Create a Fall Guide for Your Community
If you’re wondering what your Chamber of Commerce or Tourism Organization should be posting this fall, we’ve got the answer. Use the suggestions and ideas in this article to bring foot traffic to local businesses this fall. Then go create your own Fall Guide!
Make it Easy for People to Find Fall Activities in Your Town
Fall is a great time to get outdoors. The weather is cooler, and the leaves are changing color. Families want to view the beautiful fall foliage, visit pumpkin patches and corn mazes, enjoy seasonal food and drinks, attend spooky Halloween events, shop locally, and more.
Your Chamber of Commerce or tourism organization can help them find it all.
How? By creating useful, well-written articles highlighting the things to do and see in your community in the fall.
These articles will drive traffic to your website when people are actively searching for fall activities. Your website can introduce them to local businesses, encourage them to explore more of what your town has to offer, sign up for your newsletter, and follow you on social media.
And, most importantly, they’ll spend money in your community.
The key is to create content that’s genuinely useful instead of simply publishing another list of businesses. Give people a reason to visit your website because you’re making it easier for them to plan their fall.
Turn Fall Searches Into Useful Content: Give Them What They Want
The most powerful strategy for Chambers and tourism organizations is surprisingly simple: answer the questions your community is already asking.
Answer common questions like:
- Where can I see the best fall colors?
- What’s there to do with my kids this weekend?
- Where can I find a pumpkin patch?
- Where is the best place to trick-or-treat?
- Which local coffee shops have pumpkin spice drinks?
- Where can I buy Halloween decorations?
These are the kinds of questions that you can turn into articles that people will link to. Use tools like AnswerThePublic or Google Search autocomplete to find common questions about the seasons.
Website Content Pro Tip
Regularly publishing useful content can also help establish your organization as a go-to source of information about your community. Look at questions people are already asking using Google autocomplete or on social media.
Create More From One Article: Social Media, Email, Videos
A single piece of fall content can become social media posts, email newsletter content, photos, videos, and more. Repurposing your article into multiple pieces of content can give you more benefit for your effort.
For example, our team created 13 ideas for using Halloween content on social media, which include ideas on social media content that promote local events, highlight Halloween décor, showcase seasonal food and drinks, and create a map of decorated homes and businesses.
How to Create a Fall Guide That People Actually Use
Start with the information people need most when they’re deciding what to do.
Start with the topics listed below and focus on one or all of them for an in-depth Fall Guide to your town.
Make a Guide to The Top Places to See Fall Colors
An excursion to see the leaves change colors is a favorite fall activity for many families and couples. Sharing the best places in your community to see autumn colors, as we did in this article written for Hardeman County, Tennessee, to get on the lake, or to simply visit an overlook is a game-changer for content that drives visitors.
Provide Useful Details
To make your article particularly useful to readers, give them the details they need. This includes addresses, parking information, hours, cost, trail difficulty, accessibility, and, if available, the best time to visit.
Add In Other Activities
You can also include links to nearby restaurants, coffee shops, shops, or other attractions so visitors can turn a quick outing into a full day in your community. For destination leaf-viewing locations, add a list of fall festivals and events, places to stay, and other fall-themed activities.
Great Examples of Fall Color Articles & Pages
We’ve curated some great examples of fall foliage or fall color guides and articles that Chambers and Tourism Organizations have put together. Take a look and get some ideas for your community!
Compile a List of Fall and Halloween Events
Even if you already have an events calendar on your website, we recommend writing an article about your fall and Halloween events. The article not only puts everything in one place and provides details for each event, but also allows you to add photos and additional information.
Include fall festivals, trunk-or-treats, pumpkin patches, hayrides, corn mazes, haunted attractions, Halloween parties, farmers’ markets, and other seasonal activities.
Make the article easy to scan and easy to share. Include dates, times, locations, admission prices, registration information, and links to the event pages when available.
