Blogging is no longer an option. It is a calculated business exercise to build a brand image and to develop long-term customer relations. Your business might be on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc., but the eventual goal is to drive your followers to visit your website. Blogging provides a customized and unique approach to present content to your target audience. While blogging is essential to drive the online marketing strategies of your business, focusing on content is integral to the success of the blog. Let’s see how it works.
Personalized social media platforms
One of the advantages of having a blog is that the content in it can be personalized to suit your needs. In third-party social media platforms, you are at the mercy of any changes made by them. Also popularity of these platforms keeps changing, which requires you to constantly monitor where your audience is migrating.
A blog with strong content will help your business build their followers gradually and maintain popularity by constantly updating the content. Targeted content on blogs built on trending topics, comments and sharing will help you position your brand in the industry according to your focus group. The comments or articles on your blog will last longer than Facebook or Twitter. With designer content, blogs can be your own social media platform with a gradually increasing base.
Turn consumer needs into content for your blog
Marketing content should not be patronizing. It should address a particular need or desire of the target audience. Once that need is identified, design your content around that theme. Build tutorial videos, walk through, FAQ’s and visual images to maintain it in all your content marketing campaign.
The content in the blog should be constantly evolving and updating. Be in sync with the current technology and encourage a two-way communication to keep your blog in vogue. Customer perception can be monitored or altered through content that constantly aims to address specific customer need.
Incorporating a blog into your business website
You can send e-mailers or post tons and tons of costly paid ads to make your online presence felt, but an ideal way for businesses to build a direct sustained relationship with their customer base is via blogging. Blogging creates more index-able pages that increase your search viability. Blog content can keep the social media on the go, making a relevant presence online. Content designed to develop trust between the entity and audience can mark the success of the blog. It can attract new visitors and aid in conversion. For all these benefits and more, it is imperative for businesses today to incorporate blogging and organize the content.
Support for search optimization by using keywords
Fresh content introduced at predetermined time intervals is a sure-fire way to beat your competitors in search-engine rankings. By listing out keywords, topics and categories, and designing content around it, your business can be in the online limelight. Unlike social sites, your blog can be easily found on the company website. Blogging on a regular basis about your business, products or services with focused content will only add more search keywords. This is bound to improve the SEO/SERP of the website.
Planning blog content to enhance communication
Creating a blog is a responsibility. And a growing blog requires intensive micro-planning. You need to define your audience and go deep into their psyche. And all the content for the blog should revolve around them. It is imperative for the success of the blog that the content is mapped according to the buyer’s journey.
Depending on the target audience dedicate content at the most opportune buying cycle of the customer. The content can oscillate between articulate articles on your services or to become a forum for consumer interactions. Create a content matrix to and at every stage add predetermined links or informative pieces or ads to encourage the customer to the next stage of the buying cycle.
Planning the content, its variation, frequency and event calendar drives the success of the blog. A blog that is gaining popularity must also assess and plan for scaling content usage to meet the demands of the consumers.
Platform for direct customer feedback and interaction
When blogs become your personalized social media platform and garners followers, one of the biggest advantages is direct consumer interaction. A decisive customer engagement cycle needs to be put in action to positively reinforce the brand image to the consumers. You need to address the questions or problems of the consumer in their own words to resolve
them. Even the content for queries should be prepared using keywords that engage consumers and result in conversions.
Content promotion and distribution
Just posting content on blogs is not enough. A proper delivery channel needs to be determined to ensure it reaches the target audience. Businesses should leverage social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn etc., by adding share buttons. Developing a variety of content to deploy for various channels and devices is also a necessary exercise.
Blog content delivery can be automated by sending posts via e-mails or newsletters. Syndication with other blog posts also allows the content to circulate with new readers and add create an impact via popular websites. Include an influencer or connecting with a peer group to promote your content, can take your blog high on popularity charts. It also helps to establish further authority and increase awareness. A detailed plan must also be laid out for reuse of popular old content and integrating your brand image into every blog-post.
