You got a business to business blog. The goal: to educate your readers, to increase brand awareness, to get found online, and/or to generate leads. How do you reach those goals? Here are 10 effective ways to promote your business to business blog, and to get more traffic in no time:
- Add a Link to the Navigation Menu - It seems like an obvious one, but you'd be surprised how many small businesses fail to do this! Make your blog accessible from every other page on your blog by adding to the menu. This lets web visitors who find your website through other means know that you have a blog.
- Promote On Your Social Media Sites - Another no-brainer, but many forget to do this one as well. What better way to engage fans and followers by asking a question, and then putting a link to a post relevant to that question?! If your blogging three times a week, you can then easily be active on your social media channels three times a week as well. Make sure to add social media sharing buttons on your blog too, so readers can engage with your brand beyond the blog.
- Create a Press Release About Your Blog - Whether or not your blog is brand new, writing a press release will add lots of visibility! It will get the blog in front of new people, and possibly catch the attention of other industry blogs and publications. This is especially newsworthy if you're one of the first in your industry to have a business blog.
- Share Them in Lead Nurturing Emails - This is a great way to engage leads without any commitment on their part, while helping them through the buying process by providing relevant information. You can segement your leads by personas, and send them relevant blog post. You can create a themed email by including blog posts on a certain topic. Or, you can reuse the content by creating a monthly email with the month's best or most recent posts.
- Leave Comments w/ Links Back to Your Blog - Commenting for the sake of SEO isn't a good strategy, since many comment boxes have links set to "no follow." However, commenting is a good way to drive traffic, especially if you have a blog post relevent to the topic, or that is a response to that article. You're adding something of value to the conversation, so it's likely folks will click the link to see what you have to say. What you can also do is answer someone's question on LinkedIn or a company forum with a blog post, and then post that link as the answer to the question.
- Create a Resource Center - What better way to help your web visitors and to add internal links for your site by creating a resource center on you website!? If you have blog posts that address specific products or services, or maybe answer common customer questions, put all those together in one neat place like a resource center.
- Use the Blog Sidebar - The sidebar is valauble real estate that often goes underutilized, mainly because most don't know how to utilize it well. The sidebar is a great place to promote your most popular posts, as well as your social media channels and any calls to action you may have.
- Put It On Your Business Card - Placing a link to the blog on all your business cards is an excellent way to engage new contacts and to have them learn about your brand. Better yet, put a QR code on the business card that leads to the blog. Now, that's getting tech-savvy!
- Guest Blogging - This is a great way to build inbound links as well as referral traffic! Guest blogging on other industry blogs and publications brings your brand and content to a new audience, while also providing a new audience for that blog or publication. It does take some work to find guest blogging opportunities, but it's well worth it once you build that partnership.
- Email Signature - Everyone has their contact information in their email signature. Do something different by adding a link to your blog! You might be surprised on how many people will click that link!