{"id":30692,"date":"2013-04-25T09:00:41","date_gmt":"2013-04-25T13:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mixergy.com\/?p=30692"},"modified":"2016-06-25T06:19:24","modified_gmt":"2016-06-25T13:19:24","slug":"get-more-traffic-through-content-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixergy.com\/get-more-traffic-through-content-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"100,000 users in 9 months"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leo Widrich was batting zero.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d sent a pitch to TechCrunch, expecting coverage and a huge traffic spike in traffic. But \u201cthe email got no response,\u201d says Leo, co-founder of social media tool Buffer<\/a>. \u201cNot even, \u2018No.\u2019 Or, \u2018We don’t like this.\u2019 Just nothing…\u201d<\/p>\n

So he tried pitching smaller sites. \u201cAnd [none of the smaller sites] wanted to write about us either,\u201d says Leo, \u201c[not even the] sites that have probably only a couple hundred subscribers.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Leo decided to stop pitching and start writing. \u201cWe realized that if no one wants to write about us, at least we can start writing about ourselves,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

So Leo dove into content marketing, growing Buffer to 100,000 users in just nine months. Today Buffer has more than 600,000 users.<\/p>\n

In his Mixergy course<\/a>, Leo shows you how he did it. Here are three highlights from the course.<\/p>\n

1. Get Almost Famous<\/h2>\n

\"\"When Leo first pitched sites like TechCrunch and smaller blogs, he got no response. And he knew that offering to write guests posts for those sites wouldn\u2019t get him anywhere, either.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one knows me,\u201d he says. \u201cI don’t have any credibility. Who is going to let me write a blog post for their site?\u201d<\/p>\n

So how do you get your stuff posted on other sites?<\/p>\n

Find bloggers searching for guest posts<\/em><\/h3>\n

Use sites like My Blog Guest and BloggerLinkUp, which connect you with bloggers who want your guest posts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sites on there [aren\u2019t] big,\u201d says Leo, \u201cbut they’re going to get you started, they’re going to get you visibility, they’re going to bring you credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

And sometimes, you might get a lot<\/em> of visibility. One guest post Leo wrote for a small site \u201cgot measurable links and traffic back to Buffer,\u201d he says. \u201cThat was kind of the first stepping stone of a slightly more credible blog which we could leverage.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Do the Fuzzy Math<\/h2>\n

\"\"You write guest posts to get customers. But just because a site has a large audience doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019ll get a ton of sign-ups. Some sites will yield more revenue than others.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key lesson for us was dollar,\u201d says Leo. \u201cHow can you track it back all the way to money?\u201d<\/p>\n

So how do you calculate which sites are the most profitable for your guest posts?<\/p>\n

Know your metrics<\/em><\/h3>\n

Track your sign-ups, then use your conversion rate to figure out the value of the guest post.<\/p>\n

For instance, if Leo writes a guest post and gets 100 sign-ups, what does that mean for Buffer\u2019s bottom line?<\/p>\n

\u201c[Since we] have a 2% conversion from free to pay, that means we get two people paying,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat does two people paying mean? Well, we have a lifetime value per user of roughly $250. So that means every article I write equals $500.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Leo knows how much a guest post is worth on a particular site. \u201cThat was kind of a great realization for us,\u201d says Leo. \u201cWe were like, \u2018Well, if I can do another guest post, that means another 500 bucks in the bank account.’\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Don\u2019t Serve Just the Customer<\/h2>\n

\"\"Leo started out writing blog posts that would appeal to his customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuffer helps you with Twitter and LinkedIn and Facebook,\u201d says Leo. \u201cSo we naturally wrote [about] how to do well on Twitter, how to do well on LinkedIn, how to do well on Facebook.\u201d<\/p>\n

Makes sense, right?<\/p>\n

The problem is that customers aren\u2019t the ones who will send you the most traffic. Instead, you need to reach \u201ca large audience that could be inspired,\u201d he says, \u201cand goes away and maybe tells someone, ‘Hey, I read this great post on the Buffer blog.’ And that guy says, ‘Actually, that’s cool, and also Buffer looks cool. I might use that.’\u201d<\/p>\n

So how do you reach that audience?<\/p>\n

Write for the influencers<\/em><\/h3>\n

Write for the people who influence your potential customers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For instance, when Lifehacker blogged about Buffer, Buffer \u201cgot so much traffic, so many great sign-ups,\u201d says Leo. \u201cWe kind of concluded that the audience LifeHacker has is going to be the audience that will also find Buffer useful.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Leo decided to blog about business and life hacks. One blog post, The Science of Creativity: Why We Have Our Best Ideas in the Shower<\/em>, got 100,000 views.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not necessarily related to Buffer, right?\u201d says Leo. \u201cThe people who found this article interesting, they were in the right bucket for interacting with potential Buffer users [and] being potential Buffer users, but [they\u2019re not] people who are looking for Buffer right now,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Written by April Dykman. Production notes by Jeremy Weisz.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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