Over the course of the last three years, organic and low-cost marketing techniques have become increasingly effective within multiple industries. Take blogging, for example, which not only creates additional landing pages that can be indexed by Google but also enables brands to rank higher in relation to specific keyword phrases.
In this respect, a commercial blog is arguably the most powerful marketing tool at your disposal in 2016. Readily accessible and easily affordable, it offers you a unique opportunity to enhance your brand’s online visibility, engage potential customers and improve sales conversion rates.
How to harness the Marketing power of your Blog in 3 simple steps
While your blog may be a potentially potent marketing weapon that can wield insight and influence in equal measure, however, it will only ever be as successful as the content strategy that underpins it. With this in mind, here are three simple steps towards optimising your blog and creating a powerful marketing tool: –
Approach Blogging as a Scalable marketing discipline
If your blog is to achieve its marketing potential, it must adhere to several basic rules. The first is to commit to regular publications, as you create relevant and insightful content that offers value to your readers. Quality is also integral to the success of your blog, so any initial content strategy must be designed to tick these various boxes.
The best way to achieve this is to view blogging as a scalable marketing discipline, as you first develop a simple and manageable strategy before evolving this organically as your business and target audience grows. Start with the regular publication of a single, 500 to 800 word blog post on the same day each week, for example, focusing on topical and relevant subject matter which appeals to an identifiable consumer demographic. This enables you to prioritise the quality and nature of your content, without comprising your existing workload or initial publication schedule.
Over time, you can look to expand your blogging efforts as you reach out to new audiences and market segments. This may require you to outsource the creation of high quality content to skilled copywriters, especially when looking to commission longer, more in-depth pieces of content that are proven to drive higher levels of traffic. You can even take on additional guest posts to add depth and insight to your blog, using invaluable expertise to engage potentially new customers.
Invest in creating a suitable tone of voice that brings your content strategy to life
As we can see, your overarching content strategy will dictate the nature and frequency of your blog posts. You must also consider individual elements of execution, however, as these will determine how your content is received within a specific target market.
One of the main elements of execution is tone of voice, which refers to the style of writing that you adopt throughout your blog. In basic terms, this must be consistent and relevant to the type of content that you are delivering, whether you use a formal tone to engage a professional audience or a light-hearted and humorous approach when marketing fun and innovative products at consumers. It is also generally better to use an active tense when creating a viable tone for your blog, as this energetic writing style drives a greater sense of urgency and is ideal for bringing subtle calls to action to life.
So while a content strategy serves as a plan of action that leverages the marketability of your blog, it is the application of a relevant tone of voice that optimises its reach and impact. Make no mistake; brands that get this right are well-placed to create the most engaging content imaginable for their audience, as they create effective calls to action that deliver an optimised conversion rate.
If you are unfamiliar with how to develop or define your brand’s tone of voice, you should start by revisiting your business philosophy and the values which underpin this. These can be prioritised to create a list of attributes and a personality for your brand, which in turn help you to identify a suitable tone. Once this has been established, you can break this down in greater detail to determine the words that you use and pace at which you write.
Share and share alike while using your Blog content to influence customers
Blogs have always been considered as tools with which business-owners could develop their credibility and establish themselves as industry experts. This notion has evolved considerably in recent times, however, with bloggers now more likely to be considered as influencers and high quality content having emerged as a key entry point into relationships between clients and brands.
This depends on your ability to share your content with an engaged audience, however, as otherwise even the best posts will fail to reach a large enough demographic to benefit your brand. You therefore need to adopt a proactive approach when sharing each post, publicising your work across an integrated social platform. Do not be afraid to share the same post regularly over the course of several days and time periods, for example, using alternative hooks and headlines to engage your followers.
In terms of the social sharing channels that you use, you may also want to tailor your strategy and optimise the impact of each individual post. While staple networks such as Facebook and Twitter can help you to share your blog content with a vast and diverse following, there are additional channels which may enable you to target specific demographics. Professional content is likely to engage the LinkedIn audience, for example, while female and product-orientated brands should look to share their work through channels such as Pinterest.
This strategy optimises the reach of every single piece of content that you publish, while also leveraging the immense marketing potential that exists within your blog. While it does require the investment of time, it will help to create an engaged community around your blog and turn interested readers into motivated consumers.
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