7 of the Best Content Marketing Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic

People that succeed with getting blog traffic do two things very well:

First, they identify the content marketing tactics that get them results.

Second, they put all of their effort into implementing those tactics.

But you’re probably wondering:

“How do I find content marketing tactics that actually work?”

Well today I’m going to make it easy for you.

All you need to do is incorporate the techniques from this content marketing strategy checklist into your blogging routine.

Why Content Marketing Matters More than Ever in 2017

Content marketing is about generating more sales. As a primary marketing method, content marketing is how you build your online business. By creating posts that your target audience has an interest in, is how content marketing builds trust and inspires your readers to take action.

The best part?

Of all the methods to learn about a company 70% of people would prefer to read helpful articles and not see advertisements. That is far better than the average ad click through rate of 2.15 percent.

Best Content Marketing Checklist to make you More Successful

Having a checklist to use each time you create a blog post will help you stay effective and efficient. These tactics increase blog traffic from various sources.

Let’s dig in.

1 – Choose the Best Types of Content Marketing to Drive Traffic

Imagine if you could change up the type of content that you create, and see a fast improvement in your blog traffic.

Well, it turns out that you can dramatically increase blog traffic by adding new types of content to your blog.

… The type of content that converts a good percentage of my traffic into subscribers and buyers.

And in this list, I’m going to show you what type of content that is and how you can easily add it to your blogging strategy.

This list is based on the great results I have gotten across a few of my websites. This list is not exhaustive, but should give you some awesome ideas.

Video

By including an embedded video in your blog content, you can increase engagement on your website. You can also drive more blog traffic by adding a link to your YouTube video description as well as a call to action to visit your website.

Two proven ways to get more attention through video marketing:

• Repurpose your blog post content into a video.
• Add exclusive tips in the video to treat your readers to a content upgrade.

Both these methods work great for more exposure online.

For example, this simple video I created in YouTube garnered over 6,000 visitors to the associated blog post in the last 6 months without any additional promotion.

How to Guides

People love how-to guides. They are constantly searching for how to do stuff on Google. Many of my how-to guide are the most popular of my blog posts and YouTube videos (see above).

How-to guides are a great content marketing strategy because they are usually the result of long tail keyword searches.

Be sure to include these how-to questions in your keyword research to come up with the best ideas that match a user’s query.

This is where you really get to shine as an authority too! Especially if you can solve the user’s query with a well-thought out and detailed solution to what they are looking for.

Products Reviews

Before making a purchase what is the first thing you do?

Search for product reviews!

That’s why the product review is one of the best types of content marketing. These are your buyers too!

If you’ve used a product, write a detailed review about it. Explore all the details that most people want to know about before they buy.

Make an honest recommendation and share your experience. This type of content also helps others see you as an authority online.

Lists

List posts are everywhere.

I love using lists in my content marketing strategy because they appeal to audiences regardless of what niche market you are in.

List blog posts help readers navigate your article to the information they need without having to read everything. They also receive more shares than most other types of content.

Roundup

Here’s a content strategy that is underutilized so take advantage.

Roundup posts link out to external resources or other content on your website. This type of content works well for search engine optimization: both internal and external links.

It also gives your audience access to more detailed information and makes you look good!

Downloadable eBook

This simple strategy is also a way to repurpose your original blog content or upgrade it with additional information.

eBooks are a downloadable form of content that is usually given to a reader in exchange for their email address. In turn, you can then continue connecting with individuals via email marketing.

By creating content marketings eBooks , you establish yourself as an authority too!

2. Create the Best Content for Your Target Audience

If you want to grow your audience there’s one thing you need to know:

Writing whatever you feel like writing does not attract the right audience to your blog content.

So…

What CAN you create that gets people genuinely interested in your content?

Create blog posts that are relevant to your target audience.

It’s a simple strategy that increased my buyer conversion rate.

And in this section I’m going to show you the process that I used to acquire over 11,000 customers.

If you are delivering your message to EVERYONE, well…

EVERYONE is not your audience.

Before you ever write a piece of content, research your target audience to find out:

• Their interests
• Their problems
• Their pain points
• Their willingness and ability to spend money [YES, if they don’t have any, YOU won’t make any]

If you did not define your target audience, ever, how would you know what to write?

I can’t emphasize the importance of a content marketing strategy enough here.

It’s pretty simple. If you want people to be interested in what you write, then write stuff that interests them.

That’s it! That’s exactly how I acquired all those customers!

