Original article written by the Forbes Agency Council and published on Forbes.
Once you drive initial traffic to your business’s blog, you’re not done creating buzz. Now, you have to ensure customers return by giving them a good reason to come back. Focusing on creating high-value content (and not selling your readers) is critical.
Ten Forbes Agency Council members share tips on how businesses can entice people to visit a business’s blog, driving repeat traffic and helping the blog (and business) succeed.
1. Write Things Worth Talking About
Marketing isn’t just advertising. In a cluttered atmosphere where everyone and their mom (literally) has a blog, you need to stand out. Create content that is remarkable. Content that gets people thinking, talking, engaging, sharing, and – you guessed it – coming back. There is no cheap trick here that will be more effective in the long run. Work the content and make your blog your marketing centerpiece. – Robby Berthume, Bull & Beard
2. Guest Post On Relevant Niche Sites
My team at Influence & Co. frequently contributes guest content to publications that reach our target audience. We create content that’s helpful and educational to our audience, and within that guest content, we link back to relevant posts on our blog that provide a deeper dive into the topic. This drives regular traffic back to our site that actually converts into customers down the road. – Kelsey Meyer, Influence & Co.
3. Create A Web Of Influence
On the AirPR Blog, we frequently interview PR pros and mention who is making waves in the industry. This kind of collaboration, whether you have the bandwidth for full-on guest posting or not, leads to so much positive community building. Our web of influence is wide because we give credit to those who are making an impact in the industry. – Rebekah Iliff, AirPR
4. Tease The Content Via Social Media
What we do with our CEO branding clients is provide a compelling quote from the article on Facebook FB +0.57%, Twitter TWTR -1.42% or LinkedIn LNKD +0.10% then make people click on the link to see the rest. If you target really well, this can be an effective way to get people excited about the content, share it, and go to the link. – Raoul Davis, The Ascendant Group
5. Don’t Sell
The fastest way to drive repeat traffic to your blog is to never sell. You must educate. By educating, you are perceived as the expert. Selling will happen naturally if you are perceived as the expert. I always like to ask myself after I write a blog post, “Did the reader learn something and was it worth their time?” – John Gumas, Gumas Advertising
6. Keep Your Clients Connected
The best way to keep getting repeat traffic on a blog (besides keeping the content interesting) is to collect your clients’ email addresses so every time you post a blog or article, it will be sent to their inbox. Also, it’s great to post your blog on social media sites and blog sites. – Joey Kercher, Air Fresh Marketing
7. Provide Relevance, News And Thought Leadership
We have three golden rules for business-driving blog posts: (1) Keep your voice and content relevant to your key audiences; (2) Remember the journalism adage “news you can use,” and make posts timely and informative; and (3) Aim for the heights of thoughtfulness and compelling points of view. People crave leadership on every level, including content. – Daryl McCullough, Citizen Relations
8. Search Engine Optimize Your Blog Posts
SEO is the holy grail of driving traffic to your blog. The higher you can rank for keywords that drive traffic to your content, the more likely it will be that you not only drive new visitors, but also drive repeat visitors looking for similar content. Make sure all posts are optimized for one or two keywords and that you use the Yoast SEO Plugin to automate the process if you are on WordPress. – Kristopher Jones, LSEO.com
9. Analyze Your Analytics
Look at your analytics and figure out who is reading your blog and how they are engaging with your content. Once you understand who your readers are and what interests them, you’ll know better what sort of content to serve them and how to bring them back to your blog. Only by providing value will you be able to bring repeat traffic back. – Ayelet Noff, Blonde 2.0
10. Create Infographics
Very few companies know that infographics drive 10 to 20 times the amount of organic traffic as a blog post. They are shared far more often and they have significantly more viral potential. Create a very high-quality informative infographic about your company or industry at least every month and publish it on your site. Then get to work sharing it and asking other influencers to share it. – Richard Lorenzen, Fifth Avenue Brands
