Tuesday, 14 February 2017 / Published in Blogging 101

Successful Blogs Bring in Crazy ROI: Here’s How to Do It

Are you looking to enhance your inbound marketing efforts? Let’s face it, who isn’t? But, did you know that there are some proven, well-thought-out strategies that the most successful blogs use again and again to bring in crazy ROI?

And, here’s the good news. If they are using the secret sauce, you can too.

Yes, you really can blog your way to success, and you can get a serious return on your investment to boot.

Successful Blogs

The benefits of blogging are many and varied.

Most people know that blogging can be a great form of content marketing, but knowing how to build a successful blog from the ground up or understanding how to improve your existing one is no small task.

When you’re building your blog, you’re primarily focused on a few core things.

You want to establish your brand, you want to attract traffic and you want it all to happen right now!

But, what about your ROI?

Blogging isn’t free, right? So what sort of traffic are you attracting? And, after they’ve read your content, what actions are your readers taking?

A great blog has the potential to bring in some crazy ROI – not just for the money you invest, for the time you give to it as well.

Yes, successful blogs3 are doing it right.

In this article, we’re going to take a look at how you can too.

Successful Blogs4: Here’s How to Do It

1. Killer Content, Now and Forever

One of the most obvious things that successful blogs5 all have in common is the fact that they share great content.

To drive your ROI through the roof, a content strategy is not enough. The content itself has got to useful, informative, entertaining, and it must feed your reader’s curiosity.

Providing insane value should be a standard, not an ideal. Consider including some of the following elements into your blog to make it more appealing:

Once you’ve got the content down, consider including some of the following elements into your blog to make it more appealing:

Videos
Images
Illustrations
Infographics
How-to Guides
Memes
Content based on Newsjacking

One of the most important elements of any content strategy is in creating fresh, new, updated, relevant content. If you’re not churning out awesome blog content regularly, you’re handing enormous opportunity to your competitors.

2. Know Your Audience

People come to your blog because they are looking for something. Do you know what that something is?

The key to providing them with what they want is to understand your audience in the first place.

Here are two super easy ways to find out more about your audience:

Use your social media platforms to reach out to your audience. Ask real people real questions and seek to really engage with them. The result? They’ll you themselves what their concerns are. All you have to do is listen!
Alternatively, if you haven’t established yourself on social media, or if you’re looking for other opinions, head over to Quora and type in your primary keyword into the search box. Bam! You’ll have a list of their most important questions and concerns within seconds.

Now that you have a comprehensive idea of what your audience is looking for, you can craft successful blogs6 around the answers.

3. Build a List

A common error that a lot of people make when starting their blog is to sell banner ads to other businesses.

But, what does this action actually do? It sends your traffic to someone else’s site – and often for a paltry fee.

In reality, you want to keep your audience on your blog. To do this, stop selling ads to others – at least in the short term.

Instead of letting another business siphon your traffic, don’t allow for ads at all, or keep those users on your site by using those banners to advertise your own products.

Because to get the best ROI, your goal should always be to build a list of interested subscribers.

A blog subscriber is one of the most valuable assets you can have.

Why? Because they’re interested, they’re curious, and they like what you have to offer.

This could be the start of a beautiful relationship.

4. Build a Community

Your blog is always speaking for you. The question is, what is it saying?

Of all the things that matter in today’s world, having a unique voice and standing for something is perhaps one of the most important factors in determining the success or failure of a blog.

If you stand for something, you can build a community of like-minded people. And, in that community, you can establish yourself as the authority.

As the authority, you don’t just have to follow the conversation within that community, you can lead the conversation instead.

Why does this work?

Social Beings

It works well because most people are social beings. Most of us routinely seek out the company of others, almost by default. This is part of what makes us human and it’s a fundamental part of who we are.

We want to connect with others. We want to feel part of something greater than ourselves.

You can use your blog to create this sort of powerful connection with your audience.

You can talk about what inspires you, you can share your vision. And you can share your mission with your audience, and in doing so, you can help them to feel part of a community.

In all of your blog posts, you can craft your article to encourage that community. You can nourish that community. And, more importantly, you can validate it.

Successful blogs7 find the delicate balance between entertaining an audience, giving them a sense of belonging, and converting that traffic into raving fans.

Perhaps at the heart of every great blog, there is an undercurrent message.

The blog itself may be talking about the importance of healthy eating, but underneath the surface, in all of its communication, it will be saying something far more important…

You’re just like us. We see you. We hear you. Come join us.