Before starting with your blog promotion, get the basics right. Make sure your website is consistent with these SEO elements as they can increase your chances of success exponentially.

Is the connection to your website ‘secure’?
Do your posts load in between 1 and 3 seconds?
Are search bots crawling and indexing your blogs?
Is your blog mobile-friendly?
Are the GSC and GA codes embedded on your blog?

There are a host of other on-page elements that you can look at to improve SEO, but note that this is the first thing you need to address before you start with any promotions.

Step 1: Create High-quality & Data-driven Content

The first step to successful blog promotion is to ask yourself one question:

Is your blog post worth promoting?

If your post offers no value to the readers, they will start looking elsewhere for information.

No-one wants that to happen. So, here’s how you can create a high-quality blog that hooks readers instantly.

Publish Data-driven Content

Data-driven content can generate links automatically since other bloggers prefer to mention such content in their blogs.

Moreover, readers want information that helps them understand a concept and apply it in real life. Supporting that information with credible data is like icing on the cake.

For example, look at how Mile explained their business proposal template tips with the support of data to showcase its effectiveness.

However, focus not just on the post’s heading, but the body as well. You must support everything you claim in your post with authentic data, such as this guide by Landingi:

As you can see, all the stats are linked to sources keeping the trust and credibility of the information intact. Linking your content to credible sources grows trust and transforms your content into a link magnet.

Through their case study as mentioned above, Business Proposal generated 8 active backlinks in just two months:

Collaborate With Other Bloggers

Collaborations with established bloggers can boost your popularity for two reasons:

Established bloggers already have a community and regular traffic.
Their community finds them credible and trustworthy.

If you collaborate with such bloggers, you will be able to reach a much wider audience.

Begin by creating a list of bloggers from your niche and reach out to them via emails for promotion or collaboration. Collect emails using tools to find the email addresses associated with a company.

Once you get the email IDs, start sending out cold emails. Here’s an outreach template to help you out:

It is highly advisable to conduct A/B tests between the email formats and start pushing the one that receives most replies.

Here are some tips that you must follow to ensure a higher success rate:

Create a precise subject which clearly communicates the purpose of your email, and mentions the name of your brand.
Address the recipient by their name.
Mention what interests you about their work before presenting your offer.
Let them know that you have been engaging with their content.
Mention the benefits they can receive.
Add links to your best-published work.
The email body must be free of grammatical and spelling errors.
Keep it short. Generally, shorter emails convert better.

Grab Guest Posting Opportunities

Guest posting is a proven way to grow your backlinks and promote your blog. You can follow the same process (as mentioned in the point above) to reach out to websites falling under your niche.

However, in this scenario, you’ll have to pitch them topic ideas as well. Here’s how:

Analyze their blog posts and prepare a topic that they haven’t yet covered on their website.
Study the latest trends and come up with a few catchy topic pitches.

Once the website accepts your topic(s), here’s what you must do:

Read their guidelines carefully.
Conduct detailed research and create a data-driven post with images.
Add relevant links to your site; this increases your site’s backlink count, further improving your rankings.
Add relevant internal links to other posts from the same website.
Run it through Grammarly for grammatical errors and plagiarism.
When the website shares their feedback and requests for changes, do so promptly.
Add links to your website and social media platforms in the author’s bio.

IMPORTANT. Create variations of your blog like infographics, videos, graphs, etc. By doing this, you will be able to promote a single piece of content on different platforms. You can promote videos on YouTube and Infographics on social media platforms like Pinterest.

Step 2: Leverage the Power of Social Media Platforms

After publishing high-quality content and growing your audience (and backlinks) via collaborations and guest posting, it is time to take it to the next level with social media promotion.

A good social media strategy can:

Increase your blog’s traffic
Improve SEO
Boost your brand awareness
Develop loyalty
Ensure customer satisfaction.

How to create a social media strategy for promoting your blog successfully? Let’s get started!

Choose The Platform That Your Target Audience Uses

Fish where the fish are.

The first thing you must do is focus on one social media platform. Posting on multiple platforms requires more effort and may not yield the desired results. Of course, you can cross post on multiple social platforms, but one should be your main focus.

Before deciding on the platform, research and analyze your audience. This will help you determine the platform where most of your potential customers are active.

Here are the top 7 social media platforms’ detailed demographics to help you make an informed decision (courtesy of SproutSocial).

