As we’ve discussed many times on the madison/miles media blog, one of the most important components of an effective inbound marketing strategy is creating high-quality, unique content that will draw leads to your site.
Sure, you can create eBooks, whitepapers and podcasts, but one of the best ways to consistently draw potential leads to your site is through your blog.
Once you’ve created well-written and attention-grabbing blog posts (our social media marketers recommend sticking to the sweet spot of 1,000 to 1,200 words) you can’t just sit back and relax. You need to know how to make your blog popular! You want to get noticed, get more comments and get readers who will share your content with their network.
Here are my six steps for how to make your blog popular:
1. Publish consistently.
One of the best things about having a blog as part of your content marketing strategy is that once you’re creating high-quality content, your leads will keep coming back for more, which means … aha! You’ll have more potential leads to convert.
Figure out a number that’s reasonable for you based on your bandwidth and get writing. (HubSpot data suggests posting early and often — in fact, companies that published over 16 posts a month got 3.5 times more traffic than those that published four or fewer.)
2. Have a content strategy.
You wouldn’t share things about organic dog food or even how to eat healthy in college — that’s outside the scope of your expertise. Determine your content parameters, and stick to them.
3. SEO. SEO. SEO.
First, you’ll want to select a long tail keyword that you know your potential customers will be searching for on Google. (A long tail keyword is “eating gluten free,” while a short tail keyword is “gluten.”)
But it doesn’t end there — you’ll want to do your research and make sure it’s a keyword that a) doesn’t have much competition, and b) will have a substantial monthly search volume.
Once you’ve selected your long tail keyword, be sure you incorporate it in your blog post’s headline, body text, meta description and image alt-text.
And remember — just because you’ve selected a long-tail keyword doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. You should select a few other short keywords and pepper them throughout your article as well.
4. Don’t be afraid to stir the pot.
Don’t be afraid to post content that stirs the pot a little. I’m not saying to write outrageous things. I’m saying don’t be afraid to share some of your opinions that might be a bit provocative.
After all, the best way to get more comments on a blog post is to spark a conversation with a myriad of viewpoints. Just be sure that you have the information to back up your claims in the event that your blog post goes viral.
A good example of writing something that stirs the pot a bit is this blog post from a man who said marriage wasn’t for him. His article got 25 million views.
5. Promote the heck out of it on social media.
You should always share your blog posts on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. (You can also look at Instagram as a potential channel, but that primarily works for image-driven content.)
My advice is to do your research before you begin social media promotion. After all, some people are highly successful when it comes to marketing their blog posts on social media, while others drop the ball completely.
Look at a handful of successful bloggers you follow to see how they share their content and try to form a similar strategy.
And remember to always interact with users. If someone retweets your blog, send him or her a quick “Thanks!” If someone shares your post on Facebook, see if you can return the favor by sharing some of their content with your followers.
Which leads me to my next point …
6. Reach out to industry influencers.
You don’t have to be aggressive or pushy. You can simply make a list of people in your network who you would consider industry influencers, shoot them an email sharing your content with them and ask them if it’s something they’d be interest in sharing with their followers.
If you have a substantial following yourself, you can offer to return the favor too. Once you do this long enough, you’ll build relationships with people who you can regularly have a content “exchange” with.
This process cannot be automated, so it involves taking the time to write personalized emails to dozens of people each time you publish a blog post. But trust me — once you get it in the right influencer’s hands, it’s worth it.