Starting a blog is one of the best media marketing ventures that a company can pursue.  Seeing the progression from occasional visitor to follower, from follower to subscriber, and from subscriber to customer is an awesome sense of accomplishment.  However, in order to start spreading the news, you (as an existing business) have one of the greatest tools for marketing your products and services — a list of your customers and their contact information.  Now its time that you take that list and get bigger, get better, and get more subscribers!

  • Indirect Selling Through Blogging — There are a significant number of businesses out there that still believe blogs are meant to directly sell products or services.  I cannot stress enough that blogs are meant and will only work if they have beneficial information for your target audience.  In other words, you will gain loyalty, followers,and subscribers if you consistently deliver information that will improve your readers’ lives in some way, shape, or form.
  • Foundational Content — Staple content is absolutely a necessity for your blog.  If your blog is already established, you can determine which previously posted articles are your foundational content by the popularity of the posts.  However, if you are starting a brand new blog you will need to create well organized and well written articles so that your visitors will have fresh and unique content to read through and learn.
  • The “Hook” — You clients are already fans of yours and will most likely subscribe to you if you have good content that provides benefit.  However, for new people visiting your blog you need to give them a little something extra to ensure they take the time and subscribe to your blog publications; you need to give them unique and intriguing content that has not been published to the public but is a benefit of being a subscriber.  That content can be through an e-book, and e-zine, a discount off of your products or services, a coupon code with tidbits of information, etc.
  • E-Mail To The Masses — The easiest and fastest method for you to spread the word of your new clientele benefit blog is by way of e-mail messages.  With that said, create an e-mail campaign that is launched to your current list. You want to make sure that you follow the simple rules of an e-mail marketing campaign as well as consistently create more and more foundational content to keep the new readers coming back to your blog.  For your first e-mail, however, make sure that you do not sell the subscription but you sell the click through to your landing page.
  • Rinse and Repeat — The easiest way for you to maintain subscribers and to gain even more of them is to consistently measure what you are doing and alter based on the results.  If a certain category if blog or certain type of post is bringing in more clicks then (by all means) utilize more of that content than any other category.  React based on your clientele actions, and repeat the steps listed above to truly grow your subscriptions.

In summary, make sure that your blog does not spam or sell directly, but concentrates on providing a benefit to your readership.  Second, establish foundational content that can be easily accessible to new viewers of your site.  Next, provide a hook for readers to subscribe to your blog (something that the general public does not have).  Fourth, start an e-mail campaign that merely sells the click through to the landing page and overall experience of your blog.  Lastly, maintain your readers and subscribers through research techniques and analysis.

If you need assistance with setting up a powerful blog that drives subscribers feel free to contact us today.

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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