We’re continuing our 2024 Holiday Gift Guide Series with our ‘Pay What You Can’ Shop Local Holiday Gift Cards: Dining & Drinks in Asheville, North Carolina guide! This guide will showcase a diverse selection of local restaurants, bars, cocktail lounges, and unique drink spots offering gift cards for the holiday season. We’ll be promoting the guide extensively, with boosted ads through Christmas across Instagram, our website, and all of our social media channels—Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, and Threads.
As a small business owner, I understand how challenging things have been since the storm. To support those affected, we're reopening our guide schedule with a 'Pay What You Can' option for businesses interested in advertising but unable to afford our full rates at this time.
Please don't let price discourage you from applying. Travel Guides Asheville was founded to support local small businesses, and this mission is especially important as we work to restore and rebuild after Hurricane Helene.
This guide will be posted on Travel Guides Asheville’s Instagram & website on Sunday, December 8, 2024.
*Applications close Wednesday, December 4th at 11:55pm.
*Approvals will be sent Thursday, December 5th - this differs from how we’ve previously operated but will allow us to process applications in better and more organized way.
*One-Time Payment of $450 (or optional ‘Pay What You Can’ option) is due within 24 business hours of approval to guarantee your spot.
How It Works:
Once you submit your application you will receive an approval email by Friday, November 29th.
You will receive a check out link within your approval email to purchase your business’s spot in the guide.
You must purchase your spot (a one-time fee of $450, or your approved ‘Pay What You Can’) to be included in this guide within 24 business hours of receiving your approval email. Your payment guarantees your spot!
Our “Shop Local Holiday Gift Cards: Dining & Drinks in Asheville, North Carolina” guide will be posted on Sunday, December 8, 2024. Every guide is posted on:
Instagram Feed (@travelguidesasheville)
Instagram Reels
Instagram Stories
Facebook (@travelguidesasheville)
Website (added to our home page through Christmas, remains on our site forever! (www.travelguidesasheville.com)
Pinterest (@travelguidesasheville)
Tik Tok (@travelguidesasheville)
Example:
Here’s an example of a previous guide for reference:
Tips:
Requirement for application approval: Your business’s offerings must be in accordance with what we’re looking for in this specific guide.
Spots in our paid guide features are first come, first served. We recommend applying as soon as possible for the best chance of securing a spot!
*Applications close Wednesday, December 4th at 11:55pm.
*Approvals will be sent Thursday, December 5th - this differs from how we’ve previously operated but will allow us to process applications in better and more organized way.
*One-Time Payment of $450 (or optional ‘Pay What You Can’ option) is due within 24 business hours of approval to guarantee your spot.
FAQ
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For the guide, you’ll submit 4 photos and a short “About Us” blurb/caption.
Your business name, Instagram handle, and physical location address (if applicable) will be included as well!
The guide - as posted on our website - also includes a button that links to your business website (not included on Instagram, TikTok, or Pinterest versions of the guide).
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No, Travel Guides Asheville is currently an online-only travel guide!
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No. It’s a one-time fee to be included in the guide. The guide then remains available forever.
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Forever! The guide stays on our website and socials (Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok) as a permanent post.
Bonus? For up to a year after the guide is posted, we frequently re-share it into our Instagram stories. This reminds our audience (and new followers) what guides we have available on our page!
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No! The application is free and payment will only be due after you have been approved. One you receive your approval email, you then have 24 hours to check out and submit payment.
Your spot is held during this time, and once you submit payment you are guaranteed your spot.
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There are so many benefits to working with us!
Think of Travel Guides Asheville as being your personal marketing team - we love supporting the businesses & individuals we work with. Here are some of the benefits of participating in a guide feature:
• You will be presented in front of our Asheville-based audience, across each of our channels - all of which are popular among locals & visitors to the area! Our guides also make a great reference point. For example, when someone asks, “Who are the best wedding photographers in the area?”, our followers (or anyone who has seen the list) can easily share the applicable guide.
• Our approach also takes social media “SEO” into consideration by using strategically curated hashtags. Because our posts are often popular enough to appear in the “Top” section of selected hashtags, we are able to offer you added visibility to a wider audience through both the guide Feed Post & IG Reel. For example, when someone searches Instagram for ”#AshevilleWeddingPhotographers”, our posts can frequently be found among the first few “Top” posts within that hashtag.
• Another way we get you in front of your key target audience and potential clients is through our involvement in the popular Facebook Communities/Groups for Asheville. It is common to see visitors and locals alike popping into these Facebook groups to ask questions. For example, a user may post, "Who's a great wedding photographer based in Asheville?" We actively monitor these groups, sharing relevant guides to help answer questions and promote our featured businesses and individuals.
• Across all our channels and social media engagement, we continually prioritize those who have worked with us - especially as it relates to sharing content you tag us in on Instagram! We love to share local businesses and entrepreneurs in our stories whenever we can. That's what we're all about - supporting local! You now have a forever social media support team - tag us in your posts or your stories and we will re-share with our audience, even long after the guide has posted. We also try to keep an eye on your page and comment, save, share, and like your posts, too!
• Our guides are frequently reposted into our stories on Instagram to remind our audience what guides have already been published. So you can count on this guide being re-shared long after its posting date.
• We also provide you with publicity directly on our website! We regularly rotate our “Featured Guides” on display at the top of our home page. These are the first guides people see when they visit our site. Each new guide remains in our "Featured" section for two weeks, though many will be rotated back into this section even after the initial two weeks.
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• You pick the photos that are included in the guide! We feature four photos on each business's page in the guide. You’ll find this information in the form you fill out before checking out/submitting payment.
• Your business’s Instagram @ name is shared on your page of the guide and in the caption/description section. This way viewers can easily find you on social media and check out your page!
• Wanting more backlinks to your website? When a guide is posted on our website, we have a clickable button under each businesses featured section that links to their website.
• Questions about SEO? A ton of work behind the scenes goes into to making sure our guides appear in Google results and Pinterest/Facebook/Instagram searches. SEO Titles, navigation titles, keywords, tags and categories, site and page descriptions, image names, alt. text, etc. are all part of our process for SEO.
• Insights after 21 days of the guide posting date are sent to your email. This way you can see how well the post performed on all of our social platforms!