Have you considered running a blog about your ecotourism business? If you think blogging is best left to backpackers and food-lovers, or simply haven’t found the time to start, we hope you’ll reconsider.
From credibility to clients, here are six reasons to make blogging part of your business strategy – and an easy way to get started.
Build credibility
Being an ecotourism operator makes you an industry expert, with insights into the latest news, challenges and opportunities in the area where you operate. You know where visitors have the best chance of viewing wildlife, how to experience authentic local culture and can offer tips for travelling responsibly in your area.
Your valuable inside knowledge can help build credibility, and that credibility translates into trust. And guess what? Informative content is also much likely to be shared via social networks than sales pitches. Who knows how many people your post could reach?
Show character
As a business owner, there’s no doubt that you’ve built up character through the trials and successes on your ecotourism journey!
Blogging is a great way to showcase your business’ unique character or ‘personality’ and become more real and relatable. Rather than just the next operator selling tours, be seen as a human company with passions, values and unique voices, offering incredible experiences you believe in.
Generate content
Social media like Twitter and Facebook is key for creating engagement, but don’t you want people to be engaging with your own content? By sharing blog posts across your social media accounts, you can help send traffic to your own website, where potential clients can learn more about what you offer.
Create conversation
Combined with social media, blogging allows you to branch away from a buyer-seller relationship and have an open conversation with your community. Check out the comments, questions and engagement you receive, and use your blog to better understand what your customers relate to, and what they’re looking for. Like credibility, conversations help build trust.
Reassure clients
Ecotourism is exciting but planning trips can be hard work – and even daunting for some travellers. Is there a barrier that is preventing someone from taking their dream trip? Maybe the concern is local safety, whether a trip is family-friendly, or how to survive insects in the rainforest. Use your blog to reassure travelers with some simple tips or step-by-step how to’s, so that they can plan their trip without the worry.
Boost SEO
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is all about ranking (getting onto Google’s first results page) for different keywords. Because each blog post can be indexed – i.e. added into Google search -each post is a new opportunity for potential customers to discover you.
A blog can help you rank for long-tail keywords (e.g. “best kayak trips in western Canada”), which might not fit onto other pages. It also increases the chances for other organisations and bloggers to reference your content in their own articles and direct visitors to your site – great for credibility and SEO. Lastly, both Google and your customers like it when your website looks fresh, and producing blog content is the perfect way to achieve that.
Ready to get started?
We hope we’ve shown you that blogging can make your business stand out, help potential clients find you, and help earn their trust.
If you’re stuck on ways to start, check out our Wildlife Blogger of the Year competition. Why not write about an incredible wildlife moment that highlights your business, and invite potential clients to step into your world long before the trip begins?
Main image credit: rawpixel.com/Flickr.