Let’s make a bet…Recently, you sat down and spent hours writing a new blog post. From planning to writing to sourcing visuals, you’ve spent a considerable amount of time. Fast forward, and it’s finally time to post! You get that surge of excitement when you click share, awaiting the world to see your new ideas. A few hours or maybe a few days have passed, and your page views are seriously disappointing. You start to fear the worst, “was my blog post a flop?”
Was our guess correct? Posting new blog content can be frustrating and disappointing, but it doesn’t have to be. Blog promotion comes in many forms, and today we’re talking about just that. We want to help you expand your audience and drive traffic to your brag-worthy blog.
Get comfortable because we’re about to do a deep dive on ten blog promotion techniques you can start implementing today.
Planning A Blog Promotion Strategy
Before we get into the blog promotion techniques, we need to make a game plan. Keep these tips in mind when creating an effective strategy to promote your blog.
Set Goals
First, let’s begin by setting some goals. What do you hope to gain from your blog posts? You’re probably going to want to start by increasing page views and traffic per channel. Then you could look at metrics like bounce rate and the average amount of time spent on the page.
It’s essential to set goals for yourself when promoting your blog posts. Make a list of short and long-term goals. Write them down and keep them in a place where you can easily reference them.
Find Strengths and Weaknesses
High-quality content goes to waste when hardly anyone sees it, and we understand your frustration. When creating your blog promotion strategies, be honest with yourself.
Think about how you’ve promoted your blog in the past. What works and what doesn’t? Perhaps you’ve been putting off on expanding your network and connecting with other creators in your niche. Now is the time to step out of your comfort zone and build a bigger social circle. We’ll go more into detail on why this is important later on.
On the flip side, don’t be afraid to acknowledge what you do well! If you’re a pro at Instagram and have a loyal following there, keep promoting your blog on your Instagram account. Your followers can be your advocates to help spread the word about your blog.
Be Patient and Flexible
If only every blog post could instantly go viral. We can dream, right? Unfortunately, the world of blogging, Google, and social media are constantly changing. Keep in mind that different platforms have a different shelf life for content. You could see old blog content regain traction after you’ve made a pin or YouTube video about it.
Today, blog promotion techniques are in constant flux, which is why it’s essential to remain patient and flexible.
Blog Promotion Techniques
Now that we’ve gone over the preplanning, let’s get into the blog promotion techniques you can use to effectively gain traffic for your blog.
1. Social Media
Promoting your blog on social media is key to driving traffic back to your latest blog post. After all the hard work you put into creating your new blog post, you’ll want to spend ample time promoting it once it goes live.
When you promote your blog on social media, you want to create a post that entices your audience to stop what they’re doing and divert their attention to your blog. It’s no easy feat!. Here are some tips to help you craft your posts:
- Entice your followers with an exciting one-liner to grab their attention. You don’t want to come off too sales-y from the start. You’ve got to warm up your audience first.
- Don’t be afraid to share your unique opinions (but proceed with caution). Polarizing captions can help increase engagement because they give your followers a chance to weigh in on the topic at hand. Avoid being too polarizing though or you could alienate your audience.
- Give your audience a small taste of the topics covered in your blog. You want to provide enough information to make them want more but not too much that you give everything away..
- Ask a question related to your blog content to increase engagement.
- Last but not least, include a call to action. Make sure you’re clear on where people can find your blog post. (Example: Read more in my new blog post! Link in bio).
For example, let’s say you sell cooking utensils and you have a blog where you share recipes that can be made with the utensils you sell. You recently posted a pizza recipe that you want to promote on your Instagram account. By following the tips above, your caption might look something like this:
“Did you know it’s National Pizza Day? 🍕(AKA the perfect day to try out a new pizza recipe!)
We’re firm believers that pineapple belongs on pizza and if you don’t agree, we can’t be friends 🤷♂️… just kidding!
But we’re not kidding when we say that we just posted the most drool-worthy Hawaiian pizza recipe you’ll ever try. We’re talking the classic pineapple, ham, and cheese with a few secret ingredients. 🤫
You’ll have to check out the recipe on our blog to get all the deets: www.kitchengadget.com/epic-hawaiian-pizza-recipe
What do you think about pineapple on pizza? Yay or nay? Battle it out in the comments below! 👇”
Now that you know HOW to write good blog promotion posts, here are the different ways you can promote your blog on social media.
