4 Keys to Successful Blog Promotion in 2017
Are you tired of spending hours of your time and thousands of dollars on blogging, only to see little tangible return? Unfortunately, this is something that far too many businesses experience and can eventually lead to blog abandonment. If you want to see a positive return on your investment, it’s time to overhaul your current approach and give the following strategies a try.
1. Develop a Twitter Sharing Strategy
What’s your Twitter strategy? If you don’t have an immediate answer, chances are, you don’t have a plan. You’re simply on Twitter because others told you to do so. Sure, you may have thousands of followers and post content on a regular basis, but do you have a sharing strategy in place?
Entrepreneur Sam Ovens is a big believer in having a Twitter sharing strategy. It’s how he makes the most out of his 11,000-plus followers. If you peruse Ovens’ Twitter profile, you’ll notice that he takes a balanced approach. Some of the content he shares includes articles that his followers will find interesting (but have nothing to do with him). Other content comes directly from his own website or blog.
He has a plan in place and can pull various levers to drive traffic in different directions. You need a plan as well. Otherwise, you’re just mindlessly posting content with no end game.
2. Create Interactive Content
“Demand for interactive content has been increasing,” entrepreneur Mike Templeman says. “White papers and case studies will continue to be hot in many markets, but most content marketers should consider how they can create interactive quizzes or presentations that hold a web visitor’s attention.”
If you’re looking for ways to really draw people into your blog, interactive content will be a huge point of attraction in 2017. Send out teasers on social media and create some campaigns around specific pieces of content. It’s a fantastic way to generate returns.
3. Spend More Time on Headlines
The headline is the most underrated aspect of any given blog post. A famous advertiser once suggested that writers spend half the time it takes them to develop a piece of content on the headline. So, if you’re spending two hours on a post, he believed one hour should go towards brainstorming the title. While this may be overkill, the point is that headlines are what get people to click. You can’t draw readers in unless they’re moved by the title.
4. Simplify Conversion Forms
For the purposes of this article, we’ll assume that you’re already using opt-in forms to collect email addresses and build a list of leads. (If not, get on it!) But slapping an opt-in form into your blog isn’t enough – you need to simplify it.
Ideally, your opt-in form should include one or two fields and should never ask for personal information. Readers will be fine giving out their email addresses, but things like phone numbers and mailing addresses are big turnoffs.
“It’s not so much about trust as being overwhelmed,” one marketer admits. “They have so many companies advertising to them that it’s starting to feel like an invasion of privacy, and they don’t want to deal with it anymore, so they shut you out.”
Don’t Sit Still
If you generated a noticeable return from your blog in 2016, it may be tempting to maintain the status quo and sort of ride things out in the upcoming year. Don’t do this, though. You need to avoid sitting still or you risk becoming obsolete.
Keep your eyes on the future and pivot accordingly. Blog promotion best practices are constantly evolving and you should be prepared.