What is the best way to gain a blog following without being gimmicky?
Do you struggle with getting traffic to your blog? Do you feel like most of the marketing strategies you hear about are just fluff or some kind of gimmick? Are you wondering how to gain a blog following fast? Well in this post you’ll learn one of the best ways to get more followers, readers, and repeat visitors to your blog is through email marketing and SEO.
Foundation of gaining a blog following
There are really 3 foundations to building a successful business online or gaining a blog following. They are building an audience, engaging your audience, and finally selling to your audience.
I’ve found blogs are great for engaging an audience and selling to an audience, but typically not the best for building an audience. Also regardless of what social media platform you are on, blogging included, you need to lead with value first.
Too many time’s people get into blogging to make money, which is a valid reason, but with that in mind they only see their visitors as a dollar sign. I call this pitch mode.
Their only focus is how can they sell to their audience vs how can they help their audience. When you make the shift from selling to serving, you will actually make more money, and build a following for your blog.
How to gain a blog following by maximizing exposure for your blog
Since blogging is great for engaging an audience and selling to an audience, but not the best for building an audience you need some other marketing strategies in place to promote your blog. This is where social media marketing, email marketing, and search engine marketing come into play.
I’d recommend focusing on building your audience on other social media channels and sharing your blog content on those channels.
As your following grows elsewhere you can continue to drive traffic back to your blog by sharing your new posts on those channels. Any social media channel works, when you work it, so don’t feel like you need to master each marketing strategy right away.
However I would recommend implementing video marketing as a major part of any social media platform you choose.
Why video marketing is important for the growth of your blog
Video marketing is a very important strategy to grow a following on a blog or any platform. Video marketing is one of the best ways to build trust, rapport, and credibility with an audience.
People like doing business with people and not just a faceless company. You certainly can build a following on a blog without doing video, but it will be much harder.
When people can see you as a real person, hear your voice, see your mannerisms, and get a feel of your personality, it is much more effective for building a following.
Plus a video marketing strategy that includes YouTube is also a great way to drive traffic back to your blog. YouTube marketing can also capitalize on the power of SEO just like your blog.
It is also evergreen content, so you can create a blog post or YouTube video once, and it can continue to work for you on a 24/7 basis forever. I’d recommend when you create a new blog post that you also create a companion YouTube video to go with it.
Then at the end of your YouTube video, simply tell your viewers to head back to your blog to see a full post on the topic. Sometimes the blog competition of a specific topic is much more than the YouTube end or vice versa. This means that when you combine the two it maximizes your chances of exposure and can help you grow a following on your blog faster.
You may also want to check out my post on 8 easy steps to growing a YouTube channel.
Develop a lead magnet and email list to grow your blog following
You’ll also want to include some sort of giveaway or lead magnet on your blog to start developing an email list. This is powerful because every time you write a new blog post you can send an email blast to your list directing them back to your new post and blog.
Over time this can be sending thousands of people back to your blog with each new post you write.
Often people make the mistake of just having an opt-in box to subscribe to the blog, follow the blog, or sign up for our newsletter option.
These are certainly a good start, but for most people they really couldn’t care less about it. Almost everyone has a newsletter and blog these days so how is yours different than anyone else out there.
This is why it’s important to creating a lead magnet or something of value you exchange for someone’s name and email vs just trying to get them to follow your blog for nothing.
The idea is to create something your niche and target market actually want in exchange for them becoming a follower or lead.
Take for example if you wrote a cooking blog. You could create a free give away of your top 5 recipes. For a health blog you could give away a 10 day eating plan to lose 5 pounds.
Whatever you decide on make it something that solves a pain point, need, want, helps reach a goal faster, or answers a common question. Check out my blog post I did on making a quality lead magnet for more info.
If you’d like to set up the tools to build an email list for your blog check out the video below and check out this trial of Aweber.
Using Search Engine Marketing to promote your blog and build a following
The next aspect to promote and grow your blog following is through search engine marketing or SEO.
This is basically where you base your blog content around what your niche and target market are actually searching for online.
As you write quality content focused on what people are searching for it can start to build up a steady stream of traffic, and with a lead magnet set up, build your email list as well.
I’d recommend writing at least 1200 word blog posts and if you really want to rank well it could be around the 3000–5000 word length.
Type in the title of your blog you are planning to write and scope out the competition to see how long their posts are first. Then if you are looking to out rank them and start to get free traffic to your blog, simply write a longer high quality post.
Overtime this can lead you to out rank them and continue to bring in a steady stream of new followers.
Most people will have a person visit their site, and if they don’t have a proper way to capture that person’s information with a lead magnet, they will likely never return.
This is why it’s so important to combine your SEO, social media marketing, and list building with your blog. If you don’t a huge portion of your traffic that does come to your site will never be seen again.
You may also want to check out my recent post on how to write the perfect blog post.
What to write your blog posts about to build a blog following
If you still feel stuck about what to write about for your blog posts, you should start with doing some research on your niche and target market. Don’t just write about what you think is important, find out what is important to your readers and target audience.
When it comes to maximizing your exposure, you want to write blogs about what people are actually searching for.
People are not going to follow a blog that isn’t relevant to them. Unfortunately I find people writing blog posts like this all the time.
For example I was recently looking at a business that was promoting their products and offers on their blog, but the majority of their titles were completely off topic.
Always ask yourself the question if I saw the title of this post, would I click it, or would I know how this post will help me from this title.
Blog post titles with things like how to ___ are a great place to start. People love reading how to’s and they are also very highly searched for online. Plus even if you have competition most people are likely to watch several how to videos on the same thing before they take action.
I remember when I was looking up how to videos on unclogging a sink. I know I watched at least 5 or 6 videos before I decided on which one to go with.
Using Google search as a strategy to find topics to talk about
Another option to come up with topic ideas is to use Google search as a means to give you ideas. Simply start typing in your general ideas of what you want to talk about and then Google will start giving you things people are actually searching for.
I’ll include a picture below of typing in search engine and all the ideas Google suggests. This method for coming up with topics is very powerful because it will be things real people are typing in to Google.
Their suggested options that come up are only there because someone has typed it in before. So if you know people are searching for something and you know how to answer it, that could be a great post to make for your blog.
Implement these blog writing tips and strategies and you will start to build your blog following in no time!
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