It will come as no surprise to anyone on the internet (read: everyone) that blogging, and by proxy, blog promotion, has become absolutely massive in recent years. According to statistics, there are more than 600 million blogs currently on the internet.
Let that sink in.
Whilst that’s ideal for readers across the web, who can easily find content on any topic with just a quick Google search, unfortunately, this means bloggers are encountering a difficult challenge – getting their content viewed.
Unsurprisingly, as the number of new blog posts continues to climb, and the over-saturation of the market rises, the level of competition for bloggers is soaring.
And this is where blog promotion is vital.
Now, if you’re a newbie to the blogging world and the words ‘blog promotion’ are completely alien to you, we’d recommend checking out this post first to get you started. However, if you’re a seasoned blogger, whose usual methods of blog promotion need revamping, this guide is for you!
As you’ll all be aware, writing a blog is a pretty tough job in itself. It takes time (an average of 3 hours and 57 minutes to be exact), and it can be really disheartening if your new post doesn’t generate the traffic you were expecting. Going the extra mile with blog promotion can seem like you’re putting in a lot of effort (it is extra work, after all), but we can assure you, it’ll be well worth it.
Carry on reading this ultimate guide if you’re in need of some new tricks to revive your blog promotion plan!
If you’re strapped for time and would like to skip to the sections that are relevant to you, these are the main points we’re going to be discussing:
- Common blog promotion mistakes
- Social media
- Email marketing
- Influencer marketing and partnerships
- Guest blogging
- Search engine optimisation
- Blogging communities
- Content promotion tools
But… before we dive headfirst into the juicy bits, we’ve got to establish some basics.
1. Common blog promotion mistakes?
If you’ve stuck around, it probably means that you already know a thing or two about blogging, and have tried your hand at promoting your blog.
And… considering that you’re still here, your efforts might not be as successful as you’d have hoped so far… am i right?
Well, if that’s the case, we’re going to quickly run through three of the most common mistakes people make when trying to promote their blog, so that you know exactly what to avoid!
- Not promoting to your target audience
If you’re running a successful blog, it’s likely that you’ve established your target audience and have some basic knowledge about them; who they are, where they are, their social media habits… you get the gist.
And just like you’d target a blog post towards your audience, the same goes for blog promotion. You need to ensure you’re promoting your blog in ways that will be seen and heard by your target audience – find out what social media platform is most used by them, what the optimal posting times are, etc. to help drive traffic to your blog.
- Spam
Spam… we’ve all received it. And, unfortunately, it’s a common mistake made by people trying to promote anything online. When you first start promoting a blog, spamming people with emails or adding a link to your blog in every comment might seem like an easy method of promotion.
But… you’ll soon realise that spamming doesn’t really work to drive traffic.
In fact, 45% of all emails you receive are spam, and let’s be honest, most of these are either never read or deleted instantly… which just goes to show that they’re pretty much a waste of time.
Stay tuned because we’ll be discussing best practices when it comes to email marketing a little later on!
- Poor quality content
You could have developed the best blog promotion strategy in the universe, but at the end of the day, if you don’t have great content, it’s not going to garner much attention (for the right reasons, anyway)!
Whether you’re blogging on WordPress, or Medium, you need to make sure you’re putting out insightful content that’s directed at your target audience and has a clear call to action. It’s also important to note that uploading the right type of content regularly can really help to increase traffic. Remember, readers will value your creativity, so jazz things up from time-to-time with a fun infographic or maybe even a podcast!
So, with all that to consider, it’s time to discover some top tips for blog promotion!
2. Make your mark by using social media for blog promotion
The power and influence of social media is certainly no secret, especially if you’re active in the blogging community. Social media is undoubtedly vital for blog promotion, so much so, in fact, that almost 96% of bloggers turn to it as a means of advertising their blog.
And, with over 3.5 billion people using social media, who can blame them?
Not us, which is why social media is at the top of our list when it comes to creating a solid blog promotion strategy.
