1. Your Blog Needs Membership
We want to see exactly how much time or money will be saved or what kinds of results should be expected from a particular business activity. When these figures are lacking, investment falls sharply. Fortunately, blogging is hands down one of the phone number list most engaging, lead-generating, and results-driven content delivery platforms out there.
Naturally, that means building your blog around your business ethic: its loves, core values, and guiding principles. But you should also use your blog to express the phone number list passions of your team, especially as individuals. Playing phone number list to these strengths pays huge dividends not only in terms of internal buy-in, but also in terms of connecting with your audience. Carmine Gallo in Talk Like TED puts it plainly:
2. Your blog needs ideas
Inspiration is a fun thing. This often happens unexpectedly. Being “slapped” is delicious but in the phone number list long run, you can't rely on the occasional muse. Blogging as a business requires a proven system for generating ideas. You can start with your team members. Playing to their passions will unearth a host of ideas. But what happens when you're dry? Here are five tools to help you:
MyBlogU - Free online platform lets you brainstorm with other phone number list content creators as well as conduct group interviews. Both tools are fantastic for taking a big idea and not only testing its validity, but also breaking it down into smaller blog posts.
Quora - Wouldn't it be nice if your blog answered the phone number list questions people are already asking? This accessible website can help you find the kinds of questions that real people ask. Plus, being a regular contributor phone number list on Quora builds your authority, engagement, and traffic.
Oh, and another free tip - Steal. Every book you read, blog you visit, podcast you hear, or event you attend is loaded with content ideas. So keep an eye out for the “aha” moments and always write them down.
3. Your blog needs a calendar
Speaking of writing things down. If you think your business blog can survive by flying by the phone number list seat of its pants rather than following a well-organized content schedule, you won't. Do not even try. Begin your calendar process by looking at the year ahead. Pencil in the big dates: launches, retreats, events and deadlines. Next, decide how often the content will be published. Posting consistently phone number list on a weekly or bi-weekly basis is essential.
Be sure to create a repeatable and disciplined promotion checklist as part of your content calendar. I'll talk more about using email in 5, so let's focus on social media for now. Buffer is by far the phone number list easiest and most effective tool for managing online social networks. But a B2B social media management tool like Oktopost is just as essential. It not only lets you manage content and promotion across your team, but it integrates with third-party enterprise platforms you already use like Salesforce and Marketo. By consolidating your promotion and analytics into a single application, you get a serious advantage phone number list in optimizing your blog.
4. Your blog needs content
Let's not forget the phone number list obvious: you need content. And not just any word. Valuable, useful, genuinely engaging and shareable words. Consumers are no longer interested in traditional interruptive marketing. They want to learn. They want to find out. So how do you create killer content? Be informative. Be unique. Be clear, concise and persuasive. Tell your reader up front what to expect and what the outcome is. Use the phone number list resources listed under 2 to optimize your titles, titles, and targeted keywords for your audience.
A viable template for creating engaging and consistent content — especially with team members — starts with a bulleted list of the main takeaways from the phone number list article or a numbered list of how-to steps. Then just follow the universal three-part structure: Tell your audience what you're going to tell them. Tell them (your list is helpful here). Tell them what you told them.
5. Your blog needs to be optimized
On my own blog, I offer 5 ways to consistently create breakthrough headlines from the phone number list minds of your market . These methods all boil down to what Eugene Schwartz called your market's "state of consciousness" - your audience's understanding phone number list of their desire and your product. Next, you will need to select two of them and then contrast them using an A/B testing service.
To help you supercharge your existing titles, Portent Title Maker is a great tool. It takes from a general topic to a concrete title in one fell swoop. Or if you have a title, Portent will teach you how phone number list to make it stronger. Another phenomenal way to test your headline (as well as your CTA) is to A/B your email campaigns themselves. Compare your email open rates based on subject lines and your click-through rates on your calls to action phone number list to get immediate data on truly compelling content.