Your budget determines not only whether your ad is shown but in what ranking it is shown compared with other ads. If it is not on the first page, it is vastly less likely to be seen and clicked on, and if it after the second page it becomes vanishingly unlikely to be clicked on.
This is all about relevance – so the more specific you can be, the more relevant you can be. And if you are in a very small location or are the only B & B there, you have a big advantage in that no competitors will also be paying for that location as a keyword.
There are hundreds of B & Bs in Blackpool, so if you are in Blackpool you are very unlikely to get listed very near the top of a search for“ Blackpool B & B”. However, if you are the only B & B in Nethercombe Lacy village, you are 100 % certain to come top of anyone’ s search for“ Nethercombe Lacy B & B”.
Again, AdWords could( and has) merited a book in itself, so we have confined ourselves to the basic principles, so that you can plan your online promotion via Google, and to this word of advice: don’ t ignore Google, embrace it!
To get started, go to www. google. co. uk / ads. You’ ll find it very easy.
Your clients are your best salesmen!
You are missing a seam of gold if you don’ t have a Guest Book. Praise from guests is the most persuasive kind of salesmanship, and better than anything you can say yourself. What marketers call“ testimonials” are nuggets of marketing gold, and they are free for the asking – if your B & B is praiseworthy of course, and as you are reading this book, we know it will be!
Buy an attractive, hardback Guest Book or Visitors Book, with ruled pages with narrow left had columns for date and name / address, then a wide column for comments. As guests are leaving, invite them to write in your Guest Book if they would like to.
We have been constantly surprised and delighted at the lovely comments we get from guests in our Guest Book. Many guests also find it reassuring and interesting to read through the comments from previous guests. Our book includes comments from guests from Japan, America, Sweden, Holland, France, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Pakistan and Réunion Island – and of course from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
What else can you do with your Guest Book, other than let guests read it? Go through it regularly for quotes, and put them in your brochure, and of course on your website. Be careful to quote accurately, and either( a) ask each person whose quote you use whether you can reproduce it – if you have their permission, you can attribute their quote by name; or( b) reproduce the quotes on an unattributable basis. As( a) is logistically difficult, we recommend( b): simply attribute the quote to“ Mrs B of Cheltenham”, or“ Mr S of Buenos Aires, Argentina”, or even just“ a guest from Cape Town, South Africa, June 2005”.
How to Start & Run a B & B www. howtorunabandb. com