Are you looking for a way to grow your business and get more blog followers? If so, you’re not alone. Business owners and marketers across all industries understand the importance of a strong content marketing strategy.
When your website is jam-packed with well-written, helpful blog posts, people are more likely to return for repeat visits. You may also be shocked to learn that 70% of consumers prefer to get to know companies through their content instead of promotions.
In other words, an effective content marketing strategy can help you build trust, keep visitors engaged, and secure more sales.
Today, we will show you several ways you can get more blog followers. The tips below have all worked for our brands, and with time and patience, these strategies can work for you.
Let’s dive in!
(Pssst. Do you still need help getting your new blog set up? We have you covered. Click here!)
1.Get to Know Your Audience Segments
The first thing we want to talk about is your audience segments. All businesses have diverse customers that all have different interests, pain points, and goals. The culmination of these traits adds up to unique customer personas.
Customer personas, simply put, are the different groups of customers that each business services. So, for instance, an online pet store would have personas for cat owners, dog owners, and people who are crazy about birds.
Because each group has unique interests, the content they want to see can be varied as well. As a result, you have to work hard to create content for your blog that touches on all of the common (and some uncommon) pain points in your industry.
How does this help you get more followers? Well, 47% of online shoppers like to read 3-5 blog posts from a company before becoming a customer. So if you don’t have blog posts that resonate with users, there’s a good chance they will quickly leave your site.
You can design customer personas by examining your Google Analytics data and customer feedback forms. Think about the specific needs of customers who purchase each of your products. Then, create content that matches what your audience wants to see, and you can bet that you’ll get more followers.
2.Optimize Your Blog for Searchability
Next, let’s talk about optimizing your blog for searchability. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the ranking of your site with popular search engines, most notably, Google.
If you want people to find your website, you need a blog that’s optimized for search. The best way to start this process is to use Google’s Keyword Planner to identify keywords in your industry with high search volume and low competition.
We suggest looking for plenty of long-tail keywords. Not only do these types of keywords make it easier to identify user intent, but it’s also an excellent way to reach more people who use voice search.
Once you’ve picked a handful of relevant words, start including them strategically throughout your content. Your title, headers, URL, and text body should all contain the keyword so Google crawlers can rank your website on the appropriate page.
Believe it or not, businesses that blog get 524% more pages indexed by Google, so this is one tip you can’t afford to miss.
3.Make it Easy to Connect
One of the biggest problems new website owners make is they don’t ask their blog visitors to subscribe to another marketing channel. If someone leaves your website without subscribing to your email list or enabling some form of notification, you’re missing out on a significant opportunity to bring more people back to your site.
Let’s look at push alerts as an example. In the United States, 15.95% of consumers agreed to receive push alerts to their devices when asked directly. You can use a tool like Push Engage to create segmented campaigns that send unique content and offers to each subscriber.
If used correctly, these types of notifications can help you drive more traffic to your website and drastically boost sales.
We also recommend creating an email signup form on your blog. You can incentivize users to sign up for a lead magnet, like an ebook or promotion. This technique will help you get more email subscribers and ensure that you have an audience ready to check out your latest blog post or flash sale.
4.Host Interactive Events
Interactive events are a powerful way to get more blog traffic. There are countless types of benefits you can participate in. We’ve found success with hosting online giveaways and private webinars for our subscribers.
At this point, it’s up to you to decide what kind of interactive event you use on your blog. If your goal is to bring in brand new people, you may want to consider hosting a giveaway with one of your popular products listed as the grand prize.
You can use your giveaway to dramatically grow your brand awareness and traffic. We suggest setting a rule on your giveaway that asks users to share your event for an additional chance to win.
If you want to gain your subscribers’ trust, you could host an educational webinar. Think back to the customer personas you created in step one. Find a common problem that a majority of your customers want to fix. Create an event and get people to start signing up a few weeks in advance.
There’s a good chance you could see a surge of blog followers leading up to the event and immediately after. Properly timed webinars throughout the year can ensure steady growth during peak periods.
5.Use Social Media to Reach More People
The last tip we want to talk about today is how you can use social media to get more blog followers. When you consider that 3.96 billion people use websites like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter to shop for products and engage with brands, it’s no surprise that this tip is on the list.