Facebook Groups
Join Facebook groups within your niche! This can be a good way to share your blog posts with your ideal audience without having to build your own following However, Facebook groups typically have a set of rules their users must follow, so be sure to follow the guidelines to avoid getting banned or removed from the group.
Take this another step further and make your own Facebook group! This is an excellent opportunity to see who is your most loyal reader. Let’s go back to that example of selling cooking utensils. It would be a good idea to create a group where people can share their favourite recipes they’ve made with your utensils to create a more interactive experience with your followers.
Carousels
Instagram carousels are a great way to pack in a ton of information, so your caption doesn’t go on forever.
Perhaps your recent blog post is about things you wish you knew when you first started your business. In the carousel, you can dedicate different images to different lessons you’ve learned along the way. Then in the caption, tell your followers they can read more through your link in bio.
Canva has templates to make the process a breeze if graphic design isn’t your thing.
TikToks/Reels
Content creators currently swear by short-form videos to increase organic reach. We’ve recently started posting reels to our Instagram account and have seen exceptional organic growth! We’re talking over 10X more reach than our feed posts!
Think of ways your blog post can be repackaged into video form. For example, let’s say your blog post is called: “5 Kitchen Gadgets Everyone Should Own.” Your video could be as simple as pointing to text on the screen where you list the product names. Then in your caption, you can tell your followers they can learn more about it in your blog post.
Create Stories When You Publish A New Blog Post
Did you know? After seeing a story from a brand, 58% of Instagram users agree that they’re more interested in the brand. Now that you made an Instagram post about your new blog post, don’t forget to share it on your stories! This could be in the form of sharing your Instagram post to your Instagram stories or creating a story ad.
Pins
A Pinterest post has an average shelf life of four months. Compare that to a Facebook post that has a shelf life of roughly six hours; that’s a lot more time for new users to find your blog!
Any image you use from your blog post can quickly be posted as a pin on Pinterest. Link the pin to your blog as a simple way to gain organic traffic.
2. Forums
Your blog post might be answering questions many readers have been wondering. Promoting your blog on relevant forums like Reddit or Quora is an excellent opportunity to supplement organic traffic. If someone has a question on a topic you’ve already made a blog post about, don’t hesitate to answer them. Be sure to link your blog post to give them a more in-depth answer to their question.
A quick keyword search will help you find subreddits to join and interact with users. Many subreddits have a frequently asked questions section to help users navigate and find valuable information. Here’s your chance to promote your blog!
Quora
Quora is a platform for users to ask questions on almost any topic imaginable. Do you have any how-to content on your blog? Maybe you’ve written about tips on how to be successful in your niche. A Quora user might have already asked the question you have the answers to.
Imagine questions people might have about your niche. You can manually search in Quora. From there, answer their questions with your expert advice and be sure to leave a link to your blog so they can learn more.
3. Collaboration Opportunities
Collaborating with an influencer can be a powerful tool to add to your blog promotion strategy. Why? Because influencers have established a trusting relationship with their following. Their audience is more likely to take their recommendations seriously.
Who to Work With
Let’s say you’re about to launch a new product for your kitchen utensils business. First, you need to know who you want to work with. Do you want an influencer with over 100k followers to help you promote your blog? Or are you interested in a micro-influencer with a couple of thousand followers? Knowing your audience and gauging your budget will make this a seamless process.
When working with an influencer, you want to be compensating them appropriately. Micro-influencers may work independently and accept a product in exchange for content. An influencer with a large following will likely come with a significant pay expectation.
According to Shopify, businesses generate $5.20 for every $1 they spend on influencer marketing. With a high return on investment (ROI), it’s worth putting influencer marketing into your blog promotion budget.
Don’t just work with anyone. Make sure you reach out to those in your niche who have a legitimate following. You can find a common red flag by looking at the user’s follower count and engagement. If they have thousands of followers but little to no engagement, they have likely purchased bots. Spam comments on posts are another way to distinguish genuine interaction versus fake engagement.
Interview an Influencer
If you’re in a creative rut, this one is for you. Interview-style blog posts are a great way to create engaging and educational content that your readers will surely appreciate. Interview an influencer or expert within your field.
The rise of Zoom means you have plenty of opportunities to interview an influencer without physically meeting them.
Once you’ve published the interview, be sure to promote it on social media and tag the influencer. Hopefully, they will share your post, allowing your blog to gain exposure to their large and loyal audience.
