Blog Marketing: Tips for more readers, reach & sales

Professional blogging is increasingly valued as an effective marketing tool due to the “hype” surrounding content marketing in blog marketing

The time of niche existence is finally overdue to the increasing number of corporate and influencer blogs. Blog marketing is becoming an important success factor in online marketing.

But that’s not easy.

The web is like a sea of ​​content and in order not to sink you need a stable ship. Blog marketing can be that ship.

What you also need is a comprehensive strategy to keep your blog “on track”; So you reach your target group with the right content and are successful in the long term. Because the full potential of blogs does not unfold overnight.

With this article, I want to give you a first insight into blog marketing and introduce you to the necessary components of a strategy. After a brief introduction to the different sub-areas, you will find a list with further links to delve deeper into the topic.

Blog marketing is versatile. I want to put a special focus on the following four areas:

• • • In blog content
    • Blog & Content Design
    • Blog SEO
    • The blog promotion

What this overview does not address:

• • • Marketing strategy outside of the blog context
    • Success measurement (although I want to add to this part)
    • Technical details, e.g. on content management systems
    • More on the distinction between corporate blogs

Before we begin…

Blog marketing definition

Can you explain what blog marketing is and how blog marketing differs from it?

The easiest way to explain this is to consider the objectives of both measures:

• The goal of blog marketing is – at least in the end – to monetize your blog, i.e. to generate direct (passive) sales. Your blog is the object of marketing. This includes measures such as referral or affiliate marketing, display, or in-text advertising.
• The focus of blog marketing, on the other hand, is on the long-term establishment of your blog in order to use it to “advertise” something else. For example your products or services, or general brand building. This includes all measures that serve to draw attention to your content (through content marketing, SEO, or social media marketing) and to build and expand a regular readership. Building trust and networking with other bloggers also plays an important role.

So marketing can be part of your strategy, but will rarely be successful without basic blog marketing.

In the following sections, I want to give you an insight into blog marketing.

4 requirements to be successful with your blog project

As you know, I have dedicated a whole book to the topic of blog marketing. Three major chapters are content, design and search engine optimization. I want to use this structure here as well and add the item promotion.

Blog Content

A blog, how could it be otherwise, is all about your content. Before starting your blog project, you should ask yourself two questions:

• • What do I want to write about (and why)?
  • Who do I want to write for (and why)?

These two aspects need to be carefully considered before you start designing the blog. Ideally, you choose a topic that you follow with interest and passion. The greater your wealth of experience or expertise, the better.

If you have problems finding a topic, you can get inspiration from other blogs, newsletter, specialist books and keyword analyses. This often results in new questions or food for thought that you can take up.

Another important point is the blog structure. Control when and how often you publish new content. An editorial plan is ideal for this, with which you can structure your output.

All of this contributes to the quality of your articles, which, as you know, weighs much more heavily than pure quantity. Your blog should give readers clear added value and shine with topicality and good storytelling.

Only if your content is convincing will you build up a regular readership and even win customers in the long term.

More tips & tricks about content:

• • • Success through structure and continuity: topic planning in content marketing
    • What makes a blog article worth reading?
    • With these ideas, the title of your next blog article will be a complete success
    • How to create blog articles in a short time using the 3-day technique

Blog & Content Design

How fast do you think we can process visual information?

60,000 times faster than text!

This is one of the reasons why the first impression is crucial. One look is enough for new visitors to decide if you and your blog are worth coming back to.

Bad design can distract from good content and create unfounded prejudice. Content and design always go hand in hand!

To encourage retention and interaction, and encourage users to return, your blog should have a clear visual structure that allows for intuitive navigation. And by navigation, I don’t just mean the link bar, but the basic consumability of your content.

Most traditional templates follow the same established structure known from large portals. Although this facilitates operation, it can also appear arbitrary and therefore interchangeable.

If possible, individualize individual elements of the templates or develop your own design that has a high recognition value. This includes a professional logo as well as a consistent color and font concept. In this way – similar to the corporate identity of large companies – you can build your own blog identity, which is the core of blog marketing. The graphic implementation should correspond to the goals of your blog and reflect the content adequately.

