Accounting Bloggers: Fundamental Techniques for Luring New Readers
Writing blogs is straight forward and fun, but without guests your blog will not help you market your services. Building a sound group of subscribers, however, is a lot of work. There aren't any cheats. It takes months, perhaps even years, to establish your name as a blogger. Much has been written about the need to offer interesting and continually updated content for your blog to be successful but there's much more you need to do to get your business blog off the ground.
Here are eight time-tested techniques that will help lure readers into your accounting blog:
1. Use your blog to communicate with employees and clients.
Your employees are a built in audience, and your blog makes a great place to post staff birthdays, meetings, after hours get-togethers, and other daily updates. Your clients can also make great readers. Use your blog to keep them appraised on tax law changes and other news that directly affects them. Sending them an email asking them to comment on one of your posts can go a long way, too.
2. Make your blog easy to find on your website.
Website users are accustumed to getting what the want when they want it, and if you don't make it easy for them they leave. Most won't take more than a few seconds to find your blog on your home page. Display the link prominantly on your accounting website. Put it on the navigation menu where it can be seen without making them open or roll over anything. Add a nice banner link to your home page.
Try to make the blog a page on your domain rather than using a URL on wordpress, blogspot or some similar service. In the long run it will give you an advantage in the search engines.
3. Your web address should be everywhere!
The more places you post your web address the easier it will be for potential readers to find your blog. Make sure the address is on your business card, in the signature of your email, and on any forums you may frequent. Avoid the temptation to point all your links to your website home page. In some cases it's much more appropriate to map the link straight to the blog. People don't like to click-through. If someone clicks on a link to read a blog article they're going to want that link to go straight there.
4. Write/invite guest bloggers.
Bloggers are a tight-knit, cooperative community. If you help them out, they'll help you out. Doing this will get your name out there on other blogs in the industry and help gain exposure for your content. As a rule you'll get a link back to your website or blog for your trouble. This is not just a great way to drive visitors to your site, the search engines also look at these links as adding authority to your domain.
Conversely, you can return the favor by inviting guest bloggers of your own. Help others help you!
5. Take advantage of networking, social and otherwise.
Make some friends!
Putting yourself out there in online communities is a must. Joining a LinkedIn group or a more traditional forum are two ways you can do this. Don't just promote your website. Put a link in your profile, sure, and site your blog when the opportunity arises, but it's more important to engage the group according to their needs and interests rather than your own.
6. Give love to get love.
Use social communities to talk about your clients, prospects, and contacts; particularly other bloggers.
Your contacts will very likely see and appreciate these "plugs". Most online networking sites like twitter and facebook have tracking services that will allow your friends to get an alert when you mention them. This means that using their name in your content gets you noticed - and it may up the chances that they'll share it with their readers.
7. Hold a contest.
It's a fact - people love to win things. You don't even have to offer something extravagant as a prize; it can be as simple as sharing your blog link or posting the most comments. Just make sure the reward for winning is appealing enough that it gets your readers engaged!
Contests are also a great way to bring attention to your off season services and lure readers from a select clientel. For example: You could offer a free financial statement compilation and review for a local business owner, and leverage it into a blog post showing the value you gave them.
8. Keep it lively.
Sometimes, when you find a groove, it's hard to break out of it. Don't succumb to the doledrums! By the time you feel yourself starting to drift into limbo it's a pretty safe bet it's already happened. Mix up the content on your blog so your readers remain surprised and interested in coming back for me. One nice addition to your repertoire is video, and when you upload the finished piece to YouTube you draw in additional readers who might not have found you otherwise.
If you employ these tactics you'll have a much better chance of cultivating a real following. Remember to the basics, keep your content fresh and keep reaching out. As long as you're engaged, your readers will be, too.