Every Blog needs a great Content Strategy!
It doesn’t matter what niche you’re in or what size your business is, you need a great Blog Content Strategy, or you won’t be earning from your blog, as I’m sure you hope to.
Getting your content to attract and keep your target audience must be a central part of your overall marketing, if you want visitors to find you and your aim is to convert them into customers.
The simple fact is that most people search online before making a purchase.
There is no getting around it, ducking it or hiding from it anymore.
People take to the search engines or social media sites, diligently hunting for products and services recommendations before hitting the stores, or adding items to their digital shopping carts, even before hiring a local service professional.
Unfortunately, the sad fact is that most Bloggers, do not plan their content at all.
Many don’t really Plan their Blog in the first place, never mind planning their content.
They don’t research what their audience wants or needs.
Many don’t even have a clear understanding of who their target audience is.
Blog posts are either solely to promote a specific product, or in many cases it comes from how the writer felt on the day, or what thoughts came to mind.
Where as, the topics that engage your audience should be what drives your blog post topics, and also what products or services you promote.
So… It really is important to have a good Blog Content Strategy in place.
Mistakes:
One of the biggest mistakes people make when they are trying to use content to increase their conversions and profits, is not creating it to attract and appeal to the right consumer.
More often than not, I hear things like “I wrote a great article and posted it on my blog, but my traffic hasn’t increased” and “my sales still suck”.
Well, of course they do because minimal visibility equals minimal results.
I do apologize if that sounds a little harsh, but if you’re going to take the time to create great content to enlighten potential customers as to how awesome your business is, then why not do everything you can to get it in front of the right audience and create the most engagement possible?
OK… Now What?
So, what does all this mean for you, as an internet marketer?
It means, you need to use your blog content as a part of your overall marketing strategy, you must plan your content, and schedule it to work for you. It means you need to know what products you plan to promote, who you want to subscribe to your lists. Then, create your content to work with this.
Research:
This actually means, that you first do a little spying (research) online, and make sure you know, things like:
- Who your Target Audience really is?
- Where do they hang out online?
- What type of content do they like to consume?
- What products and services are they looking for now?
- What questions are they asking, and how can you answer them?
- What problems are they having, and how can you help solve those issues for them?
When you can answer these questions, you can create content that will naturally attract them to you.
Then you can publish it on your blog, but also in all the places, where this audience hangs out online.
No doubt, you are reading this, because you want to use your content:
- To increase visitors to your blog
- To get more subscribers on your list
- To increase your sales conversions
Or… Maybe a combination of one or more of above.
But where do you start?
Well, we are talking about your Blog Content Strategy, so start by posting your new content on your blog.
But… you can’t just write an article, post it on your blog with a few keywords and hope your customer will find you on the search engines.
Those days are long gone, unless of course you are a SEO (search engine optimization) magician.
The best practice is to focus on where it’s going to be the biggest benefit to your business first. Then you can branch out from there.
For example, if your target audience hang out on Facebook that’s where your content should be mentioned. If they like Twitter, then it’s time to get your tweets on. If photo sharing is their thing then post on Instagram and Pinterest. If they watch a lot of video, obviously it’s YouTube.
I’m sure you get the idea!
Re-purposing:
For any one or more of above, you need great content that is related to your target audience. You need the content posted on your blog, then (as mentioned) you must be publishing in as many other places online, as possible.
This will often require some ‘re-purposing’ such as creating short videos to put on YouTube, create give-aways by exporting to a
PDF, often with a bit more detail added.
You can condense it, for FaceBook posts, etc. You can create images from it, to post on Pinterest and Instagram.
In some cases you can also expand it into a full eBook, as a give-away to get more subscribers, or to sell, via a link from your Blog Post.
Whatever you are comfortable doing, and depending on what the content is, there is a lot you can do. Re-purposing will always be a lot quicker and easier than creating more new content from scratch.
The Strategy:
The most important part of your Blog Content Strategy, is to create an actual Content Plan.
1. Map out what you want to teach your audience
2. Plan what products or services you want to promote
3. Create a realistic plan and schedule to write and post
Publishing on your main business site helps you gain credibility, authority and traffic, making it a fundamental point for the rest of your content marketing. Do your best to share high quality information in the most prominent place on your website. If you are using WordPress or a similar content management system (CMS), then adding a blog is an easy option.
Every post should include a featured relevant image and a Main Focus Keyword or phrase.
The keyword should be in your image description, and also in your post Meta Description.
This will not only help the search engines to index them, but is important for other promotions.
For example, if you use Pinterest, your image and Meta descriptions will be picked up with your Rich Pins.
More Importantly, these will follow your Pin automatically, whenever it is re-pinned by others.
Additional Resource:
If you are in need of more details for setting up your blog, you can grab a copy of my eBook, Blogging For Profits.
In this book you will learn:
- How to choose your niche
- Which Blog Platform you should use, and why
- How to use Your Blog for List Building
- And a lot more great tips
For just a few dollars, this is absolutely worth your money and time, and will definitely help with your blog content strategy and planning!
Thanks for reading, I really hope it is of some help to You!
Please leave your comments below, we would love to hear from you!.
All the Best!
Pete Bentzen
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