Guest post: a quick and easy way to get into the travel pages

Have you noticed how many of the travel pages ​in the national press are covered in lists and top tens, fives, twenties? 

Often known as 'listicles', these articles ca be very powerful.

If your business is mentioned in one of the lists, thousands of people will read it.The article is likely to stay online for years. You can increase the reach by sharing a link to the article on social media.

​It may even improve your search engine rankings because they use media mentions as part of their ranking algorithms, even when the publication doesn't offer a direct link to your website. 

I work with Amanda Brown on PR projects. She's excellent at getting coverage for our tourism and hospitality clients because as an ex-journalist herself she knows how they think. 

Here's her tip for getting a mention in one of those listicles.  

There have been many lucky times when I’ve sent travel journalists information and it’s been one of those lovely moments when the timing ties in perfectly with a piece that is being written so they can feature my client. 

However there are even more moments when the information is useful but not for ‘right now’. This is why it pays to be a bit savvy and think about the way a journalist might work. 

Journalists will often put emails into saved folders which they can search to find content at a later date. When they do so, they'll be looking for information in a hurry. Few travel journalists have the product knowledge that enables them to write 'Top ten secret places for a romantic rendezvous' or 'Top twenty places to walk with llamas and alpacas in the UK' without doing a little research. Yet they are probably working to a very tight deadline and scrambling for the right information. 

This is where your information comes in. If you have sent the right kind of useful content to the journalist, they'll have saved it 'just in case'. They'll hurriedly search their inbox, looking for relevant emails. 

The best thing you can do is to think carefully about the subject line in your email, just as you would when thinking about the right key words to write on your website so the search engines can find you. For instance, it could be 'new walking holidays, Yorkshire' or 'treehouse accommodation, Yorkshire Dales'. The first two paragraphs of your email will be equally important so don't waffle, be factual and make sure you include the kind of keywords that are essential to your business. 

Journalists writing themed round-up features or listicles want a good spread of locations so when they delve into the saved folder they’re likely to search their emails by geographical area as well as the theme - don't forget to indicate your location and region. 

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