4. Email Marketing
You want to encourage readers to keep your blog in the back of their minds. Email marketing is a fast and affordable way to keep your readers engaged.
Newsletter
Weekly or monthly newsletters are a great way to help your audience get caught up on what you’ve been talking about lately. At Konstruct, we use MailChimp to create and send newsletters that link to the recent content we’ve published. (While we’re on the topic, you should really subscribe to our newsletter to get updated when we post more great blog posts like this!)
Once you’ve created a template for your newsletter, here’s how you can easily format your newsletter to promote your recent content:
- Create an engaging newsletter title.
- Include a brief paragraph about what your audience should expect.
- List your most recent blog articles with links.
- Add links to your recent social media posts for some extra traffic to your platforms.
- Lastly, include any other updates or news about upcoming events or launches you have planned .
Email Campaigns
People on your email list have subscribed for a reason. They want to hear from you! While it’s great to show your audience your current work through newsletters, creating an email campaign is a great way to dive more traffic to your past blog content.
You can take old blog articles that performed well and repackage them into a visual like an infographic or a guide that includes links to multiple blog posts on a similar topic. Link back to your old blog posts to drive more traffic to your old posts.
5. Link Building
When credible sites link to your blog posts, your domain authority increases. In other words, your blog posts and other pages will have a higher chance of ranking on search engine results pages (SERP), and who doesn’t want to be the first to pop up in a Google search?
Link-building software like SEMrush can help you keep track of your link-building journey.
Email Template
Let’s talk about how to format your email to successfully grab the attention of whoever you’re reaching out to. You might reach out to fellow creators in your niche or an influencer you want to collaborate with.
A flooded inbox is stressful for anyone. You don’t want the person you’re emailing, to think you’re a bot. If they open an email with a bunch of links to your website, they probably won’t keep reading.
First, make it personal. Template generators can be helpful in the initial planning process to help you format the email, but you should avoid using them. A generic email will come off as spammy, and you’ll quickly lose your reader.
Start the email with a greeting but keep it short and professional. Let them know how you know them. Did you read an article they recently wrote? Maybe you’re a long-time YouTube subscriber.
Once you’ve established the why, add your call to action. Be clear on the primary purpose of the email.
If you’re writing to someone for the first time, you want to keep the stakes low. Asking them to give you a shoutout on their next article is a big ask. Instead, try a smaller ask like asking them to include a link to your blog post in one of their related blog posts and offer to do the same for them. From there, you can start to plan out a more long-term partnership. Remember that networking should benefit both parties.
Guest Post
Be our guest! Well, maybe not ours specifically, but reach out to other blogs to guest post on theirs. Guest posting and guest blogging are used interchangeably. Essentially, it is about writing content for other websites or blogs. Not only can your content reach new readers, but your blog will also have a chance to gain credibility if you’re able to link to posts on your website when writing on someone else’s
Depending on your area of expertise, you’ll want to find reputable guest blogging sites. Some sites you can use to begin your search for guest blogging opportunities include:
When searching for guest posting opportunities, plug in a keyword for your niche, plus “guest column,” “contribute,” “write for us,” or “guest blog.” You can also search for guest posting opportunities in Facebook groups or Reddit forums.
Why not reach out to your fellow blogger friends too? Ask to guest post or collaborate with them on their next blog post.
6. Networking
Now it’s time to expand your network. Networking is vital to creating a community and following.
Respond to Comments
With that said, it’s easy to see when someone isn’t being genuine. It can be annoying for your readers if you only ever ask them to subscribe and share.
So instead, interact with your readers! Answer their questions, and reply to every comment you receive. You want them to know you see and appreciate their comments.
Build Relationships
The people in your niche don’t have to be viewed as strictly your competitors. Is there room for collaboration? Follow relevant blogs within your niche and interact with them in the comments. Comment on their blog posts about how you learned something new. Genuine interactions could lead to future guest posts, and you could both exchange valuable information.
Be a Guest on Podcasts
Collaborate with other creators by being a guest on their podcast. This will give you a chance to promote your blog to a new audience who already has similar interests. For example, if we go back to our cooking utensils example, you might want to look for podcasts that discuss cooking tips. Maybe they would have you on their podcast to discuss how your kitchen tools can help home chefs save time and effort in their kitchens.
Be a Guest Speaker
Like being a guest on a podcast, see what events are coming up where you could be a guest speaker. Networking and being active on social media will increase your chances of finding opportunities to speak on your niche.
