Note from Joanne: I’m very excited to have a guest blogger on Life With Joanne today. Amy Zellmer is a Creative Coach and is here to share her thoughts and advice on content marketing for bloggers.
One of the biggest mistakes I see new bloggers make is not having an opt-in offer for their audience. This opt-in gives you their email address in exchange for some type of content from you, your “freebie”. An example of a freebie might be an ebook, a pdf worksheet, a podcast, a video series, etc. This method of list building is called “Content Marketing”.
It is critical that you start building your list of followers in order to keep in touch with them. Five or so years ago, readers would go out of their way to read their favorite blogs on a regular basis. Nowadays, they are swamped with social media and your blog can lost easily. This is where a gentle email reminder can keep your content in front of them. Content Marketing can seem overwhelming at first, as there are some steps that you need to take to make it all work (plus creating your free giveaway item.) However, it is key component for you to grow your list.
The first step (and sometimes the hardest) is deciding what your freebie is going to be, and what form you’re going to present it in. Once you have your freebie created, you will need to create an opt-in box for your website/blog. I use a service called aweber to create mine. There is a very small learning curve, and if you use a WordPress site it is quite easy to enter the html code into your site.
After you have this set up, you will create a series of auto responders ~ with the first one sending them their freebie that they opted in for. I like to follow up in a few days to see if they have taken the time to read/listen to it and offer some words of encouragement for them to do so. In a few more days I follow up again, letting them know that I love hearing from my subscribers and would like to hear from what their problem area is that I could help them work through. From here, the opportunities are endless. You can send out an email to your list every time you create a new blog post, gently reminding them of your site and giving them content and links (personally, I put a teaser to my blog post in the email content, with a link to continue reading it on my site).
Having a list is vital to the success of your blog. As you start to grow your list, you may want to consider creating products that they might be interested in purchasing. If that seems overwhelming to think about now, that’s ok! Take baby steps, start with creating a freebie. I know you’ve got this!!
Amy Zellmer is a Creative Coach who lives in Saint Paul, MN with her Yorkie, Pixxie. She works with Creative Entrepreneurs who are ready to work through the issues that are holding them back and keeping them stuck. She believes that we all deserve as much success as we aspire to have, and she can help you get there!! Grab her free toolkit “3 Simple Strategies To Supercharge Your Success!” at: www.mycreativebizcoach.com and connect with Amy on social media:
Keeping an engaged audience is so important. It can be disheartening to write and never know if anyone reads you hard work
Thank you for sharing this. I was trying to brainstorm how to be in touch better with my audience. Maybe an ebook of some of our favorite recipes etc might be a great way! Thanks!
Yes, an ebook of recipes would be great!
I have never done this before. Definitely makes a lot of sense. Thank you for the education.
you’re welcome 🙂
This is something I have not done in 5 years and is now on the top of my to-do list. I hadn’t even considered it essential until reading this post, so thank both of you for this one. Now I need to decide what my freebie will be, so I guess I will get the creative juices flowing!
Yes, I think this will up your game!!
This is a great idea. I am currently working on providing printables and mini ebooks on a regular basis. This was encouragement I needed.
awesome! thank you!
I definitely need to do this. I’ll have to put some thought into what I will use to entice. Thanks for causing me to think. 🙂
you’re welcome, good luck!
I love the opt in idea. I need to focus more on doing content marketing.
yay!
You inspired me to at least take the first step and get the popup. Right now I’m asking for just subscriptions, but plan on offering a freebie! Thanks! Visiting from SITS!
You’ll notice your opt-ins go way up with a free offer
I wonder if something as simple as a free entry into giveaways (a new word daily in the newsletter) would work. Thank you, definitely, for the food for thought.
That’s a completely different strategy…. more of a “one time use”…..
A opt-in is a great idea. I will work on that after the holidays. Now to think what I should use as a freebie.
the possiblities are endless 🙂
Great post, Amy! I’m in the process of redoing my freebie right now to better align with future touch point opportunities.
yay!
Great tips on using on a freebie. I agree the hardest part is deciding/creating your freebie
Thanks, Kristie!
First of all, yay…you are in MN! I am too! Love your tips. Just followed you and opted in to receive your new posts. I have seen dramatic increase in my blog followers when I added an opt-in so yes, this advice does work! Thanks!
Hey Tonya! Great to connect!!
Having an opt-in with a freebie is definitely on my blog to-do list! Thanks for the tips!
You’re welcome, Taralyn!