11 OF THE MOST FAILPROOF ONLINE MARKETING IDEAS TO GET YOURSELF NOTICED

Do you feel like you’re just not getting noticed online?

It’s tough, online marketing. You’re writing blog posts, you want to help or inspire people - but still, you struggle to get noticed.

Your Google Analytics dashboard shows that your traffic is stagnant. It’s really getting to you and you start to wonder if you’ll ever see results.

Can you relate?

There’s one thing all bloggers want - traffic. But there’s a big different between wanting traffic and wanting traffic for the sake of it.

Sure you might get people coming to read your latest blog post - but then they don’t do anything else. What’s the good in that? You don’t want people to read a post and then leave. You want them to be interested. You want them to stick around.

Am I right?

You want to attract a sea of traffic filled with your target audience who do want to stick around.

In this post, I’m sharing 11 things I’ve done and learnt about on some online marketing ideas you can use to get yourself noticed.

I’ve tried to make these steps as practical and simple as possible so they can be used by bloggers at any stage of their journey.

#1 | GUEST POSTS ON BLOGS IN YOUR NICHE

Guest posting is the best way to show new audiences that you have some authority and expertise on a topic, no matter how long you’ve been blogging for.

There’s no secret strategy to guest posting.

But there are some things you can do to make sure every single guest post is going to be a success.

Write a great pitch email

I get lots of people asking if they can write a guest post for my blog and their initial email speaks volumes. Why? It’s responsible for the first impression someone forms of you.

So you need to put some work into it.

Here are a few pointers:

Mention who you are, where you blog and what you blog about. This is just common sense, right? Don’t worry about being an expert. Just include this information, a link to your blog and links to some relevant posts.
Suggest some topics that would be a good fit. If you’re pitching to a health and fitness blog, don’t start talking about writing an interiors piece. Think about who you’re targeting.
Show that you know the blogger. You don’t have to be their biggest fan, but it does look good when you show some recognition that you’ve actually visited their website. Comment about one of their latest posts - people love being complimented!

Another tip is to actually let the blogger in question know you exist before you pitch to them. Comment on their blog posts, interact with them on social media and get on their radar. It’s all about building a relationship.

A pitch email doesn’t have to be scary. Keep it simple. I’ve made you a free template which you can download below.

Promote yourself in your guest post

Yes, you’re writing to provide value to someone else’s site. But you can also promote yourself too.

Whenever someone guest posts on my site, I always ask them for an author bio. Your job is to be strategic with it.

You could include the link to your homepage. Or you could include a link to the landing page for your email list community. Or you could go even bigger and customise a landing page for each website you guest post for by creating a specific content upgrade to accompany your post. Give readers a link to go to your website to download it.

And don’t just include links to all your social platforms. Don’t overwhelm people. Pick your key channels.

Promote the live guest post

If a blogger lets you write a guest post for their site, it’s a big deal. So promote it!

When people leave comments on the post, reply to them. When people share it on social media and mention you, get back to them.

It shows you’re putting in the effort and you’re committed to building a relationship.

#2 | SHARE OTHER PEOPLE’S WORK

There are two ways you can do this:

Share other blogger’s work as examples and case studies in your own blog posts
Link to their articles on your social media channels

Doing this is great because it boosts your authority and gives you to chance to network with other bloggers. And then if they eventually share your work, that’s a great chance for you to get in front of a much bigger audience.

The important step is to let them know. So if you include them in a blog post, send them an email. If you’re sharing an article on your social channels, mention them.

Give now and you will get later.

#3 | MAKE IT EASY FOR PEOPLE TO SHARE YOUR CONTENT

When you get more social shares, chances are that you’ll get more traffic. And chances are that for each new person that shares your content, even more new readers will find their way to your blog. But how do you actually get people to share your content?

Use social sharing buttons

Using a tool like Sumo allows you to place sharing buttons at the side of your blog posts - I use these on my blog. You can also brand the buttons so they fit in with your design.

This is the easiest way to get people to share your content when they’re reading it on your blog.

Include a pinnable image

Always include a pinnable image with every single post. It doesn’t have to be your main blog post image. I include mine at the bottom of each post.

This encourages people to click and pin. Plus, if they don’t have time to read your post right now by pinning it, they can save it for later.

Add click to tweets

Pick some great quotes or sentences from your post and turn them into a click to tweet to encourage people to share them.

I also do this in the description of my YouTube videos.

#4 | PROMOTE YOURSELF MORE

I get it. You’re here to create content. Self-promotion just feels icky.

