We’ve all been there before. We hit publish on our latest blog and wait for the avalanche of comments to come in, except they don’t. When this happens we can’t help but ask why. Before you lose your blogging confidence, here are some ways to drive traffic to your blog.

Share More Than Once

Most of us share our blogs across social media a few seconds after we hit publish. While this is sound strategy, there might be some people you missed during the first blast. To avoid too many people from seeping through the cracks, share your blog more than once. In fact, Garret Moon co-Founder and CEO of CoSchedule suggests that companies do not share content nearly as much as they need to. According to him we have a mentality of “share once and forget”.

A better solution is to share the same blog multiple times depending on the platform. For example, you might want to share a blog across all your social media accounts the moment it is published. Two hours later, you can share again on Twitter, the next day on Google+ and Facebook, next week on Tumblr. Some marketers think that this is spammy, but nobody really pays attention what you do online and this is just a way to make sure that nobody misses anything.

Leverage Twitter

Twitter is a great platform to make blogs go viral. Here are some things to do right away:

• Complete your Twitter profile, avatar and header image.
• Tweet on a regular basis, at least once a day.
• Retweet interesting and related tweets from other members.
• When sharing a post, make sure to include an image. You can use Twitshot to make things easier.
• Always use a hashtag (#) when tweeting.

Optimize your Tweet text too. The best practice is to put the post title first followed by the URL and your Twitter handle. This optimized Twitter text will encourage users to click on the link and to follow you at the same time.

Get Influencers to Blog For You

Gain credibility and possibly followers by getting social influencers to blog for you. This means reaching out to people in your niche with the biggest followers and then asking them to contribute to your blog. By getting these guys involved, you get exceptional content while accessing a powerful distribution channel in the form of the contributor’s network. Unless your blog is super-prestigious, you might need to pay these influencers, but it is a good way to improve blog readership.

Include Visual Content or Videos

There are many studies suggesting that blogs with videos or images, especially infographic, find better engagement and more shares. Taking time and effort to add them to your blog can greatly impact traffic and readership.

Send Link To Relevant People

Send your blog to people or organizations that might be interested in what you have to say. Messages like “I recently published a blog on the impact of social media on entrepreneurs and thought you might be interested.” Offer to reciprocate so that your offer becomes tempting. Sending out your blog gives you the potential to expand your network while driving traffic to your blog.

These tips are not a substitute for good content but these strategies are simply about squeezing some more so that you end up with even more traffic. So make sure you have great content that has always has SEO in mind to drive more traffic to your blog.

In this competitive era where every business is facing deep competition, it is essential to project a differentiating factor and adopt latest techniques for attracting more business to your business. It is often the failure of planning that leads to collapse and shut down of businesses. You need to have a proper strategy that can build a reputation of your business in the market. To run smooth and successful, have a prior construction of successive plans to target the potential customer base.

Here are 5 techniques to improve your business prospects.

Genuine Value

Be specific about the services or products that you offer so customers are not misguided. By going through the information that you provide, the targeted clientele must be able to understand the quality of your product or service offerings. Having a differentiating factor and projecting it effectively is essential to grab those choosy eyeballs of potential customers. Setting clear expectations and delivering the best within the deadline is the best way to retain customers and grow your business.

Business Website

The most important step to take when you start your business is to build your website. The website is your online identity and your biggest marketing weapon as far as the digital space is concerned. Make sure that the website is interactive, informative, and guides the visitors in the best possible way. It should be user-friendly and have the power to convert casual visitors into customers. Remember, a great website projects a great brand image.

Effective Communication

Be precise and dynamic when you communicate with potential patrons. Regularly updating your blog and listing the information related to your work will build a strong relationship between the reader and your business. Replying to queries and comments within a short time frame is very important and depicts that you value the interest which someone has in your business. Healthy communication will help frame a positive image of your business.

Socially Active

Socialization is very important in today’s world. With billions of people on social media, these platforms have become effective marketing channels and one of the best source of generating prospective clients for your business. Having well-defined social media marketing strategies and getting your business highlighted on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others has become essential. People these days have a tendency to refer to social media when they need any product or service and have a strong affinity for brands. The return on investment in case of social media marketing is also very high if the business adopts the right strategies.

Search Engine Optimization

This is the digital marketing technique that can help your business be listed on the top search pages of Google, Yahoo, and Bing. With a comprehensive list of well-researched keywords defining the nature of your business, SEO experts will target your business with informative content on the top search engine pages and improve your page ranking. Off-page SEO techniques have also become very important due to the cut throat competition in the SEO space.

Scaring away customers is a real fear among businesses. When you’re an entrepreneur, the goal is to attract customers so that you can convert them into sales. Unfortunately, there are online tactics that could be keeping your leads from converting into sales. Samsung’s exploding Galaxy Note 7 is a big blow to the cellphone giant. Volkswagen’s dubious emission results have resulted in losses for the company. These two are just a few examples of marketing gone wrong. Here are some marketing mistakes you could be making.

Unfriendly Web Design

When a new customer lands on your website, you want it to be easy for them to figure out how to navigate it. According to research, unfriendly web design is one of the reasons why customers do not linger on your website. To avoid dissatisfied guests, make sure that everything is easy to find. It is also best to have a FAQ section so that common questions can be answered easily. Make your call to action button clear and attractive. Prices and description of products should also be clear to avoid confusion.

Not Mobile Friendly

As the use of smartphones becomes more widespread, people are going to access the internet more and more using these devices. If your website is not mobile friendly and slow to load, your customers might get impatient and visit your competitor’s website instead. Studies show that your website has to load in less than 5 seconds, or the customer leaves and goes somewhere else. Mobile ready websites are essentially pared-down versions of the original, which makes them load faster and fit in smaller screens.

Complicated Password Requirement

Most e-commerce sites require customers to register in order to facilitate the purchase process. Many customers are alright with this because having an account gives easier access. The problem is when you require your customers to give complicated passwords. Customers appreciate the security, but this is a double-edged sword. Your customers will forget passwords that are too complicated. One way to combat this is to use social media logins. This way, they have fewer passwords to remember and can share purchases on social media, which for you is a form of free advertising.

Poor Delivery Time and Options

One of the reasons why people shop online is the convenience. Free shipping is a good way to tempt customers, but studies show that fast delivery time outweighs it. Remember, online shopping is all about convenience.  A study from Dotcom Distribution states that 87% of online purchase decision is based on delivery time. Offer good and reliable delivery if you want to keep customers.

Inadequate Customer Service

Sometimes, the sale is not finished once the customer receives the item. There are instances where they will need additional information or assistance. Make sure you have live chat support, telephone support or even email. You might not need all of them but your customer might need 1 kind. Customers want a variety of choices for customer service. Remember that you want your customers to have a good experience when visiting your website because a bad experience could permanently turn them off.

Taking care of existing customers and attracting new ones is the very reason why businesses engage in marketing. Reinvigorate your marketing strategy by considering the tips stated above.