We have identified 6 attention grabbing methods that, if practiced correctly, are sure to shine some extra spotlight on your blog and business.
1. Giveaways
Until late last year it was much rarer that you would see a giveaway, that is, until Pat Flynn released his guest post case study of how one relatively unknown blogger captured 200k email opt ins from a single prize giveaway!
Then people started to take notice.
Giveaways started popping up frequently, such as this 10 year full subscription to LeadPages giveaway, and even a $15k giveaway, which I ran on my blog.
And they were successful, with "regular" bloggers capturing 100s and even 1000s of emails over the course of just one giveaway, which cost them very little.
How do you do it effectively? It's simple, really:
Step 1: Pick a killer prize that your audience covets. For example, if you are in the internet marketing niche, LeadPages.
Step 2: Use all possible promotional strategies to reach the maximum number of people possible. Here are a few examples:
- Call in favors from other bloggers to share it with their audience/send it out to their list.
- Manual outreach to anyone who is related to your prize, or niche. Look for:
- Relevant interviews
- Round Up Posts
- Backlinkers
- Email your list, plus a reminder before the contest ends
- Published a post on your blog and make it sticky for the duration of the content
- Share it on social media, with recurring tweets
- Set up a sidebar banner for entire duration
- Submit it to list of giveaway websites (see below)
- Email the companies themselves involved and ask for a share
Step 3: Incentivize all of your laggards to share your giveaway with their audiences. This can be done effectively through a plugin like KingSumo.
And the best part is, giveaways don't have to be expensive.
Simply approaching companies in your niche with a proper pitch can easily lead to hundreds and thousands of prizes to giveaway to your audience.
And what's more fun than giving away free stuff? Nothing.
I myself was able to garner $15k in prizes by simply emailing a bunch of companies in my niche, with whom I had no prior existing relationship.
2. Roundup Posts
A roundup post is when you feature a bunch of experts on a subject and get their opinion on a single question, such as, how do they drive traffic to their blog.
Sometimes roundups have dozens of experts featured, and the answers can be super quality, even blog worthy posts in and of themselves.
I get asked to be in one about once a month, and it's no surprise, these things work!
For example, this post from StartUp Bros on How To Start A Business With $100 featured 36 experts and received over 100 shares.
Again, when you break it down, the art of the round up post is quite simple.
- Find the contacts by looking for who is hot in your niche.
- Warm them up/contact them
- Organize them into a spreadsheet to keep track
- Build the post, including Tweetables, a Cliffs Notes version, and a custom post feature with all of the participants
- Publish and share (see promotion techniques of the Giveaway as they are quite similar)
By following this straightforward method, I was able to produce a roundup post that received nearly 400 shares and to date is one of my largest long term traffic sources.
And the best part?
Most of the writing is supplied by other people!
3. Guest Posting
Is it dead? Is it alive? Is it just on a luxury vacation in Hawaii for two weeks?
Guest posting may not pack the same punch when it comes to links as it used to, but it can still be a powerhouse for traffic and conversions when done correctly.
Buffer, for example, is known for practically building their company on guest posting.
Leo Widrich, Co-Founder of Buffer, wrote over 150 guest posts, which lead to over 100k sign ups!
And Groove, who just started heavily content marketing last year, is having a similar degree of success as seen by their article, How We've Reached More Than 1 Million People By Guest Blogging.
Again, the process for effective guest posting is no more challenging than the others. Brian from Backlinko advocates these 5 steps:
- Step #1: Find High Quality Guest Post Targets
- Step #2: Research Your Targets For Personalized Outreach
- Step#3: Pitch Them A Killer Topic
- Step #4: Write An Amazing Post
- Step #5: Promote The Post
Not sure how to ask an influencer blogger about guest posting?
Here's a pitch I used to secure a spot on Sean Ogle's business blog.
(To find out more about asking people to blog for your blog, click here)
4. Be Transparent
Transparency is the key to trust.
In a recent article for Neil Patel, entitled Why Transparency Is The New Marketing, he wrote:
"Being open about your business is a great way to gain people's trust and loyalty. By sharing problems you maybe facing, or by sharing your financial numbers (whether they are good or bad) will help you build a larger following." - Neil Patel
And you know if Neil writes it, it's true.
Once, ultra transparency may have been considered TMI (Too Much Information), but now it is becoming the status quo amongst bloggers and businesses alike.
A shiny example of this are income reports, which we are now seeing more and more.
Love them or hate them -- well, your audience loves them, and they consistently receive the a ton of engagement.
A recent article I read highlighted 99 bloggers and businesses who were releasing income reports.
I find that my monthly income reports receive the highest open rates of anything I send out
So you'd be in good company to start opening up.
5. Case Study
Case studies rock, especially in the internet marketing and SEO world.
Let's face it - the internet is cluttered. Quite a lot of topics have been written about, and another guide on how to do XYZ will often find you thrown in the midst of everyone else who decided to write on an obvious topic, such as how to do guest posting.
That's just not an effective way to get noticed.
However, what's more unique than a case study?
One blogger who I admire and excels at this is Brian from Backlinko.
Brian noticed that case studies consistently received the most engagement of what he wrote, so he decided to just keep writing them.
There are two types of case studies you can write.
One Off - This is a single case studies which tells the whole story in one article, something like: Reddit Marketing: How We Got 10,000 Pageviews and a PA 48 Link from Reddit in 2 Weeks
Ongoing - This is when you announce a case study that people can follow along with. You don't know the results when you start. An example is Jon Haver's Authority Website Case Study.
The great thing about case studies is how nicely they fit into my final point.
6. Tell A Story
At its core, blogging has always been about telling a story.
People like stories, people can follow stories.
One of my favorite blogs, which I consistently read week to week, is Groove.
Groove made themselves famous in the blogosphere with their journey to 100k blog (now achieved).
Every week I tune in to check their progress. Their story gives me something consistent to follow.
And no doubt others feel the same.
Groove has stated on numerous occasions that content marketing has been their most successful approach for lead generation and conversions.
To the point that they recently decided to double down their efforts by starting another blog, specifically on customer service.
What's your story?
Conclusion
While there certainly are not the only 6 ways to get traffic, they are some of the best in class methods.
Surprisingly, several of these don't take long at all nor require many resources, such as running an effective giveaway an creating a great round up post.
But they provide terrific bang for their buck.
Now Read: 8 Types Of Blog Posts That Earn You More Traffic And Shares
* With art work by ChadCooperPhotos,laubarnes, Matthew Field
