Blogging As An Effective Marketing Tool. A Presentation made by Brad Greaves, owner of Ignace Outposts Fly in Fishing. http://www.ignaceoutposts.com.

A timeless non-technical review of blogging for tourism marketing – Presented at the NOTO Conference in 2008

Blogging As An Effective Marketing Tool – Pt 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgD5rH6Unc4

00:52 The Number One Secret Marketing Tool
01:39 What To Blog? A Few False Starts
02:50 Does everyone know what a Blog is?
03:23 Talk to Doug
04:08 The Internet Is Changing
06:06 Blogging, blog, blogger
06:37 Why would you want to blog?
06:54 What is your Brand?
07:37 Tourism Keys Workshops by Todd Lucier
08:35 Why do people read blogs?
11:27 Ten Tips To Effective Blogging
12:03 Post Regularly – Plan Ahead
14:13 Is this important to you?
14:42 The WORST thing to put on your blog!
15:06 Polish the piece before you publish
17:00 How To Come Up With The Ideas
19:31 I prefer to be in an airplane

Blogging As An Effective Marketing Tool – Pt 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW8ouVtLT5M

00:00 Part Two – Continued – Write down your ideas
01:04 People Get The Nobel Prize For Research!
01:58 Quick List of Blogging Ideas
04:41 Who is the most important person in your camp?
06:57 Fall Fishing is good in September!
07:20 Father and Son Fishing Trips
07:49 The Untethered Vacation
10:43 Use Short Sentences
11:11 Use Lots of Pictures
11:44 Format your pictures!
13:10 Sorry – Did want to wake you up
13:30 48 Inch Northern Pike Story

Blogging As An Effective Marketing Tool – Pt 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5O5el16bkM

00:02 Want your picture on my Blog?
00:18 Time to get the camera out!
01:10 Why you should use photoshop – clone tool
02:03 Videos are very easy – use movie maker
02:50 Keep your videos short
05:10 Do It Your Way
06:15 Questions
06:20 How do you get people to your blog?
07:40 What about comments on your blog?
08:54 How do you schedule your posts?
10:42 What about Traffic Stats – Google Analytics?
11:57 Do you find it harder to blog in the off-season?
17:42 Meet other bloggers

http://www.ignaceoutposts.com – Brad Greaves of Ignace Outposts presents Blogging As An Effective Marketing Tool at the 2008 NOTO Conference.

Presented by
http://www.marketingtourismwithsocialmedia.com

Introducing…

A new Twitter Marketing Experiment designed to promote Canadian Fishing Lodges.

Twitter has been getting a great deal of attention within the Marketing Circles so I’ve been researching the Twitter methodology of the most successful Twitter accounts online, and using their strategies for Tourism Marketing, specifically, for fishing and hunting trips.

Growth of Twitter

The exponential growth in the uptake of Twitter is partly because Twitter works so well with texting to and from a mobile phone.

Mobile phones now outnumber land-line subscriptions four to one – and represents a fundamental change in the way people are accessing the Internet.

WHO

WHAT

If fishing in Canada interests you, then so would these Twitter accounts! Because all that these Twitter accounts talk about is fishing! Fishing News, Fishing stuff on eBay and real Fishing Reports from actual, real, Fishing Lodges in Canada!

I’d love to hear your feedback — good or bad!

Twitter has become one of my top referring traffic sources, and I’m excited to send new, targeted traffic – directly to your websites and blogs!!

Join The Experiment

Contact Me for all the details!

Part Six of Many – Blogging as an Effective Marketing Tool

Who doesn’t want to see himself on the internet?

I guest comes out – they give you pictures right out of their digital camera, you put them on your computer, you find one or two good ones… put them on the blog – before he gets home!  He can go on there and see himself.

You know what he’s going to do?  He’s going to call Uncle Joe, he’s going to call his coleagues at work, he’s going to call his kids, he’s going to call everybody that he knows, saying “check out this website”. And guess who’s it is?  It’s mine. And on my blog is a link back to my business website.  Everybody wants to see themselves, so, it’s a breeze and they do it.

And another reason – I didn’t post it on here (the slide show) – but I’ll guarentee you, a big reason people read blogs, is, it’s a diversion.  Sometimes if I’ve got nothing to do, I’ll go on and I’ll read a blog and just find something new – just something to do…

People read blogs at work.

And the reason they do that, they need a diversion.  They have a 2 second break, “Ok, let’s see what’s happening in Ignace…”

One of my guests is the CEO of the largest compressed gas manufacturers in North America, it’s called Air Gas. And he told me that he reads my blog before he starts his work day every single day.  He goes into work, and he say’s his secretary knows not to put anything on his desk until he’s checked out my blog.  Not bad!

And, because of that, he actually booked a second trip this year, because he was up in June and started checking my blog.  By the end of July he was so anxious to come fishing again, that he called and booked a trip for August!

So, you know, it does really work.

Next: Ten Tips for Effective Blogging in Tourism Marketing

Part Five of Many: Blogging as an Effective Marketing Tool

I put a blog up… why would somebody be interested in what I put up there?

