Look Beyond Social Media to Promote Your Blog
What marketer isn’t looking to expand his reader base? Most bloggers just concentrate their audience building efforts on social media. While this is effective, it overlooks a broad range of opportunities where you’re already connecting with people.
To help you build your blog readership, here are 34 non-social media blog promotion suggestions. Regardless of which options you choose, don’t forget to include a call-to-action!
- Optimize for search terms. Use keywords and linking strategies to maximize find-ability through search engines.
- Promote your blog on your business website. Understand that results will be correlated with the prominence of your promotion. Think homepage and navigation. Also, link appropriate posts to relevant product pages.
- Highlight blog posts of interest in emailings. Include part of the posts to lure readers in.
- Promote blog on your products. Think product packaging especially if you supply product-related content.
- Write for online publications. Like guest blogging, expand your audience by being exposed to a related reader base. Ask for a link to your blog. Even better, get an author page that mentions and links to your blog.
- Contribute to offline publications and newsletters. Think area expert. For business bloggers, think trade publications and newsletters. For local businesses, don’t overlook local newspapers and/or your alumni association(s).
- Reprint your blog content on other websites. Grant other businesses and organizations second printing rights to your content. Of course, you want to wait until your content is indexed on your blog first for search reasons.
- Issue a press release. Focus on special research or unusual resource you’ve created on your blog such as a list of top executives in your field. Link to your blog in the release.
- Advertise on newsletters or websites, both online and offline.
- Use other offline media for advertising. Think targets and/or local options like package inserts or sponsor a little league team.
- Respond to press requests. Not sure where to look? Sign up for HARO‘s emailings. It lists journalists’ requests for sources.
- Exchange co-registration. For email sign-ups, promote another website and they promote you. Email newsletters do this all the time.
- Speak at events and conferences. Get your blog included in your bio in the program and other marketing collateral.
- Do meet and greets. Think blog version of book reading. Leverage related businesses.
- Include your blog URL in your email sig file. If you’re writing for a corporate blog, have the sig files changed centrally to maximize your reach.
- Put your blog URL on business cards. Consider using one side of your card to promote your blog. If you don’t have a business, order business cards just for your blog!
- Add your blog to your bios. Think broadly in terms of business events, professional associations, and local meetings – even your kid’s PTA. Remember your goal is to attract more readers who’re interested in what you have to say.
- Promote your blog via a sign up list by your cashier, event registration or tradeshow booth. Of course, this entails typing the information into your database. With your first emailing remind recipients of where they registered.
- Include flyer about your blog in shopping bags, tradeshow booths or event goodie bags. Give people a physical reminder about your blog.
- Put your blog URL on shopping bags or giveaways. Think of your blog’s URL like you would any other address or phone number.
- Add blog URL to bills and other business communications. Think customer service signature files, auto-responders and email-a-friend.
- Advertise using emailings and other online media options. Before you invest, assess the return on your media spend relative to your blog goals.
- Get blog content included in business or NFP mailings. Alternatively get mentioned in a company or organization’s mailings.
- Support related charity. Get promoted in event marketing collateral with a sponsorship or donate your product for a silent auction.
- Integrate blog URL into powerpoint presentations. Whenever you make a presentation, include your blog in your bio slide. Go a step further and incorporate its branding into the slide master.
- Put up a sign promoting your blog in shop window or on a bulletin board. Think high trafficked area to get people to see it.
- Get promoted in a relevant store or business. This can work if you review the type of product they promote.
- Paint blog URL on bicycles, cars and delivery vans. Does your firm have special vehicles? Why not use them for advertising?
- Promote blog in employee publications and communications. This works for businesses with large workforces.
- Mention blog in verbal introductions. It lets people know about your blog.
- Add blog URL to nametags. Where appropriate, write your blog’s URL on your name tag.
- Create sticker for your laptop. People see it when you’re working in public locations and/or at events. Have a sales force? Then promote it on their briefcases.
- Write letters to editors of relevant publications. It’s the non-blog equivalent of commenting.
- Program print function to include blog promotion. The idea is to have your blog address printed whenever someone prints out a post so they know where to find the article source. This is useful if your article is distributed to others.
As a blogger, you must determine which of these suggestions will help you to achieve your blog’s goal based on your focus, target market and resources.
Do you have anything that you’d add to this list for building your blog audience with non-social media marketing? If so, please include your suggestions in the comment section.
Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen
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