December 16, 2013 –In a rental promotion first of it’s kind on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, stakes were high and expectations unknown. Southern Shores Realty, the premier vacation rental agency along North Carolina’s Outer Banks, held its first ever Black Friday sale on November 29, 2013. Proposition for the sale came based on existing consumer hype for the shopping holiday, a less than booming economy, and an insatiable itch to try something new.
For the most part, vacation rental companies on the Outer Banks offer various promotions throughout the course of the year to attract consumers and pitch specials that accompany most major holidays. “We wanted to try something different… something bigger,” said Robert Kissell, Southern Shores Realty’s Internet Marketing Specialist. “I’m a Black Friday shopper at heart, so I knew the potential was there. It was more a matter of making business sense for us while providing extraordinary value to shoppers.”
The business sense and extraordinary value were combined together with perfection. The “Black Friday MEGA Sale”, as it was dubbed, was rooted on the foundation that booking a reservation sooner could translate into more savings and choices for consumers while retaining yields for Southern Shores Realty.
Through combination of highly demanded and “mid-season” weeks, Southern Shores was able to present online shoppers with desirable Outer Banks vacations at hundreds of dollars off. The kicker: only basic details about each participating vacation home were visible until midnight on Black Friday, when discounted weeks and special rates appeared, creating a 24 hour frenzy. Real-time API access was the icing on the cake, driving a “current visitor” count that created even more urgency.
A rigorous marketing campaign was implemented, driving more traffic to the Black Friday webpage than the company’s home page during the month of November. Reports showed a 243% increase in reservations, 297% increase in revenue, and 16% increase in per-reservation-value (PRV).
Southern Shores Realty specializes in Outer Banks vacation rentals, real estate sales, and professional property management.
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