6 Strategies to Help Your Fashion Blog Get Off the Ground

Fashion bloggers know that it is no longer enough to write a few blog posts about the latest style trends and share them on your personal social media accounts. To be successful in the online fashion world, you need to develop a plan of action and leverage tactics designed to skyrocket traffic to your blog.

These six strategies will help you capture readers and direct them to your blog in short order.
Develop a Content Plan and Stick to It

How many times have you seen a blog,regardless of industry, that experiences a surge of popularity and traffic only to suddenly disappear a short time later. These blogs did not have a content plan in place. Or, they didn’t stick to the plan they created.

If you want to maintain a steady stream of website traffic and blog growth, you need to have a content plan in place. Start by creating an editorial calendar with realistic deadlines. By sticking to your calendar, you’ll have an understanding of how much content you need to create for your fashion blog, and the time frame in which you have to do it.
Write Original Fashion Content

Most likely, your audience has seen the tutorials, read the advice of influencers, and browsed through endless boards of fashion trends on Pinterest. Now more than ever, audiences are looking for new and exciting content.

With this in mind, create original content. Easier said than done, right? You can trust the fashion writing professionals at ContentWriters, as well as start thinking of new topics you can write about. Or, you can develop forms of content rarely being used by your competitors, such as:

    Infographics
    Slideshow Presentations
    Videos
    Blogs
    How-To Tutorials

If you can produce innovative and authentic content for the fashion industry, and use it in conjunction with other traction strategies, you’ll have readers flocking to your website in no time.
Reach Out to Fashion Influencers

Have you ever heard of influencer marketing? By sending influencers your content or referencing them within your content, you have a greater chance of reaching more readers. If an influencer shares your content on his or her social media channels, you have now gotten your fashion blog in front of a much larger audience. Use these steps to reach out to influencers online.

    Identify key fashion influencers who typically post about a particular topic related to your content.
    Send these influencers a link to your content by way of a social media post, direct message, or email.
    Be sure to include why you think they’d like your content and why their network will as well.
    See what happens! But be careful not to become a nuisance when reaching out.

Make It Easy for Readers to Interact with Your Fashion Blog

When you want your fashion blog to take off, you need to help your readers help you! Making it simple for readers to comment, share, join in conversations, and subscribe to your newsletter needs to be at the forefront of your website functionality.

Imagine that a reader wants to voice his or her thoughts about the article just read on your blog, but there’s no way to do so on your website. That reader will quickly become fed up with the lack of interactivity and either leave or visit your competitor’s website!

Make sure your fashion blog has at least one or more of the following reader engagement capabilities:

    A social share bar or icons
    A comments section
    ‘Click to tweet’ opportunities
    Email or print options

Monitor Trends and Elaborate

When a popular celebrity displays a new fashion trend, the Internet goes crazy. Be alert and monitor the Internet for these new trends: they will present content opportunities for you to take advantage of on your fashion blog.

If a specific product or trend is popular, you can bet that shoppers are searching online for it — so you’ll want your fashion content to appear in the search results!

Your blog needs content in order to get off the ground. Trust ContentWriters to create phenomenal fashion content for your blogging efforts!

Comments on Your Beauty Blog

You’ve reviewed the latest products, provided expert tutorials on great topics, such as the best makeup techniques, and interviewed some of the industry’s hottest professionals. Yet, you still lack a steady stream of comments on your blog articles.

The comments section of a blog allows readers to voice their two cents and participate in current online conversations surrounding a specific topic. By allowing users to interact with your content in such a manner, you have the ability to improve your brand awareness and have an increased chance of a reader distributing your content online.

If you are tired of the lack of reader interaction on your beauty blog, use these tips from the blogging experts at ContentWriters to increase the number of comments.
Ask Readers to Leave a Comment

Sometimes readers just need a gentle push in the right direction.

At the end of your blog post, ask readers to leave a comment regarding their thoughts, opinions, and experiences related to the topic. Your request doesn’t have to be a long-winded paragraph. A simple sentence will do the trick.

For beauty writers who would rather take an indirect approach to asking readers to interact with your blog, you can ask a question. The question should allow readers to take a stance or share their opinion.

You might ask questions related to your next form of content or topic, such as:

    What product would you like us to review next?
    Which beauty professional would you like us to interview?
    What makeup trend or style is your favorite?
    Is there a hairstyle you wish would go away?

As long as your question provokes a response from your readers, you’re golden.
Interact with Reader Comments

The comments section of a beauty blog is not a one-way conversation. When your readers leave comments, you should respond. This action will show your readers that you value their feedback and thoughts, and will encourage your audience to regularly participate in the conversation you are creating.

