So you’ve decided to take the big leap into sharing your valuable thoughts on a platform visible to hundreds, thousands, or millions of people. You’ve been excited and nervous about your first blog post.
It’s been several hours or maybe a few days, but there have only been a few clicks. The people who are reading it seem to like it. They’re commenting as well, but why aren’t more people reading it? Isn’t the algorithm supposed to take care of that?
Unfortunately, the first lesson of creating content for an Internet audience is that the algorithm isn’t always your friend. The chances of a post blowing up and becoming viral – organically – are pretty slim.
This is why promotion is your best friend in content creation. Marketing yourself is key to your success as a blogger, and you’re going to need to learn how to promote a new blog. Luckily, you don’t have to search far and wide to gain this knowledge. We’re giving it to you right here!
Benefits of Promoting Blog Posts
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of HOW to promote blog posts, let’s understand why it’s important to promote them and what perks you might be able to get out of it.
1. Notoriety
As mentioned earlier, nobody who comes across your blog initially necessarily knows about it. They’re likely to have stumbled upon it. But wouldn’t you prefer that people read your blog posts because they are interested in your content and eager to read the valuable content you post?
2. Brand image
When you promote your blog, you control the narrative and effectively impact how people think of you or your blog. This is really important in this age of social media, where people can easily take over your narrative with a single wayward post.
Having a solid image allows you to attract the kind of audience that you want to attract rather than trolls looking to defame people.
3. Engagement
Engagement is key to your growth as a blogger. The more people engage with your posts, the more attention your posts will get. You will only get this engagement if people know that you’ve posted. No matter how good the posts are, they’re unlikely to receive much engagement if you don’t share them with people.
4. Building a network
The great thing about promotion is that when people learn about your blog, they might want to help you along your journey. You might find people who are willing to post your content on their blogs or want to contribute to your blog.
This way, you build a network of people who elevate your brand and help you build your blog. You might even be able to gain some tips from them on promoting your blog.
10 Ways to Promote Your Blog Posts
Now that you’ve received some insights into why it’s essential to promote your blog posts let’s talk about how to go about it.
1. Share your content on social media
Social media is now the holy grail of blog content promotion. Be it Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or any other social media platform, there isn’t a better and easier way to make yourself heard.
There are several opportunities that social media affords you to promote your blog. We list them below.
- Posts
The most obvious way to promote your blog is via posts on respective social media platforms. Most platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn allow you to post links directly. Other platforms such as Instagram don’t allow you to post links directly but worry not.
You can make a graphic representing your blog post or post a screenshot or snippet of your post on the social media platform. It would possibly generate more intrigue that way anyway.
- Stories
You can post stories on Instagram and Facebook and similar posts on Snapchat. The format of these posts can be screenshots or snippets, as suggested above. You can now also post links on your Instagram stories.
- Groups
Facebook allows the creation of groups where like-minded people can interact. These groups may be private or public. Look for groups that pertain to blogs or writing. Ensure that these groups don’t have too many members, making it difficult to receive any attention on your posts.
Alternatively, if you already have a reasonably-sized network, you could start your own group. Groups are great because people join them willingly and are likely to be interested in the posted content.
- Comments
This may not be a significant source of engagement, but you need to cover all bases to ensure that you’re gaining as much engagement and as many views/clicks as possible. Promotion via comments needs to be tasteful.
Find other posts that address something similar to your blog or find another blogger’s posts. You can then comment on them appreciatively, making the post owner aware of your existence.
- Direct messages
Direct messages (DMs) are an excellent way to approach people and make them aware of your blog personally. Don’t draft a generic message and broadcast it to many people.
People are more likely to engage with your message if they feel that you care that they checked it out. You can communicate this care by including their name in the message and something personal about how the blog might be relevant to their lives and interests.
2. Engage with other blogs
An overlooked means of blog promotion is other blogs. Look up other blogs similar to yours and in the same genre and comment on their posts. Let them know that you liked what they had to say or respectfully disagree with it.
