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Marketing
Optimisation 101 For Blogs
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Truth
be told, most blogs aren't really optimized for
marketing effectiveness. Even more so, some blogs
are absolute marketing machines, but they at the
same time fail to fully capitalize on that fact
by not being really optimized marketing-wise.
Blogs may be Web 2.0, but bloggers should not
ignore some of the good old internet direct
marketing tactics that have been working for
marketers online almost for a decade or more.
Hëre are the absolute 101 basics you really
shouldn't ignore ...
1. Don't Forget E-Mail Delivery
Bloggers are often abandoning or completely
ignoring e-mail as a tool to deliver their
content to their readers. As an RSS evangelist I
certainly believe in using RSS to get your
content to the world, but only as a supplement to
e-mail delivery.
While RSS provides us with many unique benefits,
it is yet to reach mainstream adoption. Until it
does, marketers and publishers should not even
consider abandoning e-mail delivery, or risk
ignoring most of their potential readership.
If you're still wondering why you need e-mail,
consider the potential you might be wasting
without it. Someone visits your blog, likes the
content and would like to be notified as new
content of interest becomes available, and he
does not know what RSS is or even care. If you
fail to capture his e-mail address and consent at
that exact moment, he might nevër again return
to your site, either because he forgets about it
or because dozens of other sites capture his
interest even before the next day.
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2. E-Zine Publishing Is Still A Must
Publishing a blog is not a replacement for an
e-zine. If nothing else, publish a weekly or
monthly e-zine of your top blog posts, available
in a single easy-to-consume format.
Some simply do not have the time to watch your
blog regularly and others will only want to
receive a quick summary to get your best and most
crucial content. Publishing an e-mail e-zine will
do that for you, giving you the opportunïty to
communicate with the widest possible long-term
audience for your blog.
3. E-Mail And RSS Subscriptions
Providing e-mail (e-zine) and RSS subscriptions
is important to the success of any blog. But
neither of these will do you much good if your
visitors don't actually see them and if you don't
give them enough incentive to subscribe.
Foremost, display your e-mail e-zine and RSS
subscription information at the top of your blog,
instead of somewhere far down where no one will
see them.
And second, use enticing copy to get visitors to
subscribe. Briefly explain the benefits of
subscribing, what kind of content they can expect
to receive, and also do not forget about your
privacy disclaimer, calming potential subscribers
that you will nevër abuse their personal
information.
4. Explain RSS
Most internet users still do not know what RSS is
or how to use it, and consequently the RSS
buttons on your blog mean absolutely nothing to
them.
To overcome this problem, create a special RSS
presentation page and link to it next to the RSS
subscribe button. On that page explain:
- What RSS is
- How the visitor will benefit from using RSS
- Where they can get a frëe RSS aggregator
(recommend one yourself!)
- How they can install it (provide step-by-step
instructions)
- How they can subscribe to your RSS feeds
- Why they should subscribe to your own RSS feeds
- Then, on this same page, include the links to
all of your RSS feeds.
5. Top Content
If you update your blog frequently, your less
recent top content keeps being pushed down and
down, where most of your blog readers will nevër
bother to look for it.
Overcome this frequent blog problem by creating a
list of your top posts, clearly displayed and
available from each of your pages. Depending on
the topic you cover, you might want to place
these headlines as close to the top of your blog
as possible, in order to quickly entice your new
visitors to start reading the best of what you
have to offer and then use this content to
convert them to loyal readers and subscribers.
6. The Headline
The site or blog headline will tell your visitors
what to expect from reading your blog and will
answer their key question: "What's in it for
me?"
Make sure that your blog headline gives this
reason and a story inviting enough for your
readers to keep reading.
7. Lead Your Visitors To Your MDA
MDA is the Most Desired Action you want your
visitors to take on your site, ranging from a
subscription to your e-zine to requesting more
information about your services or ordering your
product / getting more information about it.
Your blog will be of great help in this area, but
only if you actually lead your visitors to this
action. Putting this information in your menu
simply is not enough.
Experiment putting some copy for your MDA
directly below each blog post (on your permanent
blog post archives pages) and also prominently in
your left- or right-hand columns.
If you're providing multiple services or
products, promote each of them next to the
appropriate posts, based on post topics.
And yes, this is more important than having
dozens of Google AdSense ads on your blog ... if
you want to use your blog as part of your
marketing mix.
8. Look Different
Blogs are usually not heavily designed and most
of them look exactly the same. While light design
is one of the positive sides of blogs, you should
invest some effort in making your blog stand-out
visually. Don't cram it with design, but still
make sure it's different than every other blog in
the market.
9. Use Your Own Domain
Having a subdomain.typepad.com type sub-domain
might be the easiest choice, but don't forget
that your domain name is your permanent online
address and part of your online brand.
Consequently, invest a couple of dollars to get
your own domain name, to enforce your brand, as
well as making it easier for your readers to
access your blog.
10. Don't Forget Your Keywords
What keywords do you want your content and blog
to be found under in the search engines?
Don't forget to implement these keywords in the
titles and body content of your blog posts. I'm
not saying you should write your posts to please
the search engines, but at least keep them in
mind and use them when possible, without taking
anything away from the actual content.
11. Interact With Your Readers
If you're blogging for business, don't forget
about business oriented reader interaction.
Mainly, solicit questïons from your readers,
pertaining to your field of expertise, and then
respond to them via your blog. Post interesting
client case studies. When you get a review, post
it or link to it. And so on ...
12. Blog Specific Promotional Tactics 101
a] Intensively market your RSS feeds
b] Ping the search engines and directories after
you update your blog, using a frëe service such
as http://www.pingomatic.com.
13. Don't Forget About The Content
And of course, none of the above won't make any
difference at all if you don't provide
high-quality, interesting and frequent content.
These 13 points are of course only the most basic
stuff, but enough to help you get on the
marketing optimization train.
About The Author
Article by Rok Hrastnik. Find out immediately how
you can power your online business with RSS and
use it in all of your marketing. Request the
frëe 28-page Business Case for RSS report, with
easy-to-follow instructions, examples and advice
on how to get the most out of RSS in the shortest
possible time. Get the frëe download hëre: http://rssdiary.marketingstudies.net/case/index.html?src=sa20
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