Now, there are quite a few different ways that you can utilise social media to help revive your blog promotion plans, and it’s fair to assume you’ve probably already tried some. So, we’re going to take you through some of the most important to give you a new lease on life when it comes to social media management.
- Social media cross-promotion
These days, ‘social media’ is a fairly broad term. The people who use social media, and how they use it, differs so much between various platforms that it’s really important to ensure you’re present on a multitude of networks.
After all, the more places you get your voice heard, the more likely it is your blog will gain traffic.
But it isn’t just being visible that’s beneficial. What’s also key is tailoring your blog promotion to each social media platform, also known as, cross-promotion.
According to OptinMonster, cross-promotion, in its simplest form, is a ‘marketing tactic for expanding the reach of your brand or product’ and can be ‘as simple as promoting yourself on a new platform’.
The notion of cross-promotion ties in directly with the idea of knowing your target audience, which, as we mentioned earlier, should be at the top of your list of things to consider when starting out with your promotion strategy.
Truly understanding your target audience will not only give you a clearer idea of the most useful platforms to hone in on, but also the kinds of content you should be using to promote. After all, the content you promote and the way you interact with followers on LinkedIn should be completely different to how you promote on your Facebook page and the tweets you’re sending out on your Twitter account, and so on.
Even if the majority of your target audience are mostly operating on one social media platform, branching out to other social networks will only increase your potential reach, which can never be a bad thing!
- Networking and engagement
As much as we all hate to admit it, networking goes a long way in advancing your career – it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there!
A recent study shows that 80% of professionals believe that career success can be elevated through networking… and the blogging world is no exception. So, if you’ve been resistant to give into the temptation of business networking, it might be time to throw caution to the wind and give it a go!
However, unlike the fast-paced business world, which is a catalyst for networking, blogging is much more of a solitary act, making interactions a little harder.
Whilst online networking is essential (more on this later!), according to Yoast, ‘offline networking is even more important than building a network online’.
Sounds crazy, right? If your blog is online, then why would you need to network offline?! As stated by Yoast, ‘the deeper and longer lasting connections will often start offline’ – think meetups and conventions, to mingle with other bloggers and get your name out there. If you’ve worked hard to build relationships offline, the chances are this will translate into mutual support for each other on the web.
And whilst engaging with other members of the blogging community is a plus, don’t neglect your followers. Engaging with followers’ comments and questions on social media will make them a lot more likely to continue keeping up with your posts, and will increase social sharing, making it more likely you’ll be discovered by their friends. It sounds simple, but can often be forgotten, especially if your following has expanded rapidly!
Check out @glameramo on Instagram for example – by interacting with followers on social media, not only is she displaying a more personal and friendly tone, but she’s also nurturing existing relationships which will help drive traffic to her blog.
- Grab attention
It might sound glaringly obvious, but when promoting anything you need to put in work to make it eye-catching. We’re talking unique share texts, stand-out images, hashtags, and the all-important headline
Making sure you’re using engaging headline copy should be one of your main promotion tactics. A compelling headline goes a long way in drawing in new readers, and gives you the chance to connect with your audience.
After all, 8 out of 10 people will read a headline, but only 2 out of 10 people stick around for the full article.
“So, you’re saying that without a fantastic headline, people might miss out on reading the best content ever?!”
Yes, that’s exactly what we’re saying – headlines are everything.
After analysing over 1 million headlines, CoSchedule discovered that there are three main types of headlines which garner the most shares, search results, and blog traffic:
- The list – e.g. ‘5 Dating Horror Stories to Put You Off Dating for Life’
- The how to – e.g. ‘How to Get Back on the Bandwagon After a Disastrous Date’
- The question – e.g. ‘How Do You Bounce Back from a Dud First Date?’
And, if these still aren’t inspiring you, you could always opt for a headline analysis tool to help you pick the perfect headline (try the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer or the Advanced Marketing Institute’s Headline Analyzer).
- Take advantage of analytics
Up next is the holy grail of any effective social media marketing strategy, analytics – I’m surprised we’ve made it this far without mentioning them!
