Caro Consulting

Big Canoe Update

It's been quite some time since I last posted about my adventures with this Big Canoe Rental. So, here is a quick update.

• September is wedding, golf tournament, and house-buying season - it was a great month
• October is leaf peeping season - another start to a great month, although it is tapering off a bit - A shame since the leaves will be at their best this weekend
• People go to the mountains for Thanksgiving - our house has been reserved for months now and I was just on Craig's list and noticed a "need a cabin for Thanksgiving" post... interesting
• Net News Magazine did not work for us - Question is, was it the ad or the publication?

So my vacation rental lessons for today - the Internet still has the greatest reach for the least amount of money. Real estate agents are your greatest assets.

Side Note: Looks like Nigeria is taking some action against Nigerian Scam - 419 Fraud. Read this News24 article, Nigeria acts to stamp out spam.

Generating Quality Leads

In my Big Canoe search result post, I was very excited because our listing was at the top of the list and the inquiries were flowing in. Now, I had a new problem - a lot of inquiries with the same questions and no follow through.

Renting homes is considered business-to-consumer (BtoC), correct? Well, I was experiencing a fundamental business-to-business (BtoB) problem - I was generating poor quality sales leads and I was spending my time responding to those leads and not generating any sales. I needed to do two things: 1. Make my copy more attractive - really sell the experience. 2. In the process of selling the experience, answer all the commonly asked questions.

What happened? The inquiries dried up and I panicked. Yet, instead of throwing out the copy, I tested something else - the price. I created a "Value Guaranteed" offer - find a comparable house for a better price and we will match it + 5%.

Are the inquiries flowing in again? No, now it is more of a trickle. But, the ones that do come in close. September is practically booked and we're now working on October and November. Have we had to use the "Value Guaranteed" yet? No. It is creating the perception that this is the best deal going. Short of Clark Howard, no one will take the time to find something else... Or at least that's the hope.

What else is going on? A survey was sent out to those who decided not to rent. We offered a $5 Amazon gift certificate and no one has answered. Amazing! We've also had professional photographs taken of the house and the rooms - next step flyers.

Nigerian Scam - 419 Fraud

Have you heard about the Nigerian Scam? Also known as the 419 Fraud or Advance Fee Fraud? I have because I experienced it first hand.

The email arrived innocently enough. The address seemed like something legitimate from Yahoo. It was a typical availability/cost to rent type email. Call me cold hearted, but the reason she was renting the house  set off a red flag. She explained her grandmother has cancer and the doctors in Nigeria recommended she come to the U.S. for treatment.

For my readers who do not live in Atlanta, Big Canoe is not exactly close to a hospital. For those of you who are not familiar with chemotherapy, the last thing you want to be is in a car for longer than 15 minutes...let alone an hour and 15 minutes. But, when I asked her what hospital (by email), she said Gwinnett (an actual hospital in north Georgia) and she was not concerned with the distance.

As we emailed back and forth, her English became more broken and her financial arrangement was not clear. When pressed, this is the explanation I received, "What i mean is that we are not currently on any cash at all to get ourselves a ticket thats why we insist on using the cheque so that after you take your rent and other charges from it ,you will send doen the balance for us to process a ticket for two. thats simply what i mean. I hope you understand now, please reply."

Seems simple enough. She does not get paid until the check clears and I get paid, right? Wrong. Others who fell for this scam are finding out that the check was forged and now they are responsible for the money.

What to do? Do not share personal information. Use a PO Box. Make sure the "From" name in your emails for the general public is something generic like "Big Canoe" or "Caro Consulting" - don't use your last name. As soon as you know it is a scam, report it to the appropriate company. In this case, I sent the entire string to abuse@yahoo.com and they took care of their email account. Unfortunately, there is no way to track down the person and prosecute them.

Here is some more information about counterfeit & phony payments on ClarkHoward.com.

Big Canoe Search Results and Surveys

I'm excited to see my search marketing efforts have paid off.  As of the time of this posting

• Big Canoe Rental is #2 on Google and #1 on MSN
• Big Canoe Vacation rental is #3 on Google and #1 on MSN

This must have happened at the end of last week, because inquiries instead of coming in weekly are now practically daily. Of course, fall leaf peeping season is upon us, which doesn't hurt.

Getting them to reserve our vacation rental is another challenge. So, as they say in Big Canoe, we're either fishing in the wrong pond or the bait is not attractive. In other words, the online target market may be inappropriate for our house or we are not offering what the target market wants.

What does that mean for us? Time to test different forms of advertising. Update the messaging on our site. And, most importantly, survey our prospects. The new copy should go up on the site by tomorrow and the survey by the end of the week. For advertising, we are going to try a traditional magazine ad targeting the Atlanta market.

Thanks for all your thoughts and suggestions. Keep them coming!

Get Local - Reach Out to Your Community

Big Canoe Chronicles Continues...

Okay, it's time to define the target market. Who are they? Where do they live? What is their income? How old are they? Next, determine the best way to reach this audience. Marketing 101, right?

In the previous post, I determined my target market looks online for vacation spots, so I made search marketing my top priority. Of course, search engine optimization is a slow process. I can change keywords right away, but it takes time to build quality links and move up the rankings on Google.

Second, I determined my target market likes recommendations. All you need to do is look at Fodor's Talk Forums and you will see thousands of trip reports and suggestions. Return from a vacation and I guarantee your friends look to you for recommendations on hotels and restaurants. With that knowledge, I used email to reach out to my local community of friends, co-workers, and neighbors and recommended my Big Canoe rental to them.

Finally, with high gas prices and astronomical plane ticket prices, who wants to go far for a vacation? So, I decided to get local and test the concept that people in Atlanta and the metro area want a "fast getaway." In the next couple of weeks, I plan to consider an ad in the local church bulletin and enlist a local cleaning company to spread the word to their clients.

That's it for this week. So, how are you reaching the local market to promote your products and services?

Next post... Tracking results.

Big Canoe Chronicles

They say that a man (woman) who represents himself has a fool for a client and a fool for a lawyer. My hope is this expression does not apply when it comes to marketing.

Two weeks ago, my husband I purchased this Big Canoe rental. The plan, pay for the mortgage by renting this cute cottage to vacationers in Big Canoe, Georgia. It comes furnished and already listed on VRBO and CyberRealty... I'm a marketer with 12+ years of experience - how hard could it be?

Over the next few months, I hope to chronicle my efforts as I become my own client. A marketing strategy has been created (okay, scratched out on note paper) and I have begun executing the tactics, starting with search engine optimization.

For this tactic, I paid a visit to my friend John over at TwentySix2 Marketing who gave my listing the 30 minute review and me a few recommendations. First, update the listing with critical keywords. Second, build links (yes, blogs are a great way to build links). Third, research other vacation rental sites.

Next week... Tap into your community.