The private practice is run by Consultant surgeons Mrs Aileen Lambert and Mr Neil Tan – both have a huge breadth of experience between them, with all manner of ear, nose and throat conditions. They are proud to also hold NHS Consultant positions at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, as well as supporting private outpatient clinics and performing private surgery in the Duchy Hospital, Truro.

Aileen and Neil contacted us to design and build a brand-new website, to give it a fresh new look, including up-to-date imagery and providing easier navigation for prospective and current patients.

The site is now live, so if you’re looking for a self funded or private medical consultation for your ENT condition, please do get in touch. You can visit their website here: entsurgeonscornwall.co.uk.

The post New Website Launched for ENT Surgeons Cornwall appeared first on MiHiDigital.

Mark spoke at the event last year, which attracted more than 300 businesses from across the region. Next February he will be covering “Encouraging repeat bookers, creating advocates and building your brand for 2024″.

The event is for all types of tourism and hospitality business, with topical updates, news, ideas and insights and each day will have a different theme:

6 February – Tourism priorities, excellence, accessibility and sustainability
7 February – Marketing, digital, social media and AI

You can join Mark on day two of the conference (7^th February 2024) at Westpoint Arena.

Find out more and book here: https://www.westcountrytourismconference.org.uk/

The post MiHi Mark to speak at Westcountry Tourism Conference appeared first on MiHiDigital.

James from Summerbreeze had been taking bookings through Airbnb, but knew in the long-term it was important to be able to take bookings directly through their own website. Having scoured the internet looking at hundreds of websites for holiday cottages, James came across one that stood out. It was one our ours. He got in touch and we got to work.

Having built hundreds of holiday cottage websites and worked with many more, we knew exactly what James needed – from cottage pages, to his chosen booking engine integration. It’s now live, so you can take a look at the site here: https://www.summerbreezeorchard.co.uk/

The post New website launched for Summerbreeze Orchard Holiday Cottages appeared first on MiHiDigital.

Our Managing Director Mark Worden said “We’re delighted to be able to continue our support for these awards, which shine a light on those leading the way in the tourism and hospitality marketplace. Having been involved with the awards for so many years, we know that the bar is set incredibly high; anyone who wins an award on the night deserves all of the recognition and praise they receive and are instrumental in making the South West such an attractive destination for those not only in the UK, but all over the world!”

We will be sponsoring the Visitor Information category, which fits well with our own work within the industry; we are proud to say that seven of the region’s most significant destinations now use MiHi as their web development agency.

Winners will be announced on the 16th November. Good luck to everyone involved in this year’s Devon Tourism Awards.

The post MiHi Digital continues support for the Devon Tourism Awards appeared first on MiHiDigital.

The MiHi team recently helped Great Eckworthy to launch a website just as stylish as their luxury holiday cottages.

When the new owners of Great Eckworthy moved down to this area of Devon, they knew they wanted to work with an agency who understood the tourism industry like the back of their hand. In other words, Mihi were the perfect fit! With no existing website, they needed a team to create something sleek and sophisticated from scratch.

And the mission was a success, don’t you think?

You can view their website here: https://greateckworthy.com/

The post New website launched for Great Eckworthy appeared first on MiHiDigital.

So, if you’re wondering if you’re on trend, behind or perhaps even a little ahead of the curve, here are our Managing Director’s thoughts on how the South West Tourism Sector has been shaping up in the second quarter of this year…

When are we now comparing to?

You’ll be familiar with the saying you want to be comparing ‘apples with apples’ or ‘oranges with oranges’. It’s certainly no different with website data; you want to be comparing like for like, season with season, year with year. However, Covid has obviously made that very difficult; if you compare 2021 with 2020, you’ll likely be filled with a warm fuzzy feeling. Compare 2019 with 2020 and you’re likely to be brought out in lockdown sweats.

But when should you be comparing to? Up until the start of this year, I had been a strong advocate of comparing your data back to 2019. It was the last year of ‘normality’ and a decent gauge of where you stood against that stasis. However, far too much water is now under the bridge, so it’s time to move that comparison forward and reflect on where you stand against the same period last year.

Although there are of course variances to take into consideration, we can factor those into our own thoughts and feelings on overall performance.

