Do you want to promote your blog and get quality traffic? 
Then stop chasing after the next traffic blueprint and stay focus.
All that you’ll ever need to succeed online as a blogger and content marketer is within you. I’ve come to realize that. Just believe it!
But you must make up your mind to give it all it takes.
It all boils down to positioning your blog so that the target audience can find it, share your content and tell others through word of mouth marketing.
If I tell you right now that you can build a successful blog by simply writing articles every day, then I’m the dumbest liar around.
Of course, there is a place for ‘quality’ content, but getting targeted traffic (loyal readers) requires much more than that.
The beauty of blogging is that if you’ve passion for the subject you’ve chosen, you can easily scale through.
Every task would seem like your birthday celebration – because you’re in love with your job. So, the first rule of blog marketing is PASSION. Okay, this post is pretty long. Here are the top 10 blog marketing strategies that work:
1. Develop a (USP) Unique selling Proposition
What really is USP?
Well, I don’t like the definition in those marketing encyclopedia. It’s downright confusing and I want to make it simple for you.
As a website owner, your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is what differentiates your content, title, theme, product, writing style etc. from other people in your niche.
If you look around the blogosphere, you’ll find a lot of bloggers who write about content marketing 85% of the time. That’s what this blog is about, too.
But I’ve carved a USP for myself in the area of persuasive writing and SEO. Sure, I still cover other topics, but my focus is on attraction marketing – whereby potential customers and readers come to me, instead of me going to them.
The harsh truth is that if you don’t develop a Unique Selling Proposition early, you’d struggle to retain your readers.
And if you can’t successfully engage the person on your blog right now, why bother sending more traffic to the same website that sucks?
Ask yourself this question, “Why should people visit my blog instead of my friend’s blog?” If you can’t find a simple answer to this question, you’re still lagging behind in blog marketing.
2. Use 3-step marketing rule
Have you ever heard the phrase “3-step marketing rule?”
I wouldn’t be surprised if this is your first time to read about it. Because I didn’t read it from any blog. The concept is pretty simple and I formulated it to help you reposition your life.
No matter what you’re doing right now to get targeted traffic and readers to your blog, make sure you lead them through a 3-step marketing process.
Here’s how it works?
Your content has to catch people’s attention (title). Then you’ll build interest in the body of the article, video or whatever content type you’re using.
Once the attraction is there and interest has been established, it’d be easy to get anybody to do whatever you want them to do. Simple!
So, even if you use classified ads to send free traffic to your website, don’t just ask people to click a link.
That’s not the right way to persuade people and establish relationship with them. Instead, use questions to engage the right people. Tell a short, emotional story.
Guest blogging is one popular way to use the 3-step marketing rule. Research the popular posts at the blog you intend to write for.
Then follow the same trend and write what people had already liked and commented on.
Then call to action and you’ll get real-time traffic to your blog. You may argue that the 3-step marketing rule doesn’t apply for driving traffic – which I agree.
But did you know that even if you succeed in sending people to your blog, if they don’t like you or believe in you to an extent, they might as well close the browser and run away?
The 3-step marketing rule CAPTIVATES people. They’ll automatically create an impression that you’re a real person who cares about them. Use it. It works!
3. Enrich your content funnel
When people read your blog posts, they want to take something valuable home.
If your content didn’t help readers, the next time you publish a post – no one would read or share it. That’s why you must enrich your funnel.
Mind the words you choose to write your posts with.
Remember, people are tired of seeing such words such as “traffic, SEO, marketing, blogging, facebook etc.”
These words were once powerful but over the years, they’ve lost their true values.
So, when you use words that have become clichés to write your content, PLEASE ensure that the content is epic.
Your readers can’t settle for ‘good enough’ content, because they can easily visit other blogs and read ‘awesome’ content for free.
If you want to build a profitable blog that would eventually pay your bills and announce you as the foremost expert to your world, epic content should be your focus.
