So you want…
- fresh traffic to your corporate blog
- targeted visitors
- higher conversion rates
- your corporate blog to develop into an asset and not a liability,
Here are the top four things you are not doing with your content that is hurting your business. In this short guide, I will offer you a solution as to what to do and how best to do it. However, it is best not to try and do everything at once. Why you may ask? Simple, if you try to do everything at once you may will be overwhelmed.
But it’s best to have a plan of at least starting with one and then going on to execute other strategies.
Before I start, it is important to know that the strategies I have listed here are in no particular order of importance.
Without further ado, let’s start now…
#1. Not Having A Call To Action
Here’s what Zhuang had to say about call to actions in your content: “Tell the online visitors literally what you want them to do with clear tones of command, for instance, you may want them to call you now for a free quote, or sign up to your exclusively online coupons, or add products to the online shopping cart, etc. call attention to your suggestion, for example, you can use – special buttons or highlight the text”.
One of the reasons for putting out content is to drive engagement, and without a call to action, how will there be engagement? Though, it is natural for people to comment on your content. It won’t hurt at all to add a call to action as a gentle reminder. A simple call to action like:-
- “what do you think?,
- let me have your comments below,
- let me know how this has been of help to you”
These are good ways to start. As you gain more experience it will start to come naturally.
Bottom line, if you are not having a call to action on blog, you are certainly reducing engagement and losing one of the reasons why you are putting your business out there using the power of the call to action.
#2. Not Enough Social Media Integration
Granted you have Facebook, Twitter, Google+ share buttons beneath your content. Do you think they are enough? The answer is a big NO. There are lots of other social media platforms out there that people might want to share your content on and if you don’t give them a very easy way to do this, they might procrastinate about it and life may just get in the way.
One way to really do this is to use a very good theme like the genesis framework theme created by studio press. In that case, you will have more than just Facebook, Twitter and Google+ share buttons for your content and you must have driven your content to a far bigger audience than you can imagine. Thus, help more people and in the process grow your business more. In this day and age, part of this is what is known as content curation, a topic for another day.
#3. No Info Graphics At All
One of the best methods of more engagement is infographics. A recent statistics showed that infographics are shared 3 times more than other types of content. The major reason for this is not far-fetched; visuals get more engrained in the brain than words. With infographics, comes a lot of visuals and you are able to engrain your business in the minds of a wider audience.
If you are unsure how to create a good infographic, don’t sweat it, there are a lot of graphic designers out there who are willing to help you out, for a fee of course. On outsourcing sites like odesk, you get loads of graphic designers; all you have to do is sift out the good from the bad using their portfolios, profiles, samples and reviews. If you are not satisfied with the ones you find there and you can use spare like a thousand dollars, visual.ly can come to your rescue.
#4. Not Enough Great Valued Content
Let’s face it, you wouldn’t want your content to be another “me too” content or would you? I bet you won’t because if you do, that is like writing the death of your business. Instead of creating another “me too” content, come up with high value content that will help your audience, thereby growing your business.
One of the ways you can come up with great content is to solve people’s problems. One way of solving their problem is by knowing their problem, and a way of knowing their problem is by asking them. Two of the best ways to ask is by:-
- Visiting forums or discussion boards in your niche and crafting a blog post to answer the recently most asked question on the forum. You can also go on discussion boards such as Quora to see the most pertinent questions being asked in your niche, create a blog post to answer it, come back and answer it beautifully and then link your answer back to your blog post. Quick note: avoid being spammy.
- Asking people on your list. If you are running a blog then you should be running an email newsletter alongside it. If you are not, then you can start. One of the benefits of having a list helps you to craft a blog post that will resonate with them. In order to accomplish this well, it is best you use a survey form. Surveys can be created using a site known as Survey Monkey. You can even sweeten the deal by giving out free gifts (money or prizes) or by giving out steep discounts to some of the services you offer with a cap time for its expiry.
So, there you have it, create a call to action, add more than enough social share button buttons, add great infographics. By the way, the word infographics is derived from a combination of information and graphics. Think about that, create high value content and you can be rest assured of fresh traffic on your corporate blog, targeted visitors, a higher conversion rates. Thus, turning your corporate blog into a great asset and not a liability that it may be now.
Do you want to help others become better content providers? Share this post.
Images: “The word blog and serious businessman with hands on hips against futuristic black and blue background/Shutterstock.com“
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