Company name: Rent like home
Industry: Real Estate
Market: Polish
Homepage: https://www.rentlikehome.com/
Coronavirus and its consequences have affected lots of companies. Some were forced to intensify their marketing efforts (provided that they had already had an online presence), whereas others needed to completely redefine their business model.
Rent like home is a representative of the latter category. Its story is proof that adaptability combined with creativity can help overcome even the hardest of difficulties.
Problems and needs
On March 14, 2020, the business activity of Rent like home turned upside down. Prior to that date, the company had focused on a short-term lease of apartments in seven Polish cities, including Wrocław, Zakopane, and Międzyzdroje – places where tourism is the heart of the cities’ activity.
However, on that fateful date, the government enacted new regulations that outlawed short-term rentals (with a few exemptions) until further notice. The legal changes that came into effect meant that the core services offered by the company could no longer be provided. Since then, mid and long-term rentals have been the main areas of activity of the company.
Of course, the introduction of the new regulations was a huge challenge and a shock to everyone in the company:
We had an incredibly intense weekend when we had to completely redefine our business model.
Kamila Pokój, Digital Marketing Mannager, Rent like home
The situation was even more difficult by the fact that companies were left with very little time to adjust to the new reality. Every day of no business activity translated into losses. As such, finding a tool that would allow designing and publishing marketing creations quickly and independently was invaluable.
Working with freelancers was far from the most efficient solution, which is what Kamila had learned during her previous projects:
It takes a lot more time just to explain to a freelancer what the finished product is supposed to look like than to complete it in-house using Landingi.
Kamila Pokój, Digital Marketing Manager, Rent like home
Is landing page design important?
Maritime Residence is a luxury apartment complex that is fully owned by Rent like home. It offers a high standard of living as well as a modern and cozy style. The landing page that serves as a business card of Maritime Residence needs to convey the luxury and the design to potential clients. In this case, there is no doubt that the design of the page had to be perfect, not to mention it needed to be cohesive with the print materials.
How did Kamila approach the design of a landing page that shows luxury apartments? She put the emphasis on simplicity. The visual aspect was not the only thing she paid attention to when making the landing page – it had to be functional as well. The aim was to provide only the most important information, which is why she made sure to avoid overcomplications and lengthy descriptions.
We’re trying to combine the main function of the page – the presentation of the building – with an interesting design.
Kamila Pokój, Digital Marketing Manager, Rent like home
Time and money
Working in an environment where you have complete control over the process is a lot more advantageous than cooperating with freelancers.
For instance, if you want to start building a new landing page, you don’t have to wait for the freelancer to write back and waste time on a back-and-forth discussion of the details. Instead, the work gets done on your terms and, most of the time, it’s done quicker.
Furthermore, creating similar versions of a landing page (in different languages, or for different target audiences) is also lightning quick.
The creation of a new landing page for a similar campaign directed at different regions takes less than an hour.
Kamila Pokój, Digital Marketing Manager, Rent like home
When the economic situation is uncertain, businesses tend to minimize the costs and save a part of the funds for a rainy day. The cost of a long-term subscription is much lower than hiring a graphic designer or a freelance programmer to make one landing page. If it takes more time and costs more, why pay extra?
Optimization of efforts
Going through such huge changes in the business model means reaching a new target audience. Mid and long-term rent is considered by a completely different group of people than a short-term one. Also, both services require a separate set of tools.
Rent like home has decided to target a couple of groups, such as:
- Companies that need to provide accommodation for employees arriving from abroad or those that had to check out of the hotel;
- Students whose dorm rooms have been closed.
It meant turning away from campaigns in Google and Facebook Ads that had been a cornerstone of generating traffic thus far. The first group was targeted via LinkedIn ads, whereas the students could find out about the possibility of a short-term rent on posts on Facebook groups, which generate organic traffic.
Triple conversions in 40 minutes
A landing page created for the owners of chalets and apartments in Zakopane was Rent like home’s most effective creation. Matching the visuals and the copy to the target group resulted in a 300% increase in conversion compared to a standard landing page.
Making the changes took very little time – about 40 minutes, most of which was spent finding the right hero image.
Quick changes don’t always turn into quick results, but in this case, the first contracts with clients were signed the very next day. It means that the landing page reached the right target group and conveyed key information in a convincing fashion.
Rent like home is a great example of a company being able to change the business profile very quickly without sacrificing profitability. The following elements contributed to its success:
- Motivation;
- Defining the right target audience and reaching it;
- A tool that allowed to make changes quickly;
- High-quality marketing creations, both in terms of aesthetics and usability.
