Visit Albuquerque prohibits users from downloading images from our website.

Please use our media library for downloadable images and usage rights.

Blog Guidelines

If you are interested in contributing to the ABQ365 blog and live in Albuquerque, we'd love to hear a little more about you. Fill out this form and the Visit Albuquerque team will get back to you.

Visit Albuquerque blog posts can be written by people from all over the community, not just those of us here at visit Albuquerque. We love having other voices from around Albuquerque contribute to our blog and share the best that ABQ has to offer. 

This document should serve as a general guideline for composing a blog post, but of course writers with Visit Albuquerque can and will help with brainstorming and editing as needed. The team at Visit Albuquerque can and will make edits to the content as needed prior to publishing and publishing is not guaranteed. 
We write our posts with the ultimate goal of driving interest in and visitation to Albuquerque - but also to drive traffic to our website, increase engagement on our social media channels and to create inspiration for in-destination visitors as well as locals around the community. 
To achieve these goals, we make sure our content is:

  • Clear. Make sure the reader can understand the topic you’re writing about. Use simple words and sentences and think from the perspective of someone who is unfamiliar with Albuquerque.
  • On-Message. When you’re writing, ask yourself: Who will be interested in this topic?  Who is going to read it? Is it a good fit for at least one of our target audiences? What do they want to know?
  • Friendly. Being friendly, human and relatable should be priorities in our blog content. All of our content should help someone to visualize themselves in Albuquerque. 
  • Appropriate. Write in a way that suits the situation. Like in everyday life, we want to adapt our tone depending on who we’re writing to and what you’re writing about.
  • Click-Worthy. Remember you’re writing for online reading. Make sure the topic is interesting, searchable and timely. 

Helpful Guidelines to Follow

Be casual, but smart

Remember to be human. The blog should be relatable while still being useful and clear. Casually engage your readers with conversational language.

Keep it brief and get to the point

Get to the important stuff right away, and don’t bury the things people want to know. Our blog posts should be scannable and easy to digest. Keep paragraphs short and use subheads and lists where appropriate. 

Link it! 

Our blog posts highlight the best of Albuquerque - which means we mention a lot of our partners. The Visit ABQ marketing team will be sure to link to each partner listing page within our site for more exposure for our partners and information for our readers. Where possible, we encourage postings to also include links to other pages and articles within VisitABQ.org. Links to outside websites will be approved at the discretion of the Visit Albuquerque marketing team. 

Make it quirky

Albuquerque is a fun, vibrant, diverse city, and we want our blog to reflect this. Feel free to be creative, throw in a joke here and there, or use a fun video when appropriate. Just don't overdo it.

Use pictures

Include images with your blog posts whenever it makes sense. Breaking up heavy content with images can help keep the post more readable and digestible. Images should be generally aesthetically pleasing and high quality. Images will be used at the discretion of the Visit Albuquerque marketing team. 

Voice and Tone

While each writer or contributor will have their own writing style, our voice at Visit Albuquerque doesn’t change much from day to day. Our tone on the other hand may change fairly frequently depending on the platform, the topic, the audience and the situation.

Our voice in the blog is human, familiar, friendly, inviting and clear. We want to inspire people and educate them about our destination without patronizing or confusing them.

Our voice is:

  • Fun but not silly
  • Confident but not cocky
  • Smart but not boring
  • Informal but not sloppy
  • Helpful but not overbearing
  • Expert but not bossy
  • Quirky but not inappropriate

Visit Albuquerque’s tone is usually fairly casual, but it’s always important to be aware of the appropriate tone in each situation. When you’re writing, consider the reader’s potential state of mind, the topic, the context, etc. You can always adjust your tone accordingly.

Our Target Audiences 

In general, our messaging centers around targeting four different types of travelers:

Intrepid Travelers

  • Male Dominant
  • Ages 35-54
  • Outdoor Recreation Enthusiasts
  • Interests: Biking, Hiking, Rafting, Rock Climbing, Skiing, Snowboarding, Breweries 

Friendly Families

  • Female Dominant 
  • Ages 35+
  • Children in the household
  • Travels 2x or more each year
  • Interests: Cuisine, Culture, Travel, History, Outdoor Recreation 

Prudent Boomers

  • Female Dominant 
  • Ages 45-65
  • Travels 2x or more each year 
  • Interests: Cuisine, Culture, Travel, History, Outdoor Recreation 

Meeting Planners

  • Female Dominant 
  • Ages 45+ 
  • Corporate, Association or SMERF

A few more tips

  • Use active voice and avoid passive voice where possible.
  • Avoid slang and jargon, write in plain English.
  • Write positively and avoid negative language.
  • If you use a Spanish word or New Mexican term, explain it.