Writing a business blog is a great way to drive engaged visitors to your website and this technique continues to be the cornerstone of the best SEO campaigns. Although just creating a regular blog post can help increase your organic rankings, it pays to promote your blog posts to a wider audience across a multiple channels. In fact, some marketers argue that you should spend an equal amount of time promoting each new blog post as you spend creating it. Here’s a rundown of the ten easiest ways to give your business blog a boost.
You should have Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Pinterest and Instagram accounts set up and associated with your business. Even if each is only followed by a few people, these could become influencers – they might also become direct customers. After publishing your blog, share the link on each platform with a short paragraph about the content. This can be automated (we’d recommend getting in touch with us if you need help setting this up).
Build a Newsletter / Mailing List
You should not rely on organic search and social media to drive traffic to your website. A mailing list can be your most powerful tool. Every time you update your website, send out an email to your subscribers so that they are immediately aware. Social is good, but posts can quickly drown in the digital stream. You have more control with email. E-shots can also be automated. Services such as MailChimp, Aweber and Constant Contact are very useful tools.
Engage in the Community
Although this may appear similar to social sharing, actively engaging your business community can be much more powerful. If your latest blog post impacts on other businesses, even rival businesses, let them know via social. A quick “did you hear about?” Tweet or LinkedIn update can help position your business as a digital leader in the market.
Tell your employees and co-workers
Sometimes the most influential people in your business are sitting in the same building. If your business has a strict “no Internet” policy, you cannot expect your workforce to be spot the latest company news on Twitter or Facebook. Make sure everybody is aware of the latest developments and discussion points with emails.
Link to it in your email signature
The chances are that you communicate daily with many people via email. Regular contacts will be blind to your signature, so why not promote your latest blog post on every email you send?
Cross link your blog posts
Do not allow each of your posts to become orphaned on your site. In new posts, link back to older articles or product pages that are relevant to the topic, and then link back to the new post from those. It is likely that some of your pages are far more popular than others – any pages that are read daily can be used to drive readers to new pages on your site.
Paid Promotions
Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn all allow you to promote posts. They all have differing rules, but with a little work you can create a relatively cheap advert to ensure that your blog is seen. It is almost vital to do this on Facebook today, because, as already mentioned, posts are quickly lost in the stream. Target fans of your page and their friends, and you will quickly drum up many new readers.
Create an in house advert
If your blog post is reporting some major news that will interest your market, create a banner to promote it on your website, so that whatever page people land on, they will be informed of the latest post.
Create a YouTube Video
YouTube is still the world’s second most popular search engine. If you, or a member of your team, is happy in front of a camera and can confidently follow a script, create a short video to share the latest news and link your blog post to the uploaded video.
Turn it into a story
Does your blog post cover some newsworthy content? If so, you may be able to re-write it as a press release or short news story to share on news sites.
These are just ten ways to boost a blog post. There are many ways you can engage a larger market share with one blog post. If you need help setting up your blog sharing strategy, we can help!