The use of analytics is absolutely crucial to your blogging promotion strategy, but you probably knew that already, right?
This is one of the instances where truly knowing your target audience offers up yet another benefit. After all, if you’re aware of what times and days your audience is most active on each social media platform, you can make sure that you’re optimising your posting times for maximum engagement.
A huge plus is that most social networking sites have their very own analytics tools built in, so you don’t even need to search far for that all-important data!
However, if you’re looking to branch out, here are some picks for a great social media analytics tool.
| Analytics Tool | Pros | Cons |
| Sprout Social | Allows you to compare analytics between different social networks.Understand competitor activity | Expensive at $99 per month for the cheapest account |
| Buzzsumo | Analyse marketing campaigns in comparison with competitorsUse social share data to gage optimal posting times | Expensive, with prices starting from $99 |
| Awario | Monitors mentions across the web in real timeUses sentiment analysis so show whether mentions are positive or negativeOnly $29 a month for the starter plan | If you’re looking for specific alerts, you may have to learn how to do a Boolean search |
Any of these are a great place to start when considering analysing your social media data.
3. Use email marketing for blog promotion
With over 3.9 billion people using email worldwide, you’d be a fool not to take advantage of this simple, yet effective, marketing tool.
Okay, so we established earlier that spam is a no-go when it comes to email marketing… can it even be considered email marketing?
But, if not spam, then what? How can you grab consumers’ attention without bugging the life out of them?
Before anything else, you need to create a solid email list, as they’ll not only be vital for customer acquisition, but also customer retention.
To build up this list, you can:
- Place your signup link on your blog (this can even be done in pop-up form, but keep this discreet so as not to turn people away)
- Promote your email signup link across your social media channels, to encourage users from all platforms to subscribe
- Provide incentives for people to sign up (think giveaways, competitions, freebies and early access to posts)
Once you’ve created your list, you need to decide whether to go for a single opt-in signup or a double opt-in. Whilst over half of email marketers select the single opt-in when it comes to their signups, if your goal is to increase blog traffic, the double opt-in might be better for engagement.
However, both have their advantages and disadvantages, so we’ll outline the main differences and give you the chance to decide for yourself which is for you:
- A single opt-in does what it says on the tin, someone will subscribe to your email list and automatically begin receiving emails – job done, hassle free (but… this doesn’t guarantee that all the accounts are legitimate)!
- A double opt-in is a little more complicated. After signing up, the person will receive an email asking them to confirm their subscription to your email list – whilst this is likely to reduce the size of your email list, it will also increase the chances that your subscribers will actually want to be receiving emails from you.
Once you’ve chosen which signup method to go for, it’s all hands on deck to develop an excellent email marketing strategy!
- Email content is key
Now that you’ve got your trusty list of email subscribers, you need to start developing email content which is going to retain them. No matter how extensive your email list is, without high-quality email content, you’re not reaching anybody.
There’s a few important points to remember when creating an attention-grabbing email:
- Keep it short and sweet – If one of your readers clicks onto your email and sees an essay, it’s likely they’ll click straight off again. It’s vital to keep your email concise – you don’t want to bore your readers to tears!
- Ensure the subject line pops – You need to grab attention from the get-go, that means even before the email has been opened. With a catchy and intriguing subject, your subscriber is a lot more likely to click on the email and read on.
- Use a call-to-action (CTA) – A CTA is what will actually draw new readers towards your blog, you want to do everything in your power to get them to click that link!
Another great idea is to incentivise your email content. According to studies, email subscribers are three times more likely to share your content through social media channels than visitors from elsewhere. This just goes to show that you need to put in effort with your email subscribers, as they could ultimately be essential in driving traffic.
Take a look at this brilliant email I received recently from Costa Coffee, for example:
The bold, yet simple, message has a clear CTA which entices you to enter the shop (which will probably leave you a few pennies down despite the giveaway).
