How to Keep People Coming Back to Your Blog

By | Blogging, content marketing | No Comments

So you’ve been busting out content like a madman. You’re stoked because you’ve pushed out content every day this week and you’re positive your content marketing strategy is on lock.Trouble is, your blog traffic stinks. Maybe you have a decent number of unique visits, but nobody seems to be coming back except that one sad soul in his mom’s basement in Utah. You’re getting visitors, but you’re not establishing connections — you’re not building an audience. What should you do? How do you promote more regular readership and get a bigger audience?

Dig Your Hooks in

You need content that hooks readers and gets them wanting more. If you notice a lot of engagement on a particular post, whether it’s questions, comments, or shares, you’re doing something right. If your subject or copy just isn’t compelling for readers, you may need to switch things up in terms of your tone of voice, or the subjects themselves. If your content marketing gives people what they want, they’ll come back.

A niche focus can be your friend as well. There might be a dozen blogs about the life and times of Norwegian black metal flutists, but what about Norwegian black metal fluting in Utah?

Send Direct

If you’re not giving people an opportunity to receive regular email updates from your blog, you’re giving people just enough time to forget you exist. You want more readers than just the Utah basement guy? Get them hooked on your content, but add a regular newsletter send to your content marketing mix. Give readers an easy path to return to you and give them the content they like and you’re golden.

Sharing is Caring

Give your readers an easy way to share things through social buttons and sharing options. And don’t forget that you can’t expect people to find your content in a vacuum (with the exception of our Utah basement fellow). Instead, get on social media and share your stuff there so you can give people every opportunity to spread your message for you.

If you’re churning out lots of content, you’re doing one thing most businesses aren’t. All it takes is a few small tweaks to your promotion strategy to start really ramping up engagement and earning new readers by the minute. With some hard work, your content marketing strategy will start showing the results you desire.

4 Ways to Ensure Guest Blogging Success Through Helpfulness

By | Blogging | No Comments

The benefits of guest posting for your niche’s most authoritative sites are many. Whether your desire to guest blog comes from a need for more widespread exposure, a generous bump in credibility or a series of inbound links, rest assured—you’re going about things the right way.

Now, just because you’ve determined that guest blogging is the perfect means through which your personal brand can grow, doesn’t mean success is eminent.

Honestly, just as any of America’s most successful marketing agencies would tell you, a huge part of guest blogging greatness comes from being helpful. Here’s how to make it happen:

1) Thoroughly Read Any Guest Posting Instructions

While a healthy number of authoritative sites don’t have a specific page devoted to providing guest writers with instructions for what’s required to be published, many do.

Believe it or not, being published on another site isn’t solely based on how solid your writing or whether or not you’ve worked at one of America’s most prestigious content marketing agencies; moreover, it also has a great deal to do with how well you can follow instructions. Each site is different and, because of this, comes with a different set of editorial requirements.

From formatting and keyword usage to issues of generic ideation, follow instructions as strictly as possible and you’re much more likely to see your writing blasted out to an audience entirely different from your own.

2) Put Your Best Foot Forward

As Dorothy once famously said, “There’s no place like home.” Sure, as a blogger, it’s natural to want to run your best stuff on your own site. That said, when you reach out to another publication, it’s your job to see to it that only the best of what you have to offer be published.

If this means taking a bit of extra time away form working at any series of marketing agencies to craft an incredible post, so be it. Save the “B” quality stuff and regurgitated garbage for a Quora answer—as a guest blogger, you’re above that.

Remember, just as easily as you can build a reputation as a top-tier writer through guest blogging, so too can it be completely destroyed.

3) Make Your Piece Easy to Post

Nobody enjoys busy work. Nope. Not even the gurus working at the world’s most successful marketing agencies. As far as blogging is concerned, this means posting. Consider this: the finest of digital publications receive hundreds of guest post inquiries each and every day.

Most of them aren’t picked up, but—relatively speaking—there’s still plenty leftover that’ll eventually make its way into the editorial calendar.

Have a heart and make the publishing process as easy as possible for a hosting blog’s publisher. Seriously, bypass the zip files and make your guest as copy-and-paste-ready as possible.

4) Dominate Your Social Responsibility

Share generously. And once you’ve done that, keep sharing. Reputable marketing agencies know what they’re talking about and do this time and time again. Any and all social networks on which you’re active should be involved with the strategic scheduling of your guest post.

Although very much a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” mentality, it works wonders for being invited back for another piece. Take Twitter, for example. Don’t only schedule your your post once. Instead, make it a recurring affair.

Also, though tedious, take the time to personally respond to every single person who retweets, mentions or comments on your post. More than likely, the host site will also be tagged in the tweet and will notice your diligence in taking care of the PR side of things.

Simply put, few things are more effective for winning over the favor of an industry-specific thought leader, so take advantage of this.

Isn’t it about time you blow someone out of the water with your blogging prowess? Yes, this is difficult, but implement all of the aforementioned, and you’re good to go. Heck, before long, you might even have a few marketing agencies call you up in need of your services.

5 Great Ways to Lose Blogging Credibility

By | Blogging | No Comments

Blogging is no longer seen as a way for bored, stay-at-home moms to entertain themselves during naptime; moreover, it’s now a viable way to build rapport with consumers and, when all is said and done, bring in additional cash. Seriously, marketing agencies are now blogging both for themselves and their clients more than ever before.