Allocate human and financial resources to your blog to make it a successful content delivery platform. It is important to track the marketing results and identify the any loops that result in loss of conversions. Hitting on a right formula that derives extra mileage for the blog-post is a tedious exercise. Certain amount of experimenting with formats and ideas to get it right. Ultimately, it is the content that drives your blogs and quality of that should never be compromised on.
About Author:
Vibhu Satpaul is a Chief Operation Officer and a Search Expert at Curve Jumps. He loves to write on digital marketing and technology related topics. Follow @VSatpaul for more online marketing related updates.
Far too many businesses make a very common marketing mistake. They’ll start a blog, simply because someone tells them that they should have one.
What transpires is a section of the business website that is occasionally dealt a 300-or-so word article depicting the latest news from the organization, or perhaps a no-holds-barred rant from the managing director. What it lacks is any kind of strategy or focus on providing content that potential customers might want to read.
There are many constituent elements that make up an awesome blog post, but if you don’t know what they are, you’re unlikely to find them simply by occasionally publishing a post whenever inspiration strikes.
In this post, we’re going to delve under the hood of brilliant blogging and find out how to create awesome posts that will attract the right audience and keep them engaged.
Conduct proper research
What type of people do you want to read your blog? What are their interests, frustrations and common questions?
Before you write anything, start by researching both your audience and potential content ideas. Don’t assume you know it all – brainstorm the profile and demographics of your audience and the kind of topics that will likely peak their interest.
You can do this with a whiteboard, pen and paper or visual mind map – whatever gets your creative juices flowing.
Treat blog posts with just as much attention as other important pages
You wouldn’t publish a new service or product page for your site without doing full keyword research, and the same mantra should be applied to your blog.
Again, before putting digital pen to digital paper, conduct thorough keyword research. Look for short and long-tail keywords that you audience is likely to use and focus your title ideas on them.
Answer a burning question
Which questions is your intended audience asking? What are the key issues with which they need expert assistance?
As a blogger, you’re placing yourself squarely in the role of expert, so check out tools like Answer The Public to find brilliant subjects for your blog. Make sure your eventual piece adds value, too. The likelihood is your blog will join countless others offering the same advice, therefore you can stand out by presenting genuinely interesting, actionable advice and making your content better.
Spend what feels like too much time on the title
The 80/20 rule applies to blogging, and it may surprise you to hear that the lion’s share of that time should be devoted to the blog title.
A bit like an email subject line, it’s the first thing people will see. It therefore needs to captivate them immediately with a sense of urgency, a promise that one of their burning questions will be answered and a cliff-hanger that screams “click me now!”.
Headlines have always been super important, so make sure yours leaps of the page (and don’t forget those keywords!).
Use beautiful imagery
Blogs aren’t just about words – they should be accompanied by beautiful images.
There’s nothing wrong with stock photography, but it makes sense to put a significant amount of effort into sourcing the images for your blog posts. Better still, if you can create your own unique visuals, your post will be unique as you will create something that can’t be found elsewhere.
Videos work brilliantly, too, therefore if you find the opportunity to embed one within your next blog post, jump at the chance.
Don’t forget the call-to-action
You could write the most engaging, value-packed blog post imaginable, but if you fail to include a call-to-action (CTA), you may as well not have bothered.
What do you want people to do when they’ve finished reading your post? Email you? Sign-up to the monthly newsletter? Sign up for a trial of your software? Whatever it is, make it an obvious next step once they’ve read the last sentence.
Wrapping up
Blogging requires patience, creative flair and – most importantly – strategic thinking. We hope you will find our tips inspiring. Please do share your own tips, on writing awesome blogposts, in the comments below.
Success came after several long nights of painstaking efforts, an idea was conceived and a new blog was born. Since its birth, I started addressing my blog as my baby and I am sure a lot of bloggers can relate to it.