Social media is one of the best ways you can get more people back to your website. Much like our previous tip, there are plenty of exciting ways you can reach more people using your existing social profiles.
We like to spend our time engaging in industry-specific groups. There’s a good chance there are several relevant groups where you can find your target audience. Use this opportunity to get to know potential customers and offer resources through your blog content.
If you’ve done an excellent job researching your audience, you should have an easy time sharing highly relevant posts that catch peoples’ attention and bring them back to your blog.
The only reason I started blogging because it was fun and it was something I enjoyed doing. Perhaps you are also one of those budding bloggers who is blogging for the passion, or maybe you are trying your luck in the field of blogging to earn money or to make a name for yourself or your brand. Whatever your reason is for blogging, what’s important is how well you are doing.
If you are spending two hours a day on your blog and the results are not up to the mark, it’s time for you to re-think your strategy. If you are not motivated, then you should read this blogger motivation guide which will surely make you feel refreshed and will help you to get your blogging mojo back.
What is important when blogging is to always learn something new and share it with others for whom it is new information. This article will give practical insights and motivate you to leave your amateur seat and blog like a professional blogger. So let’s see what you can do to blog like a professional blogger!
One thing we should always keep in mind while doing anything is to make the most of it – do it to the best of our ability.
If you are just one out of millions of mediocre bloggers, it’s time for you to take action and move forward. In this post I’m sharing tips that I have learned in my 6-year blogging tenure and if you follow these tips, in next 30 days you will become a better blogger than you are today.
First, remember that people are unlikely to take advice from a non-confident person. If you are sharing information without confidence, nobody is going to believe it. Always remember that you can build credibility by not losing it.
Consider the qualities that give you trust in a person. When it comes to blogging, your physical presence is not a factor. It is your words that matter most. The question is – how can you become (and give the impression of) a confident blogger?
Your posts and writing style: Your ability to communicate in writing is the biggest factor at play as a blogger. When I am writing a blog post, I imagine that my reader is sitting on an empty chair in front of me, and we are having a conversation. If your blogging has a conversational tone, you are more likely to leave a footprint. Notice the number of times I use the word “you” in this article. That is because this article is for you and you only. It is written for just one person, and that is the person who is reading this article – you! Another way to improve your blogging style is by using “I” instead of “we.” Sometimes writers who continually use the word “we” are showing us that they avoid taking responsibility for their work. If it’s a one man show blog, why do you need to use “we”? Open these articles in a new tab: 10 tips to improve your writing skills and 11 effective tips to boost article writing skills.
Your blog design: I’m sure you must have been to a restaurant where your impression of the waiter was created by what he was wearing. I’m more likely to tip a waiter who is in a uniform than one who is not. When you are working online, it’s your design that is the suit, and you are the waiter. If your blog design is unpleasant and doesn’t leave a good impression, then you are not likely to get a tip, i.e., turning the one-time visitor into a subscriber. So get rid of all mumbo-jumbo from your blog, and have a neat and professional looking design that reflects your personality and that of your blog. Remember, your blog design is the first point of content, and a first impression lasts forever.
Come out of the closet: How many popular bloggers do you know of? If you know even two or three of them, ask yourself why and how do you know them? It’s because they didn’t hide in the closet like you are! All of these successful bloggers have given a face to their brand along with their name, and you can clearly see that on their blog. Isn’t it easier to connect to a person rather than a brand? It’s time for you to make some changes to your blog and to introduce us to the person behind that awesome blog!Add an author box, add few details about you in your blog’s “About” page, and add your profile to the blog’s sidebar. Add a quality photo and an intriguing bio. Tell us about yourself in a way that allows people to relate and connect with you.
Be honest, and don’t doubt yourself: “Honesty is the best policy” is a “life rule” that we all learned in kindergarten, but with time we all learn that it is not easy to live by that rule. How many times in a day do you lie about little things? When I asked myself this question, I realized that I sometimes lie unintentionally in small and seemingly inconsequential ways. We lie because we want other’s to be happy, or we don’t want to hurt them. But lying always has a consequence. For instance, when we lie to please people, we turn ourselves into people-pleasers. Take this as a challenge, and for the next seven days trying to be completely honest. Be honest in your offline and online life, and let me know how this changes your life. I started this as an experiment myself, and within seven days I started to feel the difference. I have now been doing this for a month, and apart from two or three instances when I lied, my life has improved significantly. As a bonus, being careful not to lie taught me how to say “no,” and my confidence level has gone up ever since. Once you do this, it will also have a positive impact on your writing and your online presence. I invite you to read, how being completely honest for seven days changed my life.