New readers will notice how frequently you are responding to comments and feel comfortable joining in the conversation at any time.

By interacting with your beauty blog commenters, you can also monitor the conversation and keep it on topic.
Make it Easy for Readers to Submit Comments

Imagine reading an informative and exhilarating article about the future of the beauty industry. You notice a few points that could be expanded upon and rush to the comments section to add your thoughts. Unfortunately, the blog requires you to submit your name, phone number, email address, and other unnecessary information. Due to the complicated nature of the beauty blog, you move on, and continue surfing the Internet in search of more related content.

Your beauty blog must allow readers a simple way to submit comments. Try to avoid having users register an account or provide personal information in order to comment.

Many blog platforms allow you to set up comment sections where users can sign in with their Facebook accounts and join the conversation. You can also allow users to submit anonymous comments!
Write Controversial Beauty Topics

Due to the complex nature of the beauty industry, opinion topics will always start conversations. When you write about a specific controversial topic and take a stand, you are bound to have readers commenting with either their differing opinions or with statements in agreement with your stance.

Beauty blogs can create content about everything from why one brand is far superior to another, to the worst style trends of 2015! Be creative with your blog topics and watch the comments start pouring in.
Get Expert Content that Promotes Reader Interaction

Now that you have a steady stream of comments from readers of your beauty blog, you have to keep up with the multiple conversations and develop new and exciting content. Do you really have time for all of that? Our team of beauty industry writing professionals can write content for your blog that promotes reader interaction.

How to Diversify Your Content to Reach Millions More

When businesses start thinking about creating content, most are told to create a buyer persona and write everything for the ideal person.

In fact, your business may even have a Director of Audience on your Content Marketing Team, someone whose sole job is to create and understand your target audience.

But the problem with writing content to reach one person…it gets boring. Plus, consistently offering the same content could start to come off as spammy. And no one wants that.

While you still want to hone in on your target audience, diversifying your content can help you reach a much broader audience. Here are four ways to diversify your content to reach millions more of your ideal person.
4 Ways to Diversify Your Content

    Write different types of blog posts

Long-form informative posts are great for educating your audience, but there are many other types of blogs that can be used to attract new readers to your site. Even if you write about the same topics, new formats can get attention from people who may not necessarily like long-form posts.

For example, start experimenting with:

    Shorter posts. While Google does love longer posts, vary your lengths to test which word count does the best with readers.
    List posts. Consider creating top 10 or top 20 posts that list valuable resources or round up the best articles from around the web. These posts are pure value and can help many readers in your industry.
    Part image and part text, infographics mesh the best parts of both types of content to deliver data in a way everyone can appreciate.
    Case studies. Case studies offer real numbers and stats. They are a great way to give potential customers value information about what your products or services can do for them.

    Guest post on other industry sites

Writing posts for other blogs is one of the best ways to introduce your business to a whole new audience.

In fact, writing guest posts will help bring awareness to your brand and traffic to your website through other influencers and Google. And guest posting is something that can be done over and over again. Simply continue pitching ideas to new influencers and websites to continually increase your exposure.

    Create videos

With the popularity of apps like YouTube, Facebook Live, and Periscope, the audience for video has also increased dramatically.

Vast networks like YouTube give your video the power to reach billions of people across the world. In fact, video tends to get shared more than any other type of content. According to studies, 92% of mobile video consumers will share videos with their own networks.

Create videos, either live or prerecorded, and share them where your target audience is most likely to see them. Videos can be:

    Show them how to use your products.
    Informative. Think of video as an informative blog post with speaking instead or writing.
    Behind the scenes. People love a “backstage tour” of their favorite businesses.
    Question and answer. Take questions ahead of time or respond to them live. Either way, Q and A videos are great for helping people while showing your expertise.

    Start a podcast

Like video, podcasting is another outlet for building a new audience. And it’s a popular one. According to research, 21 percent of Americans aged 12 and up have listened to a podcast in the past month. Podcasts are a great blend of valuable content and entertainment that consumers can listen to while on the go.

Writing great, useful blog content is a great way to get traffic and show your expertise. But if you really want to reach a wider audience, it’s important to diversify your content. Experiment with different types of blog posts, write for other websites, and create both video and audio. Keep a variety of marketing outlets covered, and you can reach millions.

Turning Down Clients without Damaging Your Reputation

In the world of freelance writing, it can be tempting to take on every project opportunity you receive. But in reality, not all opportunities are ideal. Whether the client requests something outside your area of expertise or your workload is filled to the brim, sometimes accepting a project can lead to a bad situation. Sometimes, turning down clients can be your smartest option.

