Writing a blog is simple and fun, but without readers your blog won’t help you market your firm. Putting together a healthy group of regular readers, however, is a lot of work. If you’re searching for instant gratification look elsewhere. Blogging isn’t for you. It always takes months, perhaps years to put cultivate a real group of regular readers, even if you do everything correctly. Content has been covered to death so I’ll just reiterate that it’s vital to keep it fresh and interesting. But content won’t bring in readers until you promote your blog, and that’s the subject of today’s discussion.
So how can you draw subscribers to your accounting blog?
1. Use your blog to communicate with employees and clients.
Your employees are a built in audience, and your blog makes a great place to post staff birthdays, meetings, after hours get-togethers, and other daily updates. Your clients can also make great readers. Use your blog to keep them informed of breaking news that affects them. With hundreds of tax law changes every year your clients need you to sort though them and let them know what matters to them. Sending them an email asking them to comment on one of your posts can go a long way, too.
2. Don’t make visitors dig through your website for your blog.
Website users are accustomed to getting what the want when they want it, and if you don’t make it easy for them they leave. Most won’t take more than a few seconds to find your blog on your home page. Make sure the link to your blog is prominently displayed on your accounting website. Put it on the navigation menu where it can be seen without making them open or roll over anything. Add a nice banner link to your home page.
If at all possible try to host the blog on your domain rather than hosting it on a third party (wordpress, blogspot, etc.) URL. In the long run it will give you an advantage in the search engines.
3. Broadcast your web address wherever you can.
It’s quite simple really. The more places you post your web address the more opportunities people will have to find your blog. Make sure the address is on your business card, in the signature of your email, and on any forums you may frequent. When posting your URL online ask yourself whether it’s more appropriate to link directly to your blog rather than to the top level of your domain. People don’t like to click-through. If someone clicks on a link to read a blog article they’re going to want that link to go straight there.
4. Engage other bloggers.
Bloggers are a tight-knit, cooperative community. If you help them out, they’ll help you out. Doing this will get your name out there on other blogs in the industry and help gain exposure for your content. Backlinks to your blog will usually be provided as payment for your contribution, helping you with search engine authority.
Conversely, you can return the favor by inviting guest bloggers of your own. Help others help you!
5. Use your networking skills.
Make some friends!
Putting yourself out there in online communities is a must. Joining a LinkedIn group or a more traditional forum are two ways you can do this. Don’t just promote your website. Put a link in your profile, sure, and site your blog when the opportunity arises, but it’s more important to engage the group according to their needs and interests rather than your own.
6. Mention your influences.
Use online social sites to talk up your clients, prospects, and contacts; especially other bloggers.
Large media and content providers set up vanity tracking so they know when their name is mentioned. This means that using their name in your content gets you noticed – and it may up the chances that they’ll share it with their readers.
7. Contests draw a lot of traffic.
People love free stuff. They always have and they always will. In fact the word “free” is the most powerful word in the marketing lexicon. You don’t even have to offer something extravagant as a prize; a blog link or special postingfor the visitor that posts the most comments will often turn the trick. Just make sure the reward for winning is appealing enough that it gets your readers engaged!
Contests can also be used as a good way to cross sell your off season services. Offering a free compilation and review for a local business owner, for example, can kill two birds with one stone. It will often bring that client into the monthly fold, and it can be used to create a new blog post that highlights the value added by exploiting financial statements.
8. Keep it lively.
Sometimes, when you find a groove, it’s hard to break out of it. But you must fight against this inertia on your blog. Mix it up. Keep your content fresh by doing something different. One nice addition to your repertoire is video, and when you upload the finished piece to YouTube you draw in additional readers who might not have found you otherwise.
If you employ these tactics you’ll have a much better chance of cultivating a real following. Finally, play straight to the fundamentals. Keep your content interesting and compose to your audience. Stay engaged. If you’re engaged with your readers, you’re readers will be engaged with you!