There are two types of reflective writing. Traditional composition theory teaches us that reflective writing is the style used when recalling real or imaginary events and sharing insights or lessons learned from those events. You use an imaginary event when writing metaphorically or allegorically, or to protect innocent people from derision or investigation. This kind of reflective writing is very common on journalistic Websites, especially those which feature a lot of op-ed articles.
In Web marketing the reflective writer’s goal is to attract attention to one Website and use that to build interest in another Website. Unlike doorway pages, the reflective article does not simply pass traffic through to another destination. The visitor’s journey can end right there at the reflective article.
Reflective Marketing leverages the strength of one medium (such as a Website, for example) to promote interest and traffic to another medium (such as a mobile app, another Website, a video, etc.).
If you are specifically interested in developing a reflective blog then you have to produce content that generates or stimulates legitimate interest in both the blog itself and whatever else is being promoted. Some people would mistake this for content marketing but real content marketing goes well beyond simple reflective marketing. The content marketer’s goal is to create demand for a product or service. The reflective marketer’s goal is to channel existing demand for a product or service toward a specific product or service.
In other words, the content marketer should be building new audience or market depth; the reflective marketer is just trying to shave off existing audience or market share.
A Reflective Marketing Blog serves as a useful platform for experimentation when you feel constrained by your primary Website. For example, if you are operating a retail business and you want to bring more new customers to your Website, you can develop a reflective marketing blog by creating content about your company, about the needs that your products fulfill, and about the clients you serve. This content may address questions or problems your (potential) clients need to resolve.
Another approach would be to create interesting content that showcases your innovation and resourcefulness. Showcase blogs attract attention by doing something catchy, unique, and different enough that they attract random links and referrals. A good showcase blog can double as a reflective blog (attracting attention from people already looking for your kind of products) or as a content marketing blog (attracting attention from people who did not know your kind of business exists).
Reflective Blogs Can Be Used in Two Ways: You can embed links pointing to your products and services or you can embed direct calls to action. Technically, you could do both. The danger of using a reflective marketing blog for link building is that you will do it wrong and incur a penalty, at the very least depriving your blog of the ability to pass value and at worst sending your money site tumbling out of the competitive results zone.
At least if you embed a call to action in your copy you are still making your reflective copy someone productive, but you may feel uncomfortable with the whole concept. We encourage our clients to experiment in a fearless but responsible fashion because experimentation is really the only way to learn what will work best for your Websites.
Calls to Action May be Subtle or Direct: If you like the way Reflective Dynamics thinks, then click on the blue button now and contact us. We’ll set up a consulting contract with you. That’s a pretty simple, straight-forward call to action, is it not? (I’m serious, by the way — if you want to learn how to develop reflective marketing because “your site can’t earn links” we’re the guys to help you.)
Reflective Marketing Does Not Violate Search Engine Guidelines because it is designed to work over the long term. We want our reflective content to be useful and productive for years, not weeks. You can use a reflective blog to attract links but that is, in our opinion, a pretty weak use for it. In fact, our best performing reflective Websites serve in multiple capacities: they attract links, they drive traffic to other Websites, they provide occasional conservative linkage to other sites, and they carry advertising or lead gen forms. You can do anything with a reflective blog that you want.
You develop content that is interesting and useful. Most importantly, the reflective blog has to say something unique. That is, the content looks best on the reflective blog itself. The blog serves a multidimensional purpose. It doesn’t exist just to serve your needs, it also exists to serve other people’s needs.
Reflective Marketing may use branding strategies to build up visibility and consumer loyalty to the reflective site. In fact, we encourage the development of such brand recognition not because “it helps with SEO” but because loyal brand consumers will support you. You always want good referrals for your business. Don’t walk away from a long-term strategy just because it takes work, time, and commitment.
A good reflective blog promotes thoughtful reactions because those reactions, whether in the form of rebuttal blog posts or social media mentions, or commentary embedded on the blog itself, serve as a pressure gauge to help you monitor the effectiveness of your message. Your early attempts to build engagement will fail. Make no doubt of that. It’s a rare first piece of content that takes off like a rocket.
The secret to writing good reflective content is to change tactics at the right time. In the early days and months of blogging you want to stay the course. Write passionately and believe in what you write even if no one leaves a comment, you see no social media mentions, and no one rebuts you elsewhere. Even the most experienced writers have to “find their voice” with a new Website. I have been writing for over 30 years. I still have to experiment and practice with every new blog I launch.
That is because you want the blog to be distinctive, to have its own voice. If it were as simple as just doing what you normally do on every Website then you would only need one Website. When you make the decision to take up reflective writing you’re reaching out with new goals, new ideas, and newly born passion. People should know it’s you but they should be surprised to see that you can say something different.
Reflective writing for marketing is first and foremost thoughtful and articulate. You don’t just hire a $5 freelancer to put together 800 words about TOPIC X. Some people build successful affiliate sites doing that but they’re not creating reflective blogs. The reflective blog is not an affiliate site, even if it contain affiliate links and is peppered with calls to action. When you make the CTAs the primary focus of the blog it’s not a reflective blog.
To be reflective the Website must receive value from elsewhere, of which it may confer some (if not all) to another Website. The value reflects off the site onto the other site. This is not a bounce, it’s a transfusion of interest, value, and hopefully loyalty. Some people use reflective sites to prequalify leads. In fact, lead generation is often very similar to reflective marketing because even though the lead gen form is on your Website the actual conversion takes place either offline or through another Website. That is a transfusion of value.
There is no secret formula for creating reflective content. Any formulaic content you devise may work for one or a few sites but it won’t work for many because people will easily see through the repetition. If you’re thinking that you need to build a large network of reflective blogs to drive traffic to your site, you’re thinking about this the wrong way. “If one is good for me then 100 will be better” does not work in reflective marketing because you really do have to invest a lot of time and resources into making each reflective site a worthy resource that deserves a lot of traffic.
Build It and They Will Come always works in reflective marketing because you are building something new, something different. The formula for success is to avoid dependency upon formulas for success. If you want to make things easy and simple to replicate then reflective marketing is not for you. You’re not ready for long-term growth until you can step out of the narrow valley of “repeat repeat repeat”. Reflective marketing allows you to walk on both sides of the line separating your business from its customers. You don’t have to think as a retailer. In fact, you don’t want to think as a retailer. In reflective marketing you make yourself into a key influencer in a transparent, honest, consumer-friendly way.
Think of your reflective blog as your best salesperson, the one sales agent who knows how to engage and work with interested prospects, getting them to open up and share their pain, their needs. The reflective blog finds the pain and offers a solution for dealing with that pain. That is what reflective writing is really all about.
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Hey,friend
I read your two or three blog post .It’s great effort by you but you know what try to include images wherever it required.So that it looks more interesting to read.Nice efforts I am going to bookmark this blog.
Thanks–some of the earlier posts on the blog don’t include images, but the more recent ones have plenty of images. You’re right–people like the extra images.