What's the use of blogging? Ten steps to increase blog visibility and attract users

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"Entrepreneurial state" _ Wen/ann Handley

Whenever I hear a company talk about creating a "machine" for developing a client, I think of Dr. Seuss. In particular, I think of the imaginary machines he created in 46 children's books, such as the Super Axe, the ultimate splash machine, and so on.

Of course, in real life, it is impossible for an enterprise to open a switch on a machine to attract customers. But you can create tools on your corporate blog and use it as a sales channel to develop your customers.

Blogging is a great way to increase network awareness, making it easier for people to find your company and become your client through Google, Bing, or other search engines. Blogs can be a complement to the sales team, through content publishing, to systematically help answer readers ' questions – provided you effectively connect with potential visitors and turn them from simple visitors to customers.

The following 10 steps can help you gain visibility and attract more potential customers to your site. It's not a panacea, but it can help you convert your visitors into customers.

1. The extension of the company website. Visitors may never visit the main web site, but they have an initial impression of your company through blogs. So it's best to keep your blog consistent with the main web site both visually (navigation and design) and technology. Use the company domain name as the primary domain name for the blog (such as blog.website.com), rather than using a separate domain name, to ensure that all links to the blog page are within the search scope of the main site.

2. Solve problems or share resources, do not lure visitors. Your blog should focus on solving customer problems or sharing your resources, but don't lure others into buying things. This may sound obvious, but too many business blogs are like a news center, full of marketing content. While you're passionate about publishing news about your company's products and services, you won't be able to attract them if you don't release the content that the potential customer cares about.

So how do you decide what to write? Use "inquiries" or "FAQ" as a "primer" for blog posts. Ask frontline salespeople: What do our customers care about and what advice they need? What problems can our products or services solve? Also, look at your search records--See what keywords people use to access the site to understand the issues they want to solve, and what statements they use to describe the problem (and, of course, Customers don't ask questions that you want them to ask--common but not asked--and good blog citations.

3. Show yourself. Writing a blog half of the work is to update the log regularly and maintain consistency, while the other half works to write excellent logs. You do not need to write a blog every day, but you must create a suitable schedule. Hiring a writer, editor, or freelancer can help you update your daily content, even if you are an industrious writer. If you can't afford it, you can use the edit calendar to make a release schedule that is updated regularly as scheduled. By the way, editing a calendar is a calendar of what logs you plan to publish.

Show yourself and also apply to regular maintenance of the communities you create through your blog. Respond to comments (even negative comments), encouraging users to talk, and become part of the conversation, not high up.

4. Avoid long speeches. Blog posts are best to be concise and powerful, focusing on an idea. Use a short paragraph or bulleted list, don't bury important information, and point to the central idea in a word. This not only takes care of the busy readers, but also helps to solve many people's anxiety about writing. Blogs can be graphics, video, and even embedded PowerPoint presentations.

5. Eye-catching headlines. Sometimes I spend more time writing titles than I write the text. Why? Because every blog post has a new page on the site, each new page creates an opportunity to elevate the search engine keyword rankings, whether it's Google, Bing or any other search engine. Blog post title is the title of the page, so the title is key.

An interesting headline also attracts more readers. The title of an article is not only a promise to the reader, but also an endorsement of the entire article, prompting people to decide whether to click.

6. Links to other resources. Link to other resources on your site with specific words or phrases. You can link keywords to resource pages that have built-in keywords, or you can link to specific pages that publish activities, such as inviting visitors to a web conference, getting a research report, or taking a free trial.

7. Other functions that increase interaction. In addition to linking to the blog itself, make good use of the area surrounding the article. There are several golden areas on the blog page that add to the interaction, including the "leaderboard" area at the top of the blog, the sidebar, and the areas that are often overlooked under the posts.

The top two areas are good places to put banner ads or buttons. However, the space underneath the blog is key: Assuming that readers read the full article, they should have the opportunity to learn more, whether by offering a purchase offer or other related content. In addition, this is a good area to link to the user's mailbox registration page.

8. Provide subscription service. Let visitors subscribe to the blog content that is regularly updated via email and RSS feeds. Each time a blog post is posted, the user receives a notification. The blog platform you choose is likely to provide plug-ins that allow subscription options (most email marketers can integrate plug-ins into WordPress and other blogging platforms to make your blog a full-featured system). There are also third-party services that can collect names and contact information for you, such as free Feedblitz and Google FeedBurner.

9. Use social effects. More traffic means more opportunities to develop customers. So be sure to put a shared icon on your blog, especially the shared icons for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. This cleverly encourages visitors to share your content and help you connect with your visitors ' friends ' networks, which is the key to social media. Of course, if you are actively involved in social media, such as participating in conversations on the site, not just the headlines.

10. Finally, the propaganda should be kept in mind. Fundamentally, blogging is a way to connect to customers in real time. But blogs need to be part of your business and customer development. Mention it in e-mail notification, print and packaging materials. Without active and sustained promotion and participation, blogs cannot play a magical role in stimulating business-no matter how much inspiration Dr. Seuss teaches. _ Translation/Wan Yu