Although new social media channels emerge on a regular basis, blogs have held their own as a strong and effective method by which business owners can advertise their goods and services online.
As 2014 starts to wind down, company executives who want to outshine their Internet competition will need to gain access to the most contemporary, cutting-edge blogging techniques available.
Below are several strategies that have gained stature this year.
- Make it responsive
More and more Internet marketing experts have acknowledged the integral role that responsive web design principles can play in helping a company develop substantive stature online. As Supple Solutions noted in their commentary ”The Evolution and Future of Responsive Web Design: A Guide”:
“Responsive web design is a popular and effective technique for designing and building websites that are simultaneously compatible with desktop screens, tablets, and mobile devices.” Professional bloggers can employ a variety of strategies to make their blogs more responsive: One consists of periodically circulating questionnaires to customers to invite their feedback regarding the blog and/or the services and products advertised within its borders.
- Curate your content
Although the phrase ”content curation” has developed numerous and even mutually exclusive connotations, the concept usually refers to the process of finding, organizing, and presenting digital content that pertains to a specific topic. Curating content serves many functions, but the primary goal will typically be to expand your audience.
To optimize the content curation process so it accomplishes this objective, you have to employ several strategies, such as weeding out content that’s poorly worded, rife with tangential discussions, or ultimately reducible to mere fluff.
If you’re able to do this effectively, you can present your content to the public with confidence and watch your number of followers — and potential sales — grow.
- Include a call to action
As most marketing experts know, the call to action is one of the most important pieces of a sales pitch … and honestly, that’s what a blog post created by and for a business is. With respect to blogging, business owners can have a broad range of objectives in terms of what they want the reader to do.
In some cases, the end goal is conversion. In other situations, the blogger may want the reader to sign up for a newsletter.
Finally, the blogger may strive to enhance the interactivity of the site by having readers post their thoughts and comments about a given blog post below it. Regardless of the end goal, if you include a clear call to action in your blogs, that will facilitate the relationship-building process that keeps your readers (and potential customers) interested in your brand.
If you’re serious about ensuring that your blog becomes a tool by which you intend to boost your conversion rates and online visibility, implementing the aforementioned techniques will help. Once you begin utilizing the strategies listed above, you’ll probably find that your blog may achieve a level of online power and presence that will help you reach any and all of your business goals.