Let’s take a look at the average performance against last year….

Bookings are still being made late

I highlighted at the start of the year that people were making booking decisions a lot closer to the date of arrival. This trend has continued throughout the second quarter of the year, with those looking forward in their booking calendars still seeing gaps where they’d usually not. But, when looking back, thinking to themselves that performance on the whole has certainly not been as bad as they would have anticipated.

Late bookings are an obvious breeding ground for uncertainty and nervousness. However, with website traffic starting to rally, my belief is that bookings should pick up from here, although they will be made later, even as we head into the school summer holidays in some cases (read on for more on that!).

The exception to any late booking rule is repeat bookers; they will always book earlier and more regularly, so if you aren’t already putting in place methods to woo people that have already been with you, then now is the time to get moving.

Your cash flow will look better as will your booking calendar.

Website traffic has strengthened through May

The first four months of the year represented a 10 – 20% drop in traffic for most websites when compared to last year. That kind of makes sense; they’re booking later, so they won’t be looking earlier!

However, May was the first month that we saw most sites rally above their 2022 traffic levels; sometimes only marginally but some are up by 10 – 15%. These are certainly encouraging signs for those still looking to fill the months ahead and do buck the trend of lower traffic often seen on bank holidays (if you’ve forgotten, May was rammed full of them!).

Further evidence of the late booking culture is the level of traffic seen during school holidays; this is riding higher than usual and does suggest that some are looking for a holiday during the actual period of the school holiday. Very last minute indeed.

The July and August divide

Funny one this; if I tell you that people are booking later, then logic would suggest that July is booked before August. Not the case for many; several of our clients are busier in August than they are in July. If I cast the data net wider, that’s not necessarily uncommon and we’ve often seen a trend of August booking before July in the past.

However, if you’re reading this and thinking you’re the opposite, then you’re also not alone! Several of our other clients are seeing strong July performance with a more hollow August.

The only common denominator here is that there are still gaps in these school summer holiday months when there are usually not. Remember though, later bookings suggest that not all is lost here.

Deals aren’t gaining traction

We’ve seen a poor response to deals and offers. Why might that be? It’s important to remember that a deal or special offer is there to nudge someone over the line; it won’t change their mind completely. What I mean by this is that if someone is wanting to stay during July, when they can get time off work or it’s during school holidays, offering them a discount for June is not going to work. Having an offer that makes your price competitive for when they are staying will.

But what I would say there is that that is more about price than the offer itself. We’re undoubtedly in a strange pricing stage; we had Covid and the resulting period where prices went up purely because demand was so high. Since then, the input costs for you as a business have soared, so the temptation is to now rise again. That’s understandable but getting your pricing right now will mean you’ll gain more than any deal or special offer you have to resort to down the line.

Our overall feeling?

Reasonably optimistic. We’ve had a slow start to the year and all indicators are suggesting that the late booking trend will continue into the busiest part of the year. The growth in traffic during May and into June gives definite hope that demand is picking back up (although there is still too much in the way of supply on the market), so getting your pricing and proposition right now will stand you in good stead for what’s to come.

If you’re a business in the tourism industry that needs help from experts in the field, then get in touch with the team. 

Call us on 01566 232323 or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk.

The post Our Overview of the South West Tourism Sector During Q2 of 2023 appeared first on MiHiDigital.

If you’re here, it’s likely that thought is going through your mind! Writing content that enthrals potential customers and appeases search engines can seem like an overwhelming task. Fortunately, we’ve created a step-by-step guide and broken it down into three easy parts to help you produce thoughtful and targeted content, that will deliver traffic right to your digital doorstep.

So, grab a cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit (or two!) and let’s get started with part one!

What is website copy?

In short, website copy is the term used to describe the main body of text on your website. Its purpose is to tell visitors about your brand, advertise your services or product, guide visitors around your site and direct them to what action you want them to take.

Before you start writing your content, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

1. Purpose

Before you begin writing it is essential you understand its purpose. Knowing what you want your website copy to achieve will help you craft the perfect content to support your goals. Ask yourself questions like:

• Are you trying to sell a product or service?
• Is your main goal to attract new clients and generate more leads?
• Do you want to create a community?
• Are you trying to improve customer satisfaction?

