The days of writing in your travel journal don’t have to be over just yet! Keeping track of your journey and allowing your clients to be part of the story is yet another great way to reach out and showcase your offering without being too sales-ey.
Showcase your expertise
Tour Operators: Your clients LOVE their time with you while on the road. Use your blog to showcase their adventures and provide social credibility to future clients.
Travel Consultants: I’ll bet your clients LOVE to hear of your travels, your expert advice and your exciting news of new destinations and ships. Leverage your blog as both a travelogue and a sales tool.
Blogging is the perfect avenue to answer common questions, highlight upcoming group departures and maximize your expert status.
Speaking of expert status, bloggers are frequently interviewed by the media as industry experts. What an opportunity for increased exposure and PR.
The Power of Photos
When you consider the blogs, trade articles and brochures you peruse each day, what jumps out at you first? I’m guessing you’re like me and the answer is the photos, right? When writing your own blog consider how you’ll use photos to compliment your story and add pizazz to engage your clients and entice them to book with you.
Power tip #1— Editing your photos is key to enhancing their power. Here are a number of tools that can easily turn photos from so-so to super.
Power tip #2 – Placing your photos in key positions within the text is essential. People tend to glance at an article scanning in the shape of an F. It’s been shown that captions below photos get read on average 300% more than the body copy.
Power tip #3 – When adding your photos into your blog correctly adding a caption, name and link is vital to your SEO. Specifying a URL back to your website ensures people remain connected to your content. Adding a key-word rich name and caption will leverage your SEO. To do this, be sure to complete the information in the drop down boxes as you’re uploading your photos into your blog platform. Here’s how it looks in WordPress.
Adding a Caption and Photo description into a WordPress blog. If the image comes from your website, include the link in this section.
Editing an image in a WordPress blog. Adjust the size and placement to be eye appealing.
Embed Content
You can now embed video, slideshows and even Facebook posts and Tweets into your blog. Here’s an example and how-to. This is a great way to blend your social marketing into your blog presence.
Play here:
Click and link here:
Step by step guide to embedding a Facebook post into your blog.
Extend to your E-Blast
Now that you’ve maximized the power of your photos in your blog post, extend that power to your next e-blast.
When composing your next e-blast include a short paragraph about your blog and then provide a link to it. This will encourage your e-blast newsletter readers to check out your blog content as well. By moving readers from one channel to another they will get to know you and understand the value you bring to the world of travel and tourism.
Include a link to your blog in your next e-newsletter.
Advanced Bonus tip: insert one of your photos from your blog into your newsletter and hyperlink it directly to the blog post.
Don’t make this mistake!
Many bloggers find themselves with so much to say that their posts become full-blown tomes. A guideline is to keep your posts 200-500 words. On that note, I’ll sign off.
Did you know? 19% of travellers visit a blog site when planning their trip. In my estimation, when nearly 20% of travellers do the same thing, this is a reason to take action. Take action and write your next blog post today.
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