There Are Only Four Reasons Why No One Is Reading Your Blog
Frustrated with failed attempts to get people to read your blog? For a lot of small businesses, it can feel like there’s a secret formula to growing an audience that no one is willing to share. Well, the good news is there is no secret formula. But maybe that also feels like bad news, too, if there’s no formula. Okay, here’s some more good news. If you’re having trouble generating more visitors to your site, chances are you’re making one of these four mistakes.
The most common blogging mistakes are actually pretty simple to fix. Take a look below and see if any of these scenarios sounds familiar to you.
Blog? What Blog?
Okay, I’ve got to admit—I’m guilty of this one. But that doesn’t make it less of a big deal. If you’re not publishing on a regular basis, you’ll lose your audience.
I’ve seen a lot of small businesses that post articles sporadically—maybe five in a month, then one the next month, then a couple more, then they go dark for two or three months. If you can’t be consistent, your audience won’t be consistent either. And the ROI of your blog comes from the snowball effect that consistent blogging generates. But if you don’t keep feeding the engine, your marketing machine will sputter and halt.
[bctt tweet=”If you can’t be consistent in your #content, your audience won’t be consistent either. ” username=”billkerschbaum”]
Now, until just a few months ago, the best practice was to crank out as much content as you could. Blogging once a week was the basic standard, but blogging 16 times a month would get you almost five times as many leads. Now that’s changed. As content shock is becoming more widely recognized, the best practice is to double down on content quality and pare down your production.
Still, that doesn’t mean you can skip a few weeks. You still need a consistent cadence that will build an audience. What the ideal cadence is will depend on your company and your audience. In general, I still recommend weekly blog articles, but more than that probably isn’t necessary for most small businesses.
You’re Hiding from Google
SEO best practices are absolutely necessary. And what used to be helpful SEO best practices are now the very minimum requirements you need to have. The basic on-page SEO tips and tricks that used to boost your results are now foundational must-haves that every marketer should be doing, simply as a matter of course. If keywords, alt tags, and naming conventions make up the bulk of your SEO tactics, you’re going to have a tough time ranking on Google.
[bctt tweet=”Is your content hiding from Google?” username=”billkerschbaum”]
While you need to be using long-tail keywords, what’s more important these days is using topics. Check out HubSpot’s incredibly helpful video from the INBOUND 2017 conference on topic clusters. If you aren’t using topic clusters to boost SEO and rank higher on Google, start thinking seriously about it now.
Your Blog Is the Field of Dreams
Just because you build it, that doesn’t mean anyone will come. Keywords and on-page SEO are great, but you’ll need more than that to generate an audience. Once you publish, you’ll need to promote your post. That means getting your article in front of the right eyeballs.
How do you do that? Know where your ideal audience is, and go there. Here are a few ways to promote your blog posts:
- Share on social. Post updates on LinkedIn or Facebook or Twitter. Consider Instagram or Snapchat. Are your customers hanging out on Pinterest? Then make sure your post gets visibility there. Only spend time posting on the sites that your customers actually use. For most B2B companies, LinkedIn is the best social media platform for promoting your blog post. Don’t forget to post on groups that your customers are members of!
- Syndicate. Syndication services like Medium and Business2Community can boost your audience exponentially. These services are built to help you increase your exposure, establish yourself as a thought leader, and expand your audience—for free!
- Email your contacts. If you’re not sharing your blog articles with your contacts, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. Your contacts have already given you their email addresses—they expect you to reach out to them. They’re waiting for it. Reward them with valuable information they can use. Email each blog post to your contact list.
- Reach out to influencers. Does your article mention an influential person or company? Share your post with them and mention that you thought they’d like to share your comments about them with their audience. Now you’ve instantly accessed all of the influencers followers, as well as your own.
- Use paid promotion. Consider promoting your blog with Facebook ads, promoted tweets, Google ads, Youtube pre-roll ads, and more. Do your research ahead of time, start with one or two campaigns that make the most sense for you, and tweak as you go.
Your Content Stinks
In the end, none of your efforts will matter if you’re not giving your audience high-quality content that educates, inspires, and interests your audience. If you’re not providing value, your audience won’t provide their attention. High-quality blog content is content that:
- Is well-written. Not everyone is a writer, and that’s okay. If you can’t write (or hate to write), find someone who can.
- Says something new. Don’t parrot everyone else in your industry—say what no one else will. Present a new perspective. Be bold enough to address the elephants in the room that your competitors won’t acknowledge. Speak to a niche that others ignore.
- Has personality. Write like a human, not a robot. Let your company’s personality shine through—whether it’s snarky, bubbly, droll, or goofy. Your customers want to feel connected to you. They want to do business with humans, not a corporation. Your blog should connect personally to them.
- Is visual. People are drawn to visual content—now more than ever. Don’t skimp on good quality images. Incorporate video. Embed infographics. Share data visualizations.
- Provides value. Educate your audience, don’t sell to them. Help them to understand their pains and equip them to solve their problems. The more customer-focused your content is, the more your audience will grow. Know your customers and build strategic content around them.
Your REAL Blogging Problem
The most common blogging mistakes are actually pretty simple to fix. They require work, but they’re simple. For many small businesses, the real problem at the root of these blogging mistakes is a resource issue. The business owner or the person in charge of sales is the one who’s supposed to create content. What you need, ultimately, isn’t a fix for these blogging mistakes—it’s a marketer who can take you to the next step in your company’s growth.
Ready for agency-caliber marketing content, but not for an agency? Let’s talk. I can help you create strategic content that builds your business. Contact me today!