Your Retreat Central listing is a powerful marketing tool that provides a range of opportunities to promote your venue to individuals and event planners who are actively seeking venues for their upcoming events.
In addition to your listing, you can promote your venue through our monthly e-Newsletter which is delivered monthly to 17,000+ event professionals. You can also participate in seasonal contests and special promotions throughout the year as well as contribute articles to the Retreat Central blog which is shared through all major social media outlets with thousands of followers.
These are highly effective ways to increase brand awareness and generate more traffic and sales leads for your venue, and we encourage you to leverage them all.
Optimize Your Listing Description
They say you only get one chance to make a first impression. When it comes to your Retreat Central membership, your listing is that one chance so make the most of it.
There is no limit to the amount of copy you can include in your description so take full advantage of this opportunity to tell prospects what makes your venue better than the competition.
For example, instead of saying, “We’re located in the Blue Ridge Mountains and offers a range of outdoor activities” you could say something like:
“Located in the awe-inspiring Blue Ridge Mountains, just a short drive from Knoxville and Charlotte, our North Carolina retreat center is a serene oasis that’s ideal for your next group event. Our clean, modern facilities offer sleeping accommodation for groups of up to 50 and meeting facilities for up to 100 attendees.
We also offer a wide range of outdoor activities including canoeing, fishing, and swimming in our crystal-clear, private lake and miles of walking trails through the pristine woodlands on our 30-acre campus – ideal for your next team building retreat or family reunion . . . “
Remember, this is your opportunity to sell your venue so take some time when composing your description.
Tip: Make your description at least 350 – 400 words long (more is better) and include geographically-specific keywords like “New Jersey retreat center” or “event venue in Prescott, Arizona” to increase the possibility that your listing will show up in Google, Bing, and Yahoo search results.
In addition to describing your facilities, you might consider including information about your attentive staff, location, proximity to local attractions and transportation hubs, menu and more.
You Have New Formatting Capabilities – Why Not Use Them?
With the launch of our new website, we provided you with the ability to bold and italicize text, add bullet points, and embed links in your property description.
This gives you the opportunity to emphasize information that will bring the most value to prospects and format your description to make it more visually appealing. It also allows you to add direct links to your YouTube channel, social media profiles like Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest and to high-value pages on your website, like your reviews page, booking calendar, etc.
Not a Retreat Central Member? No Problem!
Click here to add your center.
Leverage Photos
It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. What do your pictures say about your facility? Depending on your membership level, you can include between 5 and 25 images. This is your opportunity to show not simply tell visitors about your facilities so make them count.
Tip: We’re naturally drawn to photos that include people so including photos that show actual guests enjoying your facilities is a good idea. Just make sure you get the necessary releases.
Use high-quality photos of the correct size. We recommend using images that are at least 512 x 512 pixels with a maximum upload size of 500 Kilobytes.
Say it with Video
Are you a Premium and Premium+ member? If so, you can also upload a video to your listing.
Here’s an excellent example:
Tip: Keep in mind that your prospects have limited time to watch your video, so keep it under 2 minutes in length and include the most important footage near the beginning.
Not sure how to upload your video to YouTube? Check out this YouTube guide on uploading video from your desktop or mobile device:
Not a Premium or Premium+ Member?
Email or call us at 214-635-2026 to upgrade your membership
and start leveraging the power of video!
e-Newsletters, Special Promotions, Contests, and Guest Blogging
In addition to your Retreat Central listing, we also offer other ways to promote your venue – all of which are included in your membership package.
Our monthly e-Newsletter is delivered to 17,000+ event professionals nationwide. New members are automatically featured in the newsletter.
Our special promotions and contests are another highly effective way to generate traffic and leads, and increase brand awareness. Participants are promoted in our e-Newsletters, the Retreat Central blog and through our social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Here’s what the winner of last year’s Best Retreat Center Pool Contest had to say about the experience:
“Keep up the good work. We love sharing and connecting with those who find us on Retreat Central. Capon Springs won the “Best Social Media Campaign” at the WV Governor’s Conference on Tourism as a result of how we promoted and won the Retreat Central Best Pool Contest. We competed against much larger organizations with far greater budgets. Retreat Central gives the “little guy” a chance to shine.”
– J. Bellingham, Capon Springs and Farms, WV
We’re always on the lookout for great content for the Retreat Central blog, and guest posting is a great way to promote your venue. In addition to being featured on our blog, guest articles are also promoted in our monthly e-Newsletters, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Click here to read our guest blogger guidelines and submit your article.
We hope you’ve found this information of use, and we hope you’ll take full advantage of all the benefits Retreat Central membership has to offer.
We value your business and your opinion
Since our founding in 2008, Retreat Central has been committed to providing our members with effective, innovative ways to promote their properties to event planners throughout the U.S. and we’re always open to new ideas.
Are there other opportunities or services you feel would make your Retreat Central membership an even better value? If so, we’d love to hear them. Please call us at 214-635-2026 or click here to email your ideas and suggestions.