I’m delighted to have this post contributed by Leading Coach Patsi Krakoff, Psy.D. (aka The Blog Squad) in Ajijic, Mexico, to help us all make the most of that critical web 2.0 marketing strategy: blogging. Find out more about Patsi at www.WritingOnTheWeb.com and if you don’t already have a blog, but want to, she’s a great resource for you!
4 Keys to Solving the Biz Blog Blues
The pay-offs from persistent content marketing with a blog can be enormous, but the key is optimizing your blog for business.
Here are the four areas you need to pay attention to if you want good results:
Content – The Four E’s: You must write frequent posts with valuable information your targeted audience needs and wants. You must write to educate, entertain, engage and enrich the lives of your readers.
Outreach – The blogosphere is the community of all the blogs and blog readers. If you reach out to those in your niche, you become part of a larger community and connect with more people.
You must use social sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook to drive traffic back to your blog. You’ll become well-known in your niche. Your blog gets noticed, you get more traffic, you get more potential business.
Design – First time visitors to your blog should be able to see in a blink if this blog is for them. Your banner should tell readers the benefits they will get from reading and subscribing, and who you are as the blog author.
With design, it’s the little things that count toward building trust and confidence in you as author and you as business owner. If your blog is confusing, has too many options and choices, visitors are “outta-there”: click and bye-bye.
Action – At a minimum, you should be asking your readers to get involved by commenting. The more they participate on your blog, the stronger the connection with you. When readers know, like and trust you, (KLT factor) it’s easy for them to buy from you.
Yet so many blog authors forget to ask readers for their opinions and experiences. Or they are afraid to ask a question for fear that no one will respond and the blog will look unread. Only 1-2% of readers will bother to comment; you must ask anyway.
Many forget to ask readers to subscribe using an email delivery system like Feedburner or Feedblitz. They put the RSS icon up there on the blog and forget that the majority of blog readers don’t understand what RSS is or know how to subscribe using a feed reader.
And some aren’t using Twitter, LinkedIn or other social networking sites to pull in new readers. That’s too bad because readers who come from those sites are more likely to leave a comment and participate on your blog.
Content, Outreach, Design and Action
This is my Blog Squad 4-point CODA system to optimize your blog for business. When you pay attention to critical elements in each of these areas, you’ll see improved traffic and improved results.
Comment below to begin a dialogue with Patsi and other Leading Coaches! (Be sure to Login first, otherwise you won’t see a comment box below.)
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