You may not publish blog posts every day. One post per week is fine – but you MUST create the best piece ever. It doesn’t have to be heavenly, but it should be practicable and interesting.
Dazzle your readers and new visitors with exclusive content. If you’re to write about ‘traffic generation’ for instance, make every subheading unique and explain the concept of generating traffic using your own voice.
Don’t try to copy any expert – because you’ll FAIL. Do your own thing when it comes to blogging – that’s why you’re the one with your wordpress login details…
4. Focus on people first
Yes, I do search engine optimization (SEO) all the time – both for my niche blogs and my clients’.
But the truth is that focusing on Google would only bring you discouragement.
I wonder where bloggers got this concept that targeting a particular keyword is all they need to rank their content pages in Google top 10.
By the time you give full attention to the people you’re serving, Google search engine would automatically create a favorable climate for you.
Google search engine is just a piece of script that crawls the web, looking for fresh and relevant content that breeds engagement.
When this piece of script (search engine) finds a new blog post, it’ll then use several factors to determine its value. The content will be indexed (added to Google’s search database).
If you want to drive organic traffic without getting penalized like your friends, pick your keyword but ONLY give 10% attention to it. Give 90% to those who would read the content. Find out what their challenges are. And provide answer to them.
The keywords you researched should guide you when writing the content. For instance, if someone searched for “get rid of acne overnight,” you can see how desperate this person is.
Your role as a content marketer isn’t to stuff that keyword and choke Google spider to death, but to align your content in the language of ‘urgency’ or ‘quick’ according to the keyword above.
One more thing: Google spider can’t comment, subscribe to your list or buy the product you’re selling. So why waste time trying to please a piece of script?
I’m sure you know what to do from henceforth – write for the people and Google would get the engagement signal and send you avalanche of targeted traffic.
5. Use ready-made data
A vital blog marketing strategy you can use today is ready-made data.
Most bloggers are marketing blindly with the hope that one day; their content would go viral and bring them thousands of visitors.
But that’s not ethical and serious entrepreneurs don’t throw the ball and pray it doesn’t fall down. The force of gravity definitely must bring it down.
Ready-made data from Google keyword tools can be very useful. Keywords and key phrases reveal what your target audience has in mind. Man is a product of his own words…
You may not meet with any of your blog readers and fans till you die, but if you can get the data they’ve been using over time to search for information, then you’re going to grow your blog.
Google Analytics is my favorite data mining tool.
You should use it. But more importantly, study the trends. Find out the demographic (age, location, taste etc) of your visitors. Find out what content is sending people away from your blog – and stop writing such types of content.
Few weeks ago, I checked my Google analytics account and discovered that “guest blogging posts” tends to drive my readers away, whereas, SEO, email marketing, website marketing and traffic generation are my readers’ favorites.
With these ready-made data, I can write better content for my loyal readers and attract potential clients to my content marketing services. Go after ready-made data and you’ll grow your blog’s traffic and income exponentially.
6. Follow new traffic trends
When you wake up every morning, do you worry about traffic and income?
If yes, then it means that you’ve been doing the wrong stuffs. I’m sorry to say that.
If you focus on the right trends, there is nothing that can hinder your success.
You don’t even need to be a renowned expert blogger to build an active community. The first thing you must recognize is that PEOPLE wants to have a sense of belonging.
Many people are scared, tired and confused on what to do next. They’ve subscribed to 5 – 10 A-list blogs with the hope of growing their own business – but it’s just not happening.
Your readers want to help you get more targeted traffic, but you’ve to show them that you’re not a hit-and-run blogger.
Content marketing is all about bringing people, establishing a strong connection with them and constantly spoon-feeding them with epic content.
When you care for your readers so much, you’ll eventually safeguard them against the competitors. They can’t easily unsubscribe from your email list or subscribe to someone else’s.