“If you love writing or making music or blogging or any sort of performing art, then do it. Do it with everything you’ve got. Just don’t plan on using it as a shortcut to making a living.” – Seth Godin
A new blog is no less than a newborn baby that needs constant nurturing and attention in order to grow and stand out in the blogosphere while a new blogger is no less than a new mother to it. Just like a mother trains her child selflessly out of love and affection, a newly-became blogger also has to be passionate and enthusiastic in refining or maintaining his blog. Besides having a healthy ambition and consistency that comes first when it comes to blogging, the following are a few tips that might be helpful for the new bloggers:
1. Setting up a Blog around a Specific Niche
Every great blogging website revolves around a certain niche that makes it distinctive in the blogosphere. Once you have pinpointed a niche for your blog, you will have to add a unique flavor to your blog posts in order to make your blog stand out from the rest. With a plenty of topics available, it won’t be tough selecting one for yourself; however, you should only write what you know!
Now that you have chosen a specific niche, the next step is about creating a blog, which may include choosing the right blogging platform, defining a suitable domain name for your blog, selecting a web hosting provider, etc. And in case you are wondering about the key pages your blog should be having, Inspire Blogger is there to help!
2. Content Reigns Supreme!
Of all the factors that make a blog successful, it’s the unique and crisp content that reigns supreme and defines a blog’s success. Whether you are running a personal blog or a corporate blogging site, it is advisable that the blog should be updated on a regular basis with content that is not only relevant but remarkable. Your blog should not only reflect your own opinions and experiences but it should offer something valuable and interesting to the readers as well.
“A blog is only as interesting as the interest shown in others.” As Lee Odden says,
3. We Want To See What You Did There!
The push for visual content in a blog is only getting stronger with time. Nowadays, the readers are not only interested in reading what you write but they also take delight in wading through the high quality images and illustrations supplementing your blog. Including visuals in the blog content helps increase the blog’s traffic and engagement and in this way, it not only works for you but it actually helps people see what you did there!
4. Schedule It Up!
“If you want to continually grow your blog, you need to learn to blog on a consistent basis” As Neil Patel says,
and this is what requires an adept scheduling. Setting up an editorial calendar constitutes an important part of the blog marketing strategy and helps in providing a steady flow of new and relevant blog content without getting worried about having a writer’s block. While creating an editorial schedule, be sure to allot time not only for writing or creating content but also for research, moderating comments and engaging on social media platforms.
5. Network to Spread Work!
“What you do after you create your content is what truly counts,” According to Gary Vaynerchuk,
and Gary’s right!
Now that you are done with creating a compelling content for your readers, you need to hop on to the social media bandwagon and start sharing your work on various social media platforms. Moreover, make sure that you make sharing easy for the readers by including the social media plugins under the blog posts.
It should be kept in mind that blogging is not only about writing for yourself but it’s about building a community where people need to know that you are writing for them, and therefore, the usage of social media and social networking becomes a necessity for the new bloggers. While Facebook, Twitter and StumbleUpon have remained a few of the favorites, Pinterest has emerged as a new, effective tool for sharing content.
While there may be a lot of other tips and tricks to play, the above-mentioned pointers can help you kick-start your own blog on the road to success.
Do you have a blogging tip to share? Comment and let us know!
Blogging is a great way to engage your readers and other people who have the same interest like yours. Many businesses today used blogging as a tool in their marketing and business promotion and it’s really a cost-effective method. But the catch in here is you have to build your authority and good reputation to increase your web presence and attract valuable traffic.
To successfully use your blog in making your website visible and searchable on search engines, you have to learn how to make your visitors frequently visit your blog and how you can gain their trust and buy from you. Inviting people to read your blog is easy however turning them as customers is a little more difficult to pull off. To help you with your “readers-turn-to-customers” project, here are 5 practical ways to woo them.
Are you ready? Grab a pen and paper or simply bookmark this post on your laptop or PC so every time you write a post for your blog you will be reminded of these important things.
1. Show off your “Human” self
Visitors build relationships with people not websites. If you have a blog make sure you have a page where you write interesting things about yourself. People don’t just buy the product or services you offer, they are more into emotions. If you can relate to them in a personal level, the greater the chance that you can develop them into paying customers. Trust is not easily given to anyone. You have to work hard for it and prove to them that you are trustworthy.
