Blogs have become a crucial element in many businesses’ content marketing strategies. They serve as a cost-effective method of sharing news, opinions, and information regarding the industry and the product.
However, despite their usefulness, some blogs just don’t see the kind of repeat visitors they’d like to see. Repeat traffic means that the blog is attracting clients who are interested in the field. Fortunately, there are several innovative ways to help a business increase the number of repeat visitors they get per month on their blog. Here, 12 experts from Forbes Agency Council share how they managed to bring customers back to their blog time and time again, to their benefit.
Members share their top strategies for increasing blog traffic.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Consistently Offer Value
Consistently offering a reader something of value on your blog will often keep them coming back. Don’t talk about yourself or your company; rather, speak to your audience and make the content address their needs. It’s also important to make a post a quick, but worthwhile read. Tips and listicles may feel old school, but an easy read is one someone can and will make time for in their busy day. – Carm Lyman, Lyman Agency
2. Know Your Audience
Knowing your audience is key. People only come back if the content is adding value to them in the first place. Do away with the sales pitch or product specs summary. Remind your readers about the great stories you’re telling by having your staff sharing them on their social accounts or putting them automatically in your company’s email signatures. – Lars Voedisch, PRecious Communications
3. Send Out A Weekly Email
We send a weekly email featuring our articles and also articles from our competitors on similar topics. This ensures our readers find value in every email and trust us to provide the best information each week. – Brian Meert, AdvertiseMint
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
4. Publish Episodic Blogs
Episodic blogs that center around problems customers face with different perspectives can help you break down big content into bite-sized consumable chunks. Instead of doing one major authority piece, do six or seven bite-sized pieces. This then gives the reader a reason to return and check out the other thoughts you have on the problems they face and how you can provide a solution. – Dean Seddon, Maverrik
5. Tell Stories That Need To Be Told
We tell stories that need to be told. Whether that’s insights from our community, industry or work, we share that information with our followers to provide them with actionable communications strategies. We make it a priority to give guidance and tips that are far more than just catchy headlines. – Kathleen Lucente, Red Fan Communications
6. Leverage Your Omnichannel Tools
Use your omnichannel tools to your competitive advantage! For instance, we may strategize a new product or service launch with a press release, blog, targeted email campaign or podcast episode, as well as on social with links to our website, landing page or press release. Keep the cadence moving forward on social by highlighting a specific benefit with engaging graphics and an enticing CTA. – Ajay Gupta, Stirista
7. Put Ad Dollars Behind The Content
Putting ad dollars behind thought leadership and blog content on platforms such as Linkedin and Facebook is one of the best ways to drive more traffic and gain repeat visitors. If we are spending the hours on creating this type of content, we would be doing ourselves a disservice by not incorporating distribution models and ad budgets. – Scott Harkey, OH Partners
8. Encourage Readers To Subscribe
Encourage your readers to subscribe to your blog to reach out to them directly in their inboxes with every new blog post. You will need to post relevant quality content and make your blog subscription process quick and appealing. A good idea is to use sign-up hooks, such as exclusive content in downloadable format. Do not slack off on subscription copies — keep them short and compelling! – Ajay Prasad, GMR Web Team
9. Don’t Sell In Your Blog Posts
Don’t sell. The key to repeat visitors is supplying content that customers and prospects need versus pushing your own products and services. Content should include tips, helpful stats, infographics and webinars with expert advice to help your customers drive business growth. You will come across as tone-deaf if you just talk about your company and its services. – Laura Cole, Vivial
10. Always Be Authentic
Be authentic. Don’t repurpose material with a different “spin” as many do. Instead, use proven experience to solve trending problems — it certainly helps if you’ve been successful in solving a similar problem to the one being addressed. That said, it’s arguably just as valuable to share failures or what not to do. In sum, help steer your audience toward success and away from impending doom. – Stephen Kleiner, Bloom Ads Global Media Group
11. Educate Your Readers
Educate. When we write a blog, we always ask, “Can the reader get something useful from this?” If all it does is promote something, then we go back and rewrite the blog. With so many other options that your audience could potentially read, you have to offer them something real to bring them in, and even more to have them come back. – Danny Star, Website Depot
12. Write On Other Top Platforms
Try writing on other top platforms. You should utilize websites like Medium and Thrive Global, which allow you to publish content on their platforms for free. In each article you write, you should include a link to your blog and ask the readers to visit it if they want to read more on the same topic. These readers are very much into the topic already and are an easy subscriber of your blog. – Vishal Jain, Sunshy Group Of Companies
Go to Source
Author: Expert Panel®, Forbes Councils Member