You’re the only person they know and as such, they’ll have no other option than to tell their friends, fans and loved ones about you and your blog.
The new traffic trend is ENGAGEMENT. Stop throwing your readers away like a rotten orange.
They came to your blog because they were “at least” convinced that you have the right content for them. Don’t rub your family’s name in the mud.
Did you see how customers from around the world are attached to Apple and their products? Because Apple Innovates. Apple gadgets solve problems. You should do likewise, too.
It’s one of my best blog marketing strategies you SHOULD obey if you want to grow beyond where you’re right now.
7. Persuade new users
It could be that someone referred a new reader to your blog.
You may not know how they arrived but the most important thing is to earn their trust. Most of your blog readers have thousands of twitter followers and facebook friends.
And because a lot of them have not been active at blogging, they’ve been addicted to those social media networks and now, they’ve fairly built engagement with people.
All they need from you is a little nudge and that’s it – they can tweet your latest post to their fans and that could bring in a reasonable amount of targeted traffic to your blog.
With content marketing, everything is possible online. That’s why you must develop your writing skills in order to persuade new users especially.
When they visit your blog, show them the first content they should read. Be their guide until they begin to like you.
It’s actually easy to establish a connection with new users if you’re passionate about your blog. Because passion can’t be suppressed.
It’ll always hone itself. Use persuasive writing to build interest in the minds of new users – and they’d become formidable evangelists for you.
8. Take advantage of traffic spikes
Please understand that ‘traffic’ stands for people online. We’re not talking about robots and scripts that fill forms and leave funny comments e.g “awesome dude.”
You need to always take advantage of traffic spikes. But you must be prepared before it happens.
Because you can’t control where your blog or name is mentioned – both off and online. If you keep producing great content, someone would eventually take note of this and mention you at a high-traffic blog.
In 2012, my blog was mentioned at a popular press release website and within 12 hours, I got well over 3200 real visitors here.
Did I take advantage of this traffic spike? Yes I did, but I wasn’t impressed because the design of my blog at the time looked crappy and ugly.
I only had an optin box on the sidebar and got 31 subscribers. If such amounts of traffic should come to my blog today, I know that I’ll convert 1000+ to my list.
In order to take advantage of this “accidental traffic spike,” add a subscription box at a vantage position on your blog and get a professional blog design.
You’ll be amazed at the speed by which your loyal readers and income would grow – because people are attracted to “beautiful designs.”
9. Focus on the “social”
When it comes to social media marketing, here’s what I found out: If you focus on the ‘social,’ the media tends to take care of itself.
In other words, care for people. Listen to your target audience and read their lips. What makes them happy and what pisses them off.
So many bloggers are using forums and discussion boards to build links, and promote hyped-up affiliate products.
But it’s not supposed to be so. Forums are useful, and should be used for market research and study.
In every niche, you can find the forum that suits you. All you’ve to do is become an active user – don’t be addicted to it. Being active is quite different from getting addicted!
Spend at least 1 hour weekly to read new threads and hot discussions. Learn from experts who know their onion. Get the right questions from beginners to internet marketing or whatever your niche may be.
Use the insights to build a strong rapport with them. Plug the questions people ask unto Google keywords tool or your favorite keyword tool and you’d be surprised by the results.
That’s how I research keywords for my niches blogs, which makes it easy for me to dominate search engines within 30 days.
I research keywords using questions that have been asked several times by my ideal customers.
Twitter, facebook, LinkedIn and other social media networks are best used for communication, sharing and expression of your love to help people.
Twitter is not a salespage – so stop bugging people with buy now button and links. Focus on the “social” aspect of it and the “media” would automatically fall on your laps.
10. Get offline and promote your blog
The final blog marketing strategy that works is when you go offline.
There are still millions of potential customers and friends you’ll never reach on facebook and twitter, let alone your own blog.
There is so much noise online. While other people are busy wasting time pitching guest post topics and expecting a “YES,” you can easily get offline and become famous. How?
