We all know the business benefits to being social nowadays – Facebook, Twitter, Google+ et al all provide straightforward and efficient networking outlets. But, it’s surprising how many businesses are yet to venture into blogging.
A blog is an easy, cost-effective way of promoting your business. A good blog will increase traffic to your website and, essentially, increase potential booking numbers. It’s also a good way to simply engage with customers and others in the self-catering sector as they are able to start a dialogue with you by leaving comments on your blog post.
You don’t need to be a dazzling wordsmith (ahem) to start blogging, but it pays to have a decent idea. In fact, it pays to have a bank of them as it’s quite important to maintain momentum and blog regularly – once a fortnight is a good rule of thumb.
Plan ahead
Lack of time and ideas are two of the main reasons cited for not blogging. It might seem like an insurmountable task to find the time to compose a regular blog but all it takes is a bit of planning and imagination.
Think of the things that make your property or properties unique and write about those. What is it that keeps your guests happy and coming back? Is it the local attractions and activities; flora and fauna; food and drink; festivals etc? Write about them. Are there any hidden gems nearby, or seasonal specials? Depending on where you are in the world, now could be a great time of year to kick off with a blog about local Thanksgiving celebrations, or upcoming Christmas markets, for instance.
Stand out from the crowd
Remember to write with your customers in mind. If you manage to consistently create valuable content on your type of accommodation or area of the world, for example, you will easily start to stand out from your competitors who fail to do this by not blogging.
Quality is always more important than quantity, so you don’t need to spend hours slaving away on an epic tale. But, there is also no ideal blog length or word limit. As long as your content is relevant and engaging, people will read it.
Stay connected
Make it easy for people to read and share your blog by linking it with other social media sites. To do this, use the social media icons somewhere on your blog post (ours are at the bottom of this post). You may also wish to send it to your customers as a newsletter (eg via MailChimp).
And, don’t forget to like, share and reTweet other people’s blogs that you come across and enjoy.
Get started
There are many different, free blogging platforms to choose from. WordPress and Blogger are just two of the most popular. It’s pretty straightforward to set up an account and get blogging, so what are you waiting for?
