Companies always look for effective methods of communicating with their target audience, and a cost-efficient communication strategy is something for which business owners  tirelessly search.  One of those opportunities that has almost infinite potential is a uniquely design and customized feature-rich business blog that highlights your company’s message and encourages interaction.  However, in order to launch your blog successfully and to heights that even you didn’t think were possible, take the time to read through and implement these 17 fool-proof techniques.

  1. Welcome Message — For your first post, or potentially a popup that is designed with innovation, your welcome message should be a prominent part of your blog launch.  Take a few moments to explain what your blog is about, why you created the blog, and the key success factors (values) of your publications.  Establishing all of these things will allow you to gain credibility and start a rapport with your readers.
  2. About Page — While the welcome message will be the enticing publication that encourages readers to stay on your site and find out more about the writer behind the proverbial curtain, your “About” page will provide them with an in-depth understanding of your background and intentions for the blog and/or business.  Overall, this page will give much-needed information and develop a greater credibility with your audience.
  3. Cornerstone Content — Pre-published articles or other key content is a key to your first-time users staying on (and returning to) your site.  Be sure that you do not launch your business blog with fewer than 5 posts; you want to make sure that you have the opportunity to provide your readers with as much unique content and value as possible prior to them going back out to the wide world of the web.  In other words, you want to hook them by their first visit.
  4. Feed Above Fold — This is one of the primary reasons to hire an all-inclusive company that covers website design, social media marketing, and all other facets of your business blog needs; making sure that your feed is extraordinarily visible and encourages readers to take the next step and convert to a subscriber.  With that said, your blog feed needs to be above the fold and prominent; you should be able to notice it within 3 seconds of the page opening.
  5. E-Mail Version of Feed –  Along with the notice-ability of the feed, the versions of feeds that you provide is extremely pertinent.  Make sure that you include all of the popular feed readers, but also include an e-mail version as well.  By including all of those options, your readers will experience ease and accessibility to your articles.
  6. Social Icons — Start your viral marketing campaign(s) by providing your social media icons in two places throughout your blog: (1) at the header or prominent placement within a sidebar, and (2) at the bottom or top of the posts.  These social media icons, while they can be directed toward your business profiles should more-so be aimed at readers easily sharing your content with their sphere of influence.
  7. Valuable Comments — Now, while your audience is encouraged to share your publications and insights, it is also very important that you go out into the web world and entice people to visit your blog by leaving valuable comments on other sites.  To take it to the next step, do your research and find top industry-related blogs that provide follow value for your comments, and start to become an active member of their community by providing consistent and knowledgeable feedback.
  8. Create Buzz — Throw a blog launch party. Talk it up throughout your social networks (both online and offline). Bring it to the front of audiences’ attention through press releases.  Do everything and anything that you can in order to increase the hype of your business blog before the launch.  In other words, make them want the content that you can provide without providing them with anything other than great marketing.
  9. Reload Quickly — Following your launch of the business blog, you will be riding the wave of the buzz you created.  And, if all is done well, it will be a large wave of immediate success.  However, you need to understand that people get satiated very easily and need their fix of fresh content.  So, take the opportunity that you have created and elevate your level of success by creating more phenomenal articles and information.
  10. Submit to Directories — Build your site’s online reputation and help your pagerank through submission of the blog to directories.  After doing this for years, the best way to accomplish a successful directory campaign, research for approximately two weeks where you will submit the blog, split up the directories throughout a few days or weeks, and follow through with the submissions.  Overall, these few days or weeks of work will pay off in the long run.
  11. Link Building — If you don’t know what you are doing with this, make sure you consult with a team that specializes in social media marketing and search engine optimization.  A professional team will be able to effectively build links through white hat techniques and also create a significant amount of buzz in the  meantime.  Overall, the link building will increase online credibility and drive more concentration and qualified traffic to your business blog.
  12. Guest Blog –  Now that you have started creating valuable content, you have launched an unprecedented buzz, and you are following through with your link building campaigns, you can take advantage of the credibility through guest blogging for an industry authority.  These articles should be unique content (not duplicated from your publications), and directed solely at the publishing site’s primary target audience while encouraging some sort of interaction (or conversion) to your site without adding spam to the content.
  13. Friends Give Feedback — After you have started the entire process, it’s significantly important to get feedback from your friends, colleagues, and social networks.  All you have to do is ask…and listen!
  14. Monitor & Mediate — With increased popularity comes increased spam comments on your site.  Be sure that you take the time to moderate the comments that come into your site and mediate any interactions between the community that you create.  Overall, these comments and interactions have a significant influence on your online reputation management and demonstrate how much you care.
  15. Expand Through Interactions — As you mediate the interactions between community members, take a few moments to interact with them as well.  Provide your feedback and opinions (as well as facts to support those conversation builders) to show that you want to get to know your audience on a deeper level.
  16. E-Mail Enhancements — Add the bells and whistles to your business blog by adding your URL to the signature.  In fact, you can also add a basic blog feed to an HTML e-mail template that will add an extra kick to the content and value you provide.
  17. Commenter Conversions –  Not all people who leave comments want to make short statements.  Instead, there are some who want to take the next step and provide valuable content that enhances your publications.  Engage the ones that seem to leave the most valuable comments on a more personal basis, and ask them if they would be willing to be a guest blogger with your site.  In addition to the content, you are providing an extraordinary value to your loyal readers as they now get another point of view on the topic(s).

All in all, a business blog is a very effective way of reaching out to your target audience and creating more of an interest in your company as well as enhancing communication.  However, many companies don’t have the time or the resources to research how to successfully launch a blog.  So, simply follow the steps above prior to your launch and contact us if you need help with your business blog launch.

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If social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), website design or blogging is something that you are interested in but don’t know how to get started, contact us today to schedule your free marketing analysis.

Sources:
“The Essential Step-by-Step Guide to Internet Marketing”-E-Book
SlideShare.net
Image Source: HubSpot, “The 2011 State of Inbound Marketing”, E-Marketer.com