If your business has a blog with great content, you want people to see it! Blogging is an impactful way to connect with customers and drive traffic to your website. Having a blog can also help your brand be seen by loads of new and potential customers. On average, companies that blog receive 55% more website visitors than those that don’t. In fact, 70% of consumers today learn about a company through articles - not ads.
Maybe you already know blogging is worth the time and effort - but promoting your blog is just as, if not more, important than just having one. Promoting your blog in an effective and efficient way can help your brand grow and expand your audience.
1. Optimize Your Site
You have the ability to optimize your site and its content before you even publish your first blog article. Three effective ways you can optimize your blog.
- Incorporate relevant information into your meta descriptions. This includes keywords and phrases that will make your blog and its content easier to find via search engines. Your blog’s meta descriptions are also a chance to spike curiosity and bring readers in. After reading your meta description they shouldn’t be able to resist clicking on your site to learn more.
- Optimizing your site also pertains to making sure your URL and title directly relate to your blog and will be something your audience is searching for. Try to add keywords within your titles and use shorter URLs that stick to the point and include those same keywords.
- Aim to keep your titles within the 6-13 word range as that has been found to attract the highest and most consistent amount of traffic.
2. Do Your Research
This is pretty self-explanatory. Before you continue to create and promote content for your blog you have to ask yourself these questions:
- Am I writing the content my customers want to see?
- What questions is my audience asking?
- Do I know who my audience is?
All of these questions can be answered by knowing your buyer persona(s) and target audience. It’s also important to pay attention to the problems your buyers may be experiencing and write content that addresses those issues. When you are writing content, do a little research on trending or most relevant topics to your audience. When you do research, it’ll be easier to promote your blog in the long run because you’ll be able to easily incorporate trending keywords and topics into your content.
3. Stick to a Niche
When your blog sticks to a niche topic, it can be very beneficial. But how do you know what to choose? To find a clear idea of a topic or theme your blog can speak on, pay attention to common problems or questions within your industry. Once you find that niche area, then you can create 4 to 5 categories surrounding that to speak on. When your blog contains loads of content that isn’t relevant to your audience, it’s going to be very difficult to promote. The more relevant you are with your content the more likely you are to generate backlinks. Companies who blog get 97% more links to their websites.
And don’t forget to measure and track the performance of your topic and industry. Google Trends can be a great resource to utilize to see how interest in your niche may increase or decrease over time.
4. Make it Searchable
Making your blog searchable is one of the best ways to promote your content. If consumers have access and the ability to find your blog, they’ll be more likely to click on your link. 75% of consumers never go past the first page of search results. So, that means you need to make sure your blog is easily found. This brings us back to using relevant and trending keywords and phrases, bringing uscredibility.
Google is searching the web for sites that are credible and will be the most helpful to consumers and what they’re looking for. Your site is and can be exactly what they’re looking for! When other pages and sources link back to your website, the more credible you are in Google’s eyes. Make an effort to encourage your readers to share your content with others and on other platforms as well. This can help your blog get to that ideal spot, on the first page of search results.
5. Encourage Social Interaction
Social media is a fantastic way to promote your blog. Whether you’re sharing it on the team’s profiles or you encourage your readers to share on their accounts, it can be a great way to increase traffic to your blog. 59% of people will share a blog or article without even reading it first. If your blog is attractive and well laid out, oftentimes people will share your content without even really digging into it.
To maximize your potential to get your content shared, include accessible buttons and CTAs on the page where readers can share the content to any social platform. It’s also important to include icons of all your brand’s other social media profiles somewhere on your blog. This way, readers can get to know you and your brand a little better and it may even persuade them to share some of your content with their followers.
6. Email Marketing
Another great way to promote your blog is email marketing. Think of email marketing as a direct connection to your audience and fans. 37% of marketers said email is the most effective channel for customer loyalty and retention.
If you want to utilize this strategy properly there are two main things you need on your website blog:
- An easy place for readers to sign up for subscriptions and new article alerts. When a customer
signs up for your list, you now have a way to communicate with them and get opinions on the content you’re putting out. However, it’s not as easy as just having people sign up.
- The second thing you need within that form is an enticing incentive or reason they should sign up for your content. This could be as simple as a catchy tagline or ‘Gain first access to all our new articles when you sign up to our email subscription list!’ for example. This can help you generate leads for your brand as well.
Utilize these tips and help your blog to grow! You are putting out relevant and insightful content and the world deserves to see and know about it. When you put in time and effort to promote your blog effectively, you will see the benefits.