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Snapchat

YouTube

Create Posts Based On The Platform

Once you’ve chosen the platform, determine the kind of content that would likely drive more engagement and traction.

Facebook

Videos (includes live videos) and curated content (includes blog posts) are the best types of content to post on Facebook.

While the optimum character limit for a caption is 80 characters, it is not enough to tease a blog post. So, make it to 200 characters. Also, include relevant hashtags (not more than 3).

Instagram

High-resolution photos, quotes, and stories are the ideal posts for Instagram. You need to create captivating images with minimal text and a caption that runs for 150 characters with 30 hashtags per post (including the caption and comments).

You can add 4-5 hashtags in your caption and rest in the comments. When it comes to stories, limit the hashtags to 2 (maximum limit is 10). Make sure not to overuse the hashtags and include only the relevant ones.

For example:

You can also create albums with up to 10 photos.

Twitter

Twitter is excellent for News, blog posts, and GIFs. If you have blog posts targeting the latest trends, then Twitter is your best bet. Keep in mind that the character limit of Twitter is 140 (including the URL – so use a URL shortener like Bitly), but try to keep your posts as short as possible. Also, don’t forget the hashtags (optimum times: 3).

On this platform, professional content related to topics such as jobs, company news, etc. performs better. Don’t post every blog on LinkedIn; go with the ones that are relevant to your industry’s professionals like market studies, training, webinars, etc.

For example:

If you are posting on Pinterest, focus primarily on the visual aspect. For a blogger, one of the best things to do is convert blogs into infographics for publishing on this platform.

Pinterest’s layout complements vertical photos that are rich in both quality and information. The best aspect ratio for this social media platform is 2:3.

600 pixels wide by 900 pixels tall
800 pixels wide by 1,200 pixels tall

For example:

Post When Your Target Audience Is Active

After choosing the appropriate platform and creating a great post, it’s time to push it live. But publishing at the wrong time might not give you the desired results.

Check your insights for the targeted social media platforms to determine when your target audience is most active and interacts with your content.

But what if you’re a beginner who’s just started your blog? Insights are helpful when you post frequently, but that is not possible if you’ve just started blogging.

Don’t worry. Here are the standard posting times for leading social media platforms to help you make a close guess.

Start promoting your blog based on this data and regularly measure and analyze the data. Soon, you’ll have enough insights to figure out the best time to post on a social media platform.

Other Helpful Tips To Maximize Your Social Media Efforts

Contests and Giveaways

Internet users engage with contests and giveaways 94% of the time, which can broaden your audience and reach. Plus, contests have a conversion rate of nearly 34%. Running occasional contests and giveaways with exciting prizes is a great way to boost brand awareness.

Influencer Marketing

Partner with influencers who have already developed a community and earned their followers’ trust. Generally, influencers have contact details mentioned in their bio so you can contact them directly. You can also link to them in your blog posts. If they find the content engaging, they might be open to helping you promote it.

Apart from that, you can reach out to influencers for interviews. Both you and the influencer will promote it, which can skyrocket your blog’s reach and traffic since the influencer’s followers will likely visit your blog to read the interview.

Post In Social Groups, Communities & Forums

Posting in social groups, communities, and forums is a great way to build links and grow your online visibility and authority. However, it is not that simple because to post on such platforms, providing real value must be a priority.

You need to resolve user queries through your content while adding links to your website in smart, subtle ways. Some of the popular forums and communities are Reddit, Quora, etc.

Go to these platforms and follow the subreddits/groups relevant to your blog’s niche. Participate in discussions and, when necessary, add relevant links to your blog as well. However, be sure to read the guidelines of each community and always follow the rules.

Step 3: Send Out Emails & Newsletter With Links To Your Blog Posts

When the traffic starts coming in from your content marketing and social media efforts, make sure that they stay engaged and re-visit your website regularly. Email is one of the best communication channels for that.

Expand Your Subscriber List

If you publish quality content, users will subscribe to your blog automatically. But to fully optimize your lead generation funnel, you need incentives or lead magnets that compel visitors to subscribe to your blog, such as:

Ebooks
Infographics (downloadable)
Discount coupons
Podcasts
Case Studies
Tutorials
Webinars
Surveys

Run a pop-up campaign on your blog to promote exclusive incentives for your visitors. Remember that the content on your pop up should be compelling enough to make the readers click.