Update the Article Annually
Keep updating the article as new events are added or details change. Then share it repeatedly on social media and in your newsletter. A current list of events can become a resource people return to throughout the season.
Be sure to use the same article the following year – don’t publish a new one, just update it annually. By keeping the same web address, people know where to find it, and you don’t lose any links to the page. However, if you must delete an old article and write a new one, be sure to create a 301 redirect from the old post to the new post.
Examples of Fall Guides to Events
Many Chambers and Tourism Organizations create guides to Fall events. We’ve selected a few of our favorites. Take a look and get some ideas for your community!
- View Visit Athens: Fall Event Guide
- Read Discover Altanta: Fall Festivals
- Look Through The Gulf Coast Mom’s Fall Fun Guide
Help People Find Local Fall Favorites
Fall gives you plenty of opportunities to showcase local businesses while also giving readers useful information.
Showcase Where to Buy Fall and Halloween Décor
People love decorating their homes for the seasons, making it a great time feature local businesses with décor and service providers that can help put it all together.
Use Trends To Highlight Businesses
Create an article on decorating trends or ideas, then feature local businesses that offer pumpkins and mums, wreaths, tablescape items, costumes, and other indoor and outdoor decorations.
You can put together an article featuring these businesses, or make it more useful by selecting a few favorite products or decorating ideas from each business.
Don’t Forget the Service Providers
This is also a great opportunity to feature businesses that might not naturally get a lot of attention on your Chamber’s social media accounts, such as landscapers, florists, and interior designers.
Create a List of Fall Treats & Drinks
Fall foods and Halloween-themed goodies are in demand this time of year.
Local bakers, candy shops, coffee shops, restaurants, and other businesses often create special treats just for the season.
Get Your Pumpkin Spice On
Create an article listing the best places for pumpkin spice-flavored drinks or foods, or highlight Halloween-themed goodies that would be perfect for a party.
You can even make the article more specific:
- Best pumpkin spice drinks in town
- Where to find Halloween cookies
- Local bakeries with fall desserts
- Best places to buy pumpkin pies
- Halloween candy made locally
- Fall-inspired cocktails or mocktails
- Where to find seasonal ice cream flavors
Don’t be afraid to get specific. Specific articles can be much more useful to someone who’s searching for exactly that thing.
Repurpose Your Fall Content Everywhere
nce you’ve created your article, don’t let it sit on your website and gather digital dust.
Turn each article into multiple pieces of content. For example, your fall events article could become a series of social media posts featuring individual events, a weekly “things to do this weekend” post, a newsletter feature, and a story or Reel highlighting several events.
Your article about local Halloween décor could become a photo gallery, a video tour of local stores, or a series of posts featuring individual businesses.
Your pumpkin spice article could become a series of posts asking followers which seasonal drink or treat they want to try first.
Grow Your Email List with Articles
Include a call to action in the article asking readers to sign up for your newsletter or request a visitor’s guide. Your newsletter can then bring those readers back to your website with more things to do, seasonal guides, local business features, and upcoming events.
Keep Creating Useful Fall Content
Fall content doesn’t have to be complicated. Start by thinking about what someone visiting your community, or someone who lives there, would want to know this fall.
- Create a useful guide to fall colors.
- Put all of your Halloween events in one easy-to-find article.
- Highlight local businesses where people can shop for seasonal décor, treats, costumes, or other fall favorites.
Then repurpose that content across your social media and email marketing.
Become The Source for Things to Do
The goal isn’t just to publish another blog post. The goal is to become the place people go when they want to know what there is to do, see, eat, and experience in your community.
So pick a couple of these ideas that fit your community and start creating.
Need help coming up with content ideas, creating a content calendar, or writing content for your Chamber or tourism organization? Let’s talk about how we can help.
Need help?
If you would like help with social media marketing, content creation, content marketing, email marketing, or web development for your Business, Chamber of Commerce, or Tourism Organization, get in touch with us today!