You want to get loads of blog posts up on your website, but you don’t even think about promoting them more.

My recommendation is to get over the fear of self-promotion and start promoting yourself more.

I’ve done this and Pinterest soon enough become my biggest source of traffic.

Here are some tips when it comes to self-promotion.

Pin, pin, pin

Create a pinnable image for each post. Make it vertical and make sure your image is branded.
Put the headline or your blog post (or a similar version) on your image. Lists or How Tos work really well on Pinterest.
If you’re offering a freebie with the blog post, put that on the image too.

Use the weekly promo thread in Facebook groups

Make a note of the promo days for each Facebook group you network in (mine is Sunday!)
Get your description ready and prepped so you can just copy and paste.

For a template description to use, just pop your details in below and it’ll go straight to your inbox.

Share your post more frequently on Twitter

Add click to tweets within your posts to encourage more social sharing.
The average lifetime span of a tweet is 18 minutes so share your new post at least three times on the day it goes live.

Share your post in your Instagram profile and story

Since I started using this strategy, my traffic from Instagram has really increased.

Bonus - remember to use Linktree so you can link to multiple places from within your profile.

#5 | WRITE VALUABLE CONTENT

Not every single one of your blog posts is going to be groundbreaking - that’s okay.

And yes, people have written about your topic before.

But write every single blog post with the aim that it’s going to be your best piece of content yet. This is how you get noticed without even asking. And remember, the more people share your content, the more your traffic increases.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when you’re about to write a blog post:

1. What purpose does it serve?

Think about your blog post idea. What’s the purpose of it?

How is this going to develop your blog and interest your audience?

2. What makes it stand out?

I know you hear a lot about how Google loves posts that are 3,000+ words long - but yours doesn’t have to be like that.

The word count doesn’t matter as long as you are providing value.

My blog posts are usually over 1,500 words. But I write posts for clients that are between 500-700 words.

It’s about how you’re communicating the message.

3. Is it going to help your audience?

Does your audience need this post?

Here are some steps to help you figure it out with examples for this post:

Objectives and personal goals (e.g. to grow their blog, to get noticed online).
Hurdles they’re facing (e.g. lack of time, too much information)
Mistakes they’re making (e.g. focusing on wrong strategies)
Needs to overcome (e.g. believing they’re not good enough)

If you can provide an answer for each of these points, get writing.

#6 | INTERACT WITH OTHER BLOGGERS

There’s nothing magical about this either, but it will help to get you noticed and build your traffic.

Put yourself out there. Show that you can add value to the conversation.

Don’t just leave a comment or tweet people saying “me too!” or “loved this post!”

Your words need to make an impact to get noticed.

And don’t worry if there’s loads of comments or replies already - go for it.

Tell them what you learnt from reading their post. Really read their Instagram caption and comment with something you can relate to. Join a Twitter conversation and really pay attention to your words.

This will make a massive difference.

#7 | WRITE A ROUND-UP POST

I’ve done this a few times now and it works well every single time. In a round-up post you want to mention several other bloggers.

The key is to let them know you’ve mentioned them when the post goes live.

What does this do? Gets you noticed AND gets you more traffic!

You can do a round-up post where you ask bloggers for their advice or you can just list your favourite bloggers and do it that way.

#8 | USE INTERNAL LINKING

You want people to stay on your site for a decent amount of time, right?

So be sure to link to your existing, related posts within the blog post you’re currently writing.

Be aware of your content and your keywords. Know your blog so well that when you come across a phrase you think “I have a blog post about that” and you can link it.

#9 | PROMOTE YOURSELF TO YOUR MAILING LIST

I believe in sending unique content to email subscribers, not just the introduction of your latest blog post. But that doesn’t mean you can’t link to your recent posts within the email.

I just add a section at the end of this email with a “Blog and Life Update”, then I link to my three latest posts from the previous week and share an update on my life.

It’s simple, but I always get some traffic from email.

#10 | REMEMBER LOOKS ARE IMPORTANT

You can write the best content in the world, but if your site looks completed outdated or unprofessional, you’re going to turn people away.

Build a great website from the get go. I recommend Squarespace - here’s a post about how I use it.

#11 | AND SO IS SPEED

If your site takes ages to load, people are going to click away. And that means a loss of traffic.

Scary though, isn’t it?

Check your site speed and make sure your website is with a legit provider. I noticed a massive difference when I switched from Blogger to Squarespace (and stopped using massive images).