True Confession: I wrote down these 15 tips first and started to write a single blog post about them. Tip #1 was to Start a Blog Series. I was 300+ words into and working on Tip #2 when it dawned on me. Why am I not taking my own advice? If I list them all it’s going to be a pretty big blog post so I broke it down into a series of posts around a theme. Doh!
(yeah, that kind of stuff happens all the time)
Start a Blog Series of ‘what‘ is the question…
This depends on the focus of your site and the traffic you hope to attract.
I’ll give you a few examples.
For Me:
I tend to write a whole bunch of “How To” styled posts. I do so because my ideal client is one who would like to be a regular blogger, understands the value of a properly built website, but doesn’t want to spend hours learning how to build it. A while ago I completed a series of 20 secret blog tips in 20 days. It’s why I’m starting this blog series. It’s aimed directly at my perfect client and I think this is what they want to read.
For You:
If your business is real estate (most of my readers are RE) – that could be something I’ll call ‘Community’. I’ll bet your ideal next client would love to know what it’s like to live there so let’s talk directly to that.
Real Estate isn’t about selling the structure itself, it’s about selling the ‘lifestyle’. The definition of ‘Community’ is going to be up to you. Community could be a town, a neighborhood within that town or even a small development. Your blog series could talk about the market data stats, the local schools, churches, public parks, shops and restaurants. Everything that goes into creating the lifestyle of that particular community.
If your business is HVAC (very few of my readers are HVAC) – ask yourself what your future clients might be asking their phones right now. In the fall, that might mean a series of “How to prep your home for Winter” types of posts. The first post could be “How to change your furnace filter”. Followed by something about Pilot Lights, and then a post on Carbon Monoxide Detectors and so on.
STEP TWO: Connect The Dots
You’ll need to figure out how to connect your first post to the second and so on. There’s a few ways to do this.
The simplest might be to create a specific Category or Tag for the series. You can use that link to the Category or Tag Archive Page to drive readers to the other posts. You’ll want to include a link into each of your posts inviting them to read more of the series. Here’s a sample link: https://areweconnected.com/tag/15-engagement-tips/ (of course you would proper anchor text for that). The problem with this option is that it’s just not that engaging. “Here’s a link to all the other posts” might get you a few clicks but really? We can do better.
Better would be if you included a small picture, the title of each post and a snippet of that post. Kind of a related post kind of thing. That way readers will be more inclined to click on the post they want.
Here’s a better option. I’m a big fan of Listly. I did my last series with Listly. We had the founder, Nick Kellet on the radio show. Listly is going to put each of my blog posts in this series at the bottom of each of the blog posts somewhat automatically. Not just a link but like I described in the paragraph above, with a picture, a snippet (i.e. better!)
That also means I don’t have to update each post as I create new ones. In this case automation is good!
Start building better engagement by writing a series that your ideal next client really cares about. That’s Tip #1 🙂
PS: This is List.ly
[listly id=”Pmx” layout=”full” show_header=”true” show_author=”true” show_sharing=”true” show_tools=”true” per_page=”25″]
He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, bought a cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and now,a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.
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