Be specific with your aims. The more you can define exactly what information you want visitors to your website to know and what action you want them to take, the more successful your website copy will be and the easier it will be for you to write!

2. Research

Research topics will vary depending on the nature of your website, however, the most basic yet vital research you should undertake is to understand your audience and know your competitors.

Audience:

The more you know about your target audience, the easier it will be to convert them into customers. Try to get into their mindset and ask yourself, who are the people coming to your website, what do they want or need and what terms are they searching? By writing copy that speaks to them in a way they can relate to or solves problems you know they have, you can create a foundation of trust that will generate loyal customers.

Competitors:

It is almost certain that visitors to your site will be looking at competitors’ websites to determine their best option. To convince visitors to choose you instead, it is key you know what your competitors are offering. Find out what they are doing, what audience they target and what type of content they are producing. This will allow you to make strategic decisions about your own website as well as spot trends you can use to get ahead of the rest.

3. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO can seem like a bit of a scary exhausting obstacle. See what we did there? Yeah, sorry about that. Whilst it may seem daunting at first, writing with SEO in mind is important for helping your website to rank higher for relevant searches.

• Keywords: From researching your audience, you should know what words they are searching for. These are your keywords. Whilst you should avoid keyword stuffing, adding keywords to your titles, subheadings and body text will help increase traffic to your website.
• Metadata: Keeping it to one or two sentences, write clear and enticing descriptions of your web pages to encourage click-throughs.
• URLs: Ensure your URL is descriptive yet as concise as possible.
• Interlinking: Interlinks are links that direct your visitors from one page to another within your website. Including interlinks points users towards other valuable information, (potentially preventing them from leaving your website and looking at a competitors), as well as showing search engines that you have other relevant information.

These are the absolute basics of SEO, but they are a great first step in climbing the search engine ranks and reaping the rewards of more website traffic.

Preparing to write your content may seem like a tedious task, however, taking the time to really understand who you’re speaking to and what your content needs to do will help you get some top-notch content right from the get-go.

Don’t forget to check out part two and part three of our ‘How to Write Content for Your Website’ guide, where we focus on what you need to think about whilst writing and what to do when you’ve finished writing!

If you’re wrestling with your writing and need help, give us a call on 01566 232323 or email us at hello@mihidigital.co.uk

The post How to Write Content for Your Website: Part 1 appeared first on MiHiDigital.

But if that isn’t enough, here are a few more reasons why you should be taking full advantage of social media for small businesses…

·      It gives you the potential to reach and attract new customers.

·      You get to know your customers.

·      You get a better understanding of your competitors.

·      You will build your brands awareness.

·      You can connect with your customers and build trustworthy relationships.

That being said, it’s a huge task if you’re not that way inclined, so we’ve pulled together a few top tips to get you started:

Top tip number one: Plan ahead!

We often hear that business owners and employees just don’t have time to be posting on social media every day, which let’s face it is completely understandable. Or they say it’s easier to spend a little bit of time every day, making something up on the spot and posting for the sake of posting. But trust us when we say that’s not doing you or your business any favours, and often ends up being more time-consuming and stressful in the long run.

Having a calendar gives you the time to find out what your customers really want from your social media, and what’s valuable to them. Just test out some different messaging in your calendar, this is called A/B testing and shows what messages work best with your particular audience, find what works and build from that! 

So, avoid the last-minute scrambling and plan ahead with a social media calendar. We’ve written a whole blog about why and how to start your own social media calendar here – Top Tips for Creating Your Social Media Calendar

Top tip number two: Schedule your posts!

Now that you’ve got your plans in your calendar, get ahead of the game and get scheduling. Not only does this free up your time by scheduling a block of social media content all at once but it also means that you can focus on the other important tasks in your week, without having to worry about what picture to post later.

There are lots of free and paid scheduling tools online to help you, including our personal favourite, the Mata Planner for Instagram and Facebook. Most of these tools make your life easier and show you when to post when your followers are online too! But if you use a tool without this feature, it’s always a good start to aim for 7pm in the evening when everyone has settled down into their socials, or 7am in the morning when people are having a morning scroll. But remember to keep an eye out when planning ahead, things change quickly in the world of business and you need to make sure your content is still relevant.