But, invite them to check out your views on the topic. Not only will you possibly gain a new member in the person who wrote the post, but you may also gain clicks and views from other readers of the blog. You’re essentially piquing the attention of individuals who are already interested in the topic of your expertise.
3. Be a guest writer on other blogs
Once you start to build a network, you will find other bloggers and creators like yourself. It is essential to develop good relationships with them. As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together.
A very effective way to promote your blog is by being a guest writer on other blogs. Very simply put, this exposes your writing to a whole new audience. Depending on the audience of the person for whom you are guest writing, you could gain several new interested parties.
While it is important to emphasize your expertise while writing for other blogs, it is also helpful to explore your creativity. Don’t just stick to your genre or your comfort zone.
For example, maybe you write blog content related mainly to physical therapy and exercise, and someone comes along offering you a chance to write for their blog, which has more to do with nutrition. Don’t turn it down right away.
Think about whether you actually have something of value to offer in that space, and then decide. Doing this could open you up to new avenues and opportunities for promotion.
Although it is tremendously helpful to grow an audience in your preferred genre, it could be possible that even guest writing in your genre gives you exposure to individuals who are already part of your audience.
Nevertheless, whether or not you are sticking to your preferred genre, guest writing will undoubtedly be a fruitful endeavor. Maybe you can learn a thing or two about how to publicize your blog as well.
4. Email marketing campaigns
Email marketing is one of the must-haves in your promotion strategy. You may think that nobody is checking their emails in the age of social media, but that’s far from the truth.
You could take the help of a web designer to design a pop-up on your blog site that requests the email ID of visitors. You can inform them every time you put up a new post. If you aren’t keen on sending the emails out yourself, several tools such as Mailchimp can help automate the whole process so that you can focus more on your blog content.
Invite people to contribute to your blog
Just as it is helpful to be a guest writer on someone else’s blog, you could benefit from having other bloggers contribute to yours. The reason this is helpful as a promotion tactic is three-fold:
- Audience
When you invite them to contribute to your blog – although it’s your blog that they are writing for – it is still their work, and they’re going to want to share it as much as possible. They will also be sharing your blog with people and offering visibility to a new audience.
- Camaraderie
When you let someone else write on your blog, you essentially offer them your audience. This could certainly help you gain their favor and strengthen your relationship. With a stronger relationship, they likely want to share your work and your blog with a stronger relationship – even when they aren’t contributing to it.
- Fresh perspective
Having someone else write for your blog also offers fresh perspectives, topics, and blog content on your blog. This is always positive since it breaks any monotony that your audience may be experiencing. Even if you have the most eclectic sense of writing, we live in a world where people are easily bored. Therefore, it could come in handy to have a fresh voice on your blog.
6. Attend networking events
Networking is an essential part of learning how to promote blog posts. The more you expand your network, the more space you make for people to promote your blog content for you. You also open doors for more collaborations, which, as mentioned above, grows your audience exponentially.
Networking events can surely help you with this. It may not always be easy to find networking events for blogging per se, but you could keep your eyes peeled for workshops. You can attend these workshops to learn more about your trade, gather with like-minded people, and build relationships.
Apart from workshops, there are also conventions for creators to network with people from various creative fields. This can be hugely beneficial because there are several ways to collaborate with other creatives.
For example, as a blogger, you may not be reaching as many people as you would like. You can elevate your readership by adding captivating photographs to your blogs, for which you could team up with a photographer.
You could incorporate graphics with the help of a graphic designer. You could also collaborate with a videographer to help tell your story via video and reach audiences through that route. The opportunities are endless in terms of collaborations, and each collaborator opens up new avenues for viewership.
Although the pandemic has had devastating effects, one boon that has arisen is the idea that events don’t necessarily require physical presence. You can find workshops and conventions online and attend them from the convenience of your bedroom.
7. Connect with influencers
Speaking of building a network, nowadays, some of the most influential people globally are those who have a large social media following. Aptly named, these influencers can help give you an enormous audience. But, because of how influential they are, they probably have hundreds, if not thousands, of people messaging them and tagging them in posts every day. It’s no easy task reaching them. But, there are specific guidelines you could follow to help your chances of reaching them and getting them to promote your blog.