Giveaways such as this are brilliant, as they not only inevitably increase revenue, but they also promote a sense of belonging between companies and their customers, forging stronger, and more long-lasting, relationships. The ‘FREE coffee for a friend’ segment has also just nabbed them a new customer – smart!
Top tip: personalising emails will go a long way in building solid relationships with readers (just like engaging with them on socials)!
- Continuity
Email marketing is as much about retaining customers as it is acquiring new ones, and with a consistent email marketing campaign, you’ll soon build up a loyal fanbase.
If you’re serious about email marketing, newsletters are the way to go. According to a study conducted by the Content Marketing Institute, 81% of B2B marketers say that newsletters are their most used means of content marketing, and 31% say they’re the best way to nurture leads.
A newsletter is an excellent way of keeping subscribers engaged with your content, whilst also developing your personal brand and nurturing your relationships with subscribers.
By sending out a monthly (or weekly, if you’re feeling adventurous!) email newsletter, you’re presenting subscribers with a constant reminder to check out your blog, and getting your personality across simultaneously.
Check out these creative ideas on what you can include in your newsletter (whatever you choose, remember to keep it on brand and in line with your blog’s content):
- Lists! For example, if you run a fashion blog, a newsletter showing your top 10 looks of the week is a really fun way of reinforcing your fanbase whilst highlighting your personal style and hinting at your blog content.
- Addressing recent news in your industry. Commenting on any ongoing debates and providing your opinion on major events will put you on a more personal level with your subscribers.
- Q&As. Asking subscribers for any questions which you can then address in your next newsletter (or, on social media, which is sure to up your follower count) is a simple way to get them to engage with your content and will give them the opportunity to get to know you better!
Of course, there are endless ideas when it comes to getting creative with newsletters, so get brainstorming!
- Email automation
Now, we’re all about taking the time to nurture leads, but there are only so many hours in a day, right?
If you want to be smart about your email marketing campaign, establishing an automated email system is beneficial – it keeps up your engagement, without you actually having to lift a finger!
According to Campaign Monitor, automated emails generate 320% more revenue than those that aren’t automated, which is an incredible turnover.
Take the abandoned shopping cart as an example. Apparently, customers who receive emails reminding them of an abandoned basket are 2.4 times more likely to go back and complete their order. Having a strong presence in your subscribers’ emails is sure to drive traffic to your blog.
A great place to start is with an automated welcome email – this will not only provide a friendly way of saying ‘thanks’ to a new subscriber, but also give you the opportunity to tell them a little bit about you and your blog.
Check out this email I received recently from Bloom & Wild as an example of a great welcome email:
This email, whilst likely automated, remains personalised by addressing the customer by name, and professional by signing off with a strong email signature. It even provides a welcome treat as a means of saying thanks (I’ll be making use of that)!
If you think email marketing automation is the route to go down for your blog promotion strategy, there are a load of amazing tools to help you with this online – think Mailchimp, Intercom, HubSpot and more!
4. Promote your blog using influencer marketing and paid partnerships
In today’s social media obsessed world, it’s hard to find a product or service that hasn’t been recommended by an influencer or two… so why should bloggers miss out on all the fun?
Influencer marketing is a great time-saving method; unlike creating an email list, where you have to build subscribers from scratch, influencer marketing allows you to directly target a ready-made audience. It’s a sure-fire win!
As 74% of consumers whole-heartedly trust social media when it comes to influencing purchasing decisions, it’s definitely no surprise that 67% of marketers are promoting content using the helping hand of an influencer.
Now… influencers don’t always come cheap, so if you’re forking out, remember to spend wisely.
Of course, it’s great to remember to partner with an influencer who knows a thing or two about the industry you’re writing about, and it’s also vital to check out engagement rates – the higher the engagement on their social media posts, the more likely it is their followers will trust their opinions and head on over to your blog!
This image (brought to you by the Influencer Marketing Hub), is a reminder that a high follower count doesn’t automatically equal a high engagement rate:
Definitely something to bear in mind before you try and get Kim Kardashian on the phone…
Okay, so we’ve established the sorts of influencers who will benefit your blog promotion, but how do you go about getting in contact with them in the first place?
