We all know that blogging is good for business, but how much so? According to a study conducted by HubSpot’s inbound marketing team “the average company that blogs has 55% more visitors, 97% more inbound links and 434% more indexed pages.” (To learn more, download this helpful Ebook!) Yet, whether you are an avid blogger or a newbie, you may be falling victim to common blogging faux pas that may be placing an unwarranted cap on your desired exposure level.
Here are five tips to help you increase your exposure and maximize the return on invested time:
(1) Amalgamate – Publish your blog on your company’s website (as opposed to platforms like WordPress) to add to your company’s branding and decrease your bounce rate. Your goal should be to attract visitors through your blog and to facilitate their navigation of your other web pages. But integration shouldn’t stop here – include proper links to your social media accounts and to key pages and forms on your site!
(2) Innovate – Create thought-provoking, diverse and timely content that will be read and shared by others. Try having an internal blogging competition to get your employees’ creative juices flowing (ours is currently on its way!) or invite guest bloggers that can append content variety as well as new perspectives.
(3) Follow Through – Be consistent with your follow-ups. If visitors comment, reply to them. If questions are asked, take a few minutes to answer them. Demonstrate your engagement and take it another step further – ask employees to share their favorite blogs with their personal networks. This will help you expand your reach and exposure.
(4) Engage – Don’t just write and deliver, ask and be an active receiver. Ask questions, allow readers to share their opinions, welcome comments and keep your content and reader feedback alive by tracking your presence’s pulse and starting your own paper, like Castle Connect, to repurpose your cloud of ideas!
(5) Optimize – This is often overlooked (but crucial from an optimization standpoint!). Visit Google’s AdWords to research which keywords you should be using, publicize strong, keyword-rich titles that will draw your target audience, write fitting meta descriptions, and don’t forget to include a photo or video. Then, study your analytics and tweak your blogging strategy to achieve desired results.
What has worked well for you? What are you doing to improve your blog’s exposure? I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you are interested in being one of future guest bloggers, let us know in the comments below!
