Blogs are a great way of promoting your business – but only if people see them.
It never ceases to amaze me how hard it can be to find some companies’ blogs on their website.
Organisations put all sorts of effort into producing blogs and other content marketing material, then tuck it away in some obscure, out-of-the-way corner. Far from taking advantage of the information superhighway, their blogs are stuck in a road block.
Many businesses are already posting their content on Twitter, LinkedIn and the many other social media sites. But remember, once you’ve spent the time and money producing informative and interesting content marketing material, try and wring everything you can out of it.
Here are three ways to get your blog in front of more potential customers:
Display your content marketing on the homepage
Don’t hide your blog behind the ‘news’ or ‘about us’ links.
Instead, highlight the content on your home page. By that I mean don’t just have a link saying ‘blog’ – tell people what’s in your latest blog. ‘Five must do tax tips’ or ‘House prices surge’ are going to get a lot more attention than just ‘blog’.
How much space you devote on your homepage to highlighting your blog depends on your business. Businesses which rely on showing off their knowledge, expertise and research will want to devote a lot of space to promoting their own unique content.
For other businesses, homepage real estate is more valuable. But at the very least their website should have a small but prominent box, scrolling the latest three or four blog headlines.
Add your blog to your email signature
You’ll annoy customers and contacts if you email just to let them know that you’ve posted a new blog, but you can do something almost as good.
Think about adding a pointer to your blog to your email signature. Again, highlight the actual content, not just the fact that you have a blog for your business.
And don’t forget to change it when you post a new blog.
Place the blog on industry websites
You should share your content as widely as possible. As long as it’s got your name and your company name on it so people can find you, it really doesn’t matter too much where your content appears. The one caveat is to make sure that any site you put your content on is consistent with your brand and image.
Look out for industry news sites or industry association sites which might be glad to republish your blog, potentially opening up your company to a whole new audience.
Also, think about other businesses which already have a blog where you can post your own blog as a guest post, perhaps with a reciprocal arrangement.
For instance, a local IT repair business might put a post warning about the latest viruses on a local accountant’s blog. This would be of use to the accountant’s small business readers as well as helping to promote the IT business. In exchange, maybe the IT repairer republishes a post from the accountant about which home computer items are tax deductible.
About the Author
Christopher Niesche is the founder of Headline Content, a content marketing firm that finds words and stories to help businesses engage customers and communicate what they do. Be it a case study, we provide fact-based content that demonstrates a business’ capabilities and how they can help potential customers.
