Offers: How to add or revise and republish

Here’s what you need to know about how Offers (a.k.a. packages, specials, deals) will function on the site.

The video below walks you through the process of adding an offer.

• Each offer lives on its own page, with a big photo, headline, name of inn, town and region, description of the offer and a button linking to either your full-page listing or to a page on your own website.
• The three offers most recently added to the site will be displayed on, and linked from, the Home page. Great visibility.
• Five randomly selected offers will appear with each page refresh on numerous other pages of the site.
• On your listing page, only your inn’s offers will appear.
• MBBA has identified several categories of offers that might appeal to prospective guests. We can tweak the names of categories and can add categories. Email suggestions.
• You can add a time-limited offer as far in advance as you want. Feel free, for example, to post your fall color special anytime. In the copy or headline, tell when the deal is applicable.
• To keep site content fresh, do set an expiration date. (Why have a Mother’s Day promotion still on the site in June?) Good news: Any offer you post will be saved in Draft mode after it expires. Simply update and re-publish when appropriate.

How-to info: Don’t miss these fields

Skip over these tips if you plan to listen to the video below.

1. Enter Title. Keep it to 33 characters, including spaces and punctuation.
2. Upper right field. While you’re working, hit “Save Draft” periodically. “Preview” button allows you to view a page you’re working on, without publishing it. “Publish” button is self-explanatory; after offer is published, if you make changes, remember to hit the “Update” button. A useful option in that box is to change from publishing immediately to scheduling publication for a future date.
3. Offer Types. Select up to two categories that best fits your offer.
4. Post Expirator. Choose an expiration date. Let it expire to Draft (the default); it will remain in your offers admin area.
5. Single Offers. Where it says B&B Name, include this info: Name Of Your B&B | Town | NW — the latter being YOUR two-letter region code. Keep your B&B’s name as short as possible. Don’t include “Michigan.” The | punctuation is the upper case of the \ key.
6. Hero Text is optional. It allows you to add a caption or comment that appears in reverse on the photo.
7. CTA Button. Hit Select Link and you’ll have two options. One is to enter the full URL of a page on your website where there is content relevant to the content of the offer. The second is to link the Offer to your page on laketolake. Be sure to fill in the field that says Link Text with a few words that will inspire someone to click.
8. Featured Image. Click to select a horizontal photo that you previously uploaded to the Media Library or that you will upload. Make sure you possess the right to use the photo without a royalty. You’ll need to click a box attesting to that.
9. Excerpt. This is an important but poorly named field. Copy the info in the field that says B&B Name and paste it here
10. Ignore Yoast SEO. This plug-in appears automatically on every page in the admin area. Trying to get Yoast’s green light of approval is unachievable on a page like this with so many custom fields.