2. Create a blog that shares knowledge
A blog site that is worth reading shares knowledge and provide quality and fresh content. Do not just talk about yourself or your business. You must impart useful and relevant information that benefits your readers. Writing from your personal experience is definitely a good technique to get the trust of your readers. You have to be honest with them and become sensitive with their needs. Make them feel that they are your top priority. You have to be good to them because they will become the source of your profit.
3. Hang out with your audience
To build a long-term relationship with your audience, you should start by making conversations. Learn what your audience wanted and talk to them through comments. One of the reasons people lurks in the web is because they are looking for something. They might be searching for an answer to their problem or probably they are finding an expert advice. You need to become helpful to them so they can be helpful to you as well. Hanging out with them is a win-win situation. You help them and they’ll help you in return.
4. Turn your social media effort into a profit-generating activity
Social media is an efficient network where you can get greatest potential return. Almost all people around the world are part of different social networking sites. Finding your prospect customers in social media would take just a little time and a bit of ingenuity. You just need to identify which platforms your target audience are using then create a strategy. Do your research and know what kind of strategy works in your business. Be always up to date and become interesting to your visitors.
5. Keep doing what you’re doing
Now that you are aware of the important things that you have to consider in earning the trust of your audience and increasing the sales of your business, the next step is being consistent. To keep the trust of your readers, you need to deliver what their needs and exceed their expectations.
Helpful Google Videos about Blogging
Author Bio:
Gemma Gaten is a full-time writer in a best essay writing service uk. She is a graduate student who writes about social media marketing, careers, writing tips, etc. Get to know her by visiting her website: http://preciousgemblog.wordpress.com/
With the internet being so crowded with countless number of blogs on varied topics from arts and heritage to science and fiction, it might come as a tough challenge to you to make yours stand out among the rest. What you need is to get people return to you for more, increase your visitors and most importantly, have a loyal following.
There are a number of tips and tricks to get success to your blog and in turn, get more business.
Here are top 10 strategies to create a successful blog:
1. Getting started
The first and foremost challenge that you come across is to choose the platform to blog on. There are a number of options to choose from including WordPress, TypePad, Blogger etc that are free to use. Almost all the free ones offer design themes to enable you customize your blog and therefore it is very easy to get started. You can also make use of the online tutorials that can be found on the web to help you in your beginning.
2. Consider integration
It is recommended to integrate your blog with your website to enable good SEO. This will help you generate content and consequently make the search engines pay more attention to you. However if you cannot do this out of your inability to find a web developer, the least you can do is include links to your main website and to your portfolio.
3. Find a niche
Try and come up with something very specific and avoid writing general stuff. By targeting your writings towards a particular niche, you will please both your readers as well as the search engines. Just go for your niche and do not get off the topic.
4. Get social
You cannot afford to neglect social media like Twitter and Facebook. Make sure to integrate them with your RSS feeds and keep your followers updated with your current posts.
5. Get personal
It is advised to reveal yourself in front of your readers and it is sure the readers will love you even more for it. It is a known fact that people love to follow people more than brands. Do not forget to add an “About the author” section and if possible, have a photograph of yourself. This will enable you to tap into the reader’s emotions and hence encourage loyalty that translates into happy and returning visitors.
6. Images, images and more images
There are no two ways about the fact that people love images and pay more attention to blogs with more of them. A picture is worth a thousand words. Pictures generate visual interest and enable visitors to quickly scan through web pages. For a creative blog, images are all the more essential to give the audience a faster transition into the mood that you want them to be in while reading.
7. Offer value
The aim is to provide what the reader wants. Make your readers realize that you are offering them real valuable stuff. This value can only be displayed in your content. It is anybody’s guess that a non valuable content will attract no readers and gradually diminish your popularity. Do make sure that what you put there is what people really want.