Top tip number three: Keep track of what’s working!

There’s only one way to tell if you’re getting results and that’s by checking your analytics. Even for small businesses, knowing what works and what doesn’t will be super valuable for when you’re working on your next set of content.

All social media will show some form of analytics, so take the time to understand it and try to replicate the content they’re loving! – repurpose it for other platforms e.g.

Top tip number four: Pay attention to trends!

Trends are trends for reason, so give the people what they want and get involved with a few if they are appropriate for your brand.

Although be wary, don’t just jump on every bandwagon you see on Tik Tok, if you’re a serious health brand your customers probably won’t want to see you risking damage doing the Kylie Jenner lip challenge, for example.

Top tip number five: Be social!

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, social media is meant to be social! So, once you’re done planning your content, make sure you’re spending time replying to comments as timely as possible, reacting, commenting, and sharing other relevant posts. Take half an hour out of your day every day and you’ll see the extra engagement for your accounts too, it’s a great way to get to know your customers, plus you can have a quick nosey at your competitors to see what they’re up to – Win, win!

And one last extra tip! Be consistent! The more you drop in and out, the fewer people will see your posts, so take the time to get ahead with your scheduling and watch your reach boom! 

If you want to know more about how MiHi Digital can help your business grow on social media, then get in touch with the team!

Call us on 01566 232323 or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk.

The post 5 Tips to Successfully Use Social Media for Small Businesses appeared first on MiHiDigital.

If you’re creating content sporadically, not only is this taking your time, but you’re probably seeing a few more typos than you’d like and maybe even a change in tone across your platforms which ultimately isn’t the best look for your business. So, planning ahead and creating a social media calendar would be a much better use of your time as well as giving you the opportunity to proof your posts before those blasted keyboard warriors pick up on every typo or inaccuracy in the book.

What the heck is a social media calendar?

By creating a social media calendar, you’ll be able to plan your posts, manage whole campaigns and give yourself some sort of structure for creating content that week, or that month if you’re feeling brave! It’s also a good place to find any gaps in your media library that might need filling.

Depending on what floats your boat you could be setting up your calendar in a spreadsheet or in Google Calendar or some sort of over-expensive social media management tool. But our favourite is the Meta Planner because it gets the job done and even better, it’s free!

So, where to start when creating your social media calendar?

A good place is to take a proper look through your current social media profiles. See what kind of content worked before (and what didn’t) then have a good nosey at some of your competitors to see what they’re up to because odds are, you can use their ideas for some inspiration.

Next, you need to think about what social media platforms you want to focus on, do you have a photogenic, hands-on business that would work perfectly on Instagram and Facebook? Or are you more of a B2B organisation that would have value in Twitter and LinkedIn? Remember, you can start small and build up to more as you learn more about your audience and customers.

What should you be including in your calendar?

Well, this totally depends on what your business needs for example a small business might need a few details and a picture whereas a big organisation may need full tracking links budgets and management approval. but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, it’s likely that you’ll just need the basics like:

·      The platform you’re posting to

·      The date and time you’re posting

·      Your caption

·      Any media – images or videos (or a link to where they’re stored)

·      Or just a link to an already published post or webpage.

If you wanted to go into more detail, you could label what your posts are, remembering the social media rule of thirds:

·      1/3 of your content should be relevant news and tips that are beneficial for your followers.

·      1/3 of your content should be promoting your product or service.

·      1/3 of your content should be interacting with others and be personal.

Now fill that calendar with some crackin’ ideas!

Start with noting your ideas for each day and build those into captions, then plan how you’re going to create the media for your posts.

Take note, it’s always a good idea to proof your calendar with another member of your team too, just remember to schedule your posts in when they’re ready!

And that’s it, we make it sound so simple right? As with everything social media, the more you do, the more you learn about your audience and the easier it will be to get that spot-on content in your calendar!

If you want to know more about how MiHi Digital can help your business grow on social media, then get in touch with the team!

Call us on 01566 232323 or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk.

The post Top Tips for Creating Your Social Media Calendar appeared first on MiHiDigital.

We know it has its downsides from definite limitations when it comes to categorising your business to the fact that anyone anywhere can write, well, anything about you, your service and your staff, even if they haven’t experienced it first-hand! 

