Do you want more people to leave comments on your blog? If you produce quality content and don’t receive much feedback on your posts, the following might be some reasons why. But don’t worry, we’ve got tips to help make your blog more comment-friendly.
1) You’re not taking advantage of comment marketing
While it’s extremely important to engage with your own audience, you should also actively comment on authoritative blogs with relevant content. If you take the time to leave a thoughtful response on somebody else’s blog, odds are they will return the favor. As an added bonus, if your readers see respected bloggers commenting on your post, they will be more likely to do the same.
Not all comments hold the same value when it comes to comment marketing. Here are a couple of tips to keep in mind when engaging on other’s posts.
- Provide some sort of valuable input
- Pay attention to grammar and format
- Make sure it’s on-topic
- Always treat the author and other commenters with respect
- Be transparent and don’t try to hide your intentions
2) You don’t end your posts with an unanswered question
Closing out your posts with open-ended questions is a proven way to spur discussion and encourage comments. You want your audience to think, but not too hard. We all have short attention spans and ending with something too broad like “What did I miss?” is asking too much of your readers. Instead, ask them something more specific like “what’s your biggest complaint about such and such?” or “what such and such trend do you think is here to stay?”
3) You’re not taking advantage of video
You already know video is huge, but did you know that 75% of executives told Forbes that they watch work-related videos online and that 65% visit the marketer’s site after watching the video? Simply embedding relevant videos into your blog can significantly decrease the bounce rate and help with your SEO efforts. As a general rule of thumb, the shorter the video the better it will hold the viewer’s attention. Make sure your content is relevant and to the point.
Don’t just stop at video. Ideally, you should be combining different kinds of media in each post. Using relevant photos as well as tangible charts and graphs will do wonders in keeping your audience engaged. Content is king and you need to do everything you can to set yourself apart from the pack.
