Sunday, November 12, 2017

For bloggers, you can connect with anyone on LinkedIn.



 This means you can search for your exact target audience and connect with them even if you’re not a 2nd or 3rd degree connection.
LinkedIn also has an advertising solution. You can signup for LinkedIn Advertising where you’ll be able to promote your company, but you can also promote your company page and content you create.
You can target your exact target audience by honing in on the information they share in their profiles.
To gain connections for your personal profile and followers for your company page, use a headline in your LinkedIn ad that addresses the target audience member. Then pose a question that relates to the type of content you’ll create on your blog and share on LinkedIn with your connections.
Pinterest

Pinterest is the fifth largest social network (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+).

With over 100 million users it’s another social network that can be a place for you to build an audience of people that will allow you to promote your blog content to them.
The concept of Pinterest is that it’s a place where people can bookmark or pin things from around the Internet that they find interesting, unique and part of their expressive style.
Here is how you can tap into the Pinterest community to build your Pinterest audience.
Step 1 Signup & Create Boards

Signup for a Pinterest personal account; it’s a simple process.
As with the other social media sites, you’ll want to create both a personal and business account on Pinterest, but a personal would be the most important especially if you’re the only author on the blog.
Setup your profile with a profile image and full name. Select a username that closely resembles your full name. You’ll also enter a description describing you and what you do. You can also enter in your location and your website. You’ll have to verify your website using a download file or piece of HTML. By verifying your website you’ll allow the website to show up in search results and on your profile.
The first step to creating content on Pinterest is to create boards. Create boards that fit your niche. If you need ideas, Pinterest provides a few general ones, but you can also look at the influencers in your niche and copy the types of boards they have.
Once you’ve created boards you can start pinning items. These will be images, posts and pages from around the web. The image will appear on your Pinterest feed for you and your followers to see. You put each pin in one of your boards to create collections that can inspire you and your followers.
Step 2 Create A Business Account

Pinterest For Business allows you to create a business account, which you can use to build a community around your brand and blog.
The form includes the type of business, contact name and the information that will be made public in your profile. You’ll want to select a username that is as close to your business name as possible. If the exact username is not available, look to shorten the name if possible.
Step 3 Connect Your Account With Facebook & Twitter




As with Instagram, you can connect your Pinterest account with Facebook and Twitter. In the settings, you’ll be able to automatically share your new pins on Twitter and Facebook. This will bring your audiences on those two networks to your boards to see the type of pines you’re sharing, which will build your Pinterest audience.
Step 4 Follow, Comment & Like Pins & Boards

You’re probably noticing a trend in these guides for each social network.
Following, commenting and liking pins and boards will get you noticed on Pinterest. You’re looking to target the people that fit into your target audience. Interact with their items on Pinterest and they’ll pay attention to what you’re doing.
Use the search function on Pinterest to find relevant content and user information for your niche. You’ll be able to find the people that you want to follow your boards and updates with the goal of building a community that will click on your content.
Step 5 Create Group Boards & Invite Target Audience Members & Influencers

The group board is a unique feature on Pinterest. You can invite people to be part of boards giving them an opportunity to contribute pins to a collection. You can create a board related to your niche and begin adding pins. You can then invite your followers to join the board as contributors.
When people start adding items to the board make sure you leave comments and like the items they add. This will reinforce their participation.
The more people you can have on group boards and the more excited they are about being a part of it the more likely they are to promote the content to their followers, which expands your reach on Pinterest.
Step 6 Promoted Pins & Rich Pins
Promoted Pins is an opportunity for people to get more attention for specific pins. Promoted Pins allows you to pay to have your pins appear in certain category and search results on Pinterest. You’ll be visible to more people than just your followers making it more likely that people will click on your pins and clickthrough to your blog posts.
Rich Pins allows businesses to add more information to certain pins. Products can add pricing. You can add recipes to images of foods and drinks.
For your blog you’ll want to take advantage of Article Pins, which allows users to pin your articles and save them to read later on Pinterest.
To get Rich Pins, you’ll need to add information to your website and verify your website so that everything functions perfectly for users.
Building An Email List Of Engaged Subscribers

Email is the cream of the crop when it comes to building a community for your blog. An email list is something you own and something you control.

Social media sites can change the rules for how you can promote to your followers, but with email you are the one in control. You can test to determine how often you should market to your subscribers and you can test different types of email content to determine what gets the best response.
Step 1 Select An Email Provider

There are several email providers to choose from including:
MailChimp
Campaign Monitor
Constant Contact
Another one that is very popular among bloggers is Aweber. You’re able to setup custom templates for your blog newsletter. You can automate your blog updates. You can create multiple lists for your blog so you can send different emails to different segments of your list.
And the great thing about Aweber is that the more subscribers you have the more you pay. You actually won’t mind paying more because you’ll be excited about having more subscribers.
Pricing starts at $19.99/mo for up to 500 subscribers and the price goes up from there.
Step 2 Setup Your Email Lists