3. Do Keyword Research to Write the Best Content

Imagine if you could make one simple tweak to your blog post creation process, and see a huge boost in traffic

You’d probably be pumped to learn about what it could be. Two words:

KEYWORD RESEARCH.

You know, for years, I performed keyword research for every piece of online content. Whether it’s a blog post, video or something else, the content is all created with a purpose.

It all starts with keyword research, the foundation to writing great content that your audience will want to read.

Serious content marketers would never plan their content without keyword research.

Learning which keyword terms are being actively searched for is a must so you can write content that provides the highest quality value to your target audience.

It’s how you attract and keep their attention.

Craft your blog posts around the specific and targeted phrases with low search volume and low competition. These are known as long-tail keywords.

Then create content such that when someone does a Google search query, your blog post will have a high relevance to satisfying the intent of that query.

Keyword research is part of my content marketing strategy.

Why?

It helps me understand what I should write that is appealing to my audience.

4. Write the Best CTA to Inspire People to Take Action

OK. Here’s an insanely practical strategy that you can use to build your business TODAY.

CTA [Call to Action]

Do your readers know what to do when they finish reading your post? If you don’t tell them, the won’t do anything.

Moving people to take action is crucial. They may decide not to, but you should give them the option to do so.

Keep this one in your content marketing checklist. Your CTA can be any number of things:

• Subscribe to your list
• Download an eBook
• Buy something
• Contact you
• Leave a comment
• Something else

This is where you move them through a process that eventually converts them into a buyer.

What do you want your visitor to do?

Make sure your CTA is clear so your reader understands exactly what you want them to do. Check out these amazing examples of the good, bad, and ugly CTAs.

21 Call to Action Examples and 3 Rules for Effective CTAs

5. Benefit Your Audience with High Quality Content

You probably already know that people search the Internet all the time looking for answers.

If they find your blog post, will it be so good that they need not look elsewhere?

OR

Will they hit the back button and continue their search [high bounce rate.]

Quality is important to content marketing.

That includes writing helpful articles in long-form [keep readers on your site and keep Google happy.] The quality of your blog content builds trust with your audience.

Or NOT.

It’s natural if you give your readers what they want and need, they will keep coming back.

I always see questions about quality vs quantity. Don’t be a contributor to the sea of mediocrity.

This article from Inc. talks about why you should take time to produce less content. Yes!

It is simply a matter of quality over quantity.

6 -Purposefully Share your Content in Social Media

Your content marketing strategy checklist should include sharing to social media. This is where you purposefully distribute your blog posts to various social media networks.

We all know that social shares are another way to get more traffic and exposure to your blog.

See above – quality over quantity. Who wants to share junk?

The importance of content marketing to social media can work for you because many people prefer to get their information in various networks.

BUT…

Posting links without a compelling reason why someone should click won’t get you much traffic.

Your content marketing checklist should include snippets of text for each link that will make a person curious enough to click.

I never click random stand-alone links. Do you? With no clue what it’s about, who has time for that?

People are busy. Give them a reason.

This guy usually gets a click and a read from me. He knows his audience and how to catch their interest.

7. Improve Content Readability and Boost Conversions

Be strategic in every aspect of your blog post creating.

In addition to everything else in this checklist, take care in the structure of your posts.

This is seriously so simple you may kick yourself for not doing it sooner.

Use these best practices as a guide for content marketing success:

• Use short paragraph. Remember those huge blocks of text? Some people still do them. Huge mistake. Make short paragraphs of one line and up to five at the most. People are on mobile devices.
• Use navigational elements. Use subheadings, bullet and numbered lists. People scan content most of the time and breaking it down helps them to navigate better and get more out of your content.
• Use imagery. Keep people more engaged on your website with images and video.
• Make it readable. Make sure your font is readable and in a color that a person can actually see on the background. There is nothing worse than great content that is unreadable. Keep it simple.

Final Thoughts on Content Marketing Strategies

Here’s the deal: Creating blog posts without using any content marketing tactics is a bad idea.

Having the ability to resonate with your audience can bring in tons of traffic …

… or not.

I think you’ll agree with me when I say

Spending time and effort writing blog posts that get no attention is frustrating!

You can spend all your time in blogging groups exchanging comments and views, in hopes that someone will like what you felt like writing that day

… or

You can focus your efforts on creating blog posts that will help you connect with your actual audience.

I hope that you see the full potential of using these content marketing tactics: a checklist to use for every piece of content you create with a purpose.

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