Blog advertising has proven to be very effective for many businesses for at least five major factors:
1. Direct focused traffic – Sponsoring reviews on blogs around the web that already receive traffic is a nearly instant way to gain positive exposure. Positive exposure pays off both directly as well as indirectly. For example, someone might see a positive product or service review on blog that they already trust and thus they will trust that product and/or service far more than if they would simply have seen a standard advertisement for that same product and/or service. Since sponsored blog posts will generally be in blogs that are related to the subject of the product or service being advertised, they should be able to attract a large number of potential converters. This is a very direct form of developing interest in focused traffic, but the indirect form is even more powerful…
2. Indirect focused traffic – While focused direct traffic is excellent, indirect traffic might be even much better. Thanks to social media, it’s possible for a reader to share something that they thought would be helpful with their friends and family members. Having a recommendation from a friend or family member that is backed up by a glowing evaluation on a sponsored blog post is nearly irresistible for most people. Believe about it this way: reading a glowing blog review might influence someone to convert, but reading a glowing blog review from a friend or family member that is also excited about the item is likely to not only produce multiple conversions but also to elicit further indirect spreading of extremely concentrated traffic.
3. Rankings – Well-written reviews with proper anchor text and other SEO elements should help a business promote its own site on search engines. There is nothing more effective in web marketing than ranking high for a certain set of keywords. As long as the links are passing what is currently referred to as ‘link juice’ to the site, sponsored blog posts are worth far more than just the total sum of the traffic that they are generating. In short, a good blog advertisement is both a way to generate traffic as well as a quality backlink investment.
4. Cost effective – Advertising in traditional media is still important, but consumers are increasingly less influenced by television and print advertisements. One possible explanation for this is that slick multi-million dollar advertising campaigns come off like, well, slick multi-million dollar advertising campaigns. Guerilla marketing has been around for ages and many of the same principles that work well in alternative marketing techniques form the basis for quality blog reviews.
5. Consumers take the first step – Nearly anyone who has studied marketing knows that conversion rates for cold calling and other such “blind” advertising techniques is very low, while conversion rates for commercial venues is much higher. One of the most common explanations for this particular fact is that consumers have a choice in the latter scenario, and the same is true for blog advertising; consumers feel that they made the choice to come to a blog and they made the conscious decision to read about a product. This actually develops in consumers a sense of responsibility that Dr. Cialdini of Arizona State University’s psychology department says commits them to further action. One action defines us and drives us to the next due a need to seem consistent with our previous actions. We choose to visit, we choose to read, then we probably choose to convert because we have invested in the process.
Kyle is META editor at blogadvertisingstore.com, of the many blog advertising networks out there.
Popularity: unranked [?]