6 Ways to Make Your Blog More Relevant

It worked! You started writing regular blog posts. You’ve kept it up for a while now. They’re actually pretty good. And you’re getting boosts in search rankings for some of the topics you’re writing about. Nice.

But something’s missing. It feels like there aren’t many people out there who actually read your posts. You hardly get any social shares, and the only comment someone made isn’t fit to be published.

What gives? We all want to write blogs that people find interesting, entertaining and/or informative. But, after all the time and hard work you put into writing posts that offer lots of good advice, observations and/or ideas, no one’s reacting.

How to Make Your Blog More Relevant

Of course, your blog posts are relevant to the subject areas and the people interested in them. But getting your audience engaged in, commenting on and sharing your posts means making relevance as much a goal of your posts as anything else. Here’s how:

1. To Whom Are You Speaking?

   You need to know your audience. That means deciding who you want to speak to, why you want to talk to them, and what are you going to say.
   
   Imagine this scenario. You walk into a large party. Everyone’s there; family, friends, work colleagues, customers, suppliers, people you knew in school and total strangers. It’s packed. You’re a business person and you have something important to say of interest to your colleagues, customers, and suppliers.
   
   But your clients are spread in a few pockets around the room, as are your colleagues and suppliers. And the hubbub of the party means they can’t hear you anyway.
   
   How will the people you want to reach hear you?
   
   It’s simple. You find where they are in the room, you get involved in the conversation and, when the time’s right, you make your point.

   That room is cyberspace, and you need to decide who you want to speak to, find them, learn more about them and get into the conversation.

2. Find Their Sources of Information

   Back at that mega party, someone in the group says they liked something they saw in a TV documentary. Everyone seems interested to hear about it.  If only you could relate your point to the documentary, it would really hit a responsive chord with everyone. But you didn’t see the show. Online, you should find and read the blogs, social channels, podcasts, websites or wherever your audience gets their information.

3. Engage and Comment on What’s Being Said

   While following the same sources of information as your audience is important, you still can’t expect everyone to listen to you just because you start to speak. But by sharing and commenting on relevant information, you begin to immerse yourself in the flow of that information. You become part of the source. And you make it more likely that people will become more involved in your flow of info.

4. Get an Attitude

   Hey, you’re already there, am I right? So don’t be afraid to express an opinion and be ready to back it up. Taking a position brings something new to the conversation and helps to sustain it. Even if some disagree, it makes your post more interesting and engaging as you give the audience something to consider.

5. Work the Room

   Just like you wouldn’t hang out with the same people all night at the party, you need to mix up your posts. Let’s say you want to talk to customers.  Again, there will be different groups of them. Some will be just starting to talk about a pain point they have that they’re not sure how to solve. Others will be talking about different potential solutions they’ve found. And still, others will be actually talking about specific solutions they’re planning to use or have used. It isn’t enough to know the topic of conversation. Relevancy comes from talking to your audience relative to where they are in the conversation – or where they are in the buying cycle.

6. Change it Up
   
   If you spoke in a monotone voice, people would probably tune out after a while. Similarly, it helps to change the length, style, and type of your posts, You might post a position statement in an essay style, make people’s life easier with tips in a listicle, or help them save time with a ‘How to’ post.

If this all sounds a little daunting, it can be if you try to do everything at once. So go easy on yourself and take it one step at a time. And if you’re looking for any help, get in touch with the digital marketing team at nvision.