Here are some examples of great pop-ups:

What To Do After Creating An Email List?

Once you’ve expanded your recipient list, it’s time to optimize your emails for a higher success rate.

Create Catchy Subject Lines

Subject lines will determine whether the recipient will open an email or not. So, you need to make it as catchy as possible. Focus on the following things when creating a subject line:

Keep them short and precise.
The optimum length of a subject line is 65 characters. Don’t exceed that.
They should not be misleading.

Here are some examples of catchy subject lines with the highest open rates:

Simplify The Email Body

Start with the most important information and keep it to the point. Wordy emails often confuse the recipients and defeat the purpose of reaching out. Write the email as if you would write to a friend, but a little more professional.

Add Links

Create your email copy in a way that you can add links to your blog posts and other branded content in a contextually relevant way.

Here is an example of a simplified email body with a catchy subject line and links:

Newsletters

Occasionally, you can send newsletters compiled with your outperforming articles; this will drive more traffic to those posts and increase their SERP rankings. Remember to add visuals and interesting subject lines to ensure that it receives more clicks.

Example of a good newsletter:

IMPORTANT. A/B test your email and subject lines to determine the type that gets the best open rates, which you can track using tools like Mailchimp.

Step 4: Start Commenting On Leading Blogs & Forums For Higher Visibility

Commenting On Other Blogs

Blog Commenting is something that every blogger does at the beginning. It helps you get more visibility. Like forums and communities, you must provide value in your comments that add to the discussion:

If not that, you can appreciate the bloggers for sharing their experience and knowledge with comments like:

“Excellent guide! Thanks for sharing.” OR “Thank you for this helpful post”

For commenting, some blogs ask you to create a profile. You can use this opportunity to add links to your blog and social media handles in the bio. This can create backlinks to your website.

If the website allows, you can also add links in your comment, but always keep things relevant.

Comment On Your Blogs

You need to create an active community on your blog by replying to every comment; this will humanize your brand, increase engagement, and develop rapport among your followers.

Always aim to resolve the queries encountered by your readers while thanking them for leaving a comment.

Follow the same practice on social media platforms after sharing your blogs. It encourages your audience to interact and engage with your content.

Step 5: Start Running Paid Ads For Your Blog Posts (Only When Necessary)

Till now, we’ve covered free marketing strategies for blog promotion. So, here are some paid alternatives (with promising outcomes).

Social Media Advertising

Sometimes when the free promotion mediums are limited, running advertisements on social media platforms is the way to go. As explained earlier, each platform has different key demographics, which you must choose accordingly.

Here are some tips to ensure that your ads deliver the desired results:

Check which posts are getting the most clicks on your social media insights and run ads on them to maximize engagement.
Keep the content as short as possible and convey your message in a simplified manner.
Use attractive visuals to grab the attention of your audience.
Focus on your mobile audience and incorporate images designed for smaller screens.
Run A/B tests on different ad formats (images, videos, and text) and analyze which format delivers the best ROI.

Google Ads

Another popular paid marketing platform is Google Ads, also known as pay-per-click advertising (PPC). This means that you will only pay the fee for the click that your ad receives. Once you learn how to optimize Google Ads campaigns, generating an exceptional amount of quality traffic will be a cakewalk.

Here are some tips to ensure that your ads deliver the desired results:

Create a targeted landing page for your ad.
Don’t mislead the user and keep wording consistent.
Write EXACTLY what you are offering.
Keep the headings catchy, followed by a quick yet informative description.
A/B test the different types of headlines and descriptions.

Conclusion

And that’s how you promote your blog. However, to know whether it was successful or not, you must check your analytics.

Access Google Analytics and monitor the performance of your blog post. Also, check the analytics for separate social media platforms to better understand audience behaviour. Based on the analysis, you can modify your strategies further and ensure that they generate the desired outcome.

All these strategies mentioned in the article can be used by both beginners who have just started their blog and advanced bloggers who simply want more traction.

Find out how your content is performing with a Free Assessment today!

Sahil Kakkar

author

Sahil is the CEO and Founder of Rankwatch - a platform, which helps companies and brands stay ahead with their SEO efforts in the ever growing internet landscape. He likes making creative products that can help in automation of mundane tasks and he can spend endless nights implementing new technologies and ideas.