Attend seminars and conferences. Brand a T-Shirt with your blog URL and wear it when you’re out shopping or socializing with friends and family.
Get a business card and imprint your blog’s URL on it. MAKE IT BOLD.
Instead of asking people to follow you on Twitter of Pin your photo on their Pinterest Board, quietly ask them to visit your blog and join your email list so that they can receive exclusive content.
Whatever your niche might be; social media, make money, SEO, jewelry, nutribullet juicer, education, entertainment, building a list is vital.
It’s wiser and it’d grow your blog’s traffic and income.
Blog marketing hack
You can grow your blog’s traffic, increase your sales and enjoy writing if you choose to.
It may not be easy at first, but as you continue – you’ll begin to see the possibilities and opportunities. If I made it, you too can.
What other blog marketing strategy do you use to drive targeted traffic and sales?
I’d really appreciate your valuable comment below. Thank you for reading my 2730+ words post. See you at the top!
Photo Credit: business-drawing | Check out my nutribullet reviews quickly.
Writing for people is what I do with my Blog. It help me build good relationship with my readers. Your Points about USP was a good One.
Thanks & Regards.
writing for people is what I do with my Blog. It help me build good relationship with my readers. Your Points about USP was a good One.
Thanks & Regards.
Would you elaborate a bit further on the engagement that you mention when discussing traffic trends? Would that include doing things like running contests, offering free consultations and running an faq? Something else?
All of the above – just to keep your readers active and for them to feel a sense of belonging.
You always publish the best posts Michael. Now that’s one blog marketing strategy that works for you….
Keyword research is a fundamental part of online marketing of all kinds, and is especially relevant for freelance writers, online publishers, and bloggers. Compelling content is favored by search engines, but if you don’t use the words people are actually interested in and actively searching for, you’re missing a lot of traffic.
Social networking or bookmarking sites can generate additional page views with little effort. They are also an easy way for your readers to share your blog posts with other people. It also allows you to promote your site or blog that includes links to your products or services in every post to these networking and bookmarking sites. This will help you generate a more targeted traffic. An easy way to do this is with AddThis .
Knowing how to send targeted traffic to your website is one of the basics of internet marketing. As the number of your sales depend on the amount of traffic you attract, it’s important that you get as many people as possible to pay you a visit. Carefully choosing the traffic-generating tools to use will definitely help. Personally, I recommend the use of article marketing as it’s proven very effective not only in sending lots of people to your website but also in establishing your authorities in your niche and in boosting your page ranking.
Use it to showcase your best content so that you can attract targeted traffic, guide them to checkout your products/services and make some serious money.
Content marketing that persuades readers to make decisions in favour of them while enhancing brand loyalty is generally done with an intention to gain higher visibility, drive targeted traffic and enhance sales and profitability. For all these viable reasons, content marketing covers all formats to create strong and interesting content and market their content (using print, visual medium, social networking sites, etc.) for optimum results.
You’ve shared some great marketing strategies that work. And I think that “Enrich your content funnel” is the best to do now
Use blogs for auto-syndication of articles At the hand of professional users blogs have become potent means for marketing and promotion of events. Blog links of your article titles on other people’s websites can help you get more traffic.
Content marketing that persuades readers to make decisions in favour of them while enhancing brand loyalty is generally done with an intention to gain higher visibility, drive targeted traffic and enhance sales and profitability. For all these viable reasons, content marketing covers all formats to create strong and interesting content and market their content (using print, visual medium, social networking sites, etc.) for optimum results.
Social networking or bookmarking sites can generate additional page views with little effort. They are also an easy way for your readers to share your blog posts with other people. It also allows you to promote your site or blog that includes links to your products or services in every post to these networking and bookmarking sites. This will help you generate a more targeted traffic. An easy way to do this is with AddThis .
of research to find valuable tools and resources for Twitter, you will get everything you need to drive your marketing to new heights all in one place. Even if you are wondering what in the world is a Twitter widget, plugin, script, or app is, you don’t have to be concerned about it because everything is included in my report to make your life easier and start making money right now.
