Tips for Running a Successful Blog
One of the most important facets of any website in the hospitality industry is a good-looking, regularly updated blog. Through it, you can catch and maintain the attention of a captive audience, driving traffic to your website, and boosting the visibility of your brand. Here, we set out a few steps to creating and managing a successful blog for your business.
Define your target audience and cater to them
Defining your target audience is one of the first steps towards creating a successful blog. Focus on as narrow an audience as possible, taking into consideration factors such as age, location, gender, education, income level, and interests. One you have identified your audience, you can cater to their needs through your content.
Add new content on a regular basis
To generate and maintain a consistently large audience, regularly add new content to your blog. Suggestions on the optimum amount of blogs to post per month vary from 6 – 10 according to the topic at hand, the size of your hotel, and the quality of the post itself. Once you have come up with a content schedule for your blog – stick to it. Plan far in advance, and ensure that blog posts go out when promised.
Ensure the look of your blog is professional & in line with your brand
Regardless of the types of content you’ll be posting, always ensure a professional look and feel for your blog. Factors to consider when judging the look include where it is easy to read and easy to navigate, and whether it conveys a sense of professionalism. Avoid spelling and grammatical mistakes, and always proofread thoroughly before posting.
At the same time, design your blog in line with the rest of your website, and with the brand itself, in order to ensure a sense of visible continuity.
Cover a wide range of relevant, interesting topics
Hotels, lodges and other players in the hospitality industry are blessed with a vast array of enticing topics to tackle when considering blog posts. These include local events, local attractions, current specials and promotions on offer, activities offered by the hotel or nearby, short travel guides, Q&A sessions, travel tips, behind the scene interviews, and customer testimonials.
Include vibrant imagery
According to jeffbullas.com articles with images get 94% more views than those without. With this is mind, including eye-catching, relevant, high resolution images in your blog posts is absolutely essential. Disperse images evenly throughout and make sure that they are formatted correctly. If you have a wealth of images for a certain topic, even considering putting together a photoblog – which have been known to increase engagement and overall visibility.
To find out more about creating and managing a blog for your hotel, and the impact this will have on your monthly performance, get in touch with Hotel Revenue Management today. Either email jaco@hotel-revenue-manager.com or call +27 744 90 77 11.
