Some people ‘get’ why blog articles are important; others think it’s a waste of time.
Writing articles to publish on your website is part of your marketing. In pre-www days, PR companies would charge a premium to get press coverage for a company – in fact, they still do, but now PR includes blogs, social media and pay per click (PPC) advertising.
Think of your website’s blog as a mini-publication, that is searchable by people looking for expert information. That’s a good reason to ensure you keep it ‘fed’ with fresh material regularly. You don’t need a PR company to do that for you!
However, you now need to leverage that valuable material so you can write once and use many times.
Convert your blog into social media posts
At one point it was enough to publish the blog title and a link on Twitter – but now you need something more compelling to induce people to click that link.
If your article is interesting (of course it is) then you can take ‘soundbites’ out of it to use on social media. Effectively, this is finding sentences that stand alone, but are clearly part of something bigger. For example, if I was soundbiting this article, I’d probably pull out:
Some people ‘get’ why blog articles are important; others think it’s a waste of time.
Writing articles to publish on your website is part of your marketing.
Think of your website’s blog as a mini-publication.
Then just add the URL link to the blog when it’s published. If people are interested in the soundbite, there’s a good chance they’ll click on the link and read the rest. You can use these posts more than once – if the article is generic you can repost these soundbites regularly – monthly, three-monthly, etc.
Transform your article into a newsletter
The audience that visits your website are not the same as the people on your list, so make sure your list knows what you’ve written.
People who have signed up for your list have already self-identified as being interested in the material you produce – or they wouldn’t have signed up in the first place.
Send your list a regular newsletter, leading with your latest blog (and use the title as your email subject line). You can add any offers or promotions you have going on, after you’ve delivered the great value your article contains.
Use your blog material to create your lead magnet
If you’re writing around the same set of subjects, you’ll gradually develop enough material to put together as a lead magnet. You’ll probably need to do a bit of editing and maybe write and intro, some connecting content and a conclusion, but it’s better than starting from scratch.
Pick three or more articles that complement each other and create a new title for the document. Titles such as:
How to …
3 mistakes people make when …
Top 10 tips for …
All work well. You just need to pick the right articles and edit smartly.
Build yourself an eBook
When you’ve built up a bank of blogs, you can convert them into an eBook.
I once did a 30-day blog challenge, writing a daily blog and then edited it into a full length eBook that sold at £17.
It got great reviews and worked because it delivered massive value.
Of course, the next step is to develop that into a ‘proper’ book and you’ll have your very own business book in your hand before long!