One mistake people often make when choosing content is in taking on topics and titles that are too broad and not useful towards generating traffic.
You’re so correct – I hope everyone would stop making that mistake. Thanks for your comment.
True!!
you have carved a special USP in your niche.
Killer post with views from all the angles of marketing strategy.
Use blogs for auto-syndication of articles At the hand of professional users blogs have become potent means for marketing and promotion of events. Blog links of your article titles on other people’s websites can help you get more traffic.
Legit and it would really take time before we see the results. Thank you for sharing these strategies. I hope it would work on my blog.
You have mentioned all the points’ very detail. Your mentioned points are help to improve the site traffic and site visibility over SERPs. One important thing you priorities in your blog is the readers, it’s very important for a blogger that more and more visitor visit his blog and give their suggestion over that topic, which motivate the blogger to write more and more good topic in his blog. A valuable comment also plays an important role for a blogger. Thanks for sharing this wonderful blog marketing strategy.
You’ve shared some great marketing strategies that work.
I think we should do in depth research about the topic we which are planning to write. Following new traffic trends is also an important aspect. I think a lot is changing in SEO day by day and we have to promote our article with proper marketing stratergy.
Hi Michael,
We’ve recently started working hard on our blog after being hit by a Google penalty. Your advice is great for finding better ways to connect with readers.
Your formula of giving 10% of attention to the keyword and 90% of attention to the blog readers is great! Epic content isn’t easy to produce, but like you said, posting once a week instead of daily can really ease up the time-frame needed to research, write, and edit these kinds of posts.
Thanks for the tips!
I was not aware about such marketing strategies thanks for such an article …really great one.
As I share the viral marketing techniques , you can guarantee more targeted traffic to your website.
Why do you have to go through all this? Because the best, most successful content ideas come out of understanding your target customer’s interests and motivations.
awesome article and enjoyable to read… many thanks
Your content should be focused on your industry as well as your geographical location if you are a location-based business. And don’t just focus on your state, but also the specific cities and areas where your customers are concentrated. This process can also allow you to take advantage of current events as they happen.
Exactly. Relevant content to your target audience is what’s vital in today’s blogging world.
Marketing strategy is indeed very important in Blog marketing. Thus, planning it carefully will lead you to effective marketing strategy.
By the way, you have a great list of strategies:)
Glad you enjoyed reading my post Lloyd.
Wow!! What a great writing, really I appreciate such kind of topics. It will be very helpful for us
Thanks
You really have a good point there Michael. Blog marketing should truly be a PASSION. I hope that other bloggers out there would read this. Nice one.
Hmm I should have read this a few days earlier…
Great, very detailled and useful. I think i’m going to rewrite my blog strategy.
Keep up the good work!!
This post is great . It really helped me .
Also focusing on a specific keyword and choosing niches is important too
I totally agree with you about taking people first. Whatever we focus on, we shouldn’t forget that we actually work with people, not statistics or search engines. Whatever I have done, it was always a good idea to focus on people and give them all my love 😉
You portrayed the entire advertising procedure in one and only post. You didn’t even miss any focus and additionally your focuses are so exceptional. This post can’t be brought about a noticeable improvement. Much appreciated
Thank you Abraham for leaving a comment.
Hi, Michael…
I will title this article as “Top 10 blog marketing secrets bloggers don’t know” i love the first point…. developing my USP… i will be practicing that in my Authority blog soon…
Thanks for sharing…
Why do you have to go through all this? Because the best, most successful content ideas come out of understanding your target customer’s interests and motivations.
I am happy to find this post. You have shared the great strategies that will help me to manage my blog. Thanks a lot for sharing such an informative post.
