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Starting a blog is a fun, exciting way to put yourself out there, grow a brand, and build a business. You get to choose what kind of content you want to put out there so your audience can find and enjoy your blog posts.
But having a successful blog takes more than creating and publishing posts. You could do all the outlining and researching in the world, but even the best content won’t perform well if no one knows about it. If you want people to actively engage with your blog, you need to promote it.
Why Promote Your Blog?
There are several reasons why promoting your blog is essential.
Grow Your Audience
There’s no point in having a blog if there’s no one to read it. If you’re going to maintain one, you must have an audience waiting to engage with your content. That way, you can continue providing value and racking up your readership. If you own an ecommerce store, a blog is sure to drive traffic to your products and services so you can grow your customer base as well.
Build Your Brand
Writing a blog allows you to express yourself and present your brand the way you want. You can incorporate personality and fun into your blog posts to show readers who you are and what kind of experience you want to provide them with. Building brand awareness includes telling people about your brand through your writing.
Cultivate Strong Relationships
When people learn from something you’ve written, it urges them to keep coming back as well as engage with you. Writing can spark emotion in your audience and push them to leave a comment on your post, which builds strong customer relationships. If you have products and services, showing your expertise builds credibility for your brand and boosts sales.
Drive Traffic to Your Site
If you’ve been trying to drive more traffic to your website, then creating a blog is a great way to do so. In the last year alone, 93 percent more blog owners used promotional tactics to drive traffic to their sites. When you incorporate SEO tactics into your writing by using target keywords, they’re likelier to appear in search results. This draws attention to your site and, therefore, increases traffic.
Now that we know why you need to promote your blog, here are five simple ways to get started.
Create Valuable Content
Before you can start promoting your blog, you need to focus on creating high-quality content for your audience. You could use the best and latest promotional tactics around, but if what you’re promoting isn’t valuable, then it isn’t of use to your readers.
To create quality blog posts, research your target audience. You can do this by creating buyer personas, or customer profiles, of your ideal readers. Who are you writing for? What problems do you want to help them solve?
Assess who you’re writing for and what they want to read from you so they keep coming back. If you have existing blog readers, ask them to fill out a questionnaire to get to know them better. Information such as their demographics, location, buying habits, and interests tell you how your blog can best serve them.
Use your website analytics to see where your readers are coming from and which posts they gravitate towards the most. This tells you what topics will improve your blog engagement and rack up readers.
When creating blog posts, remember to:
- Write at a beginner level. Avoid using big words and complex language, especially for how-to guides and tutorials.
- Use an easy-going, conversational tone that’s friendly to read.
- Break up text using headings, subheadings, and whitespace.
- Add visual content such as images, videos, and graphics.
Email Subscribers
For any blog owner, it’s important to focus on building an email list so you can keep track of your audience and send them updates. Your subscribers show dedication to your brand by willfully signing up to receive your content, so promoting through this marketing channel is highly effective.
Email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than social platforms, and it can do the same for your readers. But only by being consistent and sending them relevant content will you be able to promote your blog successfully and build brand recognition.
Send email updates to your subscribers when a new post goes live or you make any updates. Your emails should link directly to your blog posts to ensure users can navigate there easily.
Share Content on Social Media
Social platforms are some of the most active places on the internet. While people use them for entertainment and business, many also use them to stay connected to those they know, including brands. 87 percent of bloggers agree that social media boosts their content’s exposure.
Social media is a great place to build a loyal following and promote your content. Your followers already care about your brand which means they’re interested to know more. So, when you post social media updates linking to your blog posts, they’re likely to click through and engage.
You can also utilize forum platforms like Reddit or Quora to share your blog content. People ask questions seeking relevant, valuable information. Answering their questions and adding a link back to your site will increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your blog.
Use social networks as an opportunity to learn about your target audience and start a conversation. The more you know about them, the easier it will be to create content they’ll flock to so your blog outperforms its competitors.
Guest Post
Some bloggers might wonder how publishing posts on other people’s blogs can increase traffic to their own. However, many benefits come with guest posting for other brands.
When you first start a blog, it’s difficult to get your name out there organically. With so many blogs out there, you need to think more creatively about how to gain exposure with the right audience.
Guest posting positions you as a knowledgeable leader in your industry and cultivates credibility for your content marketing. And when you write for well-known brands and bloggers, it increases your influence and social proof even further.
Publishing posts on other blogs is also great for your SEO and brand awareness. Including backlinks from popular sites boosts your search engine rankings and drives traffic to your blog. The more backlinks you garner, the better your rankings will be.
It’s also helpful to build friendly relationships with other bloggers, especially those in your industry. They can give you valuable feedback and provide you with connections you otherwise wouldn’t have access to.
Link to Your Blog in Social Bios
With more than three billion users on social media worldwide, you need to grab your audience’s attention and keep it there. When a new user comes across your social media profile, they’re trying to understand you in as little time as possible. Something sparked their interest enough to click on your brand and check you out. So, you must provide them with the information they need to find your blog and engage with it.
In all your social profiles, add a link to your blog. The most popular platforms include:
Different networks have different linking guidelines. For example, on Instagram, you can only add a link to your profile but not to a post. Many people add a non-linkable call-to-action in their captions by telling users to click on the link in their bio.
Platforms like Twitter and Facebook are more lenient with their backlinks, so it’s easier to use them for direct linking. Always include a relevant caption along with your blog post links so users know what they can expect when they click through.
Your Turn
If you want your blog content to perform well among its competitors, you need to use solid promotional techniques to get it in front of the right audience. Utilizing different methods such as email, social media, and guest posting are great ways to drive traffic to your blog and grow your brand. How will you promote your blog this year?
