August 2012 Newsletter

Late Availability

If you have any late availability listings on the site which have since been filled, please remember to log in and delete them (if they haven’t already expired). We’ve been experiencing an incredible rush in last-minute summer holiday enquiries, but occasionally find that available properties have since been booked. Update your Late Availability Listings, or if you have any vacancies for September, feel free to log in to add them.

Making your Holiday Cottage more Social

As social media continues to grow in all forms of marketing, we’ve put together a few articles on improving your online visibility via social media channels. Improved visibility means more visitors to your website, which ultimately translates to more guests.

Our first article is all about optimising your Facebook Page. By this, we mean increasing the number of visits to your page and the resulting increase in the number of visitors clicking through to your website. Thousands of owners have Facebook Pages, but many could make their pages perform better with several quick fixes. All of these fixes should help generate more ‘likes’, hopefully translating into additional enquiries and bookings. 

One of our Favourite Tips is to add a link in the main description on your Facebook Page. It may sound simple, but switching the ‘category’ your Facebook page is registered under allows you to add an incredibly prominent link that your fans can use to click through to your website.

You Cottage and Social Media

Article Number 2 is all about making your property more ‘social’. From adding ‘social share’ buttons to including a Twitter feed, the article carries a host of good suggestions for marketing your property more effectively. With all the effort owners put into selling their properties on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, your efforts should always support your overall marketing plans.

Producing Directions with Google Maps:

Our third article is about generating a set of directions for your guests with Google Maps. It’s quick, easy and, best of all, can be customised to the directions you want - not what Google suggests, which sometimes directs guests to a spot hundreds of metres from your property. So many guests rely on postcodes and their satnavs to find properties which can often leave them lost and confused – which is not the state of mind you want your guests to be in when they eventually arrive. So to see how to make your set of directions,

Find us on Twitter and Facebook:

If you want to keep up to date with the latest articles, why not follow and ‘like’ us on Twitter and Facebook? – or keep in touch with the grapevine by following us! On Twitter, we also have a running list of around 300 holiday cottage owners, so if you want to connect with other owners and discuss all things holiday cottages, look at our list here for people to follow.

Finally:

We’re always keen to hear from owners regarding how My Favourite Holiday Cottages could be improved or fresh ideas for blog posts. You can always contact us directly by tweeting us @mfhcottages, or we still use the ever-popular methods of email: info@mfhc.co.uk or phone us on 01598 710631 for a chat.

With best wishes for the end of the summer season,

Rick Bond, My Favourite Holiday Cottages