Blogging: An online marketing tool

One of the most effective online marketing routes is through the use of blogs. Many people run blogs, but only a handful of them achieve the kind of recognition and impact they dream of. With the right approach, blogs can draw a lot of traffic, resulting in industry wide recognition, the building of useful partnerships and the setting up of systems that result in the easy acquisition of customers. In order to achieve success with blogging, it is important to follow the following recommendations.

The thing one should always look for is a niche. Research the market and find that edge, which differentiates the blog from what other competitors are doing. This means doing research to find out who the competitors really are, what they write about, the popularity of the content they create, and the gaps that exist in the subjects they write about.

Today, there are a lot of blogging platforms on which one might establish their blog. However, a successful blogging campaign requires a strong platform that is supported by good infrastructure. One of the more popular blogging platforms is WordPress, which is used by up to 20 percent of websites the world over. It is supported by a huge worldwide community, and is relatively easy to use, making it one of the safest bets for one’s platform. Whatever platform one uses, though, it is important to take into account not only the structure but also the conversions. There is no point in having a good design that does not lead to conversions for the business. Not forgetting, your blog can be monetized through Google AdSense.

It is also important to build a content marketing strategy. Before writing anything, have a guiding principle in place, a strategy that will help answering such questions as:

What is the blog about?
Who are the target audience?
When will content be published? Specific times, days or weeks, or randomly?
What optimization will be done to the content and website?
How about SEO?
On which channels will the content be distributed?

Influencers will also be helpful in enhancing the effectiveness of the blog. It is difficult to get to the desired growth levels without a plan for leveraging relationships with the biggest influencers in the business. Online influencers typically have large audiences, and are connected to many other similar influencers, whose audiences take action largely depending on what they recommend. Here are some useful ways through which one can get the attention of and build relationships with influencers:

Share their content: set up a system for finding their new contest and sharing it on the blog
Comments: many people simply read, lurk and do not comment. Bloggers really love comments, so one of the most effective ways of building a relationship is to comment
Profile them: ask for an interview or permission to do a feature
Guest posts

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