Zachary Lukasiewicz - Digital Marketing 1: How to Market Your Business Online

WEYK GLOBAL BOOK SERIES

Zachary Lukasiewicz

WEYK GLOBAL MEDIA

Lincoln, Nebraska

www.weykglobal.com

Related Courses & Workshops: WeykGlobal.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/zdrake2013

More about the author: weykglobal.com/leadership

Please send errors, comments, and speaking inquiries to

This book handles dry topics well, making consistency paramount. This keeps readers engaged in the lessons, with no time to lose focus.

Reviewing all of the chapters takes less than 45 minutes. As a digital marketing instructor for Growth(X) Academy, I integrate these essentials into my lessons on search marketing and content marketing in order to reinforce concepts.

Blog Your Way to Better Business

How can a blog help my business?

What are some common types of blog posts I can create?

How do I get people to read my blog posts?

Imagine theres a company called Equatorial Expeditions that organizes trips to locations across Latin America.

Equatorial Expeditions wants more people to come to their site and see the unique experiences Latin America has to offer. So they decide to start a blog and brainstorm ideas for posts that will interest potential customers.

Equatorial Expeditions knows Latin American travel, but their marketing team has never created blog content before.

Lets help them figure out which of their ideas might make the best posts.

Most marketing focuses on sales, but blogs let you engage with your audience in a way that offers insights and entertainment, without calls to buy something.

However, a good blog can still help you make sales. People who enjoy your content are more likely to think good things about your brand and return to your website in the future.

This is important, because people who are familiar with your brand and have visited your site are 2-3 times more likely to click on your name in search results. Theyre also 2-3 times more likely to make a purchase when they visit your site.

You can either keep your blog close to home and host it on your own website, or you can set it up on a separate platform.

Hosting your blog on your own site lets you customize the look and experience. But unless you know web development, youll probably need to pay a developer to create the blog management platform for you.

If your blog lives on an outside platform like Blogger, Tumblr, Medium, or WordPress, you wont be able to fully customize it, but itll likely be easier and cheaper to set up because you wont have to develop the site yourself.

Once youve figured out where to house your blog, you can turn your attention to creating content your target audience will want to read and share.

What you blog about will of course depend on your specific industry and audience, as well as your personal interests and expertise. But there are a number of versatile styles and topics that anyone can use to structure content.

Heres a look at some common blog post styles:

Lists

The 5 hottest nightlife spots in Cartagena, Colombia

Slideshows

Look at these stunning photos of Rio de Janeiro at sunset

How-tos

How to live it up in Buenos Aires on a budget

Interviews

A hostel owner in Quito shares his secrets for exploring the city

And here are some common topics you can blog about:

Current Events

This Mexico City museums Frida Kahlo exhibit is a must-see for art lovers

Trends

See why savvy travelers are flocking to this gorgeous Costa Rican island

Communal Identity

10 things only people who have been to Machu Picchu will understand

Personal Experiences

Visiting the Brazilian rainforest changed how I think about animals and the environment

TIP

Even the best bloggers run out of ideas sometimes. If it happens to you, try getting inspiration from what your target audience is sharing on social media. See what types of content are working well for your competitors and what insights you can gain from that success for your own content.

When you publish a new post, you need to promote it, or most people wont know it exists. So use social media and email marketing to push your content.

Whenever you publish a new blog entry, make a separate post on all your social media accounts that links to it and gives people a preview image and/or preview text.Email marketing is another good way to promote your blog and build readership. Collect email addresses by including calls to action (CTAs) in your blog posts that encourage readers to sign up for exclusive content or special product offers.

If you already have an email list, you can send messages to your subscribers letting them know youve just started the webs best new blog. Then you can keep them updated when new posts come out.

You can also pay to run ads on social media platforms that will push your content to your target demographics. Youll usually get better results when you promote your most popular posts.

LISTEN UP

Online readers are always hungry for new posts. The more regularly you publish, the more regularly people will return to your site looking for your awesome content. Writing a lot of posts can be difficult, but making and following a content schedule can help keep you on track.

Youre creating some of the internets all-time great lists and how-tos, but is anyone actually reading them? You need to measure and test your content to find out.Try different tactics and see what works. If certain subjects or styles arent popular, think about what you can change. But dont get discouraged if every post doesnt take off right away. Your audience might not be large enough yet.

Pay attention to how many views, likes, comments, and shares your posts are getting. If certain types of posts or certain subjects are more popular than others, make more of that type of content going forward.