Check out this quick list of marketing tips for bloggers looking for a boost in their online traffic and brand awareness.
1. Social media marketing
By now, whether you’re new to the marketing world or not, I’m sure you could have guessed that social media marketing is a must! With multiple platforms to choose from (Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc.), finding the right blog promoting platform for your brand shouldn’t be too tough.
Start by conducting target market research to develop a better understanding of your audience demographics and what platforms they are likely to use.
You can push paid ads, but the real trick to growing your social media account is to do it organically. That means DON’T BUY FOLLOWERS! If you buy followers, your account won’t accumulate proper engagement, and you’ll be promoting your content to users that don’t care, wasting your time and money.
Here’s how to grow your social media organically:
- ENGAGE! Comment, like, follow other accounts that you’re actually interested in. Don’t spam accounts, but show interests, and they will most likely show it back. This should be done consistently throughout the week.
- Post consistently, whether that’s once a day or 4 times a week. Users like to follow accounts that are consistently putting out valuable content that they can rely on.
- Publish creative content, images, videos and avoid looking like spam or using stock images. It’s best if you create your own content rather than using others.
- Make it easy for followers to engage with giveaways, contests, Q&As, polls, etc. Ask for their participation! Contests and giveaways are a great way to encourage likes, comments, more followers, and tags to your account.
- Whatever you share or the content you create, make sure it is high quality and consistent with your brand. For example, if you’re a travel blogger, your posts should comprise images abroad, travel tips, product reviews for travelers, etc.
2. Creative lead magnets
What is a lead?
A lead is a contact that is interested in your blog or something you’re selling. Usually if they express interest, they will share their information for something in return ( more information or a demo).
But, if you are not using lead magnets, how can you collect this information?
Why bloggers should use lead magnets?
How you design your lead magnets depends on your blog’s objective? Do you want more views, subscriptions? Are you selling a product? First, you need to determine why you want leads and what you are selling.
Next, start incorporating lead magnets on your website. This might include:
- Pop-up forms
- Long forms
- Guides and ebooks
- Downloadable resources (in exchange for their data)
HubSpot is a popular platform for collecting lead data and creating pop-up forms and other magnets.
3. Market research – knowing your target market
You very well might make this the first on your to-do list for marketing. It all starts with apprehension for your audience and how to market to them. Start by answering the following questions:
- What is the average age of your audience?
- Careers? College students? Business? Entrepreneurs?
- Where do they hang out online (forums, social media, Facebook groups, etc.)?
- How much time do they spend online?
- Do they have time to read a lot of content, or are they looking for quick hacks and articles of 500 words or fewer?
- Who makes up your marketplace, and what are their challenges? What solutions are you offering them?
- Who are your competitors? Similar blogs out there?
- What’s trending in your industry?
Types of market research can include:
- Focus groups
- Surveys and polls
- Interviews
- Brand awareness research
- Understanding your buyer personas
Also Read: 7 Fundamentals Tips of Running a Successful Lifestyle Blog
4. See what’s working with tracking links
Tracking links are amazing for any content you put out on social media, guest posts, and affiliate programs. With the right reporting tool, you can view what links are bringing people back to your content and increasing traffic.
For example, you could write a guest post for another blog related to your industry. In that blog, you can include a backlink that is also a tracking link to one of your posts. For anyone that clicks on that link, your reports will show you that the visitor came from that guest post, how long they stayed on your page, etc. That way, you know if that guest post was an effective marketing tool or not.
5. Partnerships and influencers
Probably one of the most popular and effective for getting traffic back to your website or for a product are influencers! I’m sure you’ve heard of them. These are people that have a huge following online or through social media that post product reviews or links back to a website in exchange for payment or other perks.
If an influencer continues to work with a brand, they then become a brand ambassador, and their followers come to affiliate them with that brand.
These types of partnerships work best for product reviews. However, they can be included as part of a marketing strategy for bloggers.
Also Read: SWOT Analysis for Businesses: an Effective Strategic Tool
Here’s how bloggers can use influencers for marketing their content:
- They can link to your content from their own website or social media sites.
- They can talk about your advice on life stories and feeds. Encouraging others to read your content.
- Include tags to your social media accounts and blog in their posts to help you get more views and traffic.
- Because followers are loyal and trust that influencer, your brand also becomes more reputable in their eyes.
6. Create an identifiable brand
What is your blog all about? Are you writing just to write, or do you serve a purpose? Why are people coming to you, and what solutions are you solving?
Creating a brand and blog that is identifiable will make it easier for you to develop a strong target market rather than just broadly writing topics.
For example, if your blog is all about baking. This means most content comprises recipes, baking tips, images of foods, and personal creations. Because you identify as a “baking” brand, you can target people that are interested in learning more recipes or baking tips.
You want to hone in on your niche.
Is it healthy baking? Gluten-free treats? On the go meals for the family? What is your specialty? Determining this will enable you to create more specific and effective marketing campaigns with less competition.
7. Follow the trends (stay relevant)
As a content creator, it’s your job to stay relevant. This can take a lot of work and upkeep as new trends are popping up daily. The best way to stay relevant and write what the people want is to follow national news, follow your marketplace news, and sign up for email alerts with your keywords.
It’s important to know what people are searching for now so your articles and remain on top! Better yet, try to predict upcoming trends and become an expert on the subject ahead of its time.
Also Read: How to be Proactive at Work – 5 Actionable Tips
8. Review your SEO
SEO (search engine optimization) is crucial for the performance of your website and blog. SEO is too often overlooked by bloggers, specifically ones new to the tech world and online marketing. Typically, blogs with traffic issues or low results have outstanding content, but their SEO is lacking hard!
Common factors that can affect your SEO are:
- Being mobile-friendly
- Your site speed/load time
- Keyword optimization
- Optimizing your images and file sizes
- The quality of your content
- Digestible, easy-to-read content
- Outbound and backlinks
- Article lengths and readability
9. Produce guest content and backlinks
Bloggers often find extreme success in writing guest posts and receiving backlinks. Backlinking comprises writing guest posts and other content for brands and including a link back to your own content as a resource. Or if another brand includes a link back to your work that they think might help their audience, that is known as a backlink.
This tells search engines that your content is valuable because other people are linking back to it. The more backlinks you collect, the more valuable your content becomes, and the stronger your SEO gets! If you can build enough backlinks back to your blog, you can guarantee a greater discovery rate online.
10. Consider vlogging
And finally, I would consider starting a vlog or putting out videos to accompany your articles. Why? Consider this. Not everyone enjoys reading; some people would prefer to listen to a podcast or a video on a subject than stare at words on a page or screen. If you can pair your article with a video or podcast, you’re likely to increase your audience reach and retention online.
YouTube gains more than roughly 2 billion users a month. That’s 2 billion chances of someone discovering your channel and blog via YouTube. Something worth considering.
The number of ways to market your blog easily exceeds 10. But use this list as a starting point for increasing blog traffic and building effective marketing strategies for traffic growth.
