| When you are running a bed and breakfast it's | | | | cheap. You can't go throwing them around like |
| nice to look forward to the day when you have | | | | confetti. |
| built your reputation and guests come back to | | | | So how else do you advertise? Well anyone |
| you year after year. Not only that, they | | | | running a bed and breakfast today simply must |
| recommend their friends too! It's good business. | | | | have an internet presence of some kind. Bed and |
| It's far more profitable for a bed and breakfast | | | | breakfast websites are common but the most |
| business to re-book guests than it is to find new | | | | powerful tool is your own bed and breakfast blog. |
| ones. Unfortunately, if you rely solely on that, | | | | They're cheap to set up, have negligible running |
| your B & B won't last long. Drawing in new people | | | | costs and, most importantly, you don't have to |
| is an absolute must. Your ongoing bed and | | | | rely on outside contractors or agencies. After a |
| breakfast marketing plan need to be something | | | | little initial help you can run your own. |
| you have in mind all the time. | | | | A well run B & B blog gives you virtually global |
| We all have budgets though. We can't just | | | | reach. Using clever marketing tactics it costs no |
| advertise here, there and everywhere. When you | | | | more to put it in front of a thousand people than |
| run a bed and breakfast you need to run a tight | | | | it does to put it in front of one. For anyone |
| ship. You need to know where you are going to | | | | running a bed and breakfast there is no marketing |
| get the best bang for your buck! | | | | tool that even comes close in terms of its ability |
| A brochure to advertise your B & B (or guest | | | | to increase your business. |
| house, gite, country inn, chambre d'hotes etc.) is | | | | Does that mean you shouldn't bother with "old |
| usually seen as a good marketing tool. It can be, | | | | fashioned" bed and breakfast brochures? No. It |
| but you have to consider where you can put it | | | | just means you can afford to be more selective. |
| and how far it can reach. If you have a local | | | | Get just a hundred done and see how they go. If |
| tourist office who will stock it, that's great | | | | there's more call, get more printed. It's an |
| targeting. Likewise if you have tourist attractions | | | | economical option while your blog does most of |
| near your bed and breakfast. In return you take | | | | the work. Good bed and breakfast marketing is a |
| some of their brochures to hand to your guests. | | | | question of testing, seeing what works and acting |
| It's a win, win situation. | | | | on the results - all the while keeping an eye on |
| But showering them around everywhere is just a | | | | the pennies. With a blog as the backbone of your |
| waste of money. With modern digital printing | | | | marketing you can test other things cheaply and |
| methods you can have much lower print runs | | | | thus more profitably - which is what we're all |
| than before but it's still not something that's | | | | after! |