The manner in which you decline the opportunity or offer, however, is vital. Going about it the wrong way can negatively impact the brand you’ve built for yourself as a freelance writer. To keep your reputation intact and part ways with a potential or current client, use this advice.
Turning Down Clients the Wrong Way

Understanding how not to decline a client is just as important as knowing the right way to reject an offer. Avoid doing any of the following:

    Not responding to or ignoring a client inquiry.
    Abruptly leaving a client you have already started working for.
    Severing the client relationship without reason.
    Blaming the client or prospective client in any way.
    Writing your notice with a negative tone.

Any combination of these actions can lead to a sour relationship with a potential or current client. Should you decide to ignore an inquiry or abruptly stop a conversation, your reputation as a dedicated writer will be tarnished. Instead, follow these steps for properly turning down clients.
1. Explain Why You Cannot Accept the Project or Are Parting Ways

There are three common situations where turning down clients is the best option:

    The requested work/client does not fit with your workload or expertise at the moment.
    Something in your personal life has come up and you need to limit your workload.
    Your relationship with the client/project is not working out and it is best to part ways.

Regardless of why you must turn down or leave the client, you should always provide an explanation.

For the best results, make sure your explanation is concise, specific, and timely. For instance, should you receive an opportunity you cannot accept, your response should be:

“Hello [Name],

Thank you for contacting me regarding [opportunity]. At this moment I am unable to accept this project as [I am booked for the remainder of the month/It does not fall within my expertise/I am not accepting additional clients at this time].

I appreciate you taking the time to reach out and wish you the best of luck.”

Anything more becomes fluff and can muddle the message you are trying to communicate. Potential or current clients will appreciate your honesty and timeliness when providing an explanation.
2. Offer Advice or Direction

As a freelance writer, you likely have other connections in the writing world. If you personally cannot take on a project, direct the client to other writing professionals who may be available to work on it. This shows the prospective client that you are committed to helping them accomplish their goal, even if you cannot complete the work.

However, if the initial client inquiry raises a red flag in any way, it isn’t smart to send them to other freelancers. Instead, send them free resources that might help them complete their project. The last thing you want to do is send a potentially bad opportunity to one of your freelance writing connections!
3. Provide Ample Notice

If you are parting ways with a current client, it is common courtesy to provide ample notice of your departure. Along with your explanation, state what work you have already completed and what work you will finish before parting ways.

On the other hand, if you must part ways with the client immediately, inform them of what work has yet to be completed. Again, offering free resources that may help them accomplish the remainder of their project shows that you care about the well-being of the client.

Turning down clients isn’t always an easy decision. But for the benefit of all parties involved, it must be done. When you follow this advice, you’ll keep your hard-earned reputation as an expert freelance writer intact while parting ways with a potential or current client.

The Importance of Micro

Those in the content marketing industry understand the value of long-form content. Search engines and customers love in-depth content, making it an obvious choice for content marketers. While long-form content tends to rule the content marketing domain, the true MVP is micro-content.

BuzzSumo defines micro-content as “any type of public or published content delivered in a bite-sized quantity.” Anything from a social media post to a single email marketing message can be considered micro-content. It’s a vital way to capture the attention of an audience and bolster campaigns.
Attract Users

Our attention spans are decreasing, and it’s no wonder. An astronomic number of screens and content call for our attention daily. The average human attention span in 2000 was 12 seconds. Canadian researchers determined in 2015 that the average human attention span had fallen to eight seconds — less than that of a goldfish (nine seconds).

With this in mind, marketers need to create easily consumable content. Micro-content is often called “snack size” or “bite-size” content. These nuggets of information can quickly communicate a message without requiring extensive effort from the user.

Marketers use micro-content such as images, short videos, or snappy headlines to spark the curiosity of a user. This curiosity, in turn, drives traffic to your website or to a larger piece of content with a click. Although long-form content can attract a user, its length and depth tend to steer users away unless they are truly invested in the content/brand.

Long-form content is often used later in the sales funnel once the micro-content has gained notice and convinced the user to click, subscribe, or sign up.
Part of a Larger Goal

Often, micro-content is used as part of a larger content series. For instance, it could be a series of eye-catching, relevant images with a link directing users to the campaign website. Or a quick teaser video hints at the release of a new product to garner interest from your target audience.

Let’s say you’ve created an eBook for your brand. This eBook provides vital information about a topic aligned with your audience’s interests and your company’s offerings. You could promote the eBook as a standalone piece of content, but this tactic would only get you so far. You’ll eventually reach peak download level.

