Marketing your property
Our aim is simple; we’re committed, through innovative multi-channel marketing, to attract more holiday-makers to the Isle of Wight and to your property, and to grow this number year on year.
We’ve seen a significant shift in recent years from more ‘traditional’ methods of booking to ever-increasing online sales. Accordingly we’ve adjusted our focus on the digital world, whilst still maintaining excellent high street presence, sleek printed media and a professional, efficient telephone sales team.
Online
Search Marketing
Utilising SEO experts every day, who work throughout the year on Wight Locations campaigns, we aim to ensure that we’re on 'Page 1' positions for as many organic search terms relating to quality self-catering & cottage holidays on the Isle of Wight, and more recently nationally, as possible. To supplement this we invest heavily in Google Pay Per Click advertising throughout the year to ensure our prominence at every turn.
Social Media
We’re fully engaged on social channels with a growing Facebook and Twitter audience. We communicate regularly, with a viral reach on selected articles of upwards of 10,000 in any given week. We love to chat and pique the interest of potential customers with interesting Island stories and images, and of course subliminal promotion of properties! This is resulting in increased web traffic and subsequent bookings.
Email Marketing
We regularly send targeted emails strategically to our large existing database of around 40,000 contacts. Our email marketing is designed to be both aesthetically pleasing and encourage high traffic levels through to the site. We keep our customers up to date with all of the different segments, such as family properties, romantic cottages, and pet friendly cottages to name just a few, plus special offers and late availability.
National Press
We’re a local agency but we like to think BIG, that’s why you’ll find our adverts regularly in the national papers including the Daily Mail & Mail on Sunday during the prime booking periods, and we have targeted adverts in publications such as The National Trust, RSPB Magazine and The Lady, to name just a few.
Regional Press
Our focus is to continue to grow our property portfolio, and to this end we regularly advertise in the Island press, in particular Island Life and Style of Wight magazines, with a view to attracting ever more owners, thus providing a breadth of choice for our guests.
Partnerships
We’re pleased to work closely with the Isle of Wight Festival. As a preferred partner we’re enjoying an increase in web traffic and, as new acts are announced to the media, an increase in bookings.
We work with all transport routes to the Island and are happy to offer discounted travel with Wightlink, Red Funnel and Hover Travel. Just ring the Island office for help with your booking.
Our established relationship with Visit Isle of Wight continues to yield benefits through their aggressive promotion of the Island and its unique benefits as a holiday destination.
What can I expect?
This will often depend on availability. We work with properties which have limited availability in a year (our requirement is as little as 10 weeks per year with some peak summer availability) and often book all the available weeks. We also have properties with full, year round availability and can see up to in excess of 30 weeks of holidays, with close to 40 bookings, for the best ones.
Much depends on the finish, facilities on offer and location of the property with 4 Star rated properties being amongst our most sought after. We carry out a full appraisal of all new cottages, meet you face to face and discuss your plans and requirements. We are frank, honest and realistic and with over 120 requests to work with us each year, we are not right for every landlord or type of house but will give you a professional summary of the things you need to do before coming to the market.
Request an Owner Pack and give us a call to discuss how best we can help you - whether you are new to holiday letting or an old pro!