There’s many reasons:
They might want to just stay connected to me and my camp, (or you and your camp).

They go home, they had a great experience at your camp, they start thinking about fishing again… why not keep them connected to you rather than to have them going off and checking out somebody else? So if you can establish that regular relationship with them, they’re going to do that.

Maybe they want to learn something.

People go on the internet all the time to learn stuff.  On my blog,  I’ve got videos on how to fillet a pike, you know, bones?  I put a video with stuff about Caribou… I explain to my guests how we do things…

For example, I take it for granted when we take an airplane from the water to the hanger – it takes us two minutes to do.  We do it so often, we don’t even think about it.   But my guests, constantly, when somebody drives in the yard and sees an airplane in the hangar, on floats, they go “How’d it get in there?”  You know, I try explaining to them, I posted a little blog to show how it’s done… So, they might just want to learn something.

They want to keep up with news;

We had a grandchild this summer, we posted it up.  The comments, or the emails were comin’ in from all over the place! I couldn’t believe that people were reading that!

You know there’s a rule about blogging; they say don’t blog about your kids,
and the second rule is: Blog about your kids.

Your guests become part of your relationship.  You have a personal relationship with them – they’re interested in what’s happening… you don’t want to over-do it, but they’re interested.

Next: They like to see themselves.

Part Four of Many: Blogging as an Effective Marketing Tool

Why Would You Want To Blog? For me,

• it’s a very inexpensive, but
• very effective way to stay in touch with my guests,
• to market my business, and
• to establish my Brand.

Does everybody understand what a Brand is?

That word gets tossed around all the time. We heard it a little bit this morning with the OTMPCWXYZ guys, but what a Brand is, is essentially, a perception people have of your business.

So, they see your name, they think of something… You can have a good Brand that is a result of you doing a lot of good work, or you can have a bad Brand because you threw something lousy out once.

You Brand is important, it’s what people think about as your business – that’s the simplest way to put it.

You want to keep your company brand out front. That’s how yourself in front of me and in front of Marg…

Tourism Keys Workshops

I don’t know if any of you have taken the Tourism Keys Workshops; a fella by the name of Todd (Lucier) does those.

He calls blogging his Number One Tool for Internet Marketing.

And he gives a few reasons, I’ll just tell you:

• It’s very simple, anybody can do it
• It’s very quick – it takes three minutes or less to put a post up, and I’ll talk about how I do that
• It’s very easy to distribute the content. You can put text up, you can put images up, you can put videos up and you can put audio up.
• Very simple and very easy to get it all up on your blog.
• It’s very very subscriber friendly
• And it’s very adaptable, you can change it as you go. If you don’t like something, it’s gone, you can change it.
• It keeps your business front and center with your guests.

Next: Why Do People Read Blogs?

This is Part Three of Many: Blogging as an Effective Marketing Tool

The Internet Is Changing and most of us have web pages.

The web pages started out as a static brochure. They didn’t change very often. So what happened is somebody would go on your website, then they go on your website a month later – it’s the same thing, a month later it’s the same thing, a month later… a year later… it’s the same thing, it’s the same pictures – nothing was changing. It’s like you had the guy your brochure and he just keeps pulling it out of the cupboard and keeps looking at it.

What’s happened with the internet over time is now what is referred to as Web 2.0 which is more interactive. People go on the internet to find new stuff. so they go on to read newspapers – it changes every day, they go on to find stock quotes – it changes in minute by minute. Blogging has become one component of that, where you can change it every day – it takes very little effort, but it gives somebody a reason to come back to your website.

It’s like imagining being able to talk to your guests, every single day, for zero cost. And you’re copying their schedule and it doesn’t interrupt your schedule. You know, why not? That’s what blogging is all about.

If you have questions, just pop up a hand… there’s no bad questions, I may give you a bad answer… but there’s no bad questions. I’ll do my best… If I know the answer, you’ll get it right away, if I don’t know the answer, I’ll take a second, I’ll think of something – I don’t know if it’s true or not but I’ll try anyway.

Definition – What is a Blog?

Essentially it’s a contraction of weB LOG, so you take the ‘B’ and the ‘LOG’ and it’s BLOG. It’s a journal, like a diary that you put out. It’s interactive and it’s available on the internet.

Ok, someone who does the work of ‘blogging’ – is a ‘blogger’. And when you’re a ‘blogger’, your ‘blogging’. That’s the actual doing… so if you hear those terms it all has to do with the fact that the blog is the little diary and blogging is putting it up; blogger is what you are as you do it.

One thing about blogs is that they’re just about always arraigned in chronological order with the newest being first. So you end up with a whole bunch go down the row and as they get older they fall off into an archive, however there’s still readily available. And we do have our blog over here, after you can take a look at it, Karen’s got it up on our computer.

Next: Why Would You Want To Blog?

…more on Ignace Outposts

MC – I’d like to introduce Brad Greaves of Ignace Airways outpost camps for a quarter century, a bush person, just like myself, flying, cutting wood, doing everything around camp… imagine – he’s blogging!