To promote your blog you’ll want to create your first list that is for your subscribers. This is the list that you’ll promote on your blog and in other places. You’ll want to focus the most on this list because it will bring people into the early stages of your sales funnel. You’ll win them over with your blog content and get their email information when they want more content from you.
But other than your subscriber list you’ll want to create a list for your clients. You can create a unique email for these clients. Since they’re already clients you’ll want to send them a mixture of content that includes company updates, blog updates and any other type of content that might help them. You can also market to them with new service and product offerings.
A third list you can create is a list of your employees. You can share new blog posts with your employees along with other company updates. Send the latest posts to your employees. Ask them to share it with their network of connections if they find the content interesting and useful.
Finally, create a list for your colleagues and contacts. You don’t want to spam any of these lists with too much content and you especially don’t want to overdo it with this list. These are the people that can really help you when you want to promote your content. After you’ve created a really special piece of content send an update to your colleague list. Tell them you would really appreciate it if they provided you with their thoughts on the content. And ask them to share it with their networks if they find it useful.
Step 3 Develop Your Opt-In Offer

From here, most people will create their opt-in forms. That’s a good next step, but before you create your opt-in forms you need to develop your opt-in offer. This is the item you’ll offer that will entice people to join your email list.
Think about it — these people are giving you permission to send them messages directly to their inbox. That’s a big commitment and they certainly don’t have to do it for no reason. You have to give them reason to subscribe.
In time, as your blog becomes amazing, you’ll be able to attract people with only the promise of more amazing blog content, but until then you’ll need to offer something more.
A few things you can offer include:
White Paper
Guide
Training Course
These are the type of content that people want and things that they’ll gladly take in exchange for their email address. An easy way to build your offer is to take a collection of your posts and turn them into a guide that you can offer to subscribers. It will cost you about $100 to have a designer create a professional .pdf document that you can immediately send to new subscribers through Aweber.
It’s instant gratification for them and a happy subscriber for you.
Step 4 Create Your Opt-In Forms
Now you can create your opt-in form.
Depending on the email provider you choose, there will be different steps for creating opt-in forms, but with each you’ll want to create three essential opt-in forms.
The first is the sidebar opt-in form. This is the opt-in that goes at the top right hand side of your blog. This area is known as the sidebar and you’ll want to put your opt-in at the very top. This area is recognized by blog readers as a common location to quickly subscribe to blogs they like.
The second location is at the bottom of every post. Once readers have completed a post they’ll be looking for something to do next. They can easily leave your blog and go to something else, but the better result for you is to capture their future attention by getting them to subscribe. Use a call to action that will make it worth their while. Use something like, “If you found this post useful then you won’t want to miss the free guide available to exclusive subscribers.”
The third opt-in form is the pop-up or lightbox form. When a new visitor comes to your blog they’ll see the pop-up hover over the content. Some find these intrusive, but they get results. If you make a strong offer then people will gladly subscribe. It’s easy for people to miss your other opt-ins, but nobody will miss the pop-up and with it you’ll get.
Step 5 Automate Some Of Your Newsletters

Creating new email newsletters is hard work and doing it on a regular basis will wear you out. You can do that, but to ensure that you are at least doing something with your email list, automate some of your newsletters.
Grab your blog’s feed, which is usually http://www.yoursite.com/blog/feed/ and create the automated blog newsletter on your email provider admin. You’ll be able to create a custom template that includes your logo and other brand information.
Have this email send the same day that each of your blog posts publish.
Step 6 Build On Your Newsletters With Unique Content

Automation is a great tool for email newsletters, but as you build your list you’ll want to create unique email messages that provide unique content only for your email subscribers. You don’t have to do this as often as your automated list, but doing it every month will provide value to your subscribers without wearing you out.
For these messages, create helpful content. You could create entire posts that you’ll only share with subscribers. Take one of your best tips or opinions and share it with your subscribers. Have a designer create a unique image to complement your content and it will have even more impact.
At the end of these unique messages include a call to action asking your subscribers to share the email with anyone they feel would benefit from the message. This will encourage your subscribers to help you build your email list, which expands the people in your blog marketing community.
Step 7 Promote Your Email List On Social Media
On each of your social media profiles share the information for your email list.
Once each week share the link to your signup page where your followers can signup to get the exclusive information that you only share with your email subscribers.
Remember, social media followers are great, but on social media sites you don’t control the platform. You have some control, but the sites can change the rules at anytime without notice.

By getting those followers to subscribe to your email list you’re getting them to opt-in to a channel that you own and control.
Take the offer you created earlier and make the offer on social media.
“Looking for more great content? Signup for the email list and receive your free guide immediately.”
Final Thoughts On The Importance Of Email For Blog Marketing

Your email list is a platform you control. With social media, you have subscribers when people follow you or like your page, but you don’t have total control over the platform.
This control makes having an email list crucial for promoting your blog posts. Each time you publish a new post you can email your list to promote the post and engaging with your subscribers.
With valuable and insightful blog content you’ll add subscribers through opt-in boxes.
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