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A blog can be an extremely valuable tool for your business. Because you’re likely to dedicate a good amount of time to identifying and generating the best information to provide to your target audience, you will want to be sure your blog gets the traffic you desire.
As a content marketing tool, blogs help nurture existing relationships, reach new customers, and drive traffic to your website. And with the right promotional strategies, you can get the most out of your blog content and even potentially monetize your blog.
This article dives into what to consider to ensure you’re off to a great start. From there, you can apply the best tactics to promote your blog, doing so on the most appropriate online channels.
Before promoting your blog
Pre-planning will help keep you organized and make sure your content is ready for the world to see. Before promoting your blog, consider the following tasks:
- Conduct a technical website audit
- Do content research
- Work on content optimization
- Establish and build a loyal base of readers
- Test social media buttons
- Set up tracking tools like Google Analytics
Conduct a technical website audit
A glitchy, slow-to-load website is your ticket to a high bounce rate. This is when visitors visit your site and leave quickly due to slow loading times or difficulty navigating. You can avoid a frustrating experience for visitors with a dependable web hosting service. Many web hosts also provide plug-ins for faster loading speed.
Before inviting visitors to your well-developed and researched blog, do an audit of your site. Are all links working, including CTA and social media buttons?
Also make sure search engines are able to find and crawl your website to index it, allowing people to discover your blog. Use a plug-in like Yoast or SEOPress to do this.
Do content research
Know your industry and picture your ideal customer. Consider what interests or worries them and how you can provide solutions to help solve their problems. When you provide useful content to your target audience, you’re more likely to gain subscribers and leads.
Once you get an idea of who your customer is, consider your tone of voice. For instance, within a consulting or law niche you will probably want to be professional and serious, but in the subject area of graphic design you might be able to pull off a more playful tone.
Now that you know your customer and tone, research popular keywords that target your niche and audience. If you’re unsure where to begin with keyword research, there are tools made for this. For example, Moz Keyword Explorer, Semrush, and Google Trends round up popular search data from around the world.
From there, decide which type of content is best for your audience. This might be a case study, an infographic, a list, a video, or a how-to article.
Work on content optimization
Optimized content is searchable content that helps your business get discovered in the digital space. Both on- and off-page search engine optimization (SEO) strategies may result in better search engine results for your blog.
For the best results with on-page SEO, sprinkle high-ranking keywords throughout your blog content, making them fit in naturally. Place keywords in the page title, main heading, first paragraph, and within the subheadings. Include compressed images and add alt text for vision-impaired readers. Alt text, which is a readable text copy that appears if an image doesn’t load, also helps search engines index the images.
Off-page SEO happens outside of your webpage and can help improve brand authority and site ranking. Some tactics include link-building, having an active social media presence, guest posting, making appearances on podcasts or forums, and receiving reviews about your brand.
Establish and build a loyal base of readers
To get the greatest benefit from your blog, you need readers. But how do you get them?
Establishing and building a loyal base of readers happens in several ways, including through email subscribers, social media, and a CTA on your website. Curating an email list allows you to directly notify subscribers when you post new content and give your blog the attention it deserves. And with social media, sharing a link to specific blog content along with relevant hashtags and strategic tagging may boost engagement.
What if customers are already on your website? Include a link to your blog content if it’s relevant to what they’re already looking at. For example, if they’re buying a rug, you might include a link to a blog post about proper rug care. One best practice is to include a CTA button that allows readers to subscribe directly to your blog.
Test social media buttons
Include social sharing buttons, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, for visitors to click and share your content. Make a point to test these buttons beforehand, though, to make sure they work, connecting to the correct social network platform.
Awesome content deserves sharing, so make it easier for readers to share with working social media buttons.
Set up tracking tools like Google Analytics
Analytics tools measure how visitors interact with a website or blog. This lets you know what customers like or dislike, guiding adjustments to your content marketing strategy when necessary.
