How to get more publicity for your property: Part 2 – Online Actions

Publicity is something that most hoteliers and hosts dream of as it’s a sure fire way to boost your profile and increase your room occupancy. Now, we’re not saying that your property has to be as famous as the Hilton, if that sort of thing scares you, but a little publicity can go a long way. Read the second in our three-part series about the ways in which you can make your property media-ready. In this part, we will be talking about the online steps you can take to make a splash.

Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are great ways to get your name out there for free, so take advantage! Post content about your property, promotions and deals, and remember to include immaculate images that will show people what makes your property so special.

Alongside your social media posts, you might want to lay some groundwork in terms of social media reach. It’s a good idea to do some online networking, such as following influential industry bloggers on social media, as well as local tourism sites. Tagging them in your posts, as well as commenting on their posts, will draw their attention to you.

Get in touch with other local businesses and build a rapport with each other, as this will increase the social media coverage not only for you but for your local area as well.

Consider pinning a message to your Facebook or Twitter profile, so that any existing or prospective customers viewing your page can see a focussed post, or you can add to your highlights on Instagram.

If you’ve been nominated for (or won) an award, or your property was involved in an event, organisers may give you a virtual badge to put on your B&B website and share on social media. For example, TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice.

This is a great way to impress potential guests because it shows that your efforts and commitment to your business have been recognised in a competition or by guests. Don’t underestimate how good that looks – it makes you stand out from your competitors!

Writing a short blog post every now and then about recent news or offers will increase your B&B website position in search engine rankings. Perhaps you’ve been shortlisted for an award or have just hired a promising new chef; a blog on this will look great for potential business. Testimonials go a long way to building trust with prospective customers so ask a guest for a bite-sized quote to include in your content.  Remember to always add a picture to the blog as this makes it a lot more reader-friendly and increases your SEO score.

You might want to take a look at our trade secrets page on how to use Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for B&Bs to improve the ranking of your blog on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Remember the key actions to remember are:

Email marketing in the hotel industry is a vital way of keeping in touch with guests and potential customers. If you have something to promote, don’t be afraid to push it in an email update.

The way in which you present your offers is just as important as the offer itself – nobody wants to open up a badly designed and poorly written email, no matter how good the deal is. There are several excellent email platform companies who help you design awesome looking emails and send them out to your contacts, rather than doing it manually using your personal account.

eviivo suite has the option to create customised emails and schedule them at a time you’d like them to be sent, simply and automatically. Use the drag and drop tool to design email templates that stand out from the crowd, and really show off your business’s personality.

Otherwise, SendInBlue is a simple, easy to use e-mail tool and comes loaded with templates and innovative special features to enable you to create eye-catching emails that pack a punch. It’s super-easy to upload images, fill in the copy and send.

And there you have it! Follow these steps and you’ll be on your way to securing some price-free publicity that is sure to benefit your business. If you’re looking for more information on how to work digital media to garner attention, stay tuned for our final part of ‘How to gain publicity to boost your business – Part 3: Traditional Media’ where we will be showing you how to use press, radio and television to raise your profile even further.