You finally hit publish, and… crickets.

You wait patiently, promoting your post on social media and emailing your list, but still nothing.

You think, “is anyone even reading this?”

Sound familiar?

Why should I boost comments?

When you’re struggling to promote good content and seeing little return on your time investment, it might be tempting to forgo a comment-boosting strategy.

But, boosting comments is more than just food for your ego. It’s a great way to grow your traffic, engage with your audience and gain social proof.

Increasing your blog post comments helps you understand which posts your audience loves and wants more of. In addition, comments help you build deeper relationships with your audience, which improves your sales conversions, according to the legendary Neil Patel.

[bctt tweet="Your audience wants to engage with you. They want their voices to be heard, and they want to feel understood." username="relevance"]

Your audience wants to engage with you. They want their voices to be heard, and they want to feel understood. Blog comments are a great way to develop these relationships with your audience and ensure they come back to your site for more.

Here are 9 ways to boost comments on your blog:

1. Create compelling headlines

Headlines are the best indicator of whether or not you will get comments on your blog posts. They are the first thing your readers see when they visit your page. Therefore, your readers will decide if they want to read on if your headline captures their attention.

Use a free tool like CoSchedule Headline Analyzer to grade your headlines. Are they compelling enough to attract readers? Do they have the right mix of words? Do they tell readers what the article is about? This free tool helps you create better headlines by showing you what works and what doesn’t.

2. Grow your email list

One way to boost comments on your blog is to boost traffic to your website. But once the traffic finds your site, you also want to make sure they’ll return. Most readers won’t comment the first time they visit your blog. They need to get to know you first.

Encourage readers to sign up for your email list by offering an incentive like a free workbook, ebook, video, or discount code. Once you grow your list, you can encourage subscribers to check out your latest blog posts and add their comments. You have complete control over your email list, so use it to your advantage!

3. Publish less often

Blog post frequency is more of an art than a science. In general, you want to publish at a frequency that your audience can keep up with. If you publish too often, your most popular articles may get overlooked by a newer, less popular article, as it gets pushed farther down the page.

Your readers may get overwhelmed if you publish lots of content. Publishing less often, like once per week, can actually increase the number of comments on a single blog post because it will stay at the top of the list for a longer period of time.

4. Link to older posts

If you publish more frequently, or have a long history of blog posts, you may want to start linking back to your older posts. Not only is this a great way to boost your SEO, and therefore traffic, but this ensures that new readers will see your older material.

5. Invite controversy

There’s nothing humans love more than a little controversy. Introducing a controversial topic can increase your blog comments, because everyone has an opinion to share, whether they agree or disagree with your perspective.

A great way to do this is to reference a recent pop culture phenomenon or a deeply-held myth in your niche. Write an article about your personal opinion on the matter and invite your readers to share their opinions in the comments. Be careful of getting too one-sided, however. You don’t want to alienate new readers who don’t yet know you.

6. Ask for comments

This probably goes without saying, but a surefire way to boost comments is to ask for comments. Ask a question at the end of each blog post to invite your audience to share a story or their opinion. Be sure that it is not a yes or no question; encourage readers to elaborate.

The goal is to start a dialogue. The more discussion going on in the comments, the more new readers will be likely to add their two cents.

7. Respond to comments

In keeping with the dialogue, you need to respond to the comments you receive. Not only will this show that you care about your readers’ opinions and stories, but it also helps to create momentum in adding new comments.

Readers will be more likely to comment on blog posts when they see that you care enough to respond. This helps build trust with your audience. Ask questions to dig deeper into the topic, or share additional thoughts or resources when you respond. Interacting with your readers encourages them to continue commenting on your future posts.

8. Link to comments

Sometimes, a reader has an idea or opinion they want to share after reading the first few paragraphs of your blog post. Rather than scrolling all the way to the bottom to comment, they may continue reading and forget their original thought.

Make it easy for your readers to leave a comment by linking to your comment form early and often. Here is one example from Adam Connell of Blogging Wizard.

9. Focus on the reader

If all else fails, you may be writing content for the wrong audience. Great content speaks to the needs of your customers. It helps them solve problems, gain inspiration and learn new skills. If you’re not seeing comments on your posts, your posts may not be reaching the right people.

You can better understand your audience’s needs by conducting a survey. By simply asking what your audience wants, then delivering that very content, you will automatically build trust. You’re showing them that you are there to help them and provide valuable content that solves their problems. And isn’t that the whole point of content marketing?

