To gain attention for your brand, it goes without saying that you need a public voice, somewhere to share your opinion, provide insights and advice and deliver company news – and this means a blog. But, knowing this fact and creating a blog that will attract the attention and build the credibility that makes you stand out in a sea of competition are two different things.
According to the team at CoSchedule:
Content marketing is all about sharing your advice and ideas with your audience through a blog or online social network...
Here are 7 tips to help you move from mere knowledge to an effective blog and content strategy:
Post Consistently and On a Regular Schedule
To make an impression in your market, you'll need to develop a consistent, authoritative and expert voice that your readers can depend on. You want your readers to look to your blog for advice and insights unavailable elsewhere.
Lior Degani is the co-founder of Swayy and says:
Consider hosting and highlighting industry influencers and thought leaders. This can be done in the form of an interview, by covering their work or by reposting their writing combined with your own opinion.
As new readers realise that they can count on finding fresh content each time they visit your blog, you'll become their go-to source for the reliable information they need. Creating an editorial calendar can help you plan ahead, making it easier to write and publish posts on a regular schedule.
Create Quality Content That Adds Value
Make sure every post you create brings your readers real value. Don't post filler, fluff, or rehashed content that the reader can find elsewhere. People are busy, so respect your readers' time and don't abuse the attention they generously give your content.
Eric Siu, founder of Growth Everywhere and COO at Single Grain, a digital marketing agency says creating great content means using hard data to make your own posts more credible.
Always make it worth the read by giving all your posts a signature touch, a unique slant and an intriguing voice that they'll find in no other way than by visiting your blog. Take great care to balance promotional content with informational, how-to, and other types of content that will make your readers leave your blog satisfied and eager to return.
Graphic & Logo Design
Consider investing in the design of your blog. You could get a designer to created a custom blog or WordPress design or if you're using a WordPress theme adding your business' logo to the blog is the bare minimum you should consider. If you don't have a logo, we would (of course) recommend DesignCrowd's logo crowdsourcing service or BrandCrowd's blog logo generator.
Cross-Promote Related Content for an Air-Tight Reader Experience
You don't want readers simply visiting your blog and reading one post – you want to guide your visitors on a journey through engaging, informative content. Use both internal and external links to create a seamless experience for your audience, allowing them to freely move from one post to another or between your social media profiles and your blog. Make it easy for them to access all the related content that you've connected for them in an intuitive and progressive manner. You can interlink your posts manually, or you can use a plugin like Link Whisper to automate it.
Optimize Your Blog Design for Maximum Effectiveness
Be sure your blog and your entire website navigation is intuitive enough to let your reader move through all your pages and posts easily and without frustration. Using clear categories and effective tagging techniques will help your visitors find exactly what they're looking for while letting you showcase the content you've worked so hard to produce.
Additionally, following SEO best practices will help drive visibility for the great content you create. Ken Lyons over at Search Engine Watch provides some great advice on getting the most juice from your blog in terms of SEO.
Inviting input from a variety of skilled web designers can help you perfect your blog design, ending up with the finished product that best represents your brand. There are numerous free blogging platforms that can be leveraged, and competent freelance design professionals can usually work with them all. Make sure to check out wordpress, blogger, joomla, and Tumblr.
Engage Your Audience and Build a Following
Always be responsive to your audience, whether by replying to comments left on your blog or liking, favoriting, retweeting and/or +1'ing the positive or otherwise interesting content left on your social media updates.
Brandon Olson from AWeber says engaging your audience should start with giving thanks.
You can start by simply complimenting someone for an article they published, or sharing some of their content with your audience. Sometimes just offering to help with a challenge someone is having can be the start of a great relationship.
Post intriguing and valuable updates, ask questions that will get your followers thinking and commenting and always reply to their feedback in ways that will make your audience feel valued.
Craft Effective Calls to Action
Make absolutely certain your copywriter knows how to craft an effective call to action. Without this ability, the most skilled writer, who may be capable of creating the finest-quality written product and service descriptions, will fall short of achieving the ultimate goal of your marketing and other business communications: conversions.
Make the Most of All Your Assets and Channels
Use every digital tool at your disposal to grow your readership and increase your reach. Newsletters, RSS feeds and blog subscriptions will combine to keep you top-of-mind with your growing audience. Well-targeted email marketing newsletters and campaigns will also help you gain new customers and encourage your current customer base to purchase your product or service.
Your blog is one of the most valuable business properties you own. So polish it up and give it the attention it needs to attract greater publicity for your brand.
Written by Clancy Clarke on Thursday, August 28, 2014
Clancy is the Organic Search manager at DesignCrowd. Clancy has over 7 years of online marketing experience and a passion for analytics. Get in touch via Google+.
