Two ways to encourage comments with a no-comment financial blog

Compliance worries make many advisors shy away from allowing comments on their blogs. If you’re in this camp, you can still encourage reader interaction.

Two techniques stand out for me: 1) polls or surveys and 2) calls to action.

1. Polls or surveys

Polls and surveys encourage readers to share their opinions with you. However, they don’t carry the same compliance risks as blog comments because readers’ answers aren’t open to public scrutiny.

Readers enjoy answering questions that are meaningful to them, especially if you promise to share the overall results on your blog. They’re most likely to answer when you also make it quick and easy for them to participate online.

There are free and inexpensive ways to run online polls. I’ve used SurveyMonkey and PollDaddy.

2. Calls to action

The call to action, often abbreviated CTA by marketing geeks, is a classic technique for engaging your readers. You ask your readers to take an action—for example, an online click, social media share, email, or phone call—that brings them into a closer relationship with you.

For example, let’s assume you wrote a blog post about four problems faced by forty-something women who are caring for children and parents. Your call to action could be “Call me for a free consultation if you face one of these problems” or “To receive a special in-depth report on solutions, click here.”

Other techniques?

Please comment if you’ve found another way to create more interaction with a no-comment blog.

Image courtesy of imagerymajestic / FreeDigitalPhotos.net