The Takeaway

You don’t need an entirely new strategy to boost comments on your blog. Use these simple tactics to increase engagement and build deeper relationships with your audience.

Have a fool-proof method we haven’t mentioned? Share your tip in the comments!

The post 9 Ways to Boost Comments on Your Blog appeared first on RELEVANCE.

Earned media is publicity received based on the newsworthiness of the content or the expertise of the person being interviewed. In essence, it’s media that is not purchased; it's free exposure for you, your company and your brand.

[bctt tweet="This is the one strategy you need to incorporate into your marketing plan this year." username="relevance"]

Why earned media?

The benefits are endless. Earned media is free publicity that is consumed daily by your current audience across a variety of online platforms.

Writing articles or being interviewed on online media sources allow you to bring awareness of your brand to your local community or potential new customers around the world.

Further, earned media allows you to control the message you want your audience to hear. You can show off your expertise in a certain area, highlight your organization’s mission, or announce new services. Because your target audience will see your interview or article on platforms they already trust and love, they are more likely to read your bio or visit your website.

You already know that consistent messaging builds trust and loyalty with potential clients or customers. With earned media, the most trusted source of information about your company comes not from you, but from your highly satisfied customers. These customers write glowing reviews, share your content on social media and tell their friends and family about your products. All for free.

The return on investment (ROI) for earned media is higher and more reliable than traditional paid methods. While ad companies can change their algorithms year after year, making it challenging to keep up with growing ad costs, earned media has staying power. Your articles and interviews will last much longer than your ads will, and if your content is evergreen, people can learn about your business for years to come.

What to Pitch

Earned media comes in many forms. The most common are guest blogs, newspaper articles, television interviews or spotlights, local and national magazine features, customer reviews, and social media shares.

What to pitch depends on the outlet you’re targeting. Remember, the key is to know your audience.

Here are a few best practices and examples of what to pitch:

Timely topics

Part of what makes something newsworthy is its timeliness and relevance. Here, you want to tie in what your company is doing into what’s going on in the world. For example, if you’re in the fashion industry, you might consider pitching a story about the Royal Wedding and how everyday brides can achieve the same look. Or, if you’re a therapist, you could pitch a local TV station to interview you about mental health awareness month and how to take care of your mental health. Be on the lookout for quirky holidays like National Pizza Day or International Raw Milk Cheese Appreciation Day. You can find these and traditional holidays on Google, or in a publication like Chase’s Calendar of Events.

Pop culture references

If there’s any way that you can tie in your business to pop culture, it’s a great way to capture the attention of the press and actually be successful in driving earned media. For example, if you’re a relationship expert and there is this national trend of hot celebrity couples splitting up, you could pitch something like “the shocking truth on why celebrity partnerships fail” and give your expertise for that. Or, if you make cold brew coffee and you see photos of your favorite celebrities drinking cold brew coffee, you could pitch a story like, “Justin Timberlake’s new favorite cold brew.”

Research studies & statistics

To gain instant credibility, be sure to back up your claims with published studies and statistics. If you’re a nutritionist, you might consider pitching a news story or TV or radio interview about “enemy foods” like sugar, fat, gluten or dairy. You could also put a fresh spin to the research if you’ve done your own study or have evidence to the contrary. The media loves conflict, so this could be a good angle for your business and an effective way to get earned media.

Human interest stories

With so many negative stories out there, people love reading about others doing good in the world. If you’re a non-profit organization that donates school supplies to low income schools in your community, you could pitch your local newspaper or television channel to run a story about your recent donation. Or, if you run a restaurant, you could pitch a story or announcement that for one month, you’ll donate 25% of your profits to a local charity. You could even feature a family or business that has benefitted from your philanthropic work. Stories sell, so use that to your advantage!

How to Pitch

Finding publications and platforms your target audience is watching, reading or listening to isn’t as confusing as it seems. In this digital age, it’s really easy to connect with editors and producers. All you have to do is send them an email.

The first thing you need is a really great headline; one that will make editors and producers want to learn more. If you’re just getting started, a great trick is to make a list of all of the great headlines you see online, in newspapers, magazines or even television. Which headlines made you click to read more? Then, think about if there’s a way that you can remix it into something that works for your business and your story idea. Use your headline as the subject line for any pitch email you send out.

Next, you need to hook the editor from the beginning. If they’ve opened your email, that means they are already interested by what you wrote in the subject line. Don’t disappoint them in the body of the email; keep their attention while you have it! What’s the angle you’re going for? Are you refuting a recent study? Have a contrarian opinion on current events? Tell them up front.

