5 Awesome Ways to Promote Your Blog Posts

You’ve spent hours researching and writing your blog posts. Now, how do you get someone to read them? The answer is you need to promote your blog. Here are five ways you can promote each of your blog posts.

Be consistent with your blogging

This means you need to pick a schedule of when you are posting your blogs and stick to it. If blogging two or three times a week is too much for you, then only blog once a week or twice a month even. The idea is to post your blogs on a regular schedule so your readers will know when to come back to read more.

Add Interesting Graphics

Do you add visually appealing pictures or graphics with each of your posts? Your pictures should be relevant to the post and unique. Pictures can grab a reader’s attention and make them want to read your entire post.

Share Your Blog on Social Media

Don’t just post your blog and be done with it. You’ve spent time researching and writing your blog, so share it with the world! Add your blog to your personal and business Facebook page. Share on your LinkedIn profile. You can tweet about your blog too. Make sure your blog is connected to your website. People visiting your website might also stop to read your blog. You can also share your blog with your circle and publicly on Google+ to increase your SEO.

Don’t Forget Your Current Contacts

You might already have an email or newsletter list. Use it to promote your blog. Include your most recent blog in your email newsletter. You can link to your blog so reader can get more information if they want. Include a link to your blog in your email signature.

Leverage Other Bloggers’ Networks

Offer to guest blog. You know how much work blogging is. Bloggers appreciate offers to guest blog because that’s one day they don’t have to worry about. Through your networking or involvement in associations, find other businesses that you could partner with (don’t compete with) and write a blog relevant to their market. You can link back to your blog. This way you increase your audience reach into a whole new market.

6 Pinterest Tips for the Holidays

If your small business uses Pinterest, it’s important to have a strong presence there as the holiday season is upon us. Pinterest is the go-to social network for sparking gift ideas and referral traffic from Pinterest pages is growing at a significant rate.

If you want to obtain some of that referral traffic, you must position yourself as a must-follow pinner. It does take time to build your credibility on Pinterest, here are a few things your can do to create a stronger presence in just a few days.

Be Informative

Optimize your Pinterest profile. This section provides potential customers with valuable information about your company and your brand and it can influence their decision to follow your brand.

To optimize your profile section, make sure to write a description that informs visitors what kind of business you are and what kind of products you offer. It is important to include your keywords in this section.

Plan Board Placement

The boards that are featured above the fold on your company’s Pinterest page will influence visitors in their decision to follow and re-pin you. Place your most popular boards at the top of the page. For the holidays, you will also want to position time-sensitive holiday campaign boards at the top.

Know Your Niche

Use Pinterest’s analytics to provide insight about post content that is engaging. The analytics dashboard will provide you with a visual look at your most popular boards and pins.

Interact with Pinterest Influencers

Follow influencers on Pinterest and repin, like and share their pins. By doing this, these influencers will be more likely to engage with your content, which will increase your visibility on the site. Piqora is a contest promotion tool that helps you create your Pinterest contest and allows you to run analytical reports about your contest.

Hold a Contest

One of the best ways to increase engagement on Pinterest is to hold a contest.  A contest will strengthen your company’s presence on Pinterest and will attract a lot of attention.

Grow your Audience Using Facebook

By connecting your Pinterest and Facebook pages, you can grow your audience. Using Pinvolve, a software that automatically posts Pinterest pins to your Facebook page, makes it easy to increase your Pinterest traffic. 

Create a 2015 Marketing Plan Even If You Don't Want To

2015 will be here before you know it, so now is the time to prepare your company for the coming year by creating your 2015 marketing plan.

It’s so tempting to stick with the same old marketing plan that you’ve been using, with hopes that it will work better next year. But that’s not a wise move. Now is the time to update your marketing strategy for the upcoming year.

Here are a few ideas to assist you in creating your marketing plan:

Review Last Year’s Plan

See what worked and what didn't work. Not all your great plans for 2014 turned out as you expected. If you can look at what didn’t work and understand what went wrong, you won’t make those same mistakes again.