This is the very nice article. the points are unique and useful and a lot important think is compose always unique content on your own and share your personal experience along with your reader in fact your all points are perfect so thanks for revealing me.thanks
the three steps marketing strategy sounds interesting and promising ..would surely apply this strategy in real life.thanks for sharing these strategies.
Regards,
pramod
Hey,
You have shared great strategies to manage our blog and market it in a proper way.
Thanks,
Jannie Taylor
success from blogging revolves around all the geniune points you’ve mentioned
You described the whole marketing strategy in only one post. You didn’t even miss any point and also your points are so unique. This post cannot be made better.
Thanks
it is such a nice post please post more and more i am really impress by this.good luck for the future.
I was focused on SEO earlier and now i am clear about that i need to satisfy my customers not any search engine.
Thanks Michael
Hello dear
i am very impress to your post and i your points are unique and useful and most important think is write always unique content on your and share your personal experience with your reader in fact your all points are amazing so thanks for sharing me
Blog marketing strategy is a highly effective link building method and a good way to attract targeted audience to a website. Your article is very informative; indeed, this is a very helpful list to help both the freshers and seasoned bloggers about the importance of blogging and maintaining their blogs well.
The 4th one truly works. That is my own Experience.well thanks for Sharing.
A very brilliant post as always Mike,
You know, the problem with most of us bloggers is that we’re always busy chasing all the shiny objects that comes our way.
One thing i seriously believe in is that once you do all you are supposed to do then, you will certainly get the success you expect.
One of the strategies that you mentioned here of which I’ve heard before and quite agree with is the issue of using G.Analytics to know the keywords that are bringing those readers of yours to your blog and then, writing more on that.
That is really a very awesome point Mike and that is also what i will be practicing now.
Thanks a lot for sharing such an informative post.
Hey Theodore, I’m glad you gained from my post. Yes, you should pay more attention to Google Analytics.
well thanks for sharing the nice article with us. its worth reading
Being prepared for unexpected traffic spikes is one important tip. It is easy to be relaxed and keeping the work for tomorrow but adding a simple opt-in box or better, something like Hello Bar can help in converting a lot of people!
Thanks for the nice article.
Thank you Ishan for stopping by my blog.
User experience is the best tool for a good marketing campaign ! Make the customer feel comfortable and safe, and let the good times roll 🙂
You’re right on point. Kudos to you!
You’ve shared some great marketing strategies that works. I’m going to subscribe to this blog right now so get notified of future posts.
I can’t wait to have you on my email list. God bless you richly.
Hi Michael,
Hope you have been well. As I always say, readers first – search engines second. This is a well thought out article, and I appreciate the effort you have put in on this article.
Keep up the great work. I will be in touch again this year regarding my HWA project and the new plan for the blog/brand. You rock!
By the way, your social share button is a little annoying and is in the way of the comment box on my laptop. You may want to re position it.
I appreciate your comment Gibb. “Readers first – search engines second” is a nice mantra. I shall be expecting your feedback as regards HWA project. As for the social share button, I’ll try and fix it now. Thanks for pointing that out…
Michael you have shared the awesome strategies that will help me to manage my blog more efficiently. Big Thanks!
Glad you gained blog marketing insights from my post. I hope to see you more often James. Thank you.
Wow, when I saw your email, I knew this post would be a BOMB!
What I love about the content is its originality–you approached the post from different angles…
Thanks bro!
Daniel
You rock bro.
Some great advice here Michael. I look forward to hopefully receiving some nice big traffic spikes to my own blog in future 🙂
I appreciate your comment. I hope you’re prepared for the traffic spikes?
Wow great article! I am new to blogging and I was searching online on how to get my site to rank up. After reading this article I just realized all the mistakes I’ve been making. I was focusing on other things that wouldnt even help rank up my page. I am def going to follow these steps you provided and hopefully ill get to see some improvements on my site, thanks for sharing 🙂