How to Promote a Blog Post: 7 Strategies to Drive Website Traffic FREE

I watched a blog post with huge potential struggle last week. It was insightful, packed with depth and well written but it ended up with 17 views. This post was so good and deserved to be seen but it got buried on the web because the author had no idea how to promote a blog post to get it seen.

And you can’t blame this author because this is the story of many content creators out there. With increasing competition from millions of other content, including AI and other innovations, it is becoming increasingly difficult to make a good impression with posts.

From Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Google Algorithm Updates, a lot of small publishers are getting kicked out. And it is becoming discouraging to start from scratch or even put in the work when you know that a lot of people are not going to see your content in the first place. But there’s a way around this.

And it is not just in creating more content, building back links or posting on social media. There’s a strategic way to promote your blog post and get visibility in spite of the competition and innovations. And this is what I’ll be sharing with you in this post.

Identify Clearly Your Goal for Every Content

Identifying your goal for every piece of content has been really under rated by most creators. But you can’t promote a blog post effectively without understanding the purpose of creating the content or better put, the very specific outcome you want to achieve with that content in the first place.

For example, when you’re able to identify your goal for a piece of content, it gives you an idea on who you’re creating for, what you want to achieve with that content, how to promote your content to reach this person so you can eventually achieve said outcome.

This is very crucial because, there are certain kind of posts that will deliver better results when you promote them on a particular social media platform over the other.

There are also those other content that will do better outside the social media completely. And you’ll get better results when you promote them on those specific websites, forums or online groups. Without understanding your specific goals, you might not be sure about this.

So, you want to identify your goal behind the particular content you’re creating and then this will influence your outcomes.

Write for Both Humans and AI

In the past, only humans were the major target of content. Publishers were creating mostly for humans and search engine bots but recently, the advent of AI has changed the dynamics. Now, you have to factor in AI visibility, if you want to promote your blog post and get it seen.

For example, outside writing for humans, you want to write your blog posts in a way that it will be easily indexed by Artificial Intelligence Powered search bots like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok etc.

This means that beyond writing for human first (which is still very important), you also have to structure your post in a way that it will be easily understood by the AI bots. This includes using natural conversational language, answering real questions and breaking down your content into chunk-able sub heads that can be easily cited by the AI search engines.

Beyond writing for AI visibility, you’ll also optimize your content for AI visibility. You can focus on optimizing this as Generative Engine Optimization or Answer Engine Optimization. What both do is to ensure your content has been structured for AI Parsing with headings and sub headings, schema markups etc. that provide seamless crawling, citation and visibility on AI search engines.

Your AI optimization will also extend to building credibility that will make citations easier, creating depth with each single post you make, using bullet points where necessary, to make your content easily scannable, getting your content well cited to show transparency and finally, answering the frequently asked questions, easily associated with the topic you’re covering.

Use Social Media Strategically

With over 5 billion users, collectively, social media is the number one platform to promote a blog post effectively, for most publishers and creators.

Back in the days when I first started out as a content creator, social media was my number one source of traffic. I was already posting on my social media platforms before I started a blog so they were already familiar with my blog. So using the right strategies, I was able to turn them into my first audience, when I eventually started my blog.

Now, even when social media is a great place to source for readers, you don’t want to come over and dump your content links on the platform. You want to strategically use the platform if you really want to promote your blog posts and get the results.

Instead of dropping random blog posts links whenever you post, consider turning your posts into micro assets that can be used across your choice social media platforms. This means from one blog posts you can create 1-2 Twitter (X) threads.

You can also turn that one blog post into a 30 seconds video or thereabouts, explaining one of the ideas discussed in your post and then share it as a Reel or YouTube shorts. It can also be turned into one graphic to be shared on Instagram or Facebook with captions, one Email Newsletter or one audio podcast.

Although this can be time consuming, it will definitely grow your audience and amplify your reach, beyond your blog if you’re able to do it strategically.

Specifically, outside using your social media as a great tool for traffic, compared to new readers from the who randomly find your blog online, it’s always easy to have your social media followers take specific actions on your blog.

From taking actions like sharing your links, leaving comments on your posts, to subscribing to your newsletters etc., it’s also a lot easier to get them take on your CTAs or drive them through the sales funnels, compared to starting from scratch.

Mistakes to Avoid

• Avoid trying to promote your content across all social media platforms. That won’t help you. Choose the top social media platforms with the largest number of your target audience, based on your content goals.
• Review as much social media platforms as possible then focus on the ones that will give you the biggest ROI.
• Do not attempt to use the same strategy across all social media platforms. While Facebook and Instagram may be closely related for instance, it doesn’t always mean that the strategies that’s worked for Facebook will definitely work for Instagram.
• Understand that these platforms are different and that to get the best result you’ll come up with a strategy that will work for each platform based on their peculiarities and audience.

• Don’t overly promote your blog post or website links on social media. Beyond sharing links to your blog posts, add context. Also, share other kind of content across your social media handles to drive engagement. Furthermore, engage with your audience and above all, deliver valuable content, consistently.
• Finally, to promote a blog post effectively, don’t just share the blank link to your posts, add context. Make an effort to create a compelling copy description that will encourage a potential reader to click through and read the post..