8. Encourage interaction
Encourage people to voice themselves on your blog. Ask them for their valuable comments and start discussions. Request for feedback, have a community and be nice to them. Ignore any negative remarks and accept them honestly. Make sure to we welcoming and friendly.
9. Give your posts punchy titles
Make an endeavor to have a catchy title. Title your posts keeping in mind what people are looking for in search engines. The aim is to inspire curiosity in people and draw them towards your content.
10. Keep it regular
Consider your blog to be like an online journal and make sure you give it the necessary fillip regularly. Keep your blog updated with a good frequency of new articles. It is advised to post at least two new articles per week to keep your reader’s interest. Should SEO be your priority, you need to blog daily. Make use of the scheduling tool to post articles as per schedule even if you are away from your desk for some reason.
Finally it is very important to proof read what you have written as neither search engines nor the readers appreciate a poor copy. Spelling mistakes are a strict no.
These 10 strategies, if followed in letter and spirit will go a long way in giving due returns to your blog and making it a successful one.
Author Bio:
Jason Smith is an online manager for Highconcrete – one of the leading precast concrete companies. He likes blogging about online strategies that are related to SEO, Content, PPC & Lead generation.
Writing blog posts is a wonderful thing but blog posts never really go away. An important strategy that many content marketing campaigns exercise from time to time is revisiting old blog posts to see what can be tweaked and added to increase stickiness. If you are like us we write a decent amount of blog posts and we know that some older posts can often be strengthened with a revision to help build up some additional power to the ones that might already be bouncing around online.
How do I know which posts to go back to?
It depends on your overall SEM strategy but in this case Google analytics will be your best friend. By going through that traffic numbers for your website content it will give you a better understanding of what you can do to make older blog posts a bit better. With Google analytics you will be able to see posts that deliver generous traffic and you will see posts that are a bit on the quite side. This will give you a much better understanding on where you should start tweaking things.
How can I tweak out old posts?
There are a variety of things you can do to an old blog posts to help it get a bit more exposure you just have to put on your little marketing in order to get it done. We have listed a handful of different areas you can address if you should decide to visit old posts in your database.
Add a quality video
Hop onto your favorite video directory (most likely YouTube) and search around to see if there are any good videos discussing the topic that you wrote about. It can be a an expert speaking on a topic or even a news source discussing different events surrounding your area of writing. Pull the embedded code from the video if the author allows it and slap it into your old post. A video is a nice way to keep a visitor’s attention and keep that bounce rate down.
Add new content
Maybe the first time around when you wrote the post the content might have been a bit on the light side. Go back and try adding and refreshing the content to see if there are any other areas you could have addressed in the topic.
Think about interlinking
Interlinking between blog posts and possibly pages is a very important part of good quality search engine optimization. Think about any other like-minded blog posts you might have written after your post and try to link them together using strategic keywords within the copy. Interlinking has become a very robust SEO method that can help you deliver power across your posts.
Add a quote
Perhaps there was an influential figure in your business space that was quoted somewhere recently on a specific topic that would be great for the post you are looking to tweak. Grab the quote, cite the source and drop it into your content to give it some more stickiness. It might even get the attention of the source or the person giving the quote if you are lucky.
Check out your meta data
Most blogging platforms these days allow you to customize your post meta data. Take a look and see if your post has the right meta data that is accurate and strategic in helping your post move about the search space. Maybe it can use a little tweaking or rewriting to give it a bit more strength in the search space.
Re-target keywords
There are many ways you can conduct keyword research these days and it might make sense to take a look at older posts and try to identify some important targeted keywords relating to the content you can go back and sprinkle in throughout the post. Now with that said it is important to realize you can’t just unload a dump truck full of keywords. Strategy is the key!
Add some social flavor
Maybe you ran the post through your social media channels and maybe you didn’t but if it is a timeless piece go ahead and run it through all your social media channels again. Push the post through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and some social bookmarking channels to drive some new social power to the post.
Add new industry data
If the post is rather older (+1 year) you might be able to find some nice industry statistics or data that would really allow the post to be fresh with information.