How to Build a Reader Base That Keeps Coming Back to Your Blog

If you have a blog, you are probably looking to monetize it in some way.

As any business owner will tell you, the easiest way to increase your revenue is to sell to existing customers.

The rationale behind increasing the number of returning visitors is simple: it costs five times more to acquire a new reader than keeping an existing one.

Think about it. How much would you have to spend promoting your blog with paid advertising?

Or maybe through digital marketing to get new readers every day?

Loyal readers will keep coming back to your blog without you shelling out any money for them.

Besides, with them, you can get free advertising on your own.

Word-of-mouth advertising is still one of the most effective forms of advertising; if you have lots of people gushing about how great your blog is, you can expect your blog to gain more followers - again without you having to spend a single cent.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you should no longer work on acquiring new readers.

I’m saying you shouldn’t neglect your existing ones while you work on expanding your customer base.

In this section, we’ll discuss eight strategies you can use to create a reader base that will return to your blog.

Not all of these ideas will work well for your business, but some will.

With that in mind, let’s dive into our tips to build a loyal reader base.

Blogging should not be a one-time thing. Once you start a blog, you can’t just get one post published and expect visitors to consistently return.

You need to continually create content that interests your audience.

Create a strict posting schedule. You have to let readers know you’re committed to the blog.

That means you’re committed to publishing useful content.

According to Marketing Insider Group, publishing content two to four times a week provides the best results in traffic and conversions.

While frequency is, however, ultimately not necessary, the group said consistency is key.

To help you schedule your blogging tasks, you can use scheduling software.

Make the blog content you publish is relevant to your readers. In other words, stick to the niche you chose.

For example, if you started out with a blog on SEO, make sure you make all your subsequent blog posts on SEO topics.

The rationale is this: Since you want to keep your current crop of readers, you have to stick to the topics that made them read your blog in the first place.

This is not to say, however, that you can no longer expand your topics.

If you decide you love to write about your other expertise down the road, too, maybe marketing, then, by all means, write about marketing.

Make a formal announcement on the new topics your blog will be covering, though. Make it clear, too, that you’re still sticking to your original niche, in this case, SEO, and that you only want to diversify.

I recommend you create a customer persona to help guide you about what topics to cover. A customer persona is a representation of your reader.

You can reference the customer persona as you come up with content ideas.

If you think your persona would find the topic interesting, write the content.

To be successful in blogging, you need to be strategic, too.

Do a little research, and make your list of your most visited blog posts.

For example, Google Analytics is particularly useful for seeing which blog posts had the most traffic given a specific period of time.

Once you have your list of most visited blog posts, take a look at the trend.

Maybe there’s a prevailing category among the popular posts? Or maybe the popular posts have the same format?

Come up with topics you can write about based on the insights you gained.

Secondly, consider the best format for the content based on those insights.

For example, you might find that your readers like to engage with infographics. Or, maybe your readers like list posts.

As you create content, review your assumptions.

Through a continual process of evaluation, you can gain insights into what your readers love, and create more of that type of content.

There’s a reason avid viewers of American television follow their favorite series from start to finish: Cliffhangers.

The cliffhangers in each episode keep viewers from tuning in to the same channel at the same time every day.

No one wants to be left hanging. We don’t want a few details. We all want the entire story.

You can experiment with a series on your blog, too.

When you start a three-part series on SEO, for example, you keep readers coming back for more.

Hopefully, you can keep readers engaged throughout your series.

Don’t assume, however, that everyone will read the parts of your series in chronological order.

Include links in each of the blog posts that form part of the series.

So if a first-time reader lands on the second part instead of in the first, that person can always click on “See Part 1” to go to the first part.

To succeed in blogging, you can’t just wait for readers to come to you. You need to seek them out, too actively.

Email marketing should play a key part in your content marketing strategy.

Newsletters, in particular, are a great way to inform and engage. According to the Content Marketing Institute, this is the most used form of content marketing for 81% of B2B marketers.

Newsletters help retain customers, too, with 80% of business professionals believing this is the case, according to Emarsys.

Create an opt-in form on your blog to gain subscribers.

Make sure you validate the email addresses you get with an email verifier. It is one of the biggest email marketing mistakes, and you must take this seriously.

You want to make sure the email addresses exist to prevent your sender score from dropping.

If your sender score drops, your subsequent emails might only end up in the spam folder and not in the inbox.

Don’t send the newsletters too often.

According to Copypress, once a week is a good frequency to start for newsletters.

It reminds email recipients you exist without necessarily annoying them.

We know content is king, but unfortunately, it’s not enough for you to generate that traffic you’ve always wanted.

If the blog post can’t be found, then it can’t serve its purpose.

In other words, you need to optimize your content for SEO to make your blog content discoverable.

So use essential keywords in your title, and don’t shun the tags and the meta description.

Take the time to add images, videos, and infographics that Google loves.

The more discoverable your blog content is, the more people are likely to access it.

That means more traffic and higher chances of getting repeat readers.

Once you start a blog, you have to make sure you commit.

To build an online brand, you need to put in the time and effort to gain an audience of engaged readers.

That requires a strategy and the ability to follow through on that plan month after month.

In this article, I gave you eight strategies you should follow.

Follow a strict posting schedule and respond to your readers’ comments. In other words, engagement is key.

Create content that is relevant to your readers, too, and start a series that will keep them reading.

Content is king, in short.

Use analytics to gain important insights on your readers, and optimize your content. In other words, you need to analyze.

Lastly, use social media and email marketing.

Promotion is important, then.

If you follow these strategies, you will have one-time readers on your blog and readers who will keep coming back for more of your great content.