Running a blog over WordPress is seemingly an easy thing to do. The open-source and guided nature of this Content Management System helps inexperienced bloggers glide through the entire journey of setting up their own blog, running it smoothly, and troubleshooting any issues that might come up. There are approximately 76.5 million WordPress blogs , Marketing Strategy, over the Internet and 8% of the top 100 blogs according to Technorati are managed with WordPress. Well, that clearly explains the popularity of the CMS and its blog-friendliness.
Having your own blog requires people to take care of the content creation part, publishing it, distributing it, and growing it. Even if we are not talking about standalone WordPress blogs, websites with a blog are becoming quite a compulsion in the B2B marketing sphere. As per a source, websites with a blog tend to have 434% more indexed pages. That is probably the reason that in 2017, 66% of marketers reported using blogs in their social media content. With so much to offer, blogging on WordPress really sounds like a cakewalk. But, is it really so?
Since there are astonishingly so many blogs over the Internet, maintaining the relevance of one’s blog can only come through marketing it well, as long as you are putting out great content. A great blog marketing strategy can help you keep your blog alive and probably also help it grow steadily. So, what is the correct approach to planning the marketing of your WordPress blog? Let’s find out in this blog post below.
Know what you are going to do
Let’s start from scratch and find a suitable domain through NameFresh. So, now that you are planning to start a blog with WordPress, have you really been able to figure out the purpose of this blog? Do you know what kind of content will this blog be serving to its audience? Have you figured out the niche that you are going to blog about? Is your chosen niche going to fulfill your long-term blogging goals? Questions like these will help you give a double thought to your blog building goal and probably help you come up with a better marketing strategy in mind.
Define your content ideas and content schedule
At this point in time, you are probably very clear that you want to professionally start blogging with WordPress. Now is the time to ponder over your content ideas. You have figured out a niche for your new blog and now you need to think about how you are going to materialize this niche and deliver it to your audience.
Talking of the content ideas, you can either choose to be a story-telling blogger, a video blogger, a listicle blogger, or a blogger who works with a mixed format. Once you have your content ideas, you have to create a schedule for running your blog. This schedule is going to help immensely when you are at a later stage, struggling to market your blog. So, it is best that you stay prepared in advance.
This schedule can either be weekly, monthly or simply annual. Having a schedule will help you post blogs consistently which is a prime determinant in the success of your blog and its marketing efforts. You can use the WordPress Editorial Calendar plugin to amplify the efforts for this purpose.
Define your niche’s target audience
Once your schedule and content ideas are ready, it is time to rethink your target audience. In the process of creating a blogging schedule, you will find that the emphasis of your target audience might keep shifting from one set to another. Hence, it is really important that you are very clear about this and that you plan your blog marketing strategy as per the location, sex, and age factors of this audience.
Carry out Keyword Research
This is the point where you start taking baby steps towards figuring out the marketing of your WordPress blog. Choosing the right keywords will not only help you make your blog more visible, but it will also help you target your competition and figure out their marketing strategy. This is where you plan your SEO strategy as well. Choose long-tail keywords that are low in competition yet have a higher search query percentage. This can be overwhelming for you, so why not use Keyword Research tools such as keywordtool.io, Moz’s Keyword Explorer, or KWFinder.
Create impeccable Content
The most important prerequisite to marketing your blog is creating content that’s worth marketing. Always look towards creating original content that can provide value to your audience. It should be free of any language errors, skimming, or plagiarism.
When you create awesome content, you are making sure that your readers keep coming back to your blog for consuming more of this amazing blog offering. This way, you will be able to build a loyal reader base and this audience will never hesitate from sharing or talking about your blog and its content in their social circles.
Work on your site’s UX and speed
Next up, you can effectively deliver your marketing strategy by making your blog worth all these efforts. A blog with a visually aesthetic appeal, a seamless navigation, and obviously blazing fast loading speed will market better than others. You can use WordPress caching plugins such as W3 Total Cache, and WP Super Cache for speeding up your WordPress blog. Also, always invest in a reliable web hosting service so that your blog is always swift to load.
Plan your links
You will be better able to market your blog posts if you interlink your posts on your blog. It is also beneficial if you are able to link your new posts to other relevant content or to “top searched” pages. Linking your blog posts to other credible sites also markets them to a newer set of audience. You can try guest blogging or contribution posts to earn these backlinks. This way, you can create your subscriber/follower strategy and build upon the base as well.
Driving engagement
Once your blog is established and you start putting out content on it, people will start dropping by and engaging with the content on the blog. Make sure that you keep them involved by replying to their emails and comments. It is very important when you are trying to market your blog posts. You should also visit other blogs and engage with them on a mutual basis so that they also get to interact with your blog. You can also seek guest contributions on your blog site for more engagement.
Social media sharing strategy
The best way to market your WordPress blog is to establish its social media presence. Having this blog available on all social media platforms will ensure that your content is capable of reaching as many people as possible. Make your posts on your blog shareable so that it can become visible on social media as and when your blog followers share them.
Having an e-mailing list is also a great way of reaching out to an interested audience and promoting your blog content. With a mailing list, you can deliver the activities on your blog to your subscribers. You can add a call to action to your emails and prompt the audience to take action.
Conclusion:
Marketing a WordPress blog is definitely a lot of work. However, with a little help from resources over the Internet and our blog post above, we hope that you will have a fair idea of the correct way to approach your WordPress blog marketing. Obviously, there is more to the meat under this vertical and we will be covering them in more blog posts that follow. Meanwhile, we hope that you will utilize the pointers in this blog post and market your WordPress blog with utmost success.
Author Bio:
Pawan Sahu is a freelance technical writer and marketer. He helps brands plan their marketing strategy and improve their visibility in Search Engines.