This case study will cover the goals, solutions & results of the company Cardenas Rentals, who own & rent out four short-term vacation fishing rentals in Rio Hondo, Texas.
Marketing Goals & Objectives
Cardenas Rentals wanted to expand and update its social media presence to increase the customer base. They needed a cost-effective way to drive more traffic to their websites and generate more leads digitally.
Marketing Solutions
Estrada Marketing worked with Cardenas Rentals to create a social media marketing plan that included:
Social Media Tracking through Facebook/Meta analytics.
Post Engagement with customers to increase word of mouth.
Customer Feedback to provide ways to improve our customer experience.
Website Analytics - We use Google Analytics to see how their customers are navigating the website and also record our conversations with a timeline to look back on.
Increase Reach & Brand Awareness through consistently posting on their social media channels
Expanded Sales Channels to reach audiences on VRBO, AirBnb and Booking.com
Project Outcomes
Cardenas Rentals have been blown away by the results, which are explained in more detail below.
"We are surprised at how quickly we started to see results and consistently selling out,” said Alicia Cardenas, co-owner of Cardenas Rentals. “Using these free social media platforms really helped us increase sales in a short period of time without any ad spending!"
Facebook's & Instagrams Insights
Cardenas Rentals started its Facebook business page in 2019 to embrace social media and use it as a tool to create leads and conversions. However, the business page did not have a specific strategy. Bookings were fluctuating, but without data and a timeline to review, the company had a difficult time discerning whether their social media efforts were effective.
Estrada Marketing pitched a social media plan that provided structure and a consistent message to their posts. We focused primarily on Facebook because that is where we saw the highest engagement with their clients, especially on posts about open dates at their vacation homes. We utilized Instagram as more of a gallery to showcase the homes’ amenities and suitability for fishing and other family-friendly events.
We scheduled posts on the company’s Facebook page with specific keywords that were popular among their target audience. We scheduled a post for every other day, and this consistency helped them connect with more potential customers more often. This dramatically improved the reach of the company’s Facebook posts over time. That, in turn, drove more traffic to their website and increased the number of bookings.
The picture shown above are the monthly views Cardenas Rentals are currently averaging on Facebook & Instagram [Screenshot taken in 2022]
The picture shown above is all the cities Cardenas Rentals are reaching through their Estrada Marketing social media strategy.
Cardenas Rentals’ target audience was primarily focused on the RGV (Rio Grande Valley) area of Texas. The rentals are based in Arroyo City, Texas, very close to Harlingen, Texas. The results shown in the image above are confirmation that Cardenas Rentals’ content is reaching the right customers steadily and effectively.
Google Insights
After Cardenas Rentals established a consistent social media presence, Estrada Marketing listed their business on Google. A Google Business Profile is a free and easy way to ensure that customers can quickly find all of a business’s contact information and website.
When customers were looking for Cardenas Rentals on Google, their GMB (Google My Business), allowed the company to see what searches and activities were leading customers to their websites. This included what kind of device the user was on (mobile or desktop) and which keywords customers used in their searches. Estrada Marketing uses this information to better target and refine the company’s content strategy.
The pictures shown above are analytics from the Google Business Profile that shows how potential customers ended up finding Cardenas Rentals.
Insight into Leads or Prospect Customers
Estrada Marketing helped Cardenas Rentals gain additional valuable insight by implementing a vacation home management platform called Lodgify. Lodgify tracked the company’s bookings across multiple sales channels and platforms, such as Airbnb, giving us insight into what customers were interested in and what platform they were booking on.
Lodgify also offers a messaging system that provides a single place for the company to see and reply to customer messages and booking requests across multiple booking platforms. This was key for Cardenas Rentals because once their social media strategy began paying off, they needed to be able to stay on top of the increased workload. Lodgify made that much simpler and more efficient.
Airbnb & VRBO Insights
To ensure that Cardenas Rentals were fully utilizing all their booking channels, Estrada Marketing created Airbnb/VRBO business profiles for the company. Both platforms were tied to Lodgify, which ensured all the company’s policies, rules, amenities and details were synced across platforms.. This made the process of expansion very simple. This was a cost-effective way for the company to reach new customers and allow them to make the booking through their preferred platform.
Establishing brand awareness & marketing for higher traffic/reach was our biggest challenge, which I found that I could accomplish if i focused on being engaged & consistent with content. They've improved revenue to then remodel rentals, which then made an impact on customer's expectations & influence other potential renters. Currently, I will be working on Social Media Management on their platforms & also communicating with the owners to make sure content is approved.
Our Review of this Project
Establishing brand awareness and marketing for higher traffic/reach was our biggest challenge, which we found that we could accomplish if we focused on being engaged and consistent with content. The client saw an increase in revenue, allowing them to remodel and update some of the rentals. That made an impact on customers' experience, which helped refer other potential renters.
Building a social media strategy can be overwhelming, and keeping consistent can keep business owners away from running their businesses. We can create a custom strategy and manage your social media - contact Estrada Marketing today!