Totally amazing! So, I’m sure this is going to be very interesting and informative, but I can’t leave without introducing his resource person too, Karen is in the room. So, enjoy it everybody.

Brad – Well that concludes my talk… (laughter)

MC – well I can give you your gift right now…

Ok, I’m going to do my best – I’m not a high-tech person, however I have started blogging and as far as I’m concerned, it’s the number one secret marketing tool that can put your company ahead of somebody elses in this industry.

And I think that if you’re here with an interest in blogging, you’re a step ahead of most in our industry. If you are already blogging, you are miles ahead. And I know there are some who are already blogging (points out three others in the audience of about 25 NOTO members)

What I’m going to do is this is entitled “Blogging As An Effective Marketing Tool“.

I’m not going to talk about the technical aspects of blogging, I’m going to talk about how to make your blogging effective because the biggest hurdle I had in setting up my blog was – what do I put on it.

And I would run out of material. I would have a great idea for one day, and I’d get that up there, but then the next day I’d be sort of scratching my head…

To be honest with you I started blogging about four years ago and my first blog went up, then it was about a month before I put up my next post, then I put another one right away… then it was about three months before the next post. So I thought this is stupid, no-one is reading it, so I deleted the whole blog and started again. Put one post up, put another one up, it was a couple weeks before I put another one, then it could have been several months before I posted the next one because I, I just didn’t have the time… and I thought I didn’t have any ideas…

After a few false starts I tried it again this year with commitment, and you know what, it doesn’t take a lot of time if you think through the process.

So hopefully some of the thinking and some of the process I’ve gone through will help you so when you want to set up your blog, you’ll come up with some ideas, come up with some material, and come up with something that’s going to be effective in marketing your business…

Brad Greaves of Ignace Outposts gave a fantastic talk at the NOTO 2008 Conference;

Blogging As An Effective Marketing Tool.

I was given permission to record and broadcast the presentation.

…and Brad’s presentation was packed full of useful tips on Blogging for Camp Owners. The hour-long presentation was filled with fresh, personal examples of how Blogging has helped him stay connected with his Fly in Fishing Outpost Cabin Guests; Brad explains how your tourism internet marketing can benefit from blogging.

And Brad explains it without cluttering your tourism marketing objectives with technical details.

A Timely, Important Message

Brad’s message is so timely and important, that I’ve taken seven hours to transcribe everything he said – so I can share it with you!!

Not only did I learn a great deal about what a Camp Owner wants their blog to do for them, but I also learned a great deal about how to speak about the benefits of internet marketing and blogging, rather than speaking about the technology… a chronic challenge of mine.

Put Good Advice Into Action

I’m following Brad’s Blogging advice.
I learned a lot from him, and I know you will too.

Watch for my new series of several short blog posts to share Brad’s Presentation with my readers and Tourism clients over the next couple weeks. My newsletter subscribers will also gain exclusive access to the full transcript in one pdf document!

Three cheers Brad!

A timeless non-technical review of blogging for tourism marketing – Presented at the NOTO Conference in 2008

Building Momentum

New Partnerships

The CanadianFishingBook Project is very excited to have formed new partnerships with some of the biggest Destination Marketing and Tourism-Related organizations in Northwestern Ontario!

We’d like to welcome Ontario’s Sunset Country and NOTO as our most recent Featured Members!

And a GREAT BIG Welcome to Jennifer Young and All Canada Sport Shows – the 12th of the Twelve Master Investors in the CanadianFishingBook Network!

↔

Back on High-Speed!

After 17 months of serving clients through a dail-up connection, and with great thanks to Quetico North for your wireless internet hotspot, I’m now back on my own highspeed connection!!

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You may experience downtime across many of my business websites over the next week as I upgrade software, update databases and replace old content with 301 redirects.

(client sites will not be effected)

Projects of Note:

CanadianFishingBook Network – This is my Flagship Project, and the first to undergo wholescale massive updates.  This project entails two components:

• The first component provides members with increased exposure across more than 20 pieces of Internet Real Estate, including an inter-connected network of tourism marketing blogs, social media sites, Canadian Fishing ebooks and fishing lodge business directories.
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• The second component serves to draw the ideal audience into our network of promotional sites by featuring articles and information about the Sport Shows occuring through Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan.
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1. Blogging As An Effective Marketing Tool
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   • Brad Greaves of Ignace Outposts gave a fantastic talk at the NOTO 2008 Conference, Blogging As An Effective Marketing Tool.  I was given permission to record the presentation – and it was sooo good, sooo packed full of useful tips on Blogging, that I’ve taken seven hours to transcribe everything he said – so I can share it with you!!
     ¦
   • Put good advice into action – I’m following Brad’s Blogging advice.  I learned a lot from him, and I know you will too. I’m creating a series of several blog posts to share Brad’s presentation over the next couple weeks. My newsletter subscribers with gain exclusive access to the full transcript in one pdf document!
     √
2. Fishi.ca – Blogs for Fishing Lodges
   
   • Just starting to Blog?  Been Blogging for a while but want some help?  Just want to gain some search-engine-friendly links to your main site?  JOIN FISHI.CA