It doesn’t have to be hard! If you want to be upfront, sending a simple email is enough to get a conversation started with an influencer… or, if you’d prefer a more organic interaction, a mention of them in one of your blog posts in an easy way to get them to notice your blog (and hopefully share it)!
5. Promote your blog through guest posting
With around 60% of bloggers writing 1-5 guest posts per month, it’s a tried and tested tactic which will seriously strengthen your blog promotion strategy. You guessed it, guest posting will draw in new guests to your blog (okay, I’ll stop with all the alliteration now).
The concept of guest posting involves you writing content for another blogger or website to showcase on their blog. If done correctly, it should, slowly but surely, generate traffic to your own blog, giving people a glimpse of your incredible (hopefully!) writing skills and creativity.
Alternatively, you could invite a guest to write something for your blog. If they’re any good at promoting their content, it should draw in their audience to your blog, which will surely have them hooked in no time!
Considering that almost 63% of readers believe blogs with multiple authors to be more credible, having other people write for your blog should incite more long-lasting readers, whilst also providing you with valuable content and freeing you up some time to focus on blog promotion.
Obviously, before you can start writing, you need to find a blog that will let you write for them. Lilach Bullock outlines a simple way to go about this: ‘Start by gathering a list of potential websites… you can easily use Google to search for “blog keywords + ”guest blogging guidelines’. Once you’ve compiled a list of some possible sites, you can get in touch by email or social media and see whether you’re a good fit for each other.
Once you’ve created your partnership, it’s time to get writing! Here are some of our top tips for guest blogging, to ensure you get it right the first time:
- Link building
Perhaps the most essential aspect of guest blogging – adding links to your own blogs. Backlinking is so important (when done right), as it provides an instant link to your blog which is a simple way to drive traffic and boost SEO. However, if done wrong (for example, backlinking every other sentence), the blog could be blacklisted by Google – not ideal! If your guest blog comes with a little bio about you, this could be a great place to insert a link to your blog, it’s discreet but does the job!
For example, guest bloggers on the Quuu Blog have a handy bio section where they can add any appropriate backlinks, as shown here:
P.S. If you want some more help with your backlink strategy, check out this blog.
- Don’t be overly promotional
Considering 79% of editors deem guest content too promotional, you want to work extra hard to ensure you don’t fall into that category. There’s nothing worse than opening a blog to find it’s crammed with promotional content towards the writer’s company (or someone they’re affiliated with). Like we mentioned earlier, backlinking your own blog can be the perfect tactic when done discreetly, but going overboard on promotional content will result in reader’s tuning out (and it’ll probably make your relationship with the website owner a little strained). Again, you don’t want to be blacklisted by Google for being all about that self-promotion.
- Nurture relationships
One of the many pluses of guest blogging is that it lays the foundations for the creation of beautiful relationships between bloggers. If you take the time to listen to your editor’s requests, it’ll create a smooth and harmonious relationship which will be mutually beneficial. Making positive connections and establishing a good reputation for yourself within your industry will hopefully lead to more backlinks and opportunities for guest blogging!
6. SEO, SEO, SEO is blog promotion’s bestie!
Did you really think you’d find an article all about blog promotion which doesn’t address SEO? If so, think again!
The be-all and end-all of blog promotion, SEO is not to be dismissed. Considering that 68% of all online experiences start with a search engine, placing high up could be make or break when it comes to driving traffic to your blog via organic searching. So, hold on tight, because it’s time to enjoy the ride that is search engine optimization.
If you want as many eyeballs on your blog as possible, you need to increase your visibility by ensuring that your blog content is fully optimized. This includes keywords, headlines, subheadings… the list goes on! As confirmed by HubSpot, 75% of users never scroll past the first page of results, so ranking high could be make or break for your blog.
