Zapier Integration

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Bump bump nudge nudge, this is much needed!

As we grow our business and get a little more sophisticated with email marketing campaigns, we're using automation tools like Zapier to more efficiently run our business. We've discussed Zapier for the past several years in the forums, but it's time to consider bumping this up on the roadmap to help hosts/small biz owners run their businesses more efficiently and effectively. Would be a great value add for OR and hopefully minimize development work that's outside of OR's core competencies! 

Maybe I am slow. Went to zapier website and I still cannot understand what it does. Seems to be some social media auto poster? 

Absolutely agree

As a developer of software myself, Zapier should not be a consideration, it should be a must, a priority. I love the OwnerRez platform but I'm now looking at other vacation rental management platforms because they integrate with Zapier. I use Active Campaign for my email marketing. Active Campaign has a very powerful automated email messaging section which I can't fully take advantage of.  Would be a shame to have to leave OwnerRez because they don't integrate with Zapier. I hope it doesn't come to that. Every serious software company on the planet practically integrates with Zapier.

Do you really mean that email campaigns have any effect? In my experiences (from a consumer side ) they just clog people's inboxes, get deleted or are reported as spam. Am I wrong?  

I'm in the marketing business. Email marketing can be super successful if managed properly. The key is to offer something of value in every email that you send and send them sparingly.  Email marketing accounts for over 30% of my revenue. It absolutely works.

Think about this. If I sent you an email and it included something you could use and or you found value in. Would you open the next email I sent you? If that next email offered something of value and or something you could use would you open the next email? And so on......

I couldn't help replying, as I'm fascinated by this discussion and watching it closely.  Let me note that I am speaking personally, and not expressing an official view of OwnerRez.

"If I sent you an email and it included something you could use and or you found value in..."

For myself personally, that basically never happens, except from people who I already know - and, even with companies that I have had dealings with in the past, the only useful information I receive is things along the lines of "Your order has shipped" which are easy to identify.  The time that would be spent on reading sales solicitations so vastly exceeds any possible benefits, that I basically never do - I just delete them out of hand.

I do myself personally occasionally go on vacation, and, yes, I am continually hounded to go back.  This ongoing annoyance of seeing yet another nag ever week has made it extremely unlikely that I ever will.

By way of a guess, I think if the place I stayed last summer sent me one email around 10 months later - so, around the time I'd be making plans to go again, if I were planning to do that - it almost certainly still wouldn't work but at least it wouldn't be annoying.

What if the first email I ever sent you offered 10 or 20% off your next booking?

What if the email after that offered free champaign and free airport transfers upon arrival?

What if the email after that offered a free night's stay if you booked 5 nights?

What if I sent you an email offering you up to 40% of last-minute travel?

What if I then sent an email offering free airport transfers to and from my villa in Punta Cana and an in-house professional massage?

I'm not saying you would take me up on any one of these offers. But I have to believe your curiosity would at least get you to open each and every email because your curiosity wants to see what I'm offering next and you have come to know that every email offers something of value. I also have to believe eventually you may take me up on one of these offers. I get about 20 to 30% of people eventually taking me up on one of these offers. They also book directly through my own website so know VRBO or Airbnb fees. 

I'm not looking for every person to take me up on every email. Just a very tiny percent.

It works for me. That much I know.

Overstock. com sends me emails every day, sometimes several. Same for Amazon, Ebay, Pizza Hut,  etc. They all offer "something of value" ( a "deal", a sale etc). Guess what: they all get deleted/unsubscribed/sent to spam. When I need something, I just go to that website and look for it. Then I would go to some coupon websites and see if there is a coupon for what I need. I have been Amazon prime member for YEARS. I do not remember EVER buying anything there from an email they sent me. I am no marketing expert, just a consumer. My take is: that consumers are overwhelmed with the amount of email they get. They just tune it out. Heck I do not even give out my real email addy anymore bc of the amount of spam. 

I do not give any of those. I really do not give discounts (except for auto-triggered OR email offering adjacent unbooked nights). I use dynamic pricing and its sets rates according to demand, season, competition etc. I guess it is different if you manage someone else's properties - you can give out discounts. In case of managing your own discounts aren't very effective and so far have not been fruitful, and thus, necessary. So going back to email marketing, I used to send MailChimp campaigns. Not anymore. Most go unopened (even if I offered some discount), I can count on the fingers of one hand when people ever used offers in those emails. I had 3 properties (now 2). Just my take. 

You said the dreaded two words, EVERY DAY!

I only offer discounts in the slow season. My goal is to generate income all year round. I never ever lose money.

With all due respect just because no one opens your emails does not mean email marketing doesn't work.

I have over an 80% open rate.

I am just curious how does it work if no one opens emails? Ken above said he does not either. Glad you have 80% open rate. 

I'm with you, email marketing does work, even if I only get a few k of bookings from it every year with templates and automation the ROI is definitely worth the effort.

That's a few K that's not going in an OTAS pocket.

Using Mailchimp effectively by dumping the ghosts on your list regularly helps to keep your open rate up. Typically my open rate is around 65%.

Neither do I. We rent year round. But offering discounts proved fruitless. So I no longer offer them. Other than discounts, is there anything else that urges customers to open emails? 

If you rent year-round then you have no need for email marketing. Whatever you are doing is working.

With all due respect just because no one opens your emails does not mean email marketing doesn't work.

I have over an 80% open rate.

Let me finish with this.

Email marketing is not for everyone or every business. We may be in the same vacation rental business but our markets are completely different.

My rentals are in another country. Managing property overseas has its own unique set of challenges. What works for me does not necessarily work for you. Email marketing is a tactic I use to fill the slow season in Punta Cana. It works for me. Every vacation rental business has its own unique challenges and target market which can vary widely.

As I said in an earlier post. Email marketing generates business for me in an otherwise very slow season. July, August and September can be very slow. Email marketing is one of a few marketing tactics I use to fill rentals in this slow time. 

Don't make the mistake of thinking because it doesn't work for you that it doesn't work.

In the end, you have to find what works for your vacation rental business.

I'm in marketing, it's what I do for a living.

Lastly, you say you don't offer discounts. Do you spend money on marketing? Or do you post your listings on Airbnb and VRBO and hope for the best?

Offering discounts is part of my marketing plan and budget. It's the cost of doing business and it works. I can take the money I discount and apply it towards marketing or just offer a discount. In the end, for me, it's all marketing expenses.

The business world is all about supply and demand. That's why two people sitting on the same airline flight most likely paid two different prices. As the demand goes up so goes the cost and as supply goes down so too goes the cost. This is how airlines make money. And quite frankly, it's how I also make money.

You honestly can't compare my market with your market.