By leveraging micro-content, you can increase the chances of your content being seen by more individuals. To promote this hypothetical eBook using micro-content, consider creating the following:

    Social media images containing quick, shareable snippets from the eBook.
    A short video detailing how the eBook will benefit users.
    Infographics related to the eBook topic with fast, shareable facts.
    Standalone emails informing subscribers and audience members about the eBook.
    Personalized eBook download invitations to loyal customers.
    A series of short but valuable blog posts discussing topics that are similar topics that of the eBook.

When you use micro-content as part of a larger campaign or piece of content, you effectively improve your chances of meeting your marketing goals.
Micro-Content Requires Exceptional Creativity

Considering that micro-content has mere seconds to grab and maintain the attention of a potential user, exceptional creativity is required. From the copywriting to the execution, every aspect of it must speak to the audience and convince them to take the next step. Fail to do so and it’s just another piece of noise on the Internet.

To ensure that your creative is on point, use these quick tips:

    Use concise copy.
    Ensure all design elements are aligned with your audience’s preferences.
    If using interactive micro-content, make sure it functions properly before going live.
    Make your micro-content easy to share.

One of the most well-known examples of micro-content is Buzzfeed’s Tasty recipe and food videos. These quick yet drool-worthy food videos reel audiences in by the masses. These short pieces of content make audiences want to learn how they, too, can make these recipes, so they click over to Buzzfeed’s website for the answer.

As you can see, micro-content is the key to successful content marketing. While long-form content has its place in the content marketing kingdom, be sure to leverage micro-content to drive the best results.

Anne is a copywriter and digital marketing specialist currently residing in the Greater Nashville area. Originally from New England, she leverages her three top talents (writing, marketing, and coffee consuming) for businesses and brands of all sizes across the globe.Anne is a 2013 Marketing Communications/Advertising graduate from Western New England University in Springfield, MA. She credits her launch into writing to her legendary elementary school poem about pizza that wowed the judges and won the creative writing award in her school district.When not writing or working on marketing campaigns, you can find Anne at a coffee shop, exploring somewhere new, or training in martial arts as a 3rd degree black belt.

Using Beauty Influencers to Sell Your Products

The popularity of opinionated beauty influencers and the way they use blogs to reach their readers has forever changed how consumers shop for makeup and other beauty products.
Before buying anything, consumers will turn to social media, blogs or other informational sites to find out more about a product.
In fact, online beauty influencers have a tremendous impact on the products consumers buy. According to a research study, “nearly nine in 10 consumers (84%) make purchases after reading about a product or service on a blog.” And one in four people buy products each month solely based on blog content.
It makes sense. Who would you trust more? An influencer reviewing a product or the company who makes the product? The influencer of course!
For this reason, 2017 has been dubbed the year of influencer marketing, and using beauty influencers to promote and sell your products can amp up your business and your sales. Here’s what you should do.

#1 Define Your Beauty Influencers

Since individual influencers differ for every brand or product type, the first step is to define who you want to team up with.
By definition, influencers are, “those which have the most influence over potential buyers, and orientates marketing activity around these influencers.” A beauty influencer can be a blogger, journalist, celebrity, brand advocate, advisor, etc.
Ask yourself:

• Who are the most prominent influencers in my industry?
• How big is their reach? Look at both blog readers and social media followers.
• Does their typical content match your product?
• Do their followers take action?

To find specific beauty influencers, you can:

• Turn to Google
• Search social media
• Search hashtags

#2 Decide “What’s in it for Them?”

Once you have an idea of who your beauty influencers are going to be, decide how you are going to compensate them for promoting or selling your products.
Keep in mind, compensation doesn’t necessarily have to be financial. There are multiple ways you can pay back an influencer, such as:

• Free products. You can offer the influencer some of your products free of charge to test out or review.
• Social shares. If you are asking an influencer to simply mold your product to their followers, you can reciprocate by sharing the influencer’s website on your social media channels.
• Rather than paying an influencer to work with you, you can offer a commission or percentage of each sale they bring you. This is a great incentive for both you and the beauty influencer, since both of you are making money off the deal.
• Of course, you can pay an influencer to promote your products. This is commonly seen in the form of a sponsored blog post.

#3 Reach Out!

Now that you know who your industry influencers are and what you plan to offer them, it’s time to reach out. You can do this through social media, but the most direct way is with an email.
Emails should be friendly and short. Start by complementing the influencer by mentioning something you love about their brand. The complement is a great way to show the influencer that you know a little about them and you’re not simply spamming.
Make sure your email explains what you’d like from the influencer (whether it’s a promotion or adding your product to their online store) and what’s in it for them.
Prepare to answer questions regarding your product, your brand and even your own social media following.
In today’s online world, consumers no longer trust ads. Instead, they turn to online influencers to tell them what products they should use and what items to try. To really get your business visible and increase your sales online, turn to beauty influencers to help you promote and sell your products.

