Being the owner of a business is arguably one of the hardest jobs on the planet. Edging out your competition will take a lot of hard work and some marketing savvy. Utilising the power of technology is essential when trying to compete in the modern business landscape.
Did you realise that the average American consumer spends over 8 hours a day engaging with digital content? This is why providing the consumers you are trying to reach with helpful and informative blogs, videos and social media posts is vital. Failing to do this may lead to you being unable to generate quality sales leads over time.
Driving traffic to a newly established blog can be difficult to say the lease. The following are just some of the strategies you need to consider when attempting to build an audience for your blog.
Identifying Your Audience is the First Order of Business
Before you begin producing blogs on a regular basis, you need to first identify who you are writing this content for. Using a generalised approach when it comes to targeting your blogs can be problematic. Ideally, you want to create a few user personas to use when developing new content. These personas should feature things like the age, educational background and interests of a particular consumer.
The biggest mistakes most business owners make with their blog is covering any and every topic under the sun. Not only can this alienate the people who are actually interested in your product or service, it will also take away your ability to position your company as an industry leader. This is why you need to focus on only publishing content that is related to your industry. Safari SEO Southampton advise that one of the biggest content marketing mistakes that businesses make is failing to identify their target audience and choose keywords that reflect the intent of their target audience. Writing content that is engaging is one thing, writing content that is relevant and searchable for your target audience is another thing altogether.
Attract Attention With Your Headlines
The first thing a consumer will notice about a blog on your website is the title. If your title doesn’t attract attention or draw the reader in, it will be extremely difficult to increase the traffic to your website. When crafting a headline, you need to make sure it summarises what the content will cover.
Often times, inexperienced entrepreneurs make the mistake of over-promising in their headline. You allude to the fact that a particular piece of content offers little-known tips and then go on to provide the same run of the mill information other similar blogs offer. Not only will this make you lose credibility with the reader, it can also lead to a consumer blacklisting your business due to these dishonest marketing tactics.
Your Content Needs to Feature Both Inbound and Outbound Links
Search engine dominance is usually the main motivation a business owner has when establishing a blog. Getting your website to the top of the search engine results page on Google will take a lot of hard work. If you want to give yourself a better chance of ranking higher, then developing a good linking strategy is a must.
Not only should your content feature inbound links to other blogs on your website, you will need to include outbound links to reputable sites as well. The outbound links you put into your blogs should be there to offer context to the subject you are talking about. If you are just stuffing links into the content, you may get penalised for spam-like marketing tactics.
Don’t Be Afraid of Feedback
Most blogs will go through a number of incarnations before success is achieved. If you are trying to optimise your content to fit the needs of your audience, asking for feedback is essential. As most marketing professionals, like Lead to Conversion will tell you feedback is a vital part of adequately serving your audience.
You need to realise that the feedback you receive will not always be positive. In some cases, consistently negative feedback can alert you to issues that need to be addressed. Instead of getting defensive when confronted with negative feedback, you need to consider how valid the complaint is. Showing consumers you are going the extra mile to address their concerns can help you keep them loyal and engaged.
There is Nothing Wrong With Getting Professional Help
While saving money is important, you need to avoid cutting corners with your content marketing efforts to save a few bucks. If you don’t have the time or experience to populate your blog with content, hiring professionals to help is a must. With their assistance, you can keep your blog posts consistent and engaging.
