10 Strategies to Market Your Blog Part 2

Last week we looked at 5 simple ways of marketing your business blog that you may not be using. I also shared the best headline ever

if you read the post last week – and if not, why not?? – you’ll know that I promised to conclude this week with the second part, and share 5 more ways of marketing your blog.

So, without further ado…

6. Social Bookmarking

Just as you probably have found yourself frequently bookmarking your favorite sites to your internet browser, social bookmarking is the process of bookmarking and sorting your favourite articles and often sharing them with others.

The key here is you to share your preferences with other people online. Not just your own articles, but articles in a specific niche. If you share valuable articles over time you become trusted and when you share the odd blog post from yourself, the bookmarking community will check it out.

Social bookmarking is an invaluable tool for research purposes, as a means for doctors, lawyers and other professionals to easily share pertinent information or files. Think how you can apply what your target market is sharing to your blog.

Sure friends and family will still share links of mutual interest but as a research tool social bookmarking is a powerful thing. Popular social bookmarking sites include: digg.com, del.icio.us, reddit.com and stumbleupon.com just to name a few.

7. Podcasts, Webcasts and Video

You may be asking yourself if you or your business really need these included on your website. Whether as a part of your blog or your main website, the fact of the matter is the higher the quality of your content, the higher your chances of receiving a good page ranking with search engines – more content for people to link too.

By having such things as different types of audios or videos on your site, you’re not only providing your visitors with better quality information which keeps them on your page longer you are also engaging with them in the method that they prefer.

8. Participate and Interact

When planning your social media’s position in respect to your business, it’s important for you to ensure your interactions will be accepted positively by your online audience. You want to provide them with honest, helpful and genuine resources which can be helpful to them, either personally or for their own businesses.

This means spending time researching hot topics, promoting your findings with those whom could benefit from your new knowledge. Be a leader in by sharing new and upcoming topics, tools and resources, or by offering support and answering someone’s questions.

9. Video Marketing

Video appeals to auditory and visual learners. Not everybody enjoys reading, especially on a computer screen.  Readers have had years of “training” in watching television, they are exemplary viewers.  Watching video online is not much of a jump.

Video increases audience engagement. An ordinary text-and-images web page encourages skimming and scanning.

On the other hand, video demands that you sit and pay attention for the duration of the video – providing what you are sharing is watchable. Be careful here, too long and your viewers will be cooking dinner and listening rather than watching and engaging.

Video can forge familiarity and trust. It’s easy to hide one’s identity on the Internet, but not when you’re talking to your audience via video. They can see you, hear you, see your environment, and observe your body language.

Viewers feel they know you better after they’ve seen you on video. This develops liking and trust much easier than plain text and static images can.

Video is more effective for certain messages. Have you ever tried explaining how to use Hootsuite to somebody over the telephone? Or via Email?
Sometimes, the best way to teach a skill is by demonstrating it. Video allows you to demonstrate various tasks, from how to change a tyre to how to send pre-scheduled autoresponder messages.

10. Email

Autoresponders are one of the most important marketing tools that you can have if you are doing business online. In fact, the only thing more important that the autoresponder is your opt-in list! See Bran’s post here.

All autoresponders start out without a list – the list doesn’t exist until your autoresponder mailing list starts filling up with names and email addresses!

The easiest and fastest way to build up an email list is to give things away for free also known as the ethical bribe. Some marketers will tell you that this is a waste of time – and if you already have a list of a million people that you can market to, then it probably is.

But for those who do not already have a list, this is the way that it gets started! Add your subscribing details to your blog’s call to action. Share the development of your ethical bribe to generate interest (and to see if it resonates with your target audience).

Ethical bribes are just an ebook right? Wrong… Give away an ezine, free reports, free ebooks, free access to private websites, or anything else that you can think of.

The object is to get people to sign up to receive that giveaway, and to ( the most important part here) agree to receive email from you in the future. It is a win-win situation for everyone, but you get more than anyone else in the deal so don’t abuse the power, don’t let it go to your head.

The reader gets a useful gift (handy for helping your reports go viral). You get their name and email address, and permission to email them in the future.

The give away can also be used to promote your products or services but tread lightly here.  Affiliate links for products or services that are related to the topic of the giveaway where relevant is to be expected, it is a way to generate extra revenue but promos just for the sake of it will piss people off.

When you send email in the future, you can again promote your products or services but if you constantly send sales pitches then people will unsubscribe. Include valuable information in the email as well, or you will have people dropping off of your mailing list like flies and grousing all over every social media channel about you.

Using every opportunity that is presented to you in the world of blogging is vital to your success.

You have the opportunity to earn money in the freebie that you create, you have the opportunity to earn money when you send the ‘thank you’ email after a person has requested your freebie, and you have the opportunity to earn money every time an autoresponder message is sent out to that list in the future!

Don’t waste those opportunities – treat them with respect.

What ways do you market your business blog? What works best for you?

photo credit: Stuck in Customs