Engage in Email Marketing

Email Marketing is still one of the powerful strategies successful marketers have been using to promote a blog post over the years although it is getting increasingly ignored by most creators recently.

With your email list, you can always send in your blog post to your subscribed readers either as a new post notification or in the body of a weekly or bi weekly newsletters.

To get an effective results with email marketing, you need a decent email list and a good mastery of how to create descriptive and captivating email captions that will easily get readers to click and read through your mails.

Where you don’t have a large email list, if you’re blogging on WordPress, you can set up your in built WordPress email mechanism to send in your posts as mails to your subscribed WordPress readers whenever you publish a new post.

Mistakes to avoid with email marketing

• Do not spam your subscribed readers with content that is not relevant or valuable to them. Be sure to provide adequate value to your users and you’ll get them to open your mails more often.
• Add value and context to your email newsletters. You don’t want to be sharing the same content you posted as blog posts, word for word.
• Add images or other visuals that aligns with your written posts where necessary as this can encourage engagement and clicks

To learn more about how to use email marketing to promote your posts, read this guide by optinmonster.

Join Online Communities

Online communities are a great place for content promotion. Especially, for creators planning to promote a blog post effectively.

There are a handful of online communities out there that give you the opportunity to promote your content and get viewers back to your website.

These include platforms like Quora, Reddit, Growth Hackers, Medium and many others.

With these platforms, you can engage with other users, create content, share there and then still get a handful of users over to your blog.

Mistakes to Avoid

• Don’t get overly promotional on these platforms, you may get banned. Contribute to other people’s content, just the same way you’ll expect others to contribute to yours.
• Follow the rules. Focus on creating valuable content that other platform users will easily want to engage with.
• Engage with other people’s content and be very intentional about adding value or extending the conversation.

Leverage Guest Posting

Guest Posting AKA Guest Blogging is all about creating and sharing content as guest posts on other blogs outside your own. It is a top tier strategy publishers can leverage to build visibility, attract new users and also expand their digital footprints.

When used strategically, a beginner or new blogger can leverage guest posting to build their brand, get backlinks to grow in search ranking and of course attract a new audience over to their blog but all of this cannot be achieved just with any kind of platform.

You want to choose platforms that are relevant to your brand, content or ideal audience. And in addition to that, you want to focus on providing the kind of value that will easily get these platforms to accept your content, after you reach out to them.

Mistakes to Avoid

• While guest blogging is a great way to promote a blog post, you want to avoid writing guest posts on blogs with an audience that’s totally different from your target audience or blogs that will not drive a decent ROI for your effort.
• Do not create AI generated content without context. Focus on creating original content for your guest post and emphasize on that while pitching for guest posting opportunities on other platforms.
• A Guest Blog Post can get you the chance to get a by line on a different blog, a backlinks and new users over to your blog. Be sure you’re pitching a platform that can deliver on these benefits.

I recently wrote a tutorial that covers benefits of guest posting and how to use guest posting to promote your blog. Read it here.

Engage in Strategic Collaborations

Engaging in collaborations with other bloggers, content creators and publishers can serve as a great avenue to promote a blog post effectively.

This can be a very useful strategy for new bloggers. For example, you can collaborate with other bloggers, thought leaders, get their opinion on a blog post and have it published.

You can also collaborate indirectly, borrowing attention ethically. For example, quote 3-4 or more experts in a blog posts, notify them after the post is published and have them share it across their platforms. Most of the quoted experts will be willing to oblige your share requests.

Another way is co-creating a live video or short video based of a blog posts by requesting for the opinion of an expert on a topic you have written about and having the video shared with a recommendation to check the original post. There are many ways to go about it.

With this kind of promotion strategy, parties involved will easily feel obliged to promote the post to their audience. They will also want to link to it from their websites or even it across to their social media platforms.

What this does to you is that it helps you to get in a back link that might boost your SEO while also getting you brand visibility and a handful of new fans.

Mistakes to Avoid

• If you’re collaborating to promote a post directly, always consider the goal of such collaborations before getting started so you can be sure to achieve that goal.
• Consider collaborating only with creators that have the kind of audience you want to target.
• Do not spam other people’s platform with low quality content as such may be deleted

Final Words

Content creation is not complete without marketing and content promotion to users. Still, that’s not where it ends. After promoting your blog posts and getting it across to your preferred users, you have to measure your outcomes.

Find out the platforms that is delivering on the best outcomes, the strategies that led to the best results and the collaborations that drove most of your new users. This will help you to understand what is working and what is not so that everything can be separated and revamped accordingly.

You also have to understand that technology is changing these days. So, you want to get on the new trends as soon as they happen, master the new algorithm updates and how it is changing what is visible, find the new platforms that are shaping the ecosystem and create the kind of content your audience are consuming today, not yesterday.

As we wrap up, I want you to know that nothing beats a great content. Even when you use the best blog post promotional strategies to get visibility, eventually all of that crumbles if it is not build on a solid foundation of top quality content, shared to a specific audience based on their needs.

And finally, you may find it difficult to get grounded if you’re working alone. This is not unusual. Eventually, you get to master it if you don’t give up. And working with our experts also gets you the grounding, the mentorship and guidance that will deliver your outcomes. Join our Blogging Mastery Course

Now it’s over to you. Which of these strategies would you consider using to promote your blog post? Drop your comments below.