If you’re just muddling along at the moment and not getting great results, we’d recommend turning your attention to using an SEO tool. It’ll really help make sure that every new piece of content you put out is up to scratch and provide you with the means to better track your blog… here are a few of the best:
- Google Analytics – it’s virtually impossible to talk about SEO without the mention of Google Analytics popping up. It’s a powerful (and free!) tool which gives you a deeper understanding of your blog traffic performance.
This nifty little tool tracks and reports your website traffic, and gives you a multitude of data, including the keywords your visitors type in to reach your website, and your bounce rate. If you’re aware of when people are most commonly leaving your site, you can start to look into why this is happening, and work towards changing it.
Check out this image by Neil Patel, to highlight how you can discover your best keywords using the app:
Did we mention it’s free?
- Ubersuggest – As stated on the website, Ubersuggest ‘shows you how to win the game of SEO’. And… as you’re still reading this, that’s probably exactly what you need.
This tool is great for recognising trends which are working in your competitors’ SEO strategies, so that you can start applying them to your own. It’ll also generate a list of content ideas, and top-performing keywords in your industry, so that you can push your SEO game up to the top.
Another unique aspect of Ubersuggest is that it provides you with essential backlink data – this will allow you to detect the sites that are getting the most links in your industry. As Neil Patel says, ‘this is all you need to come up with an action plan for improving your link profile and understand which links will have the most impact on your rankings’.
See the screenshot below for an example of how the tool works:
- AnswerThePublic – As the name suggests, this tool focuses on giving the public what they want… which is probably what every blog strives to do anyway. According to the website itself, ‘There are 3 billion searches every day, and 20% of those have never been seen before. They’re like a direct line to your customers’ thoughts’. We must admit, having insight into everyone’s searches could be kind of interesting…
AnswerThePublic collects data from various search engines and compiles it all to generate every single possible question or phrase that people are searching for in relation to your chosen keyword. This keyword research is sure to not only allow you to produce content that your viewers are actually searching for, but it’ll also give you some really creative and new ideas that might not have been touched on previously, making you stand out in your niche.
Check out this example below of what you can expect to see:
Okay, so that’s a round-up of a few great tools, but there are of course loads out there, so have a Google to explore!
Whilst having a SEO tool is always a good choice, you also need to ensure you’re being smart with your content and the formatting of your blog.
For example, 58% of all searches in Google are now done from a mobile device… that’s not that surprising when you think about how easy it is to quickly search something right from your smartphone.
But, this also means that you’re going to want to optimise your website for mobile use, with mobile SEO. As so much of the searching that is done through mobiles is on Google, they’ve even adapted their algorithm to prioritise mobile-friendly pages!
With regards to content, it’s always a smart plan to produce a lot of evergreen content – this means that unlike content with an expiration date, this can continue to bring traffic to your blog throughout the year (and for years to come!), keeping it ranking high in search engine results.
For example, check out this evergreen article’s traffic 3 years after it was originally posted:
Top tip: make sure that you keep your all content, even evergreen, up to date – out-of-date statistics and information will turn people off your blog, and decrease the likelihood that your web pages will be backlinked.
7. Tap into blogging communities for blog promotion gold!
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a place where bloggers could congregate, share their pride and joy with others and, ultimately, drive traffic to their blogs?
Enter: blogging communities – to do just that!
Blogging communities have been described as ‘social networks for bloggers’, and this is a pretty apt description. They go beyond the standard Facebook groups and LinkedIn groups you might be used to, as they’re specifically for bloggers. They create the opportunity for you to share your blog with likeminded people, interact, and increase both engagement and referral traffic.
With so many blogging communities out there, what is it exactly that makes them such an asset to your blog promotion strategy?
A lot of the time, blogging is a lonely business – it’s usually just you and your laptop (and I don’t know about you, but mine doesn’t tend to pick up on my jokes). Therefore, one of the most obvious benefits of blogging communities is that they create the perfect space for you to meet and interact with other bloggers.
We spoke previously about the fabulous opportunities guest blogging can create when it comes to building relationships with other bloggers, and communities work in a similar way. By connecting with others in your niche, you can forge real friendships, which could even result in collaborations in the future, backlinking to each others’ blogs, and guest posting.
