By Mark Schaefer
I just found this awesome blog on social media measurement. I went down the rabbit hole and read six posts in a row. It was so good that I wanted to subscribe to it but I could not figure out how to do it. There was no subscribe button anywhere on his site!
So … I left.
This dude is probably thinking, “I’ve been blogging for three years and nobody is subscribing. What am I doing wrong?” He’s killing his content marketing effort because he didn’t take 30 minutes to figure out how to add a subscribe button.
This seems so simple, so logical, and yet I see SO MANY blogs ignoring the basics of good blog management.
As I’ve written on {grow} many times and extensively in my book The Content Code
Here are five fundamental services you must have on your blog. If you don’t have these functions, stop. Don’t write another word until you fix your site. Call up your IT person, your WordPress guru, or figure it out yourself, but get these things up and running right now.
Subscribe Button
I think I’ve said enough about that, right? Help people show their love for you.
Social sharing buttons
I’m embarrassed to even put this in print but so many great sites don’t have a way to easily share to the social networks. Research shows you can increase shares of your content by 400% simply by adding these buttons.
Now, optimize the share buttons
When somebody tweets your post, the default tweet should include 1) the title of the post 2) the URL and 3) your Twitter handle. If it is missing one of these elements (and I see this a lot) you’re sub-optimizing your content efforts dramatically.
Who are you?
Many times I come to a blog and I don’t know who’s behind it. The beauty of our world today is that anyone has the power to make an impact, to create influence and an emotional connection with an audience. But who are you? Is your name on your blog? Your face? How are you using the area around the blog to tell people who you are and what you stand for?
What’s next?
If people find your blog, the ideal situation would be for them to stick around and learn more about you. After they finish the post, what’s next? Do you have other suggested articles for them to tread? Another piece of content to recommend? A special deal? You’ve accomplished something remarkable. You’ve brought a reader to your blog. How do you help them stick around (and hopefully subscribe?).
If you don’t have these five things on your site, you’re wasting a lot of effort. Implement these fundamentals to give yourself the very best chance at success!
Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling digital marketing books. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.