Reviewing your marketing plan will give you concrete evidence that supports continuing or changing your marketing strategy. This is one of the most important things you should think about when creating or updating your marketing plan for 2015.

Include New Technology

Since technology is here to stay, your marketing tactics should include ways to use technology.

To increase your profits in the new year, use technology in new ways to deliver your content and services. Are you using a mobile app to reach your audience? Do you have a strong online presence?

Increase Spending on Ads

Advertising can be expensive, but you can measure ROI advertising online and with other emerging platforms. Include advertising in your 2015 marketing strategy. Plan your ad placement smartly and you’ll see positive results.  

Include New Products and Services

Are you adding new products or services this coming year? Do not use the same marketing tactics on new products or services that you are using on existing products and services. You want your customers excited about your latest offerings. This necessitates a change in marketing emphasis.

Sure, last year's marketing plan worked fairly well for you, but why not aim for better results in 2015 by creating an updated marketing plan?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Blue Dog Marketing! 

Wishing you and your family a wonderful day filled with great food and warm memories.

Marketing Video Content Ideas

You’ve decided to add videos to your marketing plan for 2015. Great idea! Now, what should your videos be about? If you’ve looked at YouTube, there millions of videos out there, some are getting looked at, while others are just sitting there. There are certain kinds of business videos that will generally fair better as opposed to others.

So what are your options?

Subject Matter Videos

Display your skills and establish yourself as a subject matter expert. Offer industry specific information for free. Show why your company possesses the knowledge other competitors do not. Publish seminars, webinars or training sessions that you have delivered.

Tutorials

Tutorials videos are extremely popular. Sharing content is always a good content marketing choice. Some people learn better by being shown “how-to.”

Reviews

A big niche on YouTube is reviews. Reviews are especially useful for retailers or direct manufactures. There are many famous reviewers on YouTube that retailers and manufacturers give out products to, knowing that their validation can help boost sales.

Testimonials

Similar to reviews, testimonials are actual satisfied customers telling the viewer how your product or service solved a problem they had. Ask your best customers to be in a video; it helps them promote their business too.

Better Blogging for Business

Blogging is one of the most popular and successful online activities for small business owners. Blogging about your industry, products and services establishes you as a thought leader and industry expert.

How can you achieve that status with your customers and potential customers? Here are some steps to help you blog better for your business.

Understand What Your Target Readership Needs and Wants

The most essential part of successful blogging is understanding the needs and motivations of your readers and potential followers. Don't be afraid to be yourself and to “speak in an authentic voice. This will ensure that your voice is heard. By being somebody who people feel they want to get to know, your business will grow.

Reader Engagement

If used correctly, social media is about solving people's problems. You are providing answers to questions they have. When your readers comment on a post, comment back. Engage them in a “conversation.” That’s the ‘social’ part of social media.

Comment on Other Blogs

An effective way of promoting your blog is to visit other blogs and websites and comment on them. Don’t just leave backlinks to your own blog or website, actually participate in a conversation.

It’s All About the Content

Content is king. The higher the quality of your blog content, the higher your business will appear in the search engine results. When writing your content, make sure that you use your keywords. 

Client in the Spotlight: BRIC Training – Building Relationships Improving Communication

Don Boice, president and lead trainer at BRIC Training, earned his Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania and is a New York State Licensed Clinical Social Worker and works as a marriage and family counselor.

Don also has a background in training. He very effectively uses the listening skills he developed as a counselor to listen to the needs of his business clients and bring training workshops to New York State businesses.

BRIC Training works with businesses to identify which training areas would create maximum benefit. Don’s training is always tailored to the workplace culture and company’s needs and can be valued as an additional benefit for employees.

Don’s workshops include Sexual Harassment Training & Prevention, Listening, Gender, Facing Fears and Attitudes. BRIC Training’s goal is to engage audiences in important discussions while teaching the best practices needed to position companies for increased productivity, interpersonal success and decreased liability. BRIC Training is based in New York and training sessions are held at the company’s site.

For additional information about Don Boice and BRIC Training, visit www.brictraining.com or call 585-802-1273.