Vacation Rental Marketing Blog Tips: Never Do This!

Kigo's Vacation Rental Marketing Blog has covered a variety of tips to help you handle your own blog. For instance, you may remember 2013's "Top Blogging Tips for Vacation Rental Managers" and "SEO Tips: 10 Blog Content Ideas for Vacation Rental Agencies", of the more recent 2016's "Best Advice for Vacation Rental Marketing Blog: Tell a Story".

Build a better blog by avoiding common blogging errors.

However, today's focus will be on common issues that befall vacation rental management bloggers and what can be done to overcome them and create content that leads to increased bookings.

Issue Number One: Neglecting to Blog

VRMA's "4 Common Mistakes Vacation Rental Companies Using Inbound Marketing Make" observes regarding blogging: "Blog posts drive more traffic to your website, and isn't more traffic and more customers the goal for all us marketers? So why wouldn't you blog? Every time you write a new blog post, you add another indexed page to your vacation rental website - and every new indexed page is more opportunity to show up in search engines."

While you agree with this concept intellectually, it is easy to fall into the trap of neglecting your blog. After all, you wear a number of hats every day as a vacation rental manager, and blogger is just one of them.

However, your blogger hat is a big deal. Hubspot's "The Benefits of Blogging for Business and Marketing" lists the following reasons you need to be blogging regularly:

• It helps drive traffic to your website.
• It helps convert traffic into leads.
• It helps establish authority.
• It drives long-term results.

Remembering all those benefits of blogging will help motivate you to find the time to get it done. A Kigo article on the subject gives this sage advice: "Don't push your blog posts aside when you have too much to do. Simply write shorter than normal or aggregate existing content. You should also create a list of topics you can write about to avoid having to brainstorm during a busy workday."

Issue Number Two: Rushed Writing and Rookie Mistakes

Once again, a lack of time is usually the catalyst for poor blog writing habits. Hubspot's "8 Mistakes Even Professional Content Writers Make (and How to Avoid Them)" recommends that you set aside your blog after writing and wait a bit before you go back to edit it.

Sometimes that extra time can free you mentally to discover an even better way of getting your point across than the one you used in your original draft. Editing for content requires a certain amount of detachment from your blog that is hard to achieve in the first few minutes after you complete it.

Edit and proofread each blog post with care to produce a quality product.

Set it aside, have a drink of your favorite beverage, and come back to it with fresh eyes. Then, proofread (aloud if possible) and edit to your heart's content. You will likely be amazed by all the little things you missed when writing the first draft. Reading your blog aloud enables you to use both your sense of sight and sound to catch any strange phrasing or small errors.

Issue Number Three: Failing to Write for the Right Audience

Who is reading your blog? Having a real person in mind when writing your blog will help you create content that is relevant, fresh, and interesting. The more detail you can imagine for your ideal guest, the better your writing will become.

When you have developed a clear mental picture of your ideal guest, write your blog like a letter to that guest. Your tone should be friendly and engaging. If your ideal guest is an adventure seeker, pepper your blog with strong action words to generate excitement. If your ideal guest is interested in a calm, relaxing vacation, evoke a soothing vibe with your word choice. In other words, tailor your blog content to your target guest.

Blogging for Vacation Rental Marketing Success

Successful blogging is about providing content that is relevant to your audience. To be effective, you must maintain a regular blogging schedule, put careful thought into writing, editing and proofreading your articles, and write each piece of content with a specific guest in mind.

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