Blogging Basics
To begin building a blog, you should first come up with a content calendar that determines when you will post and what topic you plan to cover. According to a ProBlogger report, readers cited posting too frequently as the No. 1 reason they unsubscribed from blogs. Keep this in mind as you choose how often to post. Many professional bloggers recommend posting once a week or every other week for businesses to stay relevant without annoying their audiences.
When writing posts, avoid wordiness and stick to the goal of quality over quantity. As a guideline, stick to 250 to 500 words per post, but don’t be afraid to stretch the post longer if it takes more words to get your point across.
Choose catchy titles and interesting photos to attract attention. Optimind Technology Solutions reports that articles with images, no matter the subject matter, will receive 94 percent more views.
To convert more readers into travelers, try to include a call to action with every post. This invites readers to engage with your company in some way, perhaps by signing up to receive blogs via email or taking advantage of a trip discount.
After posting for a few months, go back and analyze the data with Google Analytics to find out what topics attracted the most views. Check the dates you sent out blog posts to see if a particular day or time boosted blog traffic effectively. Keep tweaking when you post and what topics you use to gain more followers.
Travel Blogging
Many loyalty program planners use blogs to share details from their trips in real time. If you can blog while on a tour, try posting more frequently with shorter, more-focused stories from the trip rather than writing one long post.
One of the best ways to recruit travelers is by word-of-mouth promotion from happy customers. Use your blog as a tool for self-promotion by asking previous travelers to write blog posts about their trips. First-hand customer accounts can mean more to potential travelers than your standard marketing materials. They also provide a way for the traveler to relive the experience through writing.
For example, perhaps you want to attract more boomers to your tours. Ask satisfied boomer-aged travelers to write about why they enjoyed traveling with a group. Or when returning from your first multigenerational group tour, ask participants to tell why they liked this type of tour. Their opinions will carry a lot of weight with other travelers.
In travel, as in most businesses, reputation is everything. Use your blog to create an image of your travel program that you can present to the world.
