Promoting Your Blog: Not Too Late to Start Over

Over the average course of a person’s life he or she will reinvent themselves a few times; usually in High School, then College and again a few more times in the real world. We’ve all done it as individuals, but what happens when in comes to your company’s marketing strategy?  Are your present strategies working out for you?  Are you feeling stuck in a rut?

For the most part a good promotion strategy or ad campaign could last forever, but as the times change so should your thinking and planning. Granted,  there are those campaigns out there that are timeless gems. Nike’s “Just Do It” is a slogan that has lasted for over 20 years and doesn’t seem to be losing steam anytime soon. In fact, their competitors are finding that they need to keep changing their slogans just to keep up.

This simple slogan. Still going strong.

Currently, the phrase “Just Do It” is so synonymous with Nike that really at the end of the silent, visual ad,  all they say sometimes is “Just Do It” and you find yourself amazed that they did it again. In February we talked about the Super Bowl ads, what worked, what didn’t and why. One of the greatest strengths a company or even a blog should have is to know when it’s material is getting stagnant. For the purpose of this post we are going to focus on blogs.

For some blogs, being stuck in a rut could be simply overkill (too many articles in a day or week), which really doesn’t allow the articles that are there already to be read cause the next one has already replaced it. In order to deal with that, some blogs like this one space out the posts so they are released two or three times a week. This offers time to let the information be digested and gain some traction before pumping out more content. For other blogs,  having a recap of the week’s “best posts” on the sidebar allows the reader to see what else is there.  Another option is to create a “if you liked this post, check these out” list.

Techniques like that will work for you and some will not. In order to know for sure you should not be afraid to experiment. During the early days of the Internet a company could in fact code a simple page  of content, add some keywords, the search engines of the time would rank it and the results of our efforts were quickly understood.  As our technology advanced, so did our need to provide the bells and whistles. The original webpages, which were interesting back then, nowadays would be considered a primer on what not to. So like with anything else, web pages adapted based on user feedback and conversions.

It’s the same thing with Google ads. When once catchy phrasing filled with keywords would get you where you needed to be, these days more and more campaigns are going a different route. Facebook ads and video ads are becoming more mainstream, forcing those who focus solely on text ads to scramble to keep up.

Not always do you get it right the first time.

A few things to remember when trying to change things up in your blogging strategy are…

• 1. Some promotions or content strategy decisions only work for a short period of time. A number of your campaigns or your blog’s content will revolve around a time of year, an event or the latest wave or trend in Social Media. When it’s time passes don’t be afraid to let go and try something else. Remember, sometimes it is worth the wait for the right moments.
• 2. Sometimes simple works best. We all see the tools, plug-ins and the latest apps used to promote your business blog, but some of the most memorable campaigns in the world were built on a catchy slogan like “Just Do It”.   Try out different slogans and taglines.  If you reinvent your tagline or blog content theme, be consistent.
• 3. Engage your community. With forums (members feedback) and even a Facebook page for your company, finding out what works and what wouldn’t is easier than ever before. No need to spend lots of time on trying something live when you can ask the question, “What would you say if we did this?” in a forum or Facebook page. Recently in Miami a new tequila bar decided to open on Cinco de Mayo, which was to be 3 weeks before it’s Grand Opening. They offered strictly just drinks and a few finger foods to those who got there early enough. They kept asking questions  such as “What do you think of this or that?” Now granted you are not going to always have a captive audience like that but they knew what they were looking for and they knew who they wanted their feedback from.
• 4. Start providing articles and information to other sites that can link back to you. Chances are a gym and a bar have nothing in common right? Wrong? In the neighborhood of Brickell in Miami the local CrossFit Box is challenging their members to try the Paleo diet for 90 days (no carbs, no sugar, just meat, veggies, fruit). Restaurants are lining up to help by offering Paleo-friendly meals on their menu while bars are busy creating Paleo-friendly cocktails. Now suddenly they are getting a whole new crowd of people that never thought of going to their restaurant before and they are advertising on each others’ sites and Facebook pages.
• 5. Change your look.  Don’t change it often but sometimes when a blog gets stagnant a little paint job by way of a theme change can shake things up a bit. You could even take a page out of Google’s book and change your logo every once in a while.

At the end of the day creativity rules and if you are willing to go outside the box, even if just for a few times a year, then you will be kick-starting your blog.