Digital marketing expert Tamara Monosoff explains five things you can do to help build visibility for your small business through blogging and video.
There’s a lot of noise in the online universe. You’ve likely noticed that email marketing (aka your customer’s “inbox”) is becoming oversaturated. Add in the new GDPR requirements and voila; abysmal open-rates. And, when you post on Social Media, it can feel like you’re shouting from the rooftops of Times Square; yet your knowledge and expertise is drowned out by honking horns, street performers, and masses of distracted people in every direction. Or, you may have dropped thousands of dollars down the proverbial “Social Media Advertising” black hole. If you’ve experienced any or all of these situations, read on because you may have overlooked one of the most cost-effective marketing tools that you can use to successfully build and grow your business.
While there was a period where all the newest email marketing campaign tools over-shadowed everything that came before them, it is worth thinking about going back to “blogging”. What was true when blogging first became popular is still true. Blogging can give your business the competitive edge for a fraction of the cost of most other marketing strategies. And, in a market where people prefer to “find” their information to getting more email, its day has come back. Did you know that “how-to” blogs receive the most social shares of any other type of blog? It’s true! If your blog is content-rich, informative and helpful, it will likely build trust, brand loyalty and genuine appreciation from your prospective and current customers. Another often overlooked benefit is that blogging can be used to create a new recurring stream of revenue that directly impacts your bottom line.
Follow these 5 Simple Guidelines to Build Visibility for Your Small Business
1. Keep it real. Share helpful information that people can put into practice immediately. Be generous. Tip: Don’t be afraid to give away your best information. I often hear business owners express their concern that if they share too much, their prospective customers will not sign up for their services. On its face, this logic makes sense. But it is WRONG. If consumers feel like you’re giving them value for free then they are more likely to want to work with you in the future. So, start with giving away the good stuff!
2. Write short and bite-sized content. With dizzying amounts of content available on the internet, it’s important to keep your content engaging, concise and colorful (with images). I suggest you use stock images with every post. There are numerous paid and “royalty free” sites like Unsplash. Use bulleted lists and even better make it possible for your readers to opt-in to download your post as a PDF to read later. Tip: Post Gopher is a great tool. It is a simple WordPress plugin that turns your blog posts into irresistible (downloadable) lead magnets… all on complete autopilot.
3. Recognize that Video is your Golden Ticket. The word “Vlog” (Video Blog) never seemed to really take off. However, when you include video in your blog that has the same content as the text, engagement increases. Apparently, a LOT of people prefer to watch video. According to Digiday, “85% of the US internet audience watches videos online.” And, Wordstream says that “blog posts incorporating video attract 3x as many inbound links as blog posts without video.” Interestingly a large number of those video views are being watched with the sound off. Therefore, if you want to maximize engagement with your content, it’s in your best interest to include captions with your videos. In the past, this was an expensive, time-consuming task. However, today there are new tools to help expedite the process. Tip: Clipomatic is a fun and easy-to-use Smart Phone App. You simply click to record your video, speak clearly, and the App does an amazing job of accurately and automatically creating captions for you. You do have an opportunity to edit the captions, if needed, before saving and posting the video to your blog (or elsewhere).
4. Add a Call-to-Action (CTA). Always end your blog posts (and videos) with a call-to-action. I rarely use the word “always” but this is one exception. It may feel like overkill to mention a call-to-action at the end of each and every blog, but it surprises me how many people still leave this essential engagement strategy out of their posts and videos. Your readers won’t know what to do at the end of the post unless you tell them. Tip: Look at your CTA as an invitation to “do something” such as join your Facebook Fan page, opt-in to get something for free (to capture their name and email), or ask an engaging question. If you choose the latter, be sure to turn on the “comments” feature of your blog so that you can actively respond to their answers and questions.
5. Make fast money with little effort. You’ve given your best information, your audience is feeling grateful, now’s the time to tell them about other ways they can work with you. Sprinkle in links to your sales pages for other products, programs and services that are in alignment with the content you shared in your blog. Tip: Another way to add revenue is to include affiliate links to other experts’ programs that you know, use and trust making sure that the resources you share will truly help your audience.
If you are eager to get started, you’ll need a basic WordPress theme that supports blogging such as the award-winning “Divi” by Elegant Themes and if you’re ready to take your blog to the next level, one of the best programs I’ve found is The Six Figure Blogger. You will learn many creative ways to make money with your blog.
And, finally, one of my favorite online tools to help multiply the impressions your blog receives is MissingLettr. Once you’ve published your blog, MissingLettr detects the new post and automatically creates 10 posts by extracting and repurposing the content from your blog for you. This tool is a brilliant time-saver.
Businesses big and small can dramatically boost their visibility, connection with their customers, and income by consistent blogging (ideally one time per week). Don’t worry about creating a “perfect” blog or a production-level quality video. In fact, imperfection can help create a personal, authentic feeling that people, including your customers, crave.
You likely already have the knowledge and content you need to create a successful blog at your fingertips so stop what you’re doing and get started.
Dr. Tamara Monosoff is a digital marketing expert and a #1 Amazon Bestselling Author of seven business books. Tamara is the creator of the highly acclaimed Author-to-Income Formula — a proven step-by-step program that shows authors, experts and entrepreneurs how to build a high-profit online business as an author by leveraging their expertise and book to generate multiple streams of income.
