Drive sales by creating a blog that provides valuable insights to target buyers.

Deliver content they’ll crave. Blogging success starts here. Consider the interests, goals and tastes of your top clients and ideal prospects. Then create posts that are interesting, entertaining and/or useful to these audiences – posts they won’t want to miss.

Post regularly. Set a schedule for posting and stick to it. This conditions readers to expect updates from you. People quickly forget about your blog if you post infrequently and 

You have a personality. Use it. Good content is key, but if you present it in a boring way people tune out. So, spice up posts with your unique point of view. Use humor and quirky observations. Strike a conversational tone. Inject emotion. Offer insights only you can make.

Tell a story. A good, quick anecdote at the outset of a post hooks readers’ attention and makes them want to read on.

Include videos and images. People are more apt to check out a blog post if there is a short video or image in it. Consider that articles with images get 94% more total views.

Promote through email. When marketing to existing clients through email, provide excerpts from your blog and links to full posts. Ensure the blog excerpts give just enough information to pique curiosity, thereby encouraging recipients to click through. Have a clever “check-out-my-blog” line in your email signature with a hyperlink to the blog.

Comment. Find other respected blogs that cover similar topics. Look for recent posts that are actively receiving comments. Then, weigh in with your own comments and share a link to a blog post you’ve created on a related subject, encouraging people to click through if they want more insight.

Hype on social media. Tweet and post teaser copy and a link to your latest blog posts on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms upon which you are active. Share the link more than once, but change the teaser line and don’t re-post too soon after your first post. Additionally, look for social media influencers who cover topics you’re blogging about and try to interest these people in your blog by directly tweeting them a link to one of your recent posts. Include a quick word on why they will be interested in the content. This can lead to influencers re-tweeting your blog link to their extensive networks. Do this selectively and don’t be overzealous; you don’t want to get labelled a spammer.

"Marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13 times more likely to enjoy positive ROI."

Focus on getting subscribers.

The longer your list of subscribers, the more views and engagement each of your posts is likely to receive. In its informative blog (http://blog.hubspot.com/), Hubspot, an inbound marketing software provider, offers a variety of insights on how to build your subscriber list. It’s wise to:

• Place an opt-in form prominently on the blog’s homepage.
• Have a landing page dedicated specifically to collecting new blog subscribers. Include a “subscribe” check box on landing page sign-up forms.
• Feature an opt-in form on the blog’s “about” page. This is likely one of the top three most visited pages on your site.
• Include a pop-up or slide-in form on your blog that gives people the option of signing up.

Inspiration

Check out these promo industry blogs for inspiration and ideas:

Brandextenders.com features musings on branding and life in general by Steve Woodburn, a promo pro with more than 25 years of industry experience.

Promotips.motivators.com is a polished, well-done blog by Motivators (asi/277780).

ACTION ITEMS
      ❑ Place opt-in forms on your blog homepage and “about” page.
      ❑ Brainstorm topics for your next several posts. Commit to posting regularly.
      ❑ Review the suggested blogs.

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