Reading other blogs is part of my job. I feel it’s important for me to know what’s going on in the blogging world, but it’s also my goal to always keep learning. I want to know how to improve as a writer, as a business owner, and as a person.
I find that blogs are the best source of information and I thought it would be interesting and valuable for you if I share some of the best tips I’ve recently read from some of the best small business and marketing bloggers on the Web.
If you’re curious – this post is an example of content curation.
1. Adam Singer – The Future Buzz
What if: instead you reached out to people with content they cared about and built permission with an audience to share ideas? Or if you did want to push messages, why not put them in front of users seeking them out instead of interrupting during more personal moments?
From: Some Still Think Interruption Marketing Works
2. Derek Halpern – Social Triggers
How can you use this tidbit to get more sales? Instead of showing your customers everything you’ve got, funnel people to the right places. Use resource pages, and call outs that send people to smart groupings of products and services.
From: 5 Psychological Keys That Will Open The Doors to More Sales
3. Heather Foeh – Eloqua
Make it Personal. Yes, our contracts are with other companies, but the day-to-day activities of doing business happen between real people. Embrace that! A breezy, personal tone helps people feel comfortable.
From: How to Take Your Online Community from Zero to Awesome
4. Lee Odden – Top Rank Marketing
The mistake many companies make is to either talk solely about themselves, their products and services or worse: to never talk about themselves, their own products and services. A balance is the key and the trick is to find that balance for your own situation.
From: 5 of the Most Important Content & Social Media Tips For A Successful Business Blog
5. Ashley Zeckman – Top Rank Marketing
Today we must rely on not only creating content that our customers will enjoy, but creating it in the format that they are most likely to consume.
From: 7 Exercises to Revitalize Your Marketing Approach
6. Jeremy Dean – PsyBlog
True creativity is not the preserve of people who think the same as everyone else. Frequently (but not always) this is the result of lots of weird things happening to them.
From: Creativity: Why You Should Seek Out Unusual or Downright Weird Experiences
7. Glen – ViperChill
Email gives us “little guys” a chance to have highly personal interactions with our readers, and that’s an advantage we’ll always have over big media.
From: The Future of Blogging: I Had to Tell You This
8. Andy Sernovitz – Damn I Wish I’d Thought of That
It’s what you share, not how you share it. What drives social media is the quality of the conversation, not the platform where it happens.
From: Social Media is Not About the Media
9. Jeremy Victor – B2B Bloggers
It is better to underestimate the amount of articles your organization is capable of publishing when you are first getting started. There is nothing worse than adding pressure that is unnecessary. If it’s a new activity for you, so start slowly and build frequency as you gain competence.
From: Corporate Blogging 101 – An Introduction To Planning Your Blog’s Content
10. Jacqui Mackenzie – B2B Bloggers
A company blog allows you to expand your story even further, providing an ongoing conversation with customers that encourages comments, feedback and connections. Regular blog posts keep customers updated on how your story is unfolding every day.
From: Use Storytelling for Powerful B2B Web Content
11. Brad Shorr – B2B Bloggers
Use excerpts as email hooks. Old blog posts can work hand-in-hand with email campaigns. Include a snippet from one of your top posts in the next email blast, linked to the post. You’re giving subscribers a great reason to visit your site and explore.
From: 10 Ways To Put Old Blog Posts To Good Use
12. Gary Stein – ClickZ
Digital media continues to transform the way that we market and advertise and engage with consumers. The opportunity to be spontaneous is a good one because it is absolutely unique – you can’t have a live chat in a magazine.
From: Want Attention? Take a Risk
13. Bryan Eisenberg – ClickZ
Instead of looking at your traffic by what marketing efforts bring the most amount of visitors and convert best, look at your visitor mix as a starting point to optimize how you generate traffic and then what converts them.
From: Is Your Traffic Mix Efficient?
14. Corey Eridon – HubSpot
You should be speaking with the people on the front lines of your business on a daily basis — employees working in Services, Support, and Sales hear questions from prospects and customers during every conversation.
From: 8 Ways to Solve Prospects’ Problems Through Your Marketing
15. Pamela Vaughan – HubSpot
To write a truly valuable how-to post, don’t assume your readers already know how to do anything you discuss in the post. After all, you know what happens when you assume, don’t you? In other words, don’t just tell your readers to do something; tell them exactly how to do it. Be very specific in your instructions.
From: How to Write Stellar How-To Posts for Your Business Blog
16. Neil Patel – QuickSprout
The key is to hit people’s hot buttons…stuff that they hold near and dear to them…or hate passionately.
From: Forget SEO: Here’s How to Write a Post That Goes Viral
17. Rand Fishkin – SEOmoz
Content marketing exists to build trust.
From: A Manifesto of Content Marketing
18. Toby Murdock – SEOmoz
Remember, at the top of your buying cycle, the prospect does not care at all about you and your brand. Your content here should be at some intersection between your prospect’s interests and the expertise within your organization.
From: How to Build and Operate a Content Marketing Machine
19. John Jantsch – Duct Tape Marketing
All of the kinds of things that your prospects ask you about prior to becoming a customer make great topics for content.
From: Maybe You’re Just Thinking About Content All Wrong
21. Seth Godin – Seth’s Blog
The other choice is to focus on what you need to do today to win tomorrow.
From: Winning Today vs. Winning Tomorrow
22. Darren Rowse – Problogger
The process of trial and error—or experimentation and refinement—isn’t just inevitable in getting off the traffic plateau. It’s a valuable process that will help you make the most of your efforts and work smarter to get a foothold in new markets in the future.
From: Growth Tips for Mature Blogs
23. Sonia Simone – Copyblogger
Your words might be brilliant enough to make unicorns weep, but if you put them into an ugly, amateurish, or cluttered design, your readers won’t come back for a second date.
From: The 10-Step Content Marketing Checklist
24. Brian Clark – Copyblogger
Your own site (on your own domain) is simply the best way to publish new media content. And social media news and networking sites are the ways that your content gets exposure. It’s not money and geography that determines if your content spreads … it just has to be deemed good enough to be shared by regular people.
From: Since When Are Blogs Not Social Media?
25. Chris Brogan – ChrisBrogan.com
Pictures are a great place to start a post idea.
From: A Primer for Blogging
26. Mitch Joel – Six Pixels of Separation
If your social media isn’t driving business, then it’s just a hobby.
From: The Social Contract of Social Media
27. Jason Falls – Social Media Explorer
While I automate the sharing mechanism to bring good content to my audience, what is not automated is the discovery and review of that content.
From: The Flawed Thinking Behind The Anti-Automation Stance
This post was inspired by 101 Tips from 50 Small Business Bloggers