You’ve spent quality time writing your post, perfected your message and are ready to hear the praise come rushing in from your readers; but however original, insightful and valuable that content might be, unless your target audience sees, shares and reacts to it, your blog post will stay hidden from view among the other estimated 2 million blog posts posted each and every day.
To make the most of your blog posts, you should be spending 20% of your time on creation, and the other 80% on promotion. Don’t rely on ad hoc promotion, create a robust process for blog post promotion, and stick to the process every time you publish.
While this isn’t a comprehensive list, and there are many more areas to explore dependent on your content and your niche, here are 18 free foolproof tactics that will get you on the way to higher traffic and better conversion.
Get new blog posts found
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- Craft a great headline and be sure the content will add value for your audience. Optimise your blog for SEO and write your content to target your specific audience, what their needs are and how you are able to solve this need for them.
- Include social share buttons on your blog – if your blog is hosted on WordPress there are many different plugins that you can use for this, making sure that your content can be easily shared to the social media platforms where you want to be visible.
- Enable easier sharing to social media – breaking down your content at the point of writing and using ‘click to tweet’ boxes that will highlight key points you are making. Click to tweet boxes will enable users to share without having to think. Anything that makes sharing easier for your audience has a place in this list. Click To Tweet
- Vary your message when you share to social media – write ten different headlines or slightly different angles to make sure your message appeals to as wide a range of readers as possible. See which headline performs best. Add context to your links, preface the link with a little more information to encourage better sharing.
- Email each blog post out to your email list. Plan text messages can be as effective as more elaborately designed html messages, when the aim of the message is to foster relationship and encourage sharing. You will know your own list and what their needs are, so avoid spamming them.
- Include a link to your latest blog post on your email signature, to widen the audience for people you may interact with but who may not be aware of your latest posts.
- Timing – there are so many conflicting pieces of advice on the best times to promote yourself on social media, from the generic to the very specific. You may take general guidance on this, but you will need to experiment as to when your specific audience is most responsive to the type of content that you publish. Google Analytics and the major social platforms have a mine of information on this that you can tap in to that will help define the best schedule for you.
- Where to promote – you need to know where your audience hang out and where they are most likely to interact with you, and again this comes down to your audience profiling and trial and error. See which platform you are getting the most response from and put your efforts into making that one work. The following few tips cover the main social platforms and how you can get new blog posts found on each one.
- Facebook page & profile – Use a compelling headline and pin your post to the top of your page feed for better visibility. Consider sharing the post to your own profile if it’s something your friends & family might find of value or will share.
- Facebook groups – Don’t spam your own group, use the content as a prompt for engagement. In other groups, if someone is looking for information on your topic, share the post if that doesn’t break the group’s rules or use the content of the post as a response and an indication of your expertise and ability to help on the topic. Some groups have specific times or days where you can promote your latest content – make regular use of these opportunities
- Twitter – Use one of your compelling headlines and pin this to the top of your Twitter feed to catch the attention of users visiting your profile. Include an image with your tweet for better engagement, reply to any comments and thank people for sharing your content. Use a couple of relevant hashtags to extend visibility. On the day of publication, use different headlines and images and tweet your content three to four times.
- Instagram – as you can only place links in your bio in Instagram, create a new post then signpost availability of link in your profile. Use the keywords of your blog as hashtags to extend your audience. Reply to comments and keep any conversations going.
- LinkedIn – make sure that your personal profile is up-to-date and complete, grow your connections through on and off-line networking, join relevant groups where your can take part in discussions and drop in a blog post if relevant (without spamming). Share your content to your connections and tag four or five connections who may find the content particularly relevant. Turn your posts into a presentation and add to slideshare.
- Pinterest – create a board for your blog using the same keywords and name as your blog. Use a summary or quote from your post with a compelling image and link through to your latest post. If your Pinterest boards are organised around broad themes and your latest post falls into this theme, add a link to the blog post on these boards as well where there is a match. Repin other content and engage with other users to extend reach.
- Post frequency – to get maximum reach for your content, you will need to share it more than once. Content shelf life and tolerance of repetition varies from network to network. Having a set of varied headlines will capture the interest of different audiences and extend interest. You can post daily to Twitter the week it’s published, twice weekly for the month following; on Facebook publish weekly in the first month, then include in older blog post rotation as long as the content stays relevant; on LinkedIn publish twice in the first month, offer a condensed version of the blog post via LinkedIn Pulse then link through to your site.
- Link roundups – each industry or group of interest has its own link roundups where good content can be included for the benefit of a wider audience. Getting your content featured on an industry roundup can drive significant traffic, as can creating a roundup post featuring key influencers in your industry.
- Specific social content sites such as Quora, Bloglovin, Stumbleupon and Reddit can be successful in broadening your reach for some subjects and can help to drive more traffic directly to your post. Which ones will work for you is very much dependent on your subject matter.
- Build your relationships to build your audience – Over time there is a lot of work you can do so that you network with people who share your interests and will help extend your audience. You could feature other bloggers and ask them to share their expertise, mention people and ask their opinions when sharing your blog, share with people who are already sharing similar content, and reach out to influencers in your field.
This has been a condensed and generic list of tactics to get your blog posts found; driving more traffic to your site will become easier with a targeted strategy and approach based around the audience you are looking to reach and the actions you want your audience to take.
By targeting the tactics that will work for you and creating a robust process around blog post promotion you will be able to promote your content without getting overwhelmed or without spending too much time on it. Click To Tweet
If you are still daunted by the thought of consistently creating and promoting excellent content in support of your business, if you would like some help in ensuring all your blog posts get found by all the right people, help with content strategy, creation or promotion, then get in touch today via email info@marketingondemand.co.uk or phone 01491 614404, and we would be delighted to show you how we can help you.
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