As 7 out of 10 readers enjoy blogs which show a collaboration between more than just one author, this will be seriously advantageous to your blogging success.
Now, let’s walk you through some of the best communities out there for you to get started with!
Triberr
Triberr encourages you to ‘amplify your content and social reach through the power of tribes’. But, what are ‘tribes’, I hear you ask? As defined by the website themselves, a tribe is ‘a group of content creators with similar interests building a mutually beneficial relationship to promote each others’ content’.
So… let’s say you have a blog all about… gardening (anyone got green fingers out there?), you can create a tribe for this (or join onto an existing one). Once other gardening experts join, Bob’s your uncle – you’ve got yourself a thriving tribe!
Within this, you and your tribemates can interact, share each other’s new content, and increase your exposure. There are both free and paid plans, click here to find out a little more about the site.
Blog Engage
This is a pretty big platform which champions unknown bloggers, attempting to bring them into the spotlight.
In this community, you’ll have the chance to not only read other blog posts, but also comment on them and give feedback. They also have a cool ‘voting’ system which is designed to further increase traffic. As stated by the website, ‘when articles receive enough votes they become published and are then found on the Blog Engage home page’.
Getting these all important thumbs up and making it onto the homepage can be crucial for driving traffic to your blog. Think about how drastically getting a lot of likes or retweets on Twitter can elevate your post, for example. Being at the forefront of people’s screens is never something to be sniffed at.
Plans start from just $1.99 a month, so it doesn’t have to be costly to get your blog seen. You can do more research into this community here.
The image below highlights the voting and commenting system:
DoSplash
Promising to ‘give your blog the visibility it deserves’, this blogging community works in a similar way to Blog Engage, adopting a similar ‘voting’ system to get your blog higher up on the homepage and garner more attention, and targeted website traffic. Once you reach at least 7 votes, you’ll get promoted on the homepage for all to see!
Like Triberr, DoSplash also has a variety of categories that you can submit content to, which is great if you’re blogging in a niche. Their Content Syndication Pro Program vows to put some extra time in your pockets, by ‘[streamlining] the sharing and optimization process’, but they also have a free plan (everybody likes free)!
Over at DoSplash, they stress the importance of remembering that it’s a blogging community, and that networking and interacting with other bloggers and their posts can really help your own promotion strategy… don’t forget to be friendly guys!
Make the most of content promotion tools
You’ve already created a whole blog, and written a fair few posts for it, so now it’s time to call in a helping hand (or two… or three).
And, we’re not talking about ringing up your friendly neighbour, or lifelong bestie (well… you can if you like) – we’re talking content promotion tools.
If your current blog promotion strategy is failing, or maybe just not doing as well as you’d like it to, then there are a whole host of different tools you can employ to generate more traffic. These days, there’s an app to help with almost anything you can think of, and, luckily for you, there’s no shortage of apps to help with blog promotion, from automation tools to content curation tools – let’s take a look at some of the best out there.
Quuu Promote
Like proud parents, of course we’re putting Quuu Promote on this list for you to take a look at. All jokes aside, if you’re struggling with promoting your content, this tool is perfect for you… it’s literally designed to get your content promoted.
How it works: After signing up to Quuu Promote, you’ll be able to link your site’s RSS feed and send in your own promotions to the content team within a category of your choosing (there are over 500, so your blog is sure to fit somewhere!), along with cleverly crafted share texts. From here, the team will manually review every single post to ensure they’re of a high standard. There’s even a new Auto Promote Plan in which the team will select a category for you, and add interesting share texts with variations – you really can kick back and relax.
Once your post has been approved it will be shared to all the Quuu users (Quuu Promote’s sister site) who are subscribed to that category, and from there, it’ll be scheduled to be sent out onto their social media networks.
Why it’s useful: Quuu Promote ensures that your content is shared by real people in real time. As stated on the website, it ‘gets your content hundreds of mentions, presents you with opportunities to engage with a relevant audience and drives targeted relevant traffic to your website’. As there are no bots involved, all the traffic you get is totally legitimate, and as the people sharing your content are already interested in your niche, it’s highly likely that their followers also will be.
