Adding a blog to your business or e-commerce website is one of the best ways to enhance your brand’s image and build a lasting connection with your present and future consumers.
But merely having a blog and publishing a weekly post is not enough-however good your content may be, it needs to be read and validated by your target audience for it to make any contribution to your success.
Aside from diligently sharing your blog posts on your social media channels, here are three more things you should be doing to bring more people to your site via your blog.
1] Invite industry experts to write for your blog
Having an expert or influencer write a guest post for your blog is a surefire way to multiply your readers. In addition, when you have well-respected experts sharing their knowledge and experiences on your platform, it increases your credibility as a legit business and builds people’s trust in your own expertise.
There are two things you must ensure when inviting an industry expert to guest post-the topic and content should be relevant to your business, and it should be written by someone who has real knowledge of the subject-your readers can easily separate fluff from the real thing.
Request your guest writer to share the post on their social media, but don’t insist on it.
2] Enhance the outreach of your content with guest posting
When you’re trying to grow your business by creating more buzz around your brand, it’s simply not enough to rely only on content creation as a way to interest your target audience.
One marketing tool that brings fantastic results for businesses is investing in a sound blogger outreach strategy-that is, guest posting on influential blogs and sites frequented by your target readers.
Each of your posts will have a naturally placed backlink pointing back to your blog or webpage, boosting your site’s traffic as well as its search engine ranking.
You can do this on your own, but for real value of your buck, it would be wise to hire an expert blogger outreach service such as Outreach Monks for a ready-to-use, affordable and effective guest posting strategy tailored to your specific needs.
A good agency will not only create high-quality content for you, they will ensure that it’s published on the most relevant, well-known industry blogs catering to your prospective customers.
3] Make your readers feel important
This is one of the most organic and time-tested ways to increase engagement on a business blog. Make your readers feel valued-take the time to reply to comments, answer queries patiently and acknowledge shares and recommendations. Thank readers for their appreciation and learn how to separate constructive criticism from plain old trolling.
Hold QandAs, feature insightful remarks, share customer stories, or interview loyal readers-there are plenty of ways to encourage your readers to genuinely like and promote your blog. And most of these don’t cost a thing-only your time and commitment.
This article has been contributed by Nancy Clayton. She worked in marketing before she found joy in writing. She now writes for Submitcore blogs as a full-time career.