7. Paid Marketing
With over 1.88 billion active Facebook users each day, there are a lot of opportunities for your content to reach the right people. And, Facebook is just one of the many avenues you could choose for your paid marketing strategy. But how exactly does a paid marketing strategy work for blog promotion?
Essentially, organic reach has reached an all-time low (get it?). When you make a post to Instagram about how you’ve updated your blog, the people who see it will likely fall into one of three categories. Those being:
- Your followers
- Your follower’s followers, if they share your content
- Anyone following or checking out the hashtags you’ve used
With paid marketing like creating ads, you can target users who could be interested in your content or live in your area. Boosting your Facebook post about your new blog post can help you reach more people.
8. Push Notifications
You’ve spent all this time crafting a new blog post. Of course, you want your readers to see it right away. Now is the time to encourage your audience to set up push notifications.
Blog Notifications
A push notification offers a higher chance of visibility than email marketing. We know we’re all glued to our devices. When that notification bell rings, your reader will be the first to know about your blog update.
So how does it work? A small popup will appear, asking your visitors if they would like to permit your website to send them push notifications. By pressing the allow button, they have now allowed the site to give real-time updates that will appear when their web browser is open.
You can use software like PushEngage or OneSignal to enable push notifications on your blog.
When your audience turns your notifications on, you don’t have to do all the heavy lifting and instead save time and energy in promoting your blog post.
Social Media Notifications
As we mentioned earlier, social media posts are integral to your blog promotion strategy. Encourage your followers to turn on notifications on Instagram and Facebook. That way, when a new blog post goes live, you can share it to your social sites, and they’ll be notified right away.
Exit Popup
Did you know, the average time a user spends on a website’s written content is a mere 5.59 seconds? That means, if they don’t find what they’re looking for within that time frame, there’s a good chance they’ll exit your page. Of course, we don’t want that to happen. These users could be prospective customers for you.
To prevent users from clicking out, try using an exit popup. An exit popup will appear when a user is about to leave your page. Think of it as one last chance for them to remain on your page. The nice thing about exit popups is that you can customize them to suit your goals.
For example, you could prompt the user to enter their email to be a part of your mailing list. That way, they can be notified when your newest blog post goes live.
Keep Up With Your Analytics
How will you know your blog promotion techniques work if you don’t look at the numbers? Keep up with your analytics to see where you’re doing well and where you need to pivot.
Blog Analytics
Using Google Analytics, take note of which blog posts have done well. Is there a specific topic your readers are more responsive to? You might also see higher traffic during particular times of the year.
Open Google Analytics and find “Behaviour” in the navigation bar. Next, click on “Site Content,” then “All pages.” From there, you can view analytics for each blog post.
Page views will tell you the total number of times that blog post was viewed. Average time on page is another good metric to note because this will tell you whether people are reading your entire blog post.
Keep these metrics in mind when you incorporate new strategies to promote your blog.
Social Media Analytics
You should be looking at your analytics regularly for each social media platform. Because your focus is on blog promotion, pay special attention to the reach of your blog post promos. Are these social media posts gaining attention from new users?
Recap
Congratulations! You’ve made it to the end. That was a lot to take in, so let’s do a bit of a recap.
Before you start implementing your blog promotion techniques, plan, plan, plan! Set realistic goals, and know where you can improve.
We spent a lot of time going over the value of social media to promote your blog. Building a community with genuine and engaged readers takes time, but the result is worth it. Find your audience in Facebook groups or forums like Reddit. Post your blog content in different formats on social media, such as TikToks or Instagram carousels. Expand your social circle and reach out to influencers.
Don’t forget about face-to-face connections as well. Find opportunities to be a guest on a podcast or live event. Blogger outreach is key to building a solid network.
Finally, don’t let your readers miss out on your blog content. Encourage them to turn on your blog and social media notifications to stay in the loop. Having a successful email list will also help!
Setting Yourself Up For Success
Ready to roll up your sleeves and start implementing these blog promotion techniques on your own website? From creating high-quality content to guest posting on other blogs, a lot of work goes into promoting your blog. While consistency is key, don’t burn yourself out trying to implement every last tactic into your blog promotion strategy.
At Konstruct Digital, we can help get your blog posts in front of the eyes of your ideal audience so you can focus on your other business priorities! Contact us to see how we can help you grow your blog today.