Top tip: When it comes to blog promotion, you get out what you put in. We’d really recommend interacting with the Quuu users who share your content on social media, and their followers who engage with it. This will make your promotion strategy much more effective, and increase the chances of them returning to your blog.
The below images highlight the promotion process – from choosing a category (as you can see, there’s quite the range!) to creating inventive share texts.
Sprout Social
Consider this as an all-in-one promotion tool – it really can work for so many aspects of your content marketing strategy. As written on the website, the tool maintains that it’ll help you ‘understand and reach your audience, engage your community and measure performance with the only all-in-one social media management platform built for connection’.
How it works: With Sprout Social, there are a number of different ways you can up your content promotion strategy – engagement, publishing and scheduling, analytics, and listening. And… each one really does prove vital. From scheduling content to social media to keep your engagement and traffic up, to making the most of analytics and data to ensure that you’re correctly targeting your blog to the right people.
With the ‘Listening’ aspect of the tool, you’re able to track engagements and impressions and gage whether the sentiment behind them is mostly positive or negative (which is so handy to know for future posting). With ‘Publishing’ you can establish a social media schedule to publish posts at optimal times.
However, according to Neil Patel, ‘one of the best parts of Sprout Social is the audience targeting. You can target organic social posts like you would for Facebook Ads’. This cool feature means that you can target specific posts to select audiences instead of everything going to… well, everyone.
Why it’s useful: The fact that it has at least 5 tools all combined into one makes it so easy to use, and whilst the price might seem daunting at first, it has the potential to work out cheaper than getting a load of different apps in the long run. It’s also pretty handy to be able to do a number of things all from the same place, and can really simplify your promotion process.
Scheduling tools
Okay, we admit it, we’re cheating slightly with this one – but we couldn’t pick just one scheduling tool to show you when there is such a variety out there.
How it works: So, this one is more of a how they work… but basically, they do what they say on the tin! Once you connect your social media platform, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn (you know the score), to a social media scheduler, you’ll be able to pre-plan a posting schedule.
As spending on marketing automation tools is expected to reach over $25 billion annually by 2023, it’s clear they’re an important part of social media management. Not only do scheduling tools allow you to take a back seat from manually pushing content out onto your social media platforms, but they’ll also free you up a bit of extra time to work on producing more high-quality content!
Why it’s useful: Aside from the above comment about them giving you the time for more content creation, scheduling tools are crucial to blog promotion as they make it so much easier for you to post content at optimal times.
Once you’ve established your target market (which I’m sure you all have by now), you’ll be well aware of the times in which they’re most active on each platform. Therefore, by establishing a posting schedule, you can ensure you’re posting at these times for maximum engagement. And we all know what engagement leads to… that’s right, ladies and gentleman, traffic!
Best picks: When it comes to scheduling tools themselves, there are so many picks to choose from (you’ll be like a kid in a candy store)! Try checking out some of these as a starting point…
Conclusion
If you’ve made it all the way to the end of this blog, I’m truly proud of you (and a little bit flattered)… it’s been a long ride but we got there in the end!
Just before I (finally) let you go, let’s quickly recap all the blog promotion tips you should now have in your arsenal:
- Take advantage of social media, it’s used by everyone, and there for a reason.
- Just in case you’ve let anybody slip through the cracks, employ an email marketing strategy to help nurture relationships and get new leads.
- Buddy up with an influencer, it’ll improve your credibility and give you access to a wider audience.
- Get on board with guest posting to improve link building and help create relationships with other bloggers in your niche.
- Increase your search engine visibility with SEO.
- Join blogging communities to engage with other bloggers and get your content shared.
- Don’t say no to extra help, use content promotion tools to amplify your promotion strategy.
Well, that’s all from us for today. Be sure to leave a comment and let us know if you’ve tried any of these tips, or if you have any of your own to share!