One way to do this is through Google Analytics, which allows you to measure several viewer activities, including:
- Organic search (in other words, unpaid search results)
- The number of direct visitors (those who type your blog’s URL into their search bar)
- The number of referrals (those who come from another website)
- Paid search (those who come from clicking on a paid ad)
- The number of visitors from your emails
Based on the parameters you set, you will be able to see how your blog is performing on a continuous basis.
Best tactics to promote your blog
With the right blog promotion strategy, you can nurture relationships and build your brand. Consider the following tips to help you promote your blog and increase traffic:
1. Repurpose your content
Save time and put a new spin on previously published content with repurposed content, which is done in several ways. For example, make an infographic, a video, or a podcast from older content or share quotes from your blog on social media.
One big benefit from this approach is that instead of coming up with content from scratch, you may save time, effort, and money by recycling older content. You can also add interest and appeal to a wider audience.
2. Invest in link building
Search engines reward link building, which is a valuable strategy for promoting blogs. Inbound links (also known as backlinks) often help boost traffic and build credibility with your target audience.
The main way to incorporate this tactic is by creating great content that inspires sharing. Make your blog easy to read and include helpful or newsworthy information readers will value.
Also think about including links to related topics of interest at the end of your blog. This gives readers easy access to more reading material on your site. You can identify your most popular blog posts and tweak the content to make a new post, adding a link from the original.
3. Promote on social media
Don’t underestimate the value of social media platforms to increase blog traffic. Share your new blog post on multiple social media sites. Use hashtags to label content and help the right people find it. Consider including an eye-catching image or video, especially on more visual platforms like Instagram. Images often are strong drivers to make social media users stop and read a post. Over time, you’ll get a feel for which social media channels are geared toward your niche so you can put your focus on those sites.
Include a link to your blog on all of your social media accounts. This simple step makes it easy for visitors to catch up on older posts and maybe even share content on their own social media profiles.
4. Invest in paid promotion
While we all like free stuff, there is something to be said for paid promotion. Paid ad spots may bring higher visibility and get your blog in front of more people.
One way to use paid advertising to promote your blog is to advertise on search engines like Google. These marketing techniques can also put your ad in front of viewers who have visited your site and may provide a gentle nudge for them to come back.
5. Take advantage of email marketing
This promotion tactic helps to build relationships and supply your blog with converted visitors. To get started, build an email list of leads, create catchy subject lines that hook the reader, and curate compelling email content that drives recipients to your blog.
Building an email list takes time; with a few tricks, you can get off to a good start. For example, add a subscribe button to your site, provide an opt-in for special discounts or deals, or have a sign-up form to join a loyalty program.
People generally love a good deal and often have no problem giving up an email address in exchange for freebies or a discount code.
6. Post articles frequently
It’s no good to show up once or twice, but disappear only to reappear out of the blue six months later. Stay relevant in your community with new content posts. By showing your audience your commitment to providing the most current information, you add value to your brand.
Use a content calendar to stay on top of posts. Include upcoming posts, status updates, and planned promotions. Design your own template or consider choosing from several online templates to help plan your frequency.
7. Reach out to influencers
Influencer marketing can supply credibility to your brand and provide numerous other benefits, such as increased leads and sales, a larger social media following, and more site traffic.
Before reaching out for a favor, though, try to build a relationship. One way to do this is by linking to an influencer’s social media or blog posts from your own blog.
An influencer partnership may help build your audience. Influencers promote brands in ways that connect personally with their followings. Like a friend, influencers share what works for them and how it could work for their followers, too.
8. Take part in guest blogging
Since you’re already blogging on your own website, why not lend your expertise as a guest blogger? A guest post is a great way to plug your brand and draw visitors to your blog.
Blogger outreach can help you get your brand in front of fresh eyes. It may take a few tries to get audience’s attention, but you will start to gain traction by crafting and posting your own high-quality content to show as an example of the value you bring.
