How can a blog help your dive business?

If you own a dive centre or resort, you may be wondering how a blog can help your business. After all, blogging is mostly about sharing your thoughts and experiences with the world, so how can that possibly benefit your dive shop?

Well, it turns out that blogging can be quite helpful for businesses, and dive shops and resorts are no exception. A blog can be a great way to build thought leadership and brand awareness for your business. You can use it to educate your customers about diving, share your experience with the world, and generate leads and sales.

If you're thinking about starting a blog for your dive business, here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. Be sure to choose a blogging platform that is easy to use and maintain.
2. Make sure your blog posts are well-written, informative, and engaging.
3. Be sure to promote your blog through social media and email marketing.

Most people think of a blog as an online journal where people can share their thoughts and feelings on various topics. But a blog can also be a great marketing tool for businesses. A business blog can be used to promote products and services, build thought leadership, and connect with customers and prospects.

A blog is a place where you can write relevant articles related to your dive centre or resort to not only retain your current customers but also acquire new customers. Blogs are also considered the middle ground between your website and your social media channels.

There are two main reasons to adopt blogging as part of your digital marketing strategy.

1. A blog provides you with an easy way to keep your website’s content fresh and up-to-date. This can help improve your search engine optimization (SEO) and attract new visitors to your site.
2. A blog gives you a platform to share your dive business's story, build relationships with potential and current customers, and establish yourself as an expert in the dive industry.

Of course, there are many other benefits of having a business blog. These include things like boosting customer loyalty, generating leads, growing sales, improving customer retention rates, fostering teamwork and collaboration within your organization… the list goes on!

So if you’re not already blogging regularly for your business, why not give it a try? You might be surprised at how effective it can be.

The frequency with which you need to write blog articles will depend on several factors, such as the purpose of your blog, the size of your audience, and the amount of time you have to dedicate to writing. However, as a general guideline, it is generally advisable to write a new blog article every week.

If you can commit to writing new articles regularly, you will be able to keep your blog fresh and engaging for your readers. Additionally, writing new articles consistently will also help you attract new readers and grow your audience over time.

If you've ever felt stuck or uninspired when it comes to writing, you're not alone. Many people struggle with finding ideas or topics to write about, especially if they're not passionate about the subject.

Luckily, there are a few things you can do to overcome this writer's block. First, try brainstorming a list of potential topics. Once you have a few ideas, do some research to see if there are any common themes or topics that are related to your subject. You can also try reading other articles or blogs to see what others are writing about.

If you're still having trouble, try reaching out to friends or family members to see if they have any ideas. Sometimes, all it takes is a little outside help to get the creative juices flowing.

Being in the scuba diving industry, we are extremely lucky as we have so many topics that we can write about! Our industry is fun and exciting and ever-changing so the list of topics that you could write about is endless!

Some examples include:

• Hints/tips on becoming a better scuba diver
• Fascinating facts about marine life
• Promotion of PADI courses
• Environment and marine conservation/Project AWARE
• Top lists
• Local dive sites
• Equipment reviews
• Promotions/events happening at your PADI Dive Centre/Resort
• Staff/Instructor profiles
• Instructor Development Courses/Go PRO nights

So you’re now interested in blogging and see the benefits that it can provide your business however you just aren’t quite comfortable in knowing how to write an article – no problem, below you will find the items that make up a decent and attractive article for the reader – the goal, after all, is to keep the reader engaged and wanting more information from you.

Anatomy Of a Blog Article 

1. Blog Title – use keywords to explain what your article is about (approx. 65-70 characters including spaces). Make sure it explains clearly what the reader will be informed of if they read the blog article.
2. Headings/Sub-headings – using headings is a great way to break up your content, making the article look more attractive to the reader.
3. Content – needs to be informative and include keywords and keyword phrases however ensure it’s written in natural language for the reader, not for the search engines.
4. Imagery & Videos – add attractive images/short video clips to attract the reader and also use them to break up the text within your article, so it looks more pleasing to the reader’s eye.
5. Humour – if you can, add some humor to your writing. This can also help to build/add personality to your brand/content.
6. Links (internal & external) – hyperlink any keywords within your articles back to relevant pages on your website to help flow traffic back/through your website or link out to external websites to provide the reader additional information/resources.
7. Call to Action – add one to the end of your article to provoke an ‘immediate action’ – this can assist to encourage the reader to seek more information, contact you, make a booking etc

As you can see blogging is a valuable tool that can assist your dive business to improve your search engine ranking, acquire new customers or retain your current ones – plus, it’s not that hard!

Enlist the help of your dive staff to help lighten the load – have brainstorming sessions to come up with topics/keywords that can be blogged about and use a social media editorial calendar so that your staff is clear on when their article is due to be posted online. Plus, before hiring new staff, make sure you add blogging as part of their role – in the end, it’s only going to help your business and save you time!

If you need more information or assistance in getting going, please contact me and let's discuss how I can help.