Picture yourself here…

When developing your content and messaging, a successful strategy is to get your audience members to place themselves at your place of business, in their mind.  This is easiest for those in the tourism, entertainment and hospitality industries.  After all, we can all picture ourselves in that hammock on the beach next to a bucket of beverages on that cloudless, sunny day, right?  Of course!  So how do you as a small business owner take advantage of the ‘picture yourself here’ strategy?  Here are a few ways to use this strategy…

1.  If you sell a tangible product you can use one of those inviting vacation pictures in your advertisement or social media post and add a tag line like, “We wish we were there too, but don’t forget we are always here for you.”

2.  People love those vacation and sunset photos, so just post one with an inspirational quote like, “Don’t forget to stop and enjoy the blessings life offers.”  Here, you are offering shareable content and showing that you, too, take time to stop and smell the roses.

3.  As a small business owner, it’s important to show your sense of community.  Posting pictures of some of your community’s beautiful nature settings is a great way to demonstrate your appreciation for what your community offers.  Post a picture and share of a memorable time you spent at that location (such as a park, the beach, nature trail…)

These ideas should get you started.  What’s important is that you are including a photo, which will boost your ranking in the news feeds, you are posting content, which will help with your search engine optimization, and you are engaging with your audience, which will keep you at the top of their mind.

Now, make that vacation picture your screen saver, grab a cup of coffee, and take a five minute “wish I was there break.”