Keep your pitch email short and sweet and to the point. Editors and producers do not have time to read lengthy, meandering emails. Use bullet points to emphasize product features or main points you will make in your article. Remember, this is the summary, not the entire article.

Last but not least

Finally, end your pitch email with two things: an ask and links to other relevant content. First, always end your emails with a specific ask. For example, “does this sound like a story that would resonate with your audience?” or “would you be interested in interviewing me?” Again, keep it simple. Second, be sure to include links to other relevant content you’ve already published. If you’re pitching to a blog or online publication, include links to articles that you’ve published online. If you’re pitching to a local TV or radio station, send clips of prior appearances. In most cases, editors and producers are looking for evidence of your previous work and credibility.

You can find the contact information for editors and producers on Twitter, on the staff pages of publication websites, or by simply calling the main office and asking for the person in charge of a specific department.

The Takeaway

Growing your audience doesn’t have to mean shelling out thousands of dollars in advertising. Some of the best publicity is free publicity through earned media.

The post Skyrocket Your Audience with Earned Media appeared first on RELEVANCE.

For that reason, it’s important for marketers to approach Pinterest from a more traditional marketing strategy. You can promote your content on Pinterest to attract the right audience to your website.

Even new businesses can reap the benefits of Pinterest’s algorithm with this step-by-step approach.

How to Promote Content on Pinterest:

1. Create a Pinterest Business Profile

First things, first, create a business Pinterest account separate from any personal accounts. In the settings, be sure to add your website and click “claim website” to track your analytics. Add your logo as your profile picture, so your customers easily recognize your pins.

Because Pinterest functions as a search engine, it’s important to use keywords early and often. Start with your Pinterest Profile. In addition to your company name, it’s a best practice to use keywords to help users find you. If your company makes cold brew coffee, write “Company Name | Cold Brew Coffee.” Or, if you’re a coach, blogger or consultant, you can use “Company Name // Fashion Blogger,” “Company Name | Business Consultant,” or “Company Name | Life + Health Coaching.”

Next, add keywords to your bio. Tell your audience what your business is about, using keywords that they will most likely enter in the search bar. Be as specific as possible, because you have a limited number of characters. If you have a freebie, you can mention it in the bio as well.

Here’s the thing about Pinterest: keywords get you everywhere. Add them to your name, your board titles, board descriptions and pin descriptions. It makes it easier for your customers to find you.

Create boards using keywords like “Career Advice + Resume Tips,” “Gluten-Free Desserts,” and “Social Media Tips.” Be sure to add descriptions to all of the boards using keywords and hashtags to make sure they came up in the search.

It’s really important that you create boards that your customer wants to see. This isn’t your personal Pinterest profile. Think about what problem you help your customer solve, then create boards around that. If your customers need help with automating social media posting, create a board called “Social Media Automation Tools,” one called “Facebook Tips,” or one called “Productivity + Time Management.”

Finally, create a board for your company, where you pin only your personal content. You can now make this the cover on your profile page to show off your best pins.

2. Create consistent, high quality content

Remember, content is king! This is the most important step – do not underestimate the power of consistency. Commit to a regular schedule of weekly blogs and pins, even when you think no one is reading your posts. You never know who needs to read what you write, so keep writing.

You also have to write good content. Don’t throw something together at the last minute without putting effort or energy into it. Your readers can feel energy through the words you write, and they will definitely tell if your heart’s not in it. Your ultimate goal is to attract new customers, not put out a blog.

Next, be sure to overdeliver on value. Give your readers free cheat sheets, workbooks, downloadable tools, discount codes, access to free mini courses, free shipping, etc. Every blog post should link to a freebie, if possible, because the goal is to drive traffic back to your website.

3. Create consistent, high quality pins

Now we’re getting to the good stuff. A great pin can attract the exact audience you’re looking for, if you’re strategic about it.

Pinterest’s demographics skew more toward female users in the 18-29 age range. Consider this when creating your pins.

Remember that Pinterest is also a visual platform. It’s important to use bold images that catch the attention of potential customers. When users see pins that look interesting, they will pin them to their own boards, where their friends and followers will see them. If you’re a product-based company, use images of the products you want to sell. If your business involves food, use photos to highlight new recipes.

For every blog post you write, create two or three pins with different images, text and keywords. This allows you to reach a wider audience and test which designs or keywords work best.