2. Become an Authority in your niche:
No matter how much you know about a subject, your opinion is not respected until you have established yourself as an authority, and your blog as an authoritative blog.
The question is- how can you become an authoritative blogger?
If you make the changes suggested above, (leading to your increased confidence), then you are more likely to become an authoritative blogger.
Now it’s time to leverage the power of social-media and establish yourself as an authoritative person in your niche. Let’s start by updating your social media profile details, thus improving your social-media presence. Ensure that your social media profile is like your resume and that it also reflects your personality. Use the same profile image everywhere (Twitter, Instagram Quora, Facebook, Google+, Gravatar, etc…) to stand out and make it easier for people to remember you.
Always share your opinion on the hot topics in your niche or trends around the globe. Your opinion may not be as valuable as that of an industry expert, but it will still be more valuable than the opinions of many people who follow you.
3. Put others before you:
One of the most common attributes of a successful person is that they give credit to people for their work. A superficial person will neither talk about the outstanding work that others have done nor share it with others. If you are one of those people who dislike to pay tribute to others for their work, you need to take a look at it and work to change it.
Honouring those who deserve it is another expression of self-confidence and a sign of professional respect.
4. Don’t just create quick connections – get into their inner circle:
You must have heard that networking is the key to success and that it’s important to build a powerful network of people around you. This is one of the most important things you can do in every aspect of your life, online or offline.
When networking, gaining respect and working to become a part of someone’s inner-circle makes a substantial difference in your connections. Some of you may have read a lot about successful people and you may even have some in your social media network, but you are not a part of their inner-circle.
You are just one among thousands of people they have “friended” on Facebook or have met at a blogging event. Your goal should be to establish yourself as part of their inner-circle and become an important connection in their arena. This will only happen when you put some time and energy into working on building a meaningful connection.
5. Smart work rather than hard work :
No matter what niche you are working in, smart work takes you forward. Hard work is important, but working smart is even more important.
If you spend two hours every day writing blog posts and not working to promote your work, you will be in the same situation a year or two later as you are today. Maybe your blog will grow to some extent and you may even get more traffic and earn a little more money, but you will be behind the crowd moving forward at a steady pace and you will never be everything you can be in this area.
There are people who have only recently started working online and are already making million of dollars because of their smart work and great ideas. Without a good idea, no amount of work will pay off optimally.
With regard to starting to work smart, I suggest that you start by choosing the right set of blogging tools, work on time-management to become more productive. Maintain a good balance between your social and personal life, because if you want to succeed, you have to be a happy person. That will only happen when you are satisfied with your life in 360* (in all aspects of your life).
6. Value your time and have a team
If you are a regular reader of ShoutMeLoud, I’m sure you must have heard me saying “Time is money”, and I will keep repeating it until you email me and tell me “Yes Harsh, I have learned that time is money!”.
You may have 30-40 great ideas, but implementing these ideas alone takes a lot of time and effort. If you have a team of people who work, you are more likely to turn your good ideas into reality.
You need to upgrade your role from blogger to infopreneur/solopreneur. This will only happen if you have a team and start delegating work to others.
If you are someone who lives in a remote place, all you need to do is create a virtual team of your own. You should check out these two articles from Srikanth, where he has shared everything you need to know about virtual assistance.
Perhaps the most important take-away from this article is this: Leave the conventional way of working, and work like an “Internetpreneur”. When you are working online you are limitless, and you can achieve anything you want.
In this article I have shared many important points which will help you to grow strong and achieve your dreams. Focus on the points which you believe will improve your blogging career and turn you into a successful professional blogger.
Feel free to let me know which of the above tips you will be working on, and how are you planning to start. If you need help with any of these points, feel free to ask me via the comments section below.
