content_marketing_tips2Welcome to the second half of my two-part series on 10 Content Marketing Tips. Part 1 was all about getting more traffic by improving search results. Now it’s time for tips on how to increase traffic by encouraging repeat visitors to your site.

Content Marketing Tip #6: Show Your Personality

The meteoric rise of social platforms over the last 10 years has made led to an increasing trend in being authentic and personable. One example of this is the increasing importance search engines place on author recognition, like Google Authorship.

With this trend comes increasing accountability for your posts. You want to let your own personality shine, so that readers can identify with you, which will ultimately result in more repeat users, users who are more likely to share your posts, and an extended, long term increase in traffic.

Content Marketing Tip #7: Understand Your Audience

Part of your job as an internet marketer is to understand your audience. What are consumers in your niche looking for? What information is already easily available vs. what information is harder to find? What do your readers really want to know?

Understanding these issues is key to providing high quality content that will keep your users coming back. It’s one thing to rank for a search term, but the true test of success revolves around how long users spend on your site, and whether you can get them to become a consistent reader. The more readers that consistently come back, the greater your success at eventually converting those users to a customer.

Content Marketing Tip #8: Engage Your Audience

Developing an engaged audience can be as simple as asking questions in your post, or encouraging users to post a comment and tell you what they think. It doesn’t matter if the user agrees or disagrees; sometimes a lack of agreement can even spur more activity!

If you’re ready to take your site to the next level, consider some sort of membership or subscription option, with a basic free level. This could be as simple as building an email list, or you could get more involved and include a registration or member’s forum on your site. Either way, there are plenty of tools out there to help you as you grow.

Content Marketing Tip #9: Ask for Feedback

One mistake a lot of new marketers make is that they’re afraid to ask for feedback on their site. The best feedback you can get comes directly from your target audience, and many people are more than willing to provide opinions or suggestions, especially if they think it will result in a better experience for them.

Don’t hesitate to include surveys, or even just encourage feedback in comments. You never know what someone might say, and there’s a good chance you’ll hear perspectives you’d never even imagined.

Content Marketing Tip #10: Encourage Users to Subscribe or Follow

There are a number of different tools available to help encourage your visitors to subscribe to an email list or RSS feed. Ideally, you’ll b able to offer both options, but if you’re running a lower-maintenance site, it’s important to remember that email lists require more time to keep up than RSS feeds.

The key is to make it as easy as possible for users to subscribe to your list or otherwise follow your blog. Social media accounts are an easy way for users to follow your new updates in an environment with which they’re already accustomed.

That’s it for this two-post series providing 10 Content Marketing Tips. Did you find these tips helpful? Do you already incorporate some of these techniques in your article writing? Are there other techniques you use you’d be willing to share? Let me know!