It also pays to regularly adapt the design to the needs of the visitors, since they usually have a precise idea of ​​what they like and don’t like. In this article, I explain what is important in this conception.

Useful Knowledge & Design Tips:

• • • Why successful marketing is not possible without visual content
    • How to find the right images for your blog
    • Checklist: Legal risks when using images
    • Content Design: Edit photos online with these (free) tools

Blog SEO

How many visitors do you get from organic search?

In order to attract as many interested readers as possible via the search (ie primarily Google), it is important to exploit the SEO potential as best as possible. The constantly growing, automatically networked structure of blogs is of course very beneficial in this respect.

The focus is, therefore, in addition to the SEO-typical link building, above all on-page optimization measures. Because your content still plays the most important role.

The continuous publication of high-quality content leads to links and recommendations, which in turn affect your search ranking. On the technical side, you should pay attention to a high-performance web host, because a faster page load improves the user experience and is rewarded by search engines, especially mobile ones.

In the off-page SEO area, it is important to act very carefully. An absolute no-go is buying backlinks. Particularly irrelevant links – if, for example, the linking page does not fit your topic – are recognized and penalized by Google’s algorithms. That your blog marketing does not miss a significant damper and in the worst case even means the complete end.

Bloggers who are not very familiar with this area prefer to work with an agency or SEO expert they trust.

Other useful SEO tips:

• • Link building through glossaries – How to improve your search ranking
  • Improve the existing Google ranking of your blog articles with these 6 tips

Blog Promotion

Another aspect of blog marketing is promotion.

Promotion is typically aimed at a specific goal and is limited in time. One of these goals can be to increase reach and traffic. There are many possibilities, but the content should match your blog.

• For example, social media such as Facebook, Twitter & Co. can be used to promote individual articles and to gain additional readers by participating in discussions in topic-relevant groups. Strategic content seeding has a similar effect.
• Guest posting on other blogs can be useful, as can participating in or hosting blog parades, posting interactive posts, and organizing contests and sweepstakes.
• It is also possible to use additional content formats that can be attractive beyond the classic blog article. eBooks, worksheets, and infographics can be created fairly quickly from your blog’s content. If you collect user data (so-called leads) in exchange for this content, you can use this for e-mail marketing, for example.

Tips on how to generate leads and use them effectively:

• Generate leads effectively – through content upgrades and the right tools
• Purpose of Content Marketing: Demand Generation vs. Lead Generation
• In Lead generation as the central goal of your inbound marketing strategy
• Lead management in detail: generate, qualify and evaluate contacts

Incidentally, all of these measures strengthen branding, as they position you and your blog both thematically and qualitatively.

Content, design, SEO, and promotion. These are four important pillars of blog marketing. Not the only ones, because monetization is also an interesting area of ​​blogging, for example, but probably not relevant for everyone.

To round off this introduction, I have a few tips for you to grow your blog into a business in the long term.

9 tips on how to build a long-term blog business …
… or make yourself an entrepreneur through your blog.

Your blog strategy is fundamentally based on whether you want to make money with your blog.

While corporate blogs are more aimed at generating qualified leads, most bloggers are more interested in placing their topics as prominently as possible. Ultimately, there are many different ways you can make money from your blog.*

• Integrate externally driven pay-per-click or pay-per-sales/lead programs such as Google AdSense or the Amazon affiliate program.
• Leverage commission-based affiliate marketing through affiliate programs.
• Market ad slots or advertorials as direct.
• Publish sponsored posts. However, use these sparingly and make sure that they fit your blog thematically and are marked as advertising.
• Expand or bundle individual content and offer it as paid publications (e-books, etc.). Self-developed tools, plug-ins, and add-ons are also available for sale.
• Offer particularly detailed and exclusive contributions in a paid section. A certain awareness of your blog is an advantage for this.
• Use your skills as a blogger: whether as an editor for corporate blogs, social media experts, or consultants – in times of content marketing, specialists are more in demand than ever.
• Sell ​​your blogs. This is a lucrative business model for “serial niche bloggers”.
• Use your experience to teach others something, for example in seminars, workshops, or online courses.

Outlook

Like other guides of mine, this one is a living document.

I will probably add other aspects over time, or continue to develop individual areas such as social media or online advertising.

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