Airbnb's marketing strategy focused on targeting conferences and their attendees, as well as utilizing Craigslist to find vacation rental listings and cold-emailing them to join Airbnb. People use Airbnb not just for trust, but to experience different cultures and save money. The company emphasizes community building and user-generated content through social media and its referral program. Airbnb hosts also use their own marketing strategies outside of the platform, such as Facebook pages and ad campaigns. Celebrities listing their properties on Airbnb also contribute to word-of-mouth marketing. The referral program led to a massive 900% annual growth for Airbnb.
Top Highlights
They targeted conferences and their visitors who were looking for short stays. They were able to book 600 stays during Obama's Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Used Craigslist to find existing vacation rental home listings and cold-emailed them to onboard to the Airbnb listing website.
People don't use Airbnb overtly to trust people more. They use it because they want to get a better sense of the culture and to save money. A by-product was that they live in someone else's shoes.
Its marketing mix has a strong focus on building a community and utilising its existing users for user-generated content, social media and its referral program.
Since the Airbnb host is running a vacation rental business, they use their own marketing strategies outside Airbnb's platform to promote their properties. Many have their own Facebook business page and run ad campaign as required.
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