But we still believe that the good far outweighs the bad when it comes to making the most of your TripAdvisor profile.  First things first, it’s largely free. There are very few other spaces in the online world that still offer such reach and marketing capabilities for nothing at all. But really making TripAdvisor work for you goes beyond simply claiming your free profile and hoping for the best.

Here are some easy things you can do right now to supercharge your TripAdvisor page:

1. Follow up and ask for honest reviews…

If you don’t ask, you don’t get and it’s just good business sense to ask every guest who visits for their feedback. Send a personalised ‘thank you’ email to every visitor with a link to your TripAdvisor page, asking for a review.

Most booking systems and CRM systems allow you to automate this so it’s super easy, simply set it up to send the first message between 24 and 72 hours after the visit and follow up with a reminder a couple of weeks later.

2. Tell them what you want to hear…

TripAdvisor of course wants its reviews to be the most useful to its users so don’t be afraid to prompt your guests on what to include in their feedback. Questions like ‘what was the highlight of your experience?’ and ‘how easy was it to book?’ for example could elicit a much richer review which will go down well with the TripAdvisor algorithm.

3. People can be lazy, make it easy…

Trust us, no one wants to search out a way to offer their feedback unless they’ve had a dreadful experience. So make leaving a review as easy as possible by including direct links anywhere you can and incorporate it into your website by adding your rating widget to your footer and booking pages.

Make sure you include any TripAdvisor certificates or awards logos into your website footer with a direct link to your profile too for extra ways in.

4. Train staff to ask…

Guests always respond better to a personal, verbal ask than an email so if you get a chance to have a conversation with your visitors, don’t be afraid to ask!  And make sure your staff are trained up and feel confident to have those conversations too especially your front-of-house team.

5. Have 10+ high quality images…

TripAdvisor is a pretty effective digital shop window, so make sure you’re setting it up just right. It’s been proven that businesses with 10 to 15 high-quality photos on TripAdvisor get double the customer interaction, so take some time to find your best images (or get some taken), get them uploaded and show off your business. It’s also a great way for reviewers to confirm they’re reviewing the right place and encourage photos in their own reviews.

6. Interaction is key…

Like every other social media platform, being social is non-negotiable. Make sure you’re setting aside time to respond to reviews, even (some might say, especially) the negative ones. People need to see that feedback is being heard to encourage them to leave reviews in the future. Thank them and remember to be respectful and professional, as you well know – it’s all very public! But don’t be afraid to let a little personality shine through.

7. Add physical signage…

Add some signage with a QR code to your TripAdvisor account around the place but especially at exit areas as a priority. If guests have had a great time, they’re more likely to leave a review as they leave. 

Check out some great examples on the TripAdvisor website

8. Lean in on your regulars…

Reach out to your regulars and membership base, if they’ve visited recently email them and ask for a review. If they’ve signed up to be a member for example, you know they love what you’re doing and they’re likely to leave you a good review.

9. Use reviews in your marketing…

Take advantage of this by using authentic, positive reviews and images on your social media, in physical marketing and on your website – just make sure you thank the reviewer! This fires up the concept of social proof in your followers and potential customers while also encouraging new reviews too! It’s a win-win!

10. Keep it positive…

Even when dealing with a negative review, keep things upbeat but don’t be afraid to challenge factually inaccurate reviews. Visitors are really wising up to the unqualified negative review now so if you find yourself on the receiving end of something like this, be professional but clear in your response. Visitors will see that you’re really engaged with your business and customers. If a negative review has merit, again, holding your hands up, apologising and outlining what you’ll do to rectify the problems raised is so much better than simply leaving it unanswered. 

Doing all the above consistently will start to see your business creep up the TripAdvisor algorithms and gain more visibility in a very busy space. Just remember the three pillars of the TripAdvisor algorithm, Quantity, Quality and Recency. So, make sure you’re getting regular reviews, of a good quality (not just ‘nice place’) and that they’re recent as reviews from 2 years ago won’t do anything for your account!

if you want to know more about how MiHi Digital can help your business grow, then get in touch with the team!

Call us on 01566 232323 or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk.

The post Boost your TripAdvisor ranking with these 10 Proven Tips appeared first on MiHiDigital.