Two weeks ago I shared with you the number 1 way to increase your brand awareness online, and top of the hit parade was… Blogging.
Hopefully you have found your inner wordsmith and decided that you’re going to give blogging a go! Now I’m going to hit you with the down side… Sadly, we live in a world of content saturation, the Internet is a busy place so how are you going to ensure your blog posts stand out from all the background noise?
Here are a few tips…
- Know your audience – By this I don’t just mean know who they are, (of course you do need to know that); but also find out what they want to know. Once you’ve created your blog post, you need to share it with them so you’ll need to know where and when to find them. If you’ve been blogging for a while now and you aren’t seeing any returns, now I don’t mean sales… I’m talking about engagement, you might want to reassess whether you know your audience and their online habits. If you’ve been writing regularly and haven’t managed to reach out and grow your audience organically, then you need to look at the who, what, where and when, and ask yourself if you have done enough research into these questions.
- Be unique – This can only come from being you. You might share part of your own journey or story. Now I’m not suggesting you share your deepest secrets, but giving a little insight into who you are, will help people connect with you.
- Be consistent – Sticking to a schedule means that those people who like what you say will know when you’re next going to be around; you really want those people coming back, they’re your tribe and they’re going to share your content. I work for myself and Sunday is the day I work on my business. So whilst I might be writing blogs and creating content for clients Monday to Friday, on a Sunday I write my own posts. I share these through my social channels first thing on a Monday morning when I know that my audience of sole traders, business owners and business executives will be heading into work, refreshed from the weekend and ready to work on their business.
- Bring in a support act – Sometimes you need to take the pressure off, it’s difficult to consistently think of content, so let someone else do the work for a change and bring in a guest blogger. This could be someone in the same industry as you, or someone in a complimentary industry. If you’re a real estate agent, you might consider an interior designer, or a handy man. They’ll be flattered to have been asked, and may even return the favour… There you go, you’ve widened your circle straight away!
- Make your content look really pretty – We only have to look at high street retail to see the importance of visual merchandising. Sure it’s the customer experience that will have you reaching for your credit card, but a beautiful display can be enough to draw you into a store. Same goes for your blog, if you can catch someones attention with a great image, if it’s formatted well – making it easier to read, (I’m talking bullet points, font weights and headings where appropriate), someone might stop and take a look. Of course it’s the content that will get them clicking the “subscribe” or “contact”, but just getting your audience’s attention is the first step.
