Creating good content to promote your business

1. How do I write good content?

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  What kinds of content could I create?

  Do you have your website complete, and your business listings up-to-date on all sites? Great! Now, have a think about what additional things you could create.

  You’ll have all the key information about your business on your website. But now it’s time to look at what added value you could offer a visitor and how you can engage with potential customers.

  These are just some ideas to get you thinking about what you could do. The important thing about creating content is to raise the profile of your business, location and the country.

  You can do so through fun, shareable content which people will enjoy watching or reading. This hopefully makes users click through to find out more about you.

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  Share other things to do near your business

  If you’re an accommodation provider, you can add an article of suggested or recommended things to do near your business.

  If you’re an attraction, tour or activity provider, you can create an article of suggested or recommended places to stay, or eat near your business.

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  Share stories about your business

  Maybe you have an employee with an interesting story to tell about their time working at your business? Or someone who knows a lot about the local history of your town?

  Or maybe you have an employee who can give a taster of the experience your business offers?

  Think of a chef who creates incredible dishes, a tour guide who brings your attraction to life, or an activity expert who can give tips on sport.

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  Share conversations about topics related to your business

  Is your business is based around Scottish history for example? If so, you could start a discussion on interesting famous Scots or popular periods of history.

  If you run a B&B, you could ask people for their favourite breakfast dishes and then share what you serve and the produce you use.

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  Share anything related to visiting Scotland

  Keep your eyes open to what others are doing, be they:

  similar businesses

  destination management organisations

  sectoral groups

  national organisations

  Consider whether you can do something similar on a smaller scale.

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  Other types of content

  You could also create:

  • a quick poll or vote on social media
  • an interview with past customers on what they loved about your business and their visit to Scotland
  • an infographic of interesting data about your business
  • a thread in a community to start a discussion
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  Where do I share my content?

  Make sure any articles are linked to from your website.

  Post a link on your social media channels.

  Include the content in any emails you send to your customer database. Or perhaps add to your email signature/booking confirmation emails.

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  Should I create my own or share existing content?

  Always make use of content that already exists on a subject if done well (it looks good, covers the key points, and includes links out to more information).

  It’s not as efficient to spend time creating a piece of content if someone has already done it well. If you can make use of their content, share it on your own social media channels or link to it from your website.

  You can put a different take on existing content, or do the same thing on a different scale.

  You could share 10 hidden gems in Scotland from VisitScotland, but you could do your own 10 hidden gems around your business location.

  Ideally, you would do a mix of both – share interesting content from others in the industry, but also create your own.