- Ensure that you have already built a large enough body of work before you contact them. You need to have blog content that will impact and assure them that your content is worth investing their time in.
- Your blog needs to align with their image. They aren’t going to help you promote content that they don’t believe in themselves. Make sure that it is relevant to their image —political, social, spiritual, or philosophical.
For example, if you write blog content about sustainable fashion choices and explicitly disregard fast fashion, it might be counterproductive to reach out to an influencer who models for a fast-fashion brand. You will have to research said influencer before reaching out to them.
- As we said, it’s unlikely that an influencer will find your message in the ocean of messages that they receive daily. Influencers often have a link or website where you can contact them for promos and advertisements.
This is your best shot at convincing them to help you out. Craft a short innovative message that encapsulates everything your brand and blog are about and make sure you send them a link to a piece that they would be likely to relate to.
8. Make use of SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) has taken the Internet by storm. Every business out there is trying to figure out how to capitalize on SEO functionality. Blogs are the perfect platform to make the most of SEO.
But, for it to be effective, you will have to do your research. SEO keyword research allows you to determine which words will help you get higher on search platform results. In a world where visibility is everything, SEO keywords offer you a chance to increase your visibility drastically.
The keywords are dependent on the post type, platform, and content. There are various algorithmic aspects to it. It’s certainly no walk in the park. This is why many businesses use SEMRush and Moz Keyword Research Tool to help them understand which keywords are best incorporated into their content.
9. Be active on Q&A websites.
Q&A websites such as Quora and Reddit are an underrated means of promotion and visibility. It’s a great way to interact with people interested in topics similar to your blog.
Go on to a Q&A website such as Quora and search for topics you cover in your blog. Let’s say you run an Anime blog where you discuss all the latest happenings in the Anime world or the Anime of your choice. Head over to Quora and type “Anime” into the search box. You will then be presented with many related questions and answers about the topic.
Here you can find a question that aligns with your expertise and answer it to your best capability. You can redirect readers to your blog by telling them that you speak more in detail about it at the end of the answer.
Since they are already invested in the fact that you are answering the question and see that you have some knowledge on the matter, they are more likely to take the bait. This way, you’ll get more clicks and engagement on your posts.
10. Paid ads
We understand that you may not be keen on paying for your promotions, but if you are willing to dig into your pocket a little bit, ads can be well worth your money. You do have to be careful while going down that road, though.
You need to research the demographics, web spaces, and geographies you want to cater to. Blindly running ads is unlikely to get you solid results. Go to websites such as Google Adsense, and gain some insights into the criteria based on which your posts are advertised.
Then you need to design a relevant ad in terms of the content so that it catches the eye of web surfers and compels them to view your website.
In Summary
There you have it – ten foolproof tips on how to promote blog posts. It may be a lot of work, and you may not succeed at first, but keep at it, and you will eventually get the results that your content deserves.
Key Takeaways
- Blog promotion is essential to growth.
- Benefits of blog promotion include:
- Notoriety
- Brand Image
- Engagement
- Network-building
- Content promotion tactics
- Use social media
- Engage with people on other blogs
- Be a guest writer
- Invite people to contribute to your blog
- Email marketing campaigns
- Attend networking events
- Connect with influencers
- Make use of SEO
- Engage on Q&A websites
- Paid Ads
- Social media promotion
- Posts
- Stories
- Groups
- Comments
- DMs
- Blog promotion is challenging but provides gratifying results.
FAQs
Promotion is necessary if you want to grow your blog and captivate larger audiences.
1. Advertising
2. Sales
3. Personal Selling
4. Publicity
There are three main promotional objectives: inform the market, increase the demand, and differentiate your product.
1. Visibility
2. Brand image
3. Greater engagement
4. Network-building
1. Share content on social media
2. Be a guest writer on other blogs
3. Email marketing
4. Make use of SEO keyword
5. Attend networking events
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