Marketing Meet Each Other Halfway

Sometimes it takes some troubleshooting to approach the right concept. Main Street Hub, founded by Stanford MBA candidates Andrew Allison and Matt Stuart, began as the seed of a great idea–a web-app meant to connect prospective customers to the profiles of small, locally owned businesses. However, after some time spent failing to move forward with their existing concept, the two decided they needed to change things up. While the existing app was perfectly fine from a design standpoint, it failed to acknowledge the very real issue of getting small business owners interested in managing their social media presence. After toying with the idea of simplifying the process for its users, Allison and Stuart stumbled on a realization–if business owners don’t want to manage their online presence, why not simply provide that service for them? Ultimately, Allison and Stuart settled on a new business model with a team of professionals managing all of the social media accounts for their clients, pairing a stellar content marketing approach–great for bringing new customers to small businesses–with an emphasis on CX, or customer experience–a key component in customer retention.
Main Street Hub is Getting the Word Out

Of course, there are ways in which Main Street Hub’s services extend beyond those of your standard issue “social media manager.” Main Street Hub uses its extensive resources to consistently engage with new customers by regularly updating social media profiles (No one likes a restaurant’s Facebook page without lots and lots of photos, after all). They also encourage others to get the word out by collecting testimonials and using posts that directly drive existing customers to share with others. One of the neat tricks in the company’s arsenal, however, is the ability to directly engage with possible customers through social media by using a unique technology that identifies tweets that are both relevant and close-in-proximity to a given business. An example taken from the Main Street Hub site shows one Twitter user tweeting about their hummus. In turn, the Twitter feed of a Mediterranean restaurant in the area (manned by Main Street Hub’s content marketing specialists) responds, touting their own hummus and thus making an unforgettable connection. The end result–a new customer, but a successful model comes down to more than the acquisition of new customers. Main Street Hub’s main strength is in keeping existing customers around.
Turning a Negative Into a Positive With Great CX

Let’s be honest: Social media’s tendency to place so much power in the hands of the consumer has been a double-edged sword. In many ways, services like Yelp have positively democratized the processes by which we choose restaurants, goods and services. However, these services have also provided a filterless pulpit for grudge-bearers to exercise their entitlement–it’s no bold claim to say that many Yelpers operate on a bias, and that the relative anonymity of being part of the internet commentariat can encourage some folks to be their worst selves. For every mom-and-pop taqueria or pizza joint that gets hoisted by great word of mouth, there’s some politically motivated insanity driving irrational hordes to leave one star reviews on the Yelp page of a generally beloved family restaurant. The whole pizzagate kerfuffle is maybe an extreme (though unfortunately increasingly not uncommon) example, but it also goes to show that Yelp can sometimes be an unexpected battleground for ideological warfare. For this reason, many people who run small businesses may loathe to even venture a look at their Yelp pages (and some who do let their own personal feelings get in the way of good business practices, lashing back and making the whole situation even worse).

This is all to say that cooler heads prevail, and that addressing social media accounts like Yelp should maybe be left to others who are not so personally attached to the business in question. Beyond simply managing these varying social media accounts, the community managers at Main Street Hub are in tune with how to make customers happy. That means Yelp reviews, whether positive or negative, are often responded to by an experienced team-member. Responding to negative reviews may not be the most intuitive step for some less-than-social-media-savvy business owners, but in reality it’s one of the absolute best ways to transform a negative online reputation. In a Wired profile, Stuart highlights one such instance: “We received a call from an auto repair shop owner who said that he was getting new customers as a result of a negative review on Yelp because of how Main Street Hub responded to it. His new customers were impressed by how much he cared about his customers’ experience and it shaped how we think about the opportunity for our customers in a response to a negative review.”

This kind of interpersonal company-customer interaction is commonplace in the start-up scene, and Main Street Hub can be seen as effectively bringing smart, tech-world CX practices to the sphere of small business. And responding to positive reviews can be valuable too. According to a Bain & Company study, 60-80% of “satisfied” customers don’t return to the business that satisfied them–and the cause for this is lack of personal connection. Main Street Hub engenders positive and personal customer-business connections through their response strategy no matter what they’re responding to.

If you want to refresh your content marketing strategy, or revitalize your social media presence, look no further than ContentWriters. Our team of expert writers and strategists have all the tools you need to boost your customer engagement.