
How to navigate booking for returning customers
Local dining options near our rentals
What to expect when returning to our vacation rentals
Family-friendly activities around our vacation properties
Travel planning tips for repeat visitors
What to measure:
Organic traffic to content celebrating repeat visits
Search engine rankings for guest testimonial content
Return visitor traffic from search engines
🎯
Paid Advertising
At this stage of the funnel, you might choose to be run campaigns promoting of new features, upgrades, or promotions.
Target audience ideas:
[Remarketing] Facebook Ads: Previous guests who stayed more than once, showcasing tailored offers.
[Prospecting] Google Ads: Targeting users searching for 'repeat vacation renters' and 'guest rewards programs'.
[Remarketing] Instagram Ads: Users who engaged with video guest stories, featuring new promotions.
[Remarketing] YouTube Ads: Targeting past guests with updated property features and booking offers.
[Prospecting] Google Ads: Target users interested in loyalty programs related to travel.
What to measure:
Return on ad spend (ROAS) for remarketing campaigns
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) for loyalty program ads
Click-through rates for promotional ads targeting previous guests
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Social Media
Retention campaigns on social media revolve around building a sense of community with your existing customers. You'll do a lot of monitoring of brand mentions on social media.
Social media campaign ideas:
Instagram posts featuring highlights from guest reviews and memories shared by previous customers.
Facebook Group for past guests to share feedback and tips about their experience.
Twitter conversation around returning guests' favorite memories from their stays.
LinkedIn posts discussing how customer feedback shapes service improvements and property updates.
Monitor social media for mentions of the brand, responding to guests' queries or sharing their experiences.
What to measure:
Engagement on posts highlighting guest experiences
Growth in group members within the Facebook Group for past guests
Number of mentions and interactions on brand monitoring
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Email Marketing
Retention email campaigns will be a mix of educational emails (onboarding, activation, etc), transactional emails (reports, receipts, reminders, etc), and promotional emails (upgrades, upsells, etc.)
Email marketing campaign ideas:
Monthly follow-up email sharing vacation planning tips and exclusive offers for returning guests.
Email sequence featuring specials for previous renters, encouraging them to book their next stay.
Customer satisfaction survey email to gather insights and show appreciation for feedback.
Thank you email after stay with promotions for the next visit.
Exclusive video tour of newly added properties sent out to previous guests.
What to measure:
Open rates for follow-up emails
Response rates on satisfaction surveys
Booking conversion rates from promotional email campaigns
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Marketing Experiments
Your retention experiments will have the objective of maximizing lifetime value of existing customers.
Experiment ideas:
A/B test email subject lines to improve open rates for follow-up promotions.
Experiment with different layouts for newsletters to enhance engagement.
Test the effectiveness of personalized messages in post-stay communications.
Run A/B tests on different types of customer feedback inquiries to maximize response rates.
Monitor user interactions with video content in post-stay emails to optimize based on feedback.
What to measure:
Engagement rates for various email campaigns
Click-through rates on promotional emails
Response rates for A/B tested feedback requests

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