What a wonderful world it’d be if we could put a blog online, write content for it and sit back to see how people start visiting one after the other! But you and I know that that’s a sci-fi scenario that nothing have to do with the daily hard-working of a blogger working for marketing. So, that brings up the question – how do you do to actually have people coming over to your site? How do you make your content reach your audience and go beyond?
As always, there aren’t magical solutions (and, in fact, we’re very far from magic here – only hard efforts will do!). After posting comes the really hard part: the promotion. Fortunately, there are certain guides and tips that have worked very well in the past and from which you can benefit. Here are 5 of the most useful ones.
1 – Social media… over and over again
You already know that social media is THE place to promote your blog posts (I’m assuming that you do and, if you don’t, please take note, let’s move on and don’t say a word about it). Now, most people believe that after uploading the article to the blog is time to post it on Facebook, Twitter and so on and then forget about it. Well, that’s ridiculous! You can use a blog post over and over for social networking, providing that you’re dealing with an evergreen content (AKA articles that are useful today and a year from now).
Of course, things aren’t that simple. It’s not a matter of posting the same thing time after time without a single change. You should find ways to promote it in different ways every time you post it. For instance, you can change the headline, use an excerpt, include a graphic or gif or quote. The key is to find new angles to promote it every time you post it. People have different ways of engage with contents, so you should try many of them to increase your article’s visitors.
2 – Email marketing – the method that keeps on giving
One of the first things you should include in your blog is a mailing list. With it, you’ll be giving the people that enjoy your articles the possibility to subscribe and get fresh new content right in their inboxes. That’s a major advantage! Be sure to make the most of it by writing enticing and eye-catching e-mails that encourage them to keep reading. Again, you can use excerpt, quotes, images and everything you think might work to achieve that.
Additionally, you can use the mailing list to rehash some old content. Just add a small section that works as a “From the archives” sort of thing to link to older content you find useful. That way, people that subscribe later on will have the possibility to discover things that they might have missed.
3 – Turn the content into something completely different
A while ago a worked for a software company that released infographic on a monthly basis. We thought that they were engaging and informative but their engagement always fell short of our expectations. Then is when we decided to try something different – use the infographic as a basis for something completely different. We started turning them into videos with effects, music and whatnot and found that people loved them.
What I’m suggesting is that your content shouldn’t stay in the same form it came to life. An article can become a video, a Vine, a gif, an HTML5 animation or whatever you can think of. I said it above and I’ll repeat it here – people engage with content in different ways, so you have to be sure your message reach them by any means necessary. Repurpose your content with this in mind and you’ll be all set.
4 – Use your content in your conversations
If you’re seeing that your social networks are working and that people are starting to comment, liking, tweeting and retweeting your posts, you’re in front of a massive opportunity. That’s especially true when people ask questions, since you can always refer them to content you’ve developed to answer them. Thus, you show your polite side and your value by answering them with useful information while you also drive visits to your blog.
Naturally, you can use your content in other conversations that don’t involve questions. Someone said they liked an article you just posted? Bam! Point them to similar articles they might enjoy, be it because the topic is similar or because they can use the information from both posts to understand something better. Don’t miss these opportunities, especially when they are scarce. They can increase your visibility and make you reach more people that can be turned into loyal readers.
5 – Get to the influencers
Your blog can get noticed through your promotion efforts but it will take a while. Want a shortcut? Make influencers like and share your content. If people popular on different social networks start sharing your stuff, more people will come. Of course, making those influencers like you is easier said than done. So, what can you do to make them want to share your content? Offer them something in return, feature their opinions on your blog posts or just write something amazing and then share it with them.
The “scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” strategy can seem weird and might feel uncomfortable for some people but it’s just a regular method used in marketing. Doing favors put you in a position to ask something in return. If you play your cards well, this can mean more exposure for your contents, your business and your products and services.
The important thing to remember here is that writing content and uploading it to a blog is just the first step of a long hard process that can reap lots of benefits over time. You just have to keep coming back to it and make it worth its while and you’ll see how visitors increase in numbers and you start establishing more fruitful connections.
