If your blog is a business and you want to make money from it, growth and expansion are essential for your it to survive. A business can’t get started, grow to a certain point and then just remain at that point and continue to succeed.
A small online business or blog doesn’t have to grow and expand until it becomes a giant multi-national company in order to survive. But you do have to grow your audience so you can build your brand, grow an email marketing list, and make more sales.
Know Your Audience
When you start a business you need to choose a specific niche market that isn’t too broad or too narrow. You need enough people to sustain your business by buying from you regularly but not market so wide that is overloaded with competitors so that you don’t even have a chance to get noticed.
Ensure That It’s a Paying Market
Do your research to confirm that the customers you are focusing on in that niche buy books, magazines and regular items to help them get the most out of their job or hobby. If they’re a dog owner, for example, they’ll routinely buy food, doggie snacks, leads and so on. If they’re a golf enthusiast, they will buy golf balls, clothing, golf clubs, excursions to various courses, and so on.
Create High-Quality Content Based Around Their Needs
What are the “pain points” or problems people generally have in regards to your niche. If you know your target audience when writing content for your blog you can deal with these issues. By doing this, you’ll be able to grow your audience as they’ll come to feel that you understand and care about them. They’ll then be prepared to read your blog regularly, sign up for your email list and tell others about it.
Include a Call to Action (CTA)
Your blog content is a framework for building your audience, and for getting subscribers and sales. Set an objective for each piece of content. Then include a call to action (CTA) that will help you meet that goal. For example:
- Brand Building – “Please Like, Comment or Share”
- Website traffic – “Click this link to learn more”
- Subscribers – “Click here to download your free checklist”
- Product sales – “To learn more click here for an effective solution.”
Post Helpful Social Media Content
Post a range of content at the top social media sites that will motivate your audience and that is relative with what each platform wants. For example, at Facebook, they are encouraging memes and video. LinkedIn is more of a business-to-business network and Pinterest and Instagram are driven by images.