Choosing the right type of blog post to promote your activity business
If you run an experience business, a blog can be a great asset to promote your activities and generate bookings. But before you put pen to paper, it’s worth thinking about what kind of content is going to work best for your business.
Generally speaking, online articles will fit into five broad categories. Knowing in advance which category you’re writing for will help keep your writing on track and focused.
Not sure whether a blog is for you? Find out how a blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business.
List-based
List-based blog posts are really easy to navigate, as they present their information via a series of headlines. Readers can simply scroll through the article and see if a headline catches their eye. This simplicity makes list-based articles extremely useful when marketing your business. In fact, they’re so useful that most of the articles in this guide are lists - including this one!
Example
A Cardiff-based SUP business wants to market stand-up paddleboarding to complete beginners as well as more experienced enthusiasts. To target beginners, write an article called 5 reasons to try stand-up paddleboarding in Cardiff, to catch the attention of tourists and locals who’ve not tried the activity much before, if at all.
Meanwhile, an article entitled 7 of the best places to SUP around Cardiff helps target a more experienced demographic keen to rent boards and explore independently.
Explainer
If you’ve got some expertise on a topic, you might want to write some explainer articles. These dive a bit deeper into their subject than list-based articles, which means they might take a bit longer to write. But the pay-off is that you can more powerfully demonstrate your passion for your business and market to a more experienced customer.
Example
An artificial ski slope is getting plenty of bookings, but wants to generate more revenue via the centre’s in-house workshop. Sensing that people might not be aware of the importance of getting their equipment serviced, the workshop manager writes up a series of short articles for the centre’s blog explaining why it’s important to look after your ski gear, and how often to get it serviced. This article not only helps generate bookings for the workshop, but promotes the centre as a source of expertise.
Reviews
If you have lots of outdoor equipment (or even just a little), reviewing it is a great way to cut through the noise and attract enthusiasts seeking information about a specific product. As your blog is for marketing your business, you probably want to avoid rating any equipment you actually use too negatively. Instead, you can dive into who that piece of equipment is ideal for, demonstrating your deep understanding of your field and giving customers some insight into what to expect.
Example
A diving centre offering lessons for beginner, intermediate, and expert divers wants to call more attention to the quality of their equipment, which is a major selling point for their business. So they decide to write up a series of quick, 200-word reviews for every significant item used by customers, from goggles to flippers.
Across all their reviews, they make sure to point out which items are perfect for first-timers, which are ideal for those looking to advance, and which are best-suited to more experienced divers. This helps attract a wide range of customers, from beginners seeking reassurance to keen divers looking for high-quality equipment.
Interviews and profile pieces
Your instructors are the face of your business, and for your customers, their main point of contact. Writing up interviews and profiles of your staff is a great way for your readers to feel like they’ve gotten to know the people behind the business, forming an emotional connection. It’s also very easy to do. Send a basic list of questions to all your staff - including some funny ones like their favourite karaoke song or go-to party trick - and you’ve got a bunch of great content ready to go.
Example
A fitness company wants to promote their business online. Knowing that customers would want to feel reassured that their children were in good hands, they posts a series of instructor profiles on their blog showing the personality, expertise, and credentials of each instructor. They make sure to include a call-to-action encouraging viewers to book onto a taster session.
Opinion pieces / News
Last but not least, you can use a blog to keep people up to date with the general goings-on in your business via news articles and opinion pieces. If you’re a bit of a wordsmith and enjoy writing for its own sake, posting short, insightful essays about areas of interest or news and updates will help readers invest in you as a business. Just don’t feel too pressured to write the next bestseller!
Example
A guided mountain expedition company has noticed a distinct lull every January, when the colder weather and post-festive blues puts people off going outside. They decide to write an article, Why January is my favourite month for mountaineering, to help spread the word about the mountaineering opportunities to be had in the depth of winter. Whilst they don’t anticipate this article generating a huge amount of bookings, it helps communicate expertise, drives up SEO, and could attract more experienced readers looking to have some guided New Year adventures.
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