Are you looking for the latest blogging tactics?
Do you want to know what the blogging pros are doing today?
Keeping up with the latest social media changes is not always easy, and your blogging tactics may need to be refreshed.
Here’s what they have to say.
#1: Turn Google Hangouts On Air Into Mini-Courses in a Blog
Martin Shervington
Since I launched PlusYourBusiness, I’ve focused on one main tactic: include as rich a multimedia experience on the blog posts as I can, while remaining useful.
One of the best ways I’ve found to do this is to take an interview and structure it into a mini-course.
So, this is what I do regularly:
Run a Google Hangout On Air. For example, an interview with someone in social media or social SEO.
Run a Google Hangout On Air and then turn it into a mini-course on your blog.
I then take that interview and have it transcribed. I edit it into key sections, maybe five or six, adding in branding on the front- and back ends. This helps create a flow in the blog by embedding the YouTube videos into the blog post.
Then I take the original full version of the hangout video and embed that at the end, adding in the transcript for those who like to skim through.
So what’s the main advantage? Well, this way people can structure their own learning experience. They can watch one video at a time instead of risking watching one or two hours of videos.
Google Hangouts On Air can be recorded as live, private events in YouTube as well. So even if you don’t want to have one publicly on Google+, you can still achieve the same result. It really is a great way to make your content work a lot harder on your behalf.
Martin Shervington is the author of The Art and Science of Google+ and a marketing consultant.
#2: Make an Audio Version of Your Blog Posts
Greg Hickman
Recently, my favorite blogging tactic has been to make an audio version of my blog posts to share on mypodcast feed. It introduces a whole new set of content to my podcast audience and lets people consume my editorial content in a new, easy and mobile way.
Some bloggers using this tactic are seeing a 2000% increase in exposure. I’m experiencing this on my own site and it’s even created more engagement in the Comment section, surprisingly enough.
Turn blog posts into audio versions. Image source: iStockphoto
There are a few ways to approach this. One, add the audio blog to your current podcast feed. Two, create a separate feed for the audio blog and capitalize on the New and Noteworthy juice iniTunes.
As a content marketer who wants to get your content out to a larger audience, make an audio blog version of your blog post. It’s an extremely powerful way to increase reach and deliver content to your audience on their own terms.
Greg Hickman, founder of Mobile Mixed, a blog and training resource for businesses going mobile.
#3: Brainstorm and Organize Ideas With Mind-Mapping
John Haydon
My favorite blogging tactic for a successful business blog is to use mind-mapping to brainstorm and organize ideas for blog posts.
Mind-mapping is especially helpful for posts that are longer than 1000 words, like 18 Ways to Improve Your Facebook News Feed Performance.
For that article, I used MindMeister to map out an outline, following these steps:
- Start with the headline as an anchor. Assuming you’ve selected a useful topic to write about, write the headline in the center of the mind-map.
- Brainstorm sub-ideas related to the headline. In the example below, I drilled down two levels.
- Convert the map into a text outline.
- Write 2-3 short sentences for each node.
- Edit, then add links and images.
Use a mind-mapping tool like MindMeister when brainstorming for a blog post.
Mind-mapping is a perfect thought organization tool for people who have ADD, or are just very creative.
John Haydon helps nonprofits change the world with smarter marketing.
#4: Include Data in Blog Posts
Eric Siu
I find that when I support my blog posts with data, I tend to get better engagement. People stay longer, share more and visit more pages.
Peep Laja from ConversionXL has a good process where he requires guest bloggers to back up every claim in their posts with a link.
For better engagement, use data in your articles. Image source: iStockphoto
Similarly, Neil Patel is generous with information a lot of people would be hesitant to provide. For example, he talks about how he spent $28,200 on infographics and generated 2,512,596 visitors and 41,142 backlinks. That’s what sets his blog apart from all of the other Internet marketing blogs out there.
Use hard data to make your own posts more credible.
Eric Siu, founder of Growth Everywhere and COO at Single Grain, a digital marketing agency.
#5: Make Posts Social
Mike Bal
My favorite tactic is to make posts as social as possible by adding embedded social posts and prewritten tweets with ClickToTweet.
This allows you to prompt your reader to share or engagethroughout the blog, which helps to ensure that they actually read the entire thing. This also gives you more opportunities to engage with your readers and maximize the conversation around the content.
Mike Bal, director of social media and content at Single Grain and the creator and primary author of Marketing Apocalypse: The Brand Survival Guide.
#6: Integrate Product Messages
Marko Saric
My favorite blogging tactic is to cleverly integrate product messages within engaging content. This is the content that gets page views and social shares that introduce your brand to new people.
In many cases, this means creating scannable content that is easy to read (short paragraphs, list posts, etc.) and visually appealing content (stunning imagery, infographics, etc.).
AirBnB publishes city guides where their product is completely integrated in useful and valuable ways.
The key is to introduce your product and/or service naturally within the article; for example, as a call to action at the end of the post.
Marko Saric is a blogger at How to Make My Blog.
#7: Grow Your Email List for Increased Reach
Thibaut Davoult
Growing a mailing list is possibly the most efficient way we increased the reach of our blog. Without it, you’ll have to be meticulous about with whom to share your new articles in the hopes of getting retweets, +1’s and backlinks.
This manual outreach process is awfully tiresome and time-consuming. But by growing a mailing list of people who are passionate about the topics you cover on your business’s blog, this outreach job will pretty much take care of itself. A blog mailing list is also a great way to nurture relationships with prospective customers.
Increase your reach by growing your email list.
Here are a few smart keys to growing your list:
- Optimize your blog. Add mailing list subscription boxes, pop-ups on scroll and pop-ups on time spent. The basic rule here is there’s no overkill until you prove there is. Test the results and fine-tune all of these settings.
- Add an opt-in box to any forms you have. Do you sell products online? Add a blog subscription box in the checkout funnel. Do you do consulting online and have a form where prospective clients specify their needs? Add a subscription box here.
- Use your existing contacts, but don’t just dump your clients’ info into your list. Let people opt into your mailing list. You want happy subscribers who voluntarily subscribed for updates. They’re the ones who’ll engage with your content.
MailChimp is an invaluable source of information when it comes to mailing lists and delivery. Their knowledge base will help even if you use another mail delivery service.
Thibaut Davoult, head of content marketing at Nitrogram.
#8: Make Your Blog Title Eye-Catching
Rachel Sprung
The first thing someone will notice about your blog is the different titles of your posts, but it doesn’t mean that needs to be the first part of the blog post you write.
When you start to blog, come up with a working title that will give you enough detail to guide you as you write the post.
When you finish developing your content, you’ll have a better understanding of the message and content of your post. You can then head back to the title and make it eye-catching for your readers.
Rachel Sprung is a product marketing associate at HubSpot.
#9: Be Strategic With Your Publications
Jayson DeMers
Rather than focusing on tactics, I prefer to think from a strategic perspective. A successful business blogcomes down to three core factors:
- Frequency of publications
- Quality of publications
- Shareability of publications
As long as a business frequently publishes awesome, shareable content, it will be a successful business blog. The tactics involved in doing this are secondary to that simple core strategy.
Have a strategy when it comes to the publication of your blog posts. Image source: iStockphoto
The type of content you publish (text, image, video, audio) doesn’t really matter, as long as your audience loves it. However, studies have shown that image-based content tends to get more shares across social media, so images and video can be important components of your content strategy.
Engagement is a very valuable postpublication tactic, but it all begins with a strong foundation of frequency, quality and shareability.
Jayson DeMers is the founder & CEO of AudienceBloom.
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