6 Tricks to Get More Marketing Mileage Out of Your Blogs
If you blog on a regular – or not so regular – basis for the primary purpose of marketing a business, product, message or service, are you getting the maximum mileage out of your blogs?
I am a writer (not a social media or marketing expert but boy, am I learning a lot) and as much as I love writing blogs – and do so on a weekly basis – I don’t write them particularly fast.
As such, I try to make sure that for the blogs I do write, I get the maximum mileage out of them…the most bang for my buck, if you will, because time is money.
So when I take the time to write and post a blog on my company website, I want that blog to find its way to as many readers as possible.
But I’ll tell you this for free (although, trust me, the lesson was expensive): if I just simply post that blog, then walk away and pray to the Google Search Engine Gods to send readers to my site, I will be waiting a very long time. I still have much to learn about SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
In the meantime, here’s what I do:
1. I take the time to write a decent blog (750 words max), which usually takes me three 30-minute writing sessions to get from idea to rough draft to edit and polish.
The time in between those three writing sessions (usually a day) does wonders to ensure the finished blog is clear and concise. Plus this way the writing process is, for me, more enjoyable.
2. Then I post it the blog on my company website.
3. Then I put the link to that particular blog into one (or more) of my company’s e-mail campaigns. These e-mails go out to people who have specifically subscribed to receive them (i.e. not only have they given us permission to e-mail them on a regular basis, they actually want to hear from us).
4. We then go to town on social media (we use Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) to share the blog’s url link. Why we do this is obvious; HOW we do it is what matters…and that’s where having some sort of strategy in essential. But more on that in an upcoming blog 🙂
5. Depending on the subject matter of the blog, we will also often e-mail, or tweet directly to, one of our strategic partners whose readers/followers could benefit from the messages in that particular blog – to let them know about the new blog and invite them to post it on their website and/or share with their social media network.
6. Then I revise that blog and submit an updated version of it to ezinearticles.com. When approved, they publish it on their website – but the bio at the bottom, of course, directs readers back to my company’s site.
Here’s a specific example of the trajectory of a blog:
I am the author of a book, entitled A Widow’s Awakening. One of the target markets for this book are people who are grieving the loss of a loved one – or supporting someone who is.
So one way for me to reach this “grief” market is to write blogs that offer people tangible tips, based on my personal experience, about healthy ways to grieve (unfortunately, on this subject matter I am a bit of an expert).
So, following the same steps as outlined above:
1. I wrote a grief-related blog entitled, Coincidence or Connection – How Grief Can Awaken Our Capacity to Notice Connections Between Seemingly Unrelated Events.
2. I posted it on my company blog, The Watering Hole.
3. I sent it out to the e-mail subscribers in my company e-zine.
4. Then we sent the link out via social media, including tweeting about it on the A Widow’s Awakening Twitter account.
5. We also submitted the blog to a relevant organization (whose readers would find it interest and use) and then they posted the blog on their website: Widowed.ca.
6. Then we tweaked the blog (to meet the submission guidelines) and submitted it to e-zinearticles.com, where it was published.
I hope you find this information of use in getting more mileage out of your own blogs…and more bang for your writing buck!
Related blogs by Maryanne:
Social Media Marketing Tips for Frustrated Small Business Owners
Psst…Might Sharing be the Secret to Social Media?
Smooth Sharing on Social Media – How Easy is to SHARE Your Blog or E-zine?
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Maryanne Pope is the author of A Widow’s Awakening, the playwright of Saviour and the screenwriter of God’s Country. Maryanne is the CEO of Pink Gazelle Productions and the Chair of the John Petropoulos Memorial Fund. If you would like to receive Maryanne’s weekly blog, please sign up here.