If you have a small creative department, a great tool for creating high-quality, beautiful pins is called Canva. It’s free to use, but you can also upgrade to one of their premium packages, which gives you the ability to add your own fonts, logos and brand colors. It’s a great way to stay consistent among all platforms.

The key is to remain consistent, so pick designs you love that also match your website theme, colors, brand and overall feel. Canva provides great options for different fonts, stock photos, layouts and icons.

Another great tool for creating bold pins that stand out is Adobe PhotoShop. While it can be a little more learning-intensive, it provides much more flexibility than Canva.

One you design your beautiful pin, it’s time to make it searchable. When you upload your pin, add the link to your blog post in the source URL box. Then, create a description. Be sure to use keywords and hashtags that are relevant to your blog post! Remember to use different descriptions for your two different pins (but the same URL).

Finally, use this guide to enable Rich Pins. Rich Pins automatically add a more detailed description of your blog post using the language you used. It also displays your website and business logo.

4. Pin consistently

Pinterest wants to know that you’re a caring and committed member of its community. It loves when you pin lots of great quality content all over your boards!

Spend five minutes per day pinning high-quality, tall, easy-to-read pins that link to great content. Not only does this add value to your readers by constantly refreshing their feeds with useful information, but this shows Pinterest that you’re serious about helping your community and growing your business.

When you first start out, you’ll have many empty boards that needed to be filled. Instead of going on a Pinterest bender and pinning 50 pins on every board at once, do this slowly over time. Each day, choose a different board and pin 5-10 relevant pins to it. This way, Pinterest won’t think you are a spammer or bot, and you will have a variety of helpful content to share with your audience.

This is a method you can continue using to populate your boards over time. Luckily, Pinterest tells you when your boards were last updated, so look for older boards and add something new to them. There are also great tools available to help you automate your Pinterest efforts without spending hours pinning content.

5. Use tools to support content promotion

Two of the most widely-known and used tools for automating your Pinterest strategy are Tailwind and BoardBooster.

Tailwind allows you to add pins from Pinterest onto a queue using a Google Chrome Extension. From there, you can automatically sort pins into a pre-set schedule or manually choose the time you want your pins to be published. It allows you to schedule pins for weeks at a time so you can spend less time manually pinning pins every day.

Tailwind also provides great analytics to let you know how your pins are doing. You can see which pins are most successful, how many times your pins are repinned, and your overall profile performance.

With Tailwind, you also have the ability to join Tribes. This feature alone is worth the price of admission. With Tribes, you can join groups of pinners who pin similar topics to yours. For example, if you create vegan recipes, join tribes with topics like vegan cooking, healthy recipes, or health and wellbeing. You can add your pins to the tribes, and your tribemates will repin your pins onto their boards. This gives you the potential of reaching millions of Pinterest users who don’t already know you! I also use Tribes to add new pins to my schedule queue. This not only helps you support your fellow tribemates, but you constantly have fresh content to schedule to share with your followers.

BoardBooster is a unique scheduling tool known for its looping feature. With looping, you can add all of your boards and determine how often BoardBooster should repin your current pins back to your boards. This is especially helpful for boards with your OWN content on them, because it keeps your content at the top of mind. It automates the process so you don’t have to remember to repin your old material; you can just keep creating new, amazing content.

6. Pinterest Ads

Pinterest makes it incredibly easy for business users to promote content with their “boost” feature. Business users can boost any pin, depending on if your goal is to drive traffic to your website, create brand awareness, or improve customer engagement.

The only difference between a regular pin and a boosted pin is that the boosted pin will show “Promoted by [your company name]” under the image. Otherwise, the two images are exactly the same. Promoted pins allow you to pay to have your pins seen by a larger audience.

According to Pinterest, Promoted Pins don’t interrupt or distract Pinterest users. They actually make Pinterest better, because they help users find new products and ideas. In fact, 73% of Pinterest users say that content from brands makes Pinterest more useful.

You can quickly and easily create a Promoted Pin by clicking on the “Promote” button on any pin. You can also navigate to the Ads tab in the top left of the page if you want to have more control over the target audience and campaign goal.

The Takeaway

Having a solid strategy for promoting your content on Pinterest can help you attract new customers, grow your email list, and deliver consistent traffic to your website daily.

The key is understanding that Pinterest functions as a search engine and knowing what problems your customers need solved.

Happy Pinning!

The post How to Promote Content on Pinterest appeared first on RELEVANCE.