Whether you’re a long-time member, newly signed up or member-to-be, we want to ensure you know how to make the most of Visit Bristol membership.
Backlinks | Event listings | Press releases | Media visits | Members events | Sponsored blog posts | Social media | Competitions | Keep in touch | Meet Bristol | TIC discount
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Image credit: Evan Dawson
Backlinks to Visit Bristol
Backlinks are essential for improving your SEO ranking and are especially valuable when they come from a high-authority, popular website – like Visit Bristol. What’s more, Google and other search engines reward reciprocal linking, so shared links between our site and yours will help us both rank higher.
Another benefit of backlinks to Visit Bristol is that they provide a quick, easy way to share up-to-date information with your visitors and guests. Save yourself the job of researching, writing and updating valuable content about visiting Bristol and point them in the direction of our pages instead.
All members are sent a Visit Bristol logo to use on their website, so why not hyperlink this to the Visit Bristol website as a starting point?
- Read ‘We need your backlinks’ for a better understanding of how they help you and us.
Event listings
Our What’s On pages are one of the most visited areas of the website, so uploading your events here is a sure-fire way to get plenty of eyes on them and hopefully more attendees. These pages are also a key resource for our marketing team when planning campaigns – we refer to the listings for blog posts, social media content, newsletters and press releases as well as our major Christmas and summer campaigns.
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Image credit: Evan Dawson
Press releases
As mentioned above, event listings help form our press releases, which cover what’s on and what’s new in Bristol. These are sent to longer-lead press as well as weeklies, dailies and local media at a later date.
The more we know about what you’ve got on, the more chance there is of being included in these round-ups and garnering some great coverage. As well as uploading your events, email your releases or any updates – no matter how far in advance or how brief they may be – to press@visitbristol.co.uk.
Media visits
Offering journalists, bloggers and influencers complimentary visits is a great way to win yourself some top coverage. We are inundated with media requests and our Media Liaison Managers are responsible for co-ordinating resulting press trips, planning itineraries that include our members who best match the writer’s niche or brief.
If you’re keen to welcome more press, it’s a great idea to get your business included on our media pass. We hand these out to all visiting journalists and influencers, so they can enjoy complimentary access to a number of attractions and tours during their stay in the city.
Attend member events
It’s important for us to share our latest news and developments with you, which is why we host members forums and an annual conference.
You’ll be invited to our two forums each year – one in spring, one in autumn – where we give an update on the progress of our campaigns, share what’s next and how you can get involved. These are always a good chance to network too, not only with our team but fellow members who make up the local tourism industry.
Our Annual Tourism Conference which is held in January is an opportunity to hear the successes of the previous year and what to look forward to in the year ahead. This event always includes relevant guest speakers and lots of opportunities for networking.
Image: 2019 Annual Tourism Conference
Sponsored blog posts
Promoting our partners and members is always at the heart of our content strategy for the Visit Bristol blog. To secure even further and more targeted coverage on this area of the site, which regularly reaches page views of 70k+ in a month, we can collaborate on a sponsored post. As well as a dedicated post about your business, these packages include paid social advertising and a feature in our consumer newsletter.
Social media
With over 47k followers on Facebook, 91.6k on Twitter and 40.3k on Instagram, we have a formidable social presence that’s ever-growing. We cram in as much about members into our own content plans as possible, but to maximise on our presence even further, we encourage you to use our hashtags (#VisitBristol) and tag us (@VisitBristol) in your own posts. That way our followers are likely to come across your content and we are able to engage with and share posts where appropriate.
Image: @VisitBristol Instagram feed
Competitions
We run two types of competitions, giving the public the chance to win unrivalled experiences from our members. The first is the social media giveaway. This is a ‘comment to enter’ style competition that gets published on our Facebook page, which get excellent engagement. A social giveaway lasts for 3 days before a winner is randomly selected; a short-term piece of promotion for your new product or service.
Alternatively, we run a package competition on the website, usually including an activity, somewhere to eat and somewhere to sleep for the winner. These are long-term promotions that provide great exposure for your business; they run for 3 weeks and are mentioned on all social media platforms as well as our consumer newsletter.
Keep in touch
Our members can receive an exclusive newsletter that keeps you up to date with important industry news, campaigns we are working on and content callouts requesting information from you that we can incorporate into those campaigns. This is sent out every Friday – sign up here.
Questions, ideas, updates – whatever you want to discuss, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. You can find contact details of everyone in our team under ‘Our People’ in the About Us menu.
Meet Bristol
The below Meet Bristol benefits are only available to gold members with an interest in the business events, conference and meeting market as well as leisure.
Keep us up to date
We have dedicated Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, plus a monthly newsletter that targets event planners. We're always open to promoting revelant member news through these channels. Pass on details of your refurbishments, new function rooms, special offers, events and anything else you think will appeal to event organisers.
Venue finding service
Keeping your Venue Directory profile as up to date and engaging as possible is vital to ensure you get the best possible results from our venue finding service. The information from there is included in the proposals we send directly to clients. Do let us know if you need help in contacting Venue Directory.
Accommodation providers
In addition to contracted bedroom allocations, we are working with Bookingzon to provide bespoke websites for large events that require multi-venue allocations. Your hotel will need to set up a profile and then quote for allocations when requested. This allows you to have great exposure to delegates attending events at various venues across the city and its surrounding areas. Speak to Amy if you would like to set up a profile.
Economic strengths and conferences
In line with Bristol’s economic sector strengths we are pro-actively targeting conferences related to the below industries. Get in touch if your venue is doing anything that appeals specifically to these markets (eg sustainability work, high tech equipment, creative spaces):
- Aerospace and Advanced Engineering
- Low Carbon / Sustainability
- Digital & Creative
- High Tech
- Professional Business Services
Partner with us to win business
We can assist your bid for events in several ways, including provision of content, city information, city images and videos. For international conferences, there may be the opportunity to apply for funding via the VisitBritain Business Event Growth Support Fund.
Incentive Travel Marketing
We're also marketing Bristol as an incentive travel destination, centred around the diverse and exciting experiences on offer in the city. If you deliver any interesting experiences or are collaborating with local suppliers to do so, we want to know about it.
Trade shows
We attend multiple trade events each year, some of which present opportunities for partners to stand share with us. Contact Amy for further details on amy.bramhall@meetbristol.co.uk.
TIC discount
All our members are entitled to a 10% discount in the Tourist Information Centre gift shop, which is stocked with locally-made gifts, clothing and nibbles. Simply show proof of where you work and the TIC team will check the members spreadsheet before applying the discount.
Read next: What is Visit Bristol membership and how do you become a member?
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