Starting a blog is the easy bit once you have picked a name, but the hard part is maintaining the buzz that you first receive and keeping the readers engaged. You want them to come back for each blog that you write, but it is always the question of how that is impossible. From simply building a relationship with your readers to going down a more technical route with researching SEO keywords, there are so many paths to go down when trying to boost the numbers of readers you have. You can keep your readership at an all-time and consistent high; you just need to know how to do it.
1. Make Your Blog Searchable
Making your blog searchable is an important way to engage and attract your readers. When starting a blog, you should ensure that you have familiarized yourself with the concept of SEO. This translates into Search Engine Optimization, which is a process used to optimize website or blog content relevance and help it be easily accessible and appear higher up on search engine results pages. Taking time to educate yourself in the world of SEO could make all the difference when trying to get your reader engagement to be consistent. You must ensure you are keeping up to date with the new trends and any new engagement or promotional tools so your blog seems modern. In a blog, you can optimize your posts and images by adding relevant information and researching keywords. Doing this will mean your blog ends up in a lot more search engine results and will encourage more people to read your posts.
2. Offer a Giveaway
Giving out an award seems like a simple concept, but it is a method that has been tried and tested many times and has been successful, but people forget it is a powerful way to engage their readers. Firstly, you must think about the products that you are going to give away and if they are relevant and on-brand to your blog. For example, if your blog is primarily based on fashion and the blog post is about how to gain a fashion identity, you could offer a giveaway on custom hats. This is not only showing the readers that you have good relationships with other brands but also displaying good knowledge of what you are writing about. Running a giveaway is a great way to create a buzz about your blog and get people to talk about it, which could work to expand your audience. If you have custom branded merchandise as the item in your giveaway, the more people in said merchandise, the more your brand will be in the public eye and the more potential readers it could reach. Within the category of giveaways, there are also contest ideas that you could encourage your readers to get involved in. Everyone loves a challenge and some healthy competition, and if you include some of these contest ideas occasionally within your blog posts, you will see an improvement in readership numbers. Some contest ideas include:
- Trivia Game Contests – ask the readers a question relevant to your blog and award a prize to whoever answers first.
- Repost Giveaway - ask your readers to repost a product/or picture that is attached to your blog by giving them simple instructions, and then out of the ones who did it, pick a winner.
- Biggest Fan Photo Contest – challenge your readers to submit a photo displaying how they are your biggest fan, and the most creative photo wins. These are just a few ideas you have when using a giveaway as a promotional tool. Adding another layer to your blog, such as a contest or giveaway, may be why your blog stands out from the rest, and it engages your already loyal readers as well as helps to maximize the number of readers that visit your blog.
3. Use Social Media
Engaging existing and new readers couldn’t be easier in this digital age when you have a plethora of platforms to use. Using social media as a promotional method is just second nature to blog writers nowadays because it is free and easy to use. However, using your social media platforms to engage your readers and promote your blog can be very beneficial but only if done correctly. If you are ensuring that you are using social media effectively to help keep your readers interested, then there is no reason why your reader numbers wouldn’t climb. Think about if everything about the social media post, such as the picture, the caption, and who even is tagged, is appropriate to the blog itself. As well as this, ensuring that the post is targeted to the correct audience because if that doesn’t match up, then the main section of your readers could lose interest. There are plenty of debates about what social media platform is the best choice for bloggers to help grow and promote their brand. Pros and cons are obvious in all of them, and you could generically use them to help the engagement of all types of readers but do your research to decipher which one will be best for your blog. You have the more popular choices, such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, but don’t forget the ones that aren’t so mainstream, such as LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest. Taking an interest in all of them could be the difference between engaging your readers or losing them. Also, consistency is key. Have you ever heard of the algorithm? Well, it is true; the more you post, the more likely it is that your post will be seen by more people. If you are only posting about your blog on your socials every few weeks, it won’t be engaging enough because you will be forgotten about. Whereas, if you make an effort to post at least every other day, this post will consistently make it to your followers' and readers' news feeds. It also allows your posts to be seen by others who don’t yet follow you.
4. A Strong Relationship is Key
Before doing any of these steps, one of the most important ways to engage your readers and keep them is to build a relationship with them. If you are giving tips and advice on certain subjects, then you want to give off the impression that you can be trusted. Being trustworthy is an excellent way to build a relationship with your readers. Another way to ensure that you have a relationship with your readers is to have a clean-cut direction in what your blog is about, that includes subject matter and even if you are promoting certain products. Readers will lose interest if the blog seems confused and jumbled, so if you find a niche, stick to it, explore subjects within this niche but stay where the target audience will be interested. You want your blog to be a friendly forum where readers feel safe to express themselves, and you should encourage conversation within the comments. People who share interests are the perfect conversationalists because they already have a common ground. Through this, your readers will make connections and want to return to your blog to carry on the discussions. However, unfortunately, there will always be people that want to ruin the fun, who are being negative and maybe just downright rude, so protect your readers. If they know that you have their backs, they are more likely to return and engage with the blog a lot more. Having these strong connections with your readers makes you seem more personable, essentially their friend, and this is probably the simplest way to keep your readers engaged. Being polite and friendly goes a long way and doesn’t take much effort. However, do keep yourself up to date with trends and social affairs because if you educate yourself on what is happening in the world, and it is obvious you are striving to be respectful and not offend, then that could make all the difference and could be the main reason why your readers keep coming back.
5. Loyalty To Customers
Customer loyalty is not something new to increase blog engagement. It has long been used to motivate frequent customers to remain so or to buy more with the promise of benefits or prizes. Points cards, important discounts, contests, prizes, gifts, and much more. These are the best-known ways to build customer loyalty, in the digital age there are also premium subscriptions that grant special benefits to their users by paying a modest monthly or annual sum. Loyalty must also contemplate good continuous attention to these fixed clients to maintain them and continue to participate actively. Once again, newsletters are useful for this, checking from time to time their level of satisfaction with the product or service, prioritizing their interests and needs so that they feel part of the brand, and achieving the desired engagement.
6. Custom Variety
When the audience and their preferences are known, it is possible to make personalized suggestions. Newsletters are the most used tool when it comes to offering products and services according to different customer profiles. Thus, the customer is more likely to take an action when they see something they are interested in or like, whether it is opening the attached link, searching for related items, subscribing, or even making a purchase. The use of cookies is essential on various sites when it comes to recognizing people's searches and interests. It is another way of indirectly collecting information and filtering ads with suggestions related to what people see browsing the internet or the history of purchases made. This tip is really gonna help increase blog engagement.
Conclusion
So, there are many ways to keep your readers engaged, but the main method to use is effort. Putting effort into all aspects of the reader's engagement makes all the difference. Make an effort to research keywords and relevant information so that your blog reaches more search engine results pages. As well as this, make an effort to ensure that you are using all the social media platforms that you feel are the most beneficial to your blog. Ensure that the posts you publish on social media advertising your blog encourage new and old readers to get involved. You can do this by asking them to leave comments and participate in giveaways and competitions that will promote your brand and help build relationships with your readers. These are all strong ways to keep your readers interested and engaged but just remember none of these would work without the knowledge of the readers themselves.
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