Users of the web are familiar with comment boxes. They're almost everywhere, from social media networks to blogs. But as for comment marketing, it isn't as popular as it was before, as people can create and share almost anything using their social media accounts, anywhere and anytime.
So in terms of the digital world, the trend has shifted.
This change can be highlighted as there aren't as many blogs and communities that have audience that actively engage with comments. But when they do, they usually provide high level of participation. While comment boxes aren't as crowded as before, the high engagement is still making commenting on articles a simple and easy way to get traffic.
What this means, comment marketing isn't dead, and has not lost any of its influence. It's just there waiting for you to type something.
To take advantage of comment marketing, you need to create great comments with a great strategy built around them.
As a result, that page should generate you some additional amount of traffic. This will indirectly increase your exposure, as well as exposing your own article to more people. Those people may check out your social media accounts and even follow or like your profile. As people starts recognizing you, they'll know that you're standing for a brand and you have to come from somewhere.
This positive association will generate you a value, and a better chance of future engagement. It will also benefit you as you can convert them to leads or even sales.
Making Your Comments Look Great
In general, all of your comments should be great. Otherwise, other people won't see them as beneficial, increasing your bounce rate and worsen your brand and website's image. But if you really want to show and give some greatness into your comment, you should make sure that your comments do the following:
Have the same topic
An article should explain something. So comments on them that go off-topic won't necessarily be useful although they're interesting. So make sure that you can earn respect by providing information related to the article written on that page.
Able to show respect
When you're on someone else's territory, you need to show some respect to anyone present there. The same goes to comments. Besides a respect to the author, you need to also respect other people that have posted comments and any future wandering visitors.
You can disagree about anything related to the article written on the page. But you need to make sure that you can provide a backup to your opinion. Show that you have some great points and debate the fact if you can. Sometimes, disagreement in comment boxes can actually add a lot of value to both the article and your comment.
Be unique
Through your comment, you need to say something that hasn't been said by anyone else there. This is where you make sure that you can make your comment instantly recognizable.
You can add your own knowledge, common sense, examples, news, facts or any other data to support your comment. If your opinion is yours and can't be found anywhere else on the web, it's a truly original piece. This makes your content unique and valuable. And at the same time, if you can deliver your opinion in a correct way, your comment can highlight your intelligence and knowledge on the subject.
Professionally and well-written
This includes how you represent yourself on the comment. From the way your write to your grammar, spelling and language.
Use spacing and paragraphs whenever needed, bullet points if needed and available, as well as other markup to effectively highlight you thoughts. Never let your long comment crammed up into one paragraph because it won't make it professional or easy to read.
Transparent
Being transparent means to not hide any intentions. Most people that commented on an article are either doing marketing strategy or just pure spam. A good comment is a comment that shows who you are and everything you have in mind in commenting in the first place.
To be transparent, you can show your intentions and motivations. Or you may include your association or what you're doing. This way, you can get others' respect.
Creating Your Own Comment Marketing Strategy
After your comments have been said and written, you need something to put everything together in order to analyze the benefits. So there should be a strategy, not anymore tactical.
- Have goals: Know what you want to achieve and focus your efforts.
- Create measurements: Have analytics tool to know whether or not the article's website refers traffic to you.
- Identify and understand: Different people respond differently. Know who you're engaging with and know how to engage them best.
- Research: Browse at the site's pages and see what people are liking the most.
- Get notified: Subscribe to the website's updates via email or use its RSS.
- Amplify reach: Create comments and help the article to spread. This will benefit you and the website/author.