The following Story was provided by Joy and Jim Fischer of the Firelight Inn on Oregon Creek Bed and Breakfast in Duluth, Minnesota. We so very much enjoy when our customers share their success stories with other innkeepers. And this one coincides perfectly with our recent Webinar on writing Press Releases.
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"I knew I needed a story to tell travel writers, newspaper folks, and anyone else who would listen and write about The Firelight Inn. They all want a story. Well the year our historic home turned 100 years old—I had the story.
I follow travel writers who write frequently about the town where our Inn is located—Duluth, Minnesota. Our target audience is in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area so I followed the newspapers there also. When they wrote about Duluth, I would send them an email and keep their email on my marketing list. I would thank them for writing about Duluth and tell them if they ever needed a story, let me know.
Well, it paid off. This year we have been included in three major publications so far this year--Minnesota Bride Magazine, Minneapolis Star Tribune on Valentine’s Day and Mpls/StPaul Magazine.
I have also been fortunate enough to receive emails from travel writers and have responded quickly. As a result of one of my email responses, an article was written in Coastal Living Magazine about the bed and breakfast inns in Duluth. I still don’t know how we ended up in Better Homes & Gardens. That travel writer must have been here incognito!
I spend at least 60 minutes a day working at the computer reviewing my google alerts, reading and writing blogs, posting on Twitter and Facebook, updating our listings on various directories, updating the front page of our web site and current specials and last-minute specials, taking advantage of Acorn’s webinars and more. It takes a lot of time but has to be done.
The first quarter of 2010 is up 20% from last year and our March 2010 was the best March since 2004. We did get creative with monthly specials in honor or our 100 years of history and, of course, the publicity has helped. In this economy we felt we had to be creative with rates and specials in order to meet our financial obligations. It has all paid off this year."
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Thank you Joy for sharing this awesome information with other innkeepers in our industry!
Lisa Kolb
President and Co-Founder
Acorn Marketing
