Jens of the Tourism Internet Marketing blog has put out a call for travel marketing secrets and tips. He’s looking for your best kept marketing secret to add to Tips from the T List ebook. This set me thinking about my marketing efforts in my UK based online travel business Europe a la Carte.

What pearl of wisdom could I pass on to aid my colleagues in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry.? It’s doesn’t exactly qualify as a secret and it’s not a quick, easy fix which you can implement and see immediate returns. My tip is to blog for your travel related business, create and maintain a blog as part of your website.

What’s great about a blog for a small business such as mine is that it is virtually no cost, in financial terms. It does take enormous amounts of time and effort to regularly research and write posts., visit and comment at other related blogs and generally promote your blog e.g. submit to blog directories. So many other types of marketing can involve a large capital outlay and are not guaranteed to be cost effective.

I think that travel related businesses are ideal home for a blog because most consumers are interested in reading about travel. Having a business blog is difficult balancing act as you have to simultaneously entertain, inform and interest the reader (your potential or existing customer) and sell your product or service. Nobody is going to bother reading your blog if it is just unremitting sales copy. If your blog is merely going to be riveting reading but not increasing brand awareness and leading to some sales and increase in revenue and profits, then why bother investing the time blogging?