Last Updated on May 4, 2020 by ellduclos

How to Grow an Engaged Audience on your Blog

Welcome back! Today I have a really fun blog post for you! I am talking all about how to grow an engaged audience on your blog. Now why is this important? Well for starters, if you are trying to turn your blog into a work from home job you need an engaged audience! If your audience isn’t engaged, they are less likely to purchase anything from you, and they certainly won’t trust you enough to buy what you recommend.

When it comes to my blog and social media I am ALL ABOUT engagement! It’s cool to have hundreds and thousands of followers and subscribers but if they aren’t engaging then what’s the point? I don’t care much about the numbers, that’s pretty useless to me. What I truly care about is making my audience feel connected and comfortable enough to talk to me!!! I am all about personal connections.

If you aren’t already a part of my community, Boss Girl Bloggers...it’s a community of over 30,000 female entrepreneurs and bloggers. I started this community in May 2017. This is where it all began. If you are a part of the community you probably notice how engaged I am in my community.

I have been in plenty of Facebook communities before where I felt a disconnect from the admin. I really wanted to build a community where my members could feel that personal connection with me as much as possible! It’s funny because some would even call me a Robot saying, “Ell, how do you stay so engaged and active on all social platforms?” …. I still am amazed at myself from time to time. BUT I really do find it so important! PLUS it’s so much fun interacting with other like minded women!

Anyways, before I blab anymore…I want to get into the tips on growing an engaged audience and hopefully in return building an audience that trusts and values your advice, and wants to support you!!!

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Disclaimer: Affiliate links are used and if you purchase via my affiliate link I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you! I appreciate all the support as always! Read full disclaimer here.

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Be Personal

This is something that can be hard for a lot of bloggers to do. They fear that being so vulnerable can be a bad thing, when in reality it can actually make you a lot more relatable. I am not one to sit there and act like my life is perfect at all times because that’s just not the case!

If you have been following me for a while then you know that I share my blogging journey often and that I am always sharing tips! BUT here’s the thing, yes this is my full time job but that doesn’t mean I am living this luxurious life. I still have bills to pay, and when you are blogging full time, especially in the beginning you can feel uncertain. Thoughts of: “Am I going to make enough this month? What if I have no sales? AH!”  That’s the life of starting a business. The beginning is always tough!

There are many out there who put up a “front” and their life looks so PERFECT, everyone strives to be JUST LIKE THEM. Remember that’s not always the truth… Instagram is a perfect example of this. Have you ever looked at someone’s feed and thought, wow .. they are living their BEST life and she is GORGEOUS, I want to be her!

Don’t worry, we are all guilty of feeling this way at one point or another. BUT, Instagram is just a highlight reel made up of parts that people WANT you to see. Everyone has their flaws, everyone has their bad days, and everyone has their own struggles. Don’t be afraid to open up to your audience. It builds trust. Which, trust is VERY important if you want your audience to ever purchase through you. BE RELATABLE. (: 

Get to Know your Audience

Do you know who your audience is? Do you know what they like and what they are most interested in? If not, it’s time to find out! You can do this a number of different ways:

1. Create surveys and e-mail them to your subscribers! Ask them what content they like the most, what are their interests!? Ask them questions revolving around your niche to get them to share struggles they might have. For example: Are you a travel blogger? Maybe they want to know how to travel affordably! Ask and you shall receive.
2. You can also look into your google analytics and check out the demographics and interests of your audience.
3. Check to see which posts get the most traffic. I always try to create content based off of my most popular posts because I already know my audience will love it!
4. Figure out what your audience NEEDS. This is so important, especially when you decide to sell products of your own. You don’t want to sell a product that your audience has no interest in…TRUST ME…it won’t sell. Take the time to learn about your audience and figure out what problems they have related to your niche and provide them with a solution! It will sell so quick your head will spin.

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Related: 10 Blogging Myths Busted!

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Ask Questions

One of the best ways to get your audience to engage with your content is to ask your audience questions! At the end of your posts ask your audience to answer a question in the comments! Maybe you wrote about your favorite summer skin care brand…Ask your audience if they have ever heard of them before, or which skin care brand they recommend!

Engage Back

The way I see it is, if you engage back then your audience will continue to keep engaging! This will help them feel like you care and aren’t ignoring them. There is nothing worse than ignoring your audience. If someone takes the time to leave a comment, recognize their comment and reply back! You can even check out their blog and leave a comment on their latest post! It’s just rude in my opinion to ignore your audience. They won’t continue to engage if you ignore them.

Create Your Own Voice

Everyone has their own “style” and way that they write. Sometimes you need to find that voice through your writing and use it to help keep your audience engaged.

I know a lot of bloggers go all “business-y”  and need to be a “perfect” writer. They believe it looks unprofessional if you write the way you talk. WHICH I UNDERSTAND… *rolls eyes* I get it though, you want to seem “smart” and “presentable”…but to be honest I get SO BORED reading content that sounds robotic.

I always try to let my personality shine through my writing. OH! …and guess what! I will be the first to admit that I probably have a handful of grammatical errors and/or typos. EVEN AFTER I REREAD THREE TIMES. Sh*t happens. Like I said, I am not perfect. “Perfection” drives me bonkers. I keep it casual. (and yes I know about grammarly.)

Not saying you should’t care about typos and errors. Just saying, some people stress over it to the EXTREME and I am not an uptight person. Your audience will fall in love with your voice, so don’t sweat the small stuff. BUT YES PROOFREAD ANYWAYS! You don’t want your content to be unreadable.

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Related: 9 ways to increase your blog post shares

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Pinterest Marketing

I think we all know that Pinterest is my absolute FAVORITE. Many are quick to call Pinterest a social media platform.. eh, not so much! It’s actually a visual search engine! Which means you can MARKET your blog content on Pinterest and actually reach your target audience very effectively!

Before using Pinterest I was pretty clueless when it came to finding my target audience. Once I started using Pinterest to grow my blog, my target audience began to flock onto my blog!

Here’s the thing, a user will sign onto Pinterest and search for what it is they are looking for. If you use Pinterest properly and practice Pinterest SEO, your content will pop up as the solution to their problem! GENIUS. Pinterest is free marketing for bloggers, JUST SAYING.

If you can’t seem to wrap your head around Pinterest, it’s okay… I got you!!! I put together an affordable e-course that teaches you all you need to know when it comes to using Pinterest to grow your blog and target your ideal audience! AND you can actually get it for just $10 right now!!! Use code: FLASHBACK at checkout. Limited time only! 

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Related Posts

This is just a tip to help you to get your audience staying engaged on your website. Make sure to have related posts showing up somewhere within your blog posts. This will help to keep your audience on your site longer, AND it will get them to engage with more of your content.

You can manually interlink to related content throughout your blog post, OR you can install a related posts plug in that gets added to the end of your blog