Traveling and blogging: What could be a better combination? You see tons of amazing things on the road, so why not share them with the world through your very own travel blog? It sounds easy enough, but there’s a lot of competition on the internet.
In 2023, there are over 600 million blogs on the internet. And if you want to stand out from the pack, you need to take your blog to the next level. Here are six tips to promote your travel blog effectively.
Send Email Updates When You Post a New Blog
The oldest form of internet communication might seem outdated in 2023. But actually, email is one of the most effective forms of digital marketing currently available! In fact, the average email marketing campaign generates an incredible $36 for every $1 spent — which sounds like the perfect cost-effective promotional strategy for an up-and-coming travel blog.
Every time you post a new blog, send a quick email to notify your readers directly. They won’t be able to resist clicking that link and reading all about your latest adventures. However, your emails are a representation of your brand, so make sure they look good!
The easiest way to ensure professional-level email layouts without taking time out of your busy travel schedule is to use templates. There are thousands of free blog email templates available online from websites like PosterMyWall. Simply choose the template that best fits your style, customize the info, and you’re ready to send.
Upload Only High-Quality Images and Videos
Traveling is a unique experience. And people want to see what makes your trips so unique. So when it comes to images and videos, only high-quality original content will do.
Giant walls of text tend to scare off internet users. Adding images and videos into your blogs breaks up the text to make your content more user-friendly. Plus, it’s one thing to talk about your travels, but it’s another thing to actually show your readers what you saw. It adds another dimension to your blog content, drawing in more people.
And not everyone is a reader. You might get visitors to your blog just to see your unique visual content, helping to gain more traffic.
Keep SEO in Mind
When people are curious about anything, they head to a search engine. According to studies, 68% of all online experiences start with a search engine! Wouldn’t it be nice if major search engines like Google or Bing put your travel blog front and center in the search results? Well, they will if you follow proper SEO practices!
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It’s little tricks to make the information in your travel blog more visible to search engine crawlers. These are some of the top SEO tips for travel blogs:
- Use properly formatted headers
- Add keywords related to the blog topic in headers and throughout (but not too many)
- Add alt-text for your images
- Include external and internal links
- Write in short paragraphs
- Write unique meta descriptions
With proper SEO strategies in place, search engines can find your amazing travel content and rank it higher in the search results. It’s one of the best ways to drive organic traffic to your website!
Engage with others on social media
Part of promoting anything is getting your messaging where your ideal audience spends their time. In 2023, that place is social media. With over 300 million active users in the U.S. alone, 72.5% of the entire population uses some form of social media regularly, making it the perfect place to promote your travel blog.
Travel content is almost designed for social media. Your eye-catching images and videos of the places you’ve seen will easily catch the eye of anyone whose feed it passes through. Really, the only thing you need to do to promote your travel blog on social media is to post regular high-quality content and remember to include plenty of links back to your website.
For a little extra boost on your social media promotions, it’s always best to actively engage with your followers. Respond to comments and direct messages (DMs) to build relationships. You can also join travel-related Facebook groups or use travel hashtags on Instagram and TikTok to make your content more discoverable.
Work with Other Bloggers and Influencers
Just because there are millions of other blogs out there doesn’t mean you have to look at them all as competition. It’s possible to work with them to extend your marketing reach even farther.
One way to work with other bloggers is to write guest posts for their website. For example, if you find a website that specializes in travel destinations in a specific city, write an article about the time you visited that city and reach out to see if they’ll post it to their site.
But before you submit your piece for upload, make sure the website will allow you to include at least one link back to your website or a writer bio at the bottom — or ideally both! You want that website’s readers to see your amazing content, want to read more, and follow the links back to your website.
Become a Brand Affiliate
Brands are always looking for new influencers and affiliates to promote their wares, and travel bloggers make ideal candidates! Travelers use all sorts of products to make life on the road a bit easier, many of which aren’t known to the average person.
Find a brand selling products that fit your travel lifestyle and reach out to see if they’d be interested in having you as an affiliate. You’ll promote their products in your blog and social media accounts, and they’ll promote you in their marketing materials — and maybe give you a discount and/or kickback for every product you sell.
Working as a brand affiliate is a great way to extend your marketing reach to a new audience and maybe even make a little money in the process.
Get More Readers to “Travel” to Your Travel Blog
Your travel blog is full of incredible content showcasing your various adventures. Now you just need to get more people to read it! The best way to promote your travel blog is to start an email marketing campaign, upload plenty of high-quality images and videos, use SEO best practices, engage with others on social media, work with other bloggers, and become a brand affiliate.
With a few effective promotional strategies, your travel blog might just become more popular than the Grand Canyon!