Honestly, when taken at face value, none of this should seem too difficult. All that’s needed is a solid platform from which to blog and a few posts here and there, right?

Wrong. It’s much more than that.

In fact, if you and your brand begin blogging with the mentality that it’s a “Set It and Forget It” sort of endeavor, you’re in for a world of hurt. Simply put, if you want to avoid looking like a complete and total newb, there are a few mistakes you’ll need to avoid at all costs:

1) Forgetting to Think Long-Term About a Name

Blogging is a journey. Just as you wouldn’t start a cross-country trip in an old, beat-up automobile, so too should you not lack the foresight to look beyond what you’re currently writing about when choosing a domain name for your new blog.

Sure, now you’re writing about marketing agencies and how they can bring more clients onboard, but if you choose a domain name that’s heavily linked to such a finite topic, you’re setting yourself up for real disappointment once the creative juices start flowing in a handful of weeks or months.

Obviously, your blog’s title should have a great deal to do with your niche, but keep your options open. Case in point—don’t treat the naming of your blog as you did choosing an email address when you were in middle school.

2) Painful Self-Promotion

Marketing agencies know a thing or two about this. No audience wants to subscribe to a blog that does little more than toot its own horn.

Listen, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of strategic backlinking or the sharing of personal experiences or stories, but things should be kept to a minimum. Unique ideas are what draw people to blogs, not your name.

By the way, as your blog begins to grow and you start to allow for guest post activity—should you opt for such a course of action—make certain that your community of writers takes seriously your stance on editorial arrogance.

Your audience—be it through social media, a post’s comments section or the size of your email list—will most assuredly thank you for your consideration. Successful marketing agencies recognize these kinds of indicators and have, because of them, have perfected the art of blogging.

3) Not Giving Headlines the Attention They Deserve

America’s finest content marketing agencies will be more than willing to talk your ear off about the importance of headlines. Why? Well, they play an important role in earning invaluable clicks.

Believe it or not, back in the day, major publications such as The New York Times and Chicago Tribune actually had on-staff writers whose sole purpose was to produce engaging headlines for the articles their journalists had written.

Furthermore, the little kid on a stool shouting for people to take note and buy his towering stack of papers isn’t only a scene made for the movies, but something that actually happened in real life. In today’s day and age, according to experienced marketing agencies, your headline is the best promotional tactic you’ll ever use.

The basic editorial makeup of the current publishing world is somewhat different than it was a few decades back, but the need for awesome headlines hasn’t changed one bit. A simple Google search on how to write an effective headline will provide you with all you need to know to do just that.

4) Brick-Like Paragraphs

When in college, remember being assigned a disgusting amount of reading before the next class? Regardless of how studious you were, the subsequent dread that was felt could’t be avoided.

Similarly, after having opted to click on an intriguing headline, should the first thing a reader see be a page filled with brick after brick of written text, you can count on said reader never visiting your site again.

Long paragraphs are intimidating and tough to glean for the most relevant of desired information. Yes, you’re a great writer or are employed by one of the world’s most jaw-dropping marketing agencies, but in a world filled with competing distractions, the readability of your posts needs to be a real focus of yours while posts are being created.

5) Bypassing Social Media

Let’s face it—most blog posts, whether they be a product of one of America’s many marketing agencies or an individual organization—are read by few people outside of close friends and family members.

Yeah, your blog’s content might rival that of the Huffington Post, but if people don’t know about it, they can’t come to that conclusion for themselves. Help them help you and get busy with social media. Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter are awesome for building digital audiences and should be used on a daily basis.

That said, it’s not necessary to be active on all of them. Choose what best serves your marketing needs, but stay consistent with it. In time, the readers will come.

As can clearly be seen, both marketing agencies and individual bloggers have much to do in order to keep themselves relevant out in the “blogosphere.” While much of blogging excellence is learned through experience, set yourself up for success by making a conscious effort to avoid the most common blogging mistakes.

How to Get Way More Blog Subscribers

By | Blogging | No Comments

Marketing agencies understand the power of the corporate blog. People want to be informed, and when your company publishes content relevant to your business, your credibility goes up. But how do you get people to subscribe? Blog subscription might seem like a thing of the past for some, but thousands of people use RSS feeds daily.

Feedly, one of the most popular readers has about 50,000 paid subscribers alone today. People crave news. They want to be updated, and you can help them stay in the know. By following these tips, you can build your blog subscription and become an authoritative voice in your industry.

Fusion 360 - How to Get Way More Blog Subscribers (Fusion 360 Agency)

If You’re Not Blogging, You’re Successfully Doing Your Brand ZERO Favors

By | advertising, Blogging, SEO | No Comments

Any one of America’s many marketing agencies will be more than willing to talk your ear off about the importance of blogging in today’s digital world of communication. Unbeknownst to hermits, the socially inept and those creepy adults who continue to live with the confines of their parents respective basements, blogging isn’t only for soccer moms with too much time on their hands; it’s for everyone, especially up-and-coming businesses.

Simply put, if you’re looking to increase your market reach and attractivity with the United States’ most powerful entity — The Google Machine — blogging is a must. Though the practice requires a great deal of upkeep, your guaranteed increase in productivity, revenue and digital recognition will be well worth the time and effort.

No-blogging-no-favors