This is one area where working with a freelance writer may bring valuable help. If you’re looking to create content that gets the attention of other bloggers, consider working with an expert blog writer via Upwork.
9. Network and comment on related blogs
It might sound obvious but networking and commenting on related blogs is a good way to help get your own blog out there. If you provide useful information to readers (and even to the blog’s owner), they’ll be more likely to check out your blog. The key is to make sure your information is relevant to the topic. Commenting with just a link to your blog often comes off as spammy.
10. Comment on Quora
Did you know Quora is a worthwhile channel to help drive visitors to your blog? Do a quick search on Quora and you’ll find a vast number of people with questions that need answers.
Find your niche and answer questions in the comments section. Make sure to provide genuine answers rather than spamming people with a link to your blog. In fact, consider including your blog URL only in your profile so readers are able to easily reference it if they find your information useful.
This practice helps to get your name out and it also allows you to discover industry trends. You are likely to find a practically unlimited supply of new topics for your own blog.
11. Improve your website’s performance
A piece of content is only as good as its website. If readers have a poor user experience while visiting your blog, they’ll probably leave and might not give your website a second chance the next time they come across your brand.
If you need a fast, reliable, and secure hosting site, WordPress is one great option—for both first-time and long-time bloggers. Using its onboard SEO tools, you can optimize your site for search engines and social media, analyze site performance, and identify weak areas, such as oversized images or broken links.
12. Participate in webinars
Webinars help in delivering content in new ways that may attract different groups of viewers. The fact is that reading articles and long blog posts isn’t for everyone.
Webinars are great for complex topics or special presentations. They can prove to be valuable for connecting with your audience and building your brand as a thought leader. If viewers find what you say useful, they’re likely to search for more information. This provides a great opportunity to link to your blog.
13. Participate in forums
For every passion, interest, or issue, you’re likely to find an online forum. Bring your expert advice and get your name out there at the same time. This is also a good place to link to your blog, especially if you’ve written about the topic before and think others would benefit from the information.
Some online forums used for asking questions include specific subreddits on Reddit and communities on Discord. With online forums like these, you have the opportunity to directly connect with people on a more personal level.
14. Organize events
Events can bring you outside the digital space and face-to-face with new leads and industry professionals.
For example, you might organize industry-related seminars or workshops, pop-up shops, or launch parties. Specialized events may help grow excitement for your brand and help you gain exposure to and readership of your blog.
15. Build your own group or network
Establish authority and build your own network. Participating in online communities, such as Facebook Groups, provides the opportunity to connect with your community and share valuable information.
When you build your own online community, take the opportunity to advertise your blog, especially if you want to go more in-depth about a topic but don’t want to lose readers’ attention with a long social media post.
Where to promote your content
Knowing where to promote your content will help you reach your target audience and increase leads. The main distribution platforms include:
Use email as a promotional tool to send thoughtfully created content directly to your customers’ inboxes. Remember to include a link to your latest blog post.
Email is a great opportunity to connect with industry experts and even attract guest writers. And as you gain readers, use the number of clicks on your blog link to determine audience interest. This will help you tailor content to what your readers (and potential customers) want to read.
Social media
You might be tempted to post all of your blog content on each social media channel, like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. However, each platform has its own audience and expectation for what they want to see.
For example, if you’re interested in targeting Facebook users, you might stick with sharing videos and curated content from your blog. Obviously, with Instagram, you’d post high-resolution photos and Stories linking back to your blog. And because LinkedIn is geared toward working professionals, you’d want to share blog content that’s related to careers, professional growth, and company news.
Website
With all the strategies you could use to promote your blog, don’t underestimate the value of your business website as a promotion tool. Dedicate a page link to your blog and direct visitors to visit with a CTA button. Use a subscription button so visitors can sign up for new blog post notifications.
It’s also a good idea to link your blog on all communication channels, such as your social media bio and email signature line. This provides a direct link to your work and gives your audience easy access to your blog.
