How to expand your customer base through your blog

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Dec 30, 2016 / by
How to expand your customer base through your blog

Nowadays, a blog is an essential part of your business’ online presence, not only because it is a way to connect with others in your niche, but because it is a valuable marketing tool. Here are several ways in which, if done right, you can use your blog to expand your customer base by driving traffic to your site without spending any money.

Roundup posts

One very successful method of getting people to link back to your site and thereby gain more potential customers is to do a roundup post. This means rounding up and linking to posts from other sites on a certain topic or theme. Of course the exact themes that make sense on your blog will depend on the niche you’re working in, but perhaps the most straightforward way to do a roundup post is to bring together all the best, most interesting or unique pieces you’ve read around the internet relating to your niche, commenting on each one and linking to the original article.

For it to be successful, it’s important to get in touch with the bloggers who you linked to and let them know that you featured their content once you publish your roundup post. When doing so, don’t forget to gently ask them to share the content on their social media channels in order to gain you those all important new viewers.

Guest posting

Having guest posts written by you published on other sites related to your niche, containing a backlink to your site can be hugely beneficial, not only for exposing yourself to a wider audience, but also in terms of SEO. When your content is published on another site, you are gaining access to an established community of readers, followers or fans of that site, meaning that you can potentially convert many of those members to become customers of yours.

It’s extremely important when guest posting to make sure you are adding value to the site you’re guest writing for and are respectful of the community you’re entering: you are a guest after all.

As Jeff Goins puts it in an article of his on this topic:

If you’re adding value to the discussion, you’re going to see that convert over time to more readers, fans, and followers. Conversely, if all you’re ever doing is asking or selling, you may end up famous, but with a reputation you don’t want.

Doing interviews

Microphone for interviewFinding influencers in your niche and inviting them to be interviewed on your blog is another great way to get more exposure through your blog. By interviewing someone influential in an area related to your business and then asking them to share the interview, your blog will get exposed to a whole new set of potential customers.

It’s important when doing interviews to make them interesting both for the audience reading them and for the person you’re interviewing. Avoid having a list of exactly the same generic questions that you send out every time you invite someone to be interviewed on your blog: do some research about that particular person and customise your questions accordingly.

Hosting giveaways

People love the chance to get something for free. By hosting a giveaway on your blog, either of a product or service of your own, or one with which you are sponsored by another business in a related niche to yours, you’ll attract new interest to your blog, and thereby to your business.

You can make it a condition of entering the giveaway that readers must share it further on their social media profiles or sign up for your mailing list, for example, meaning that you are instantly gaining exposure or access to a new pool of potential clients who will now know and recognise your brand.

Don’t expect to simply get backlinks and new customers as soon as you start blogging: you need to make a concerted effort to expand your online presence by doing some or all of the things above. It won’t happen overnight, but once you’ve put in the time, you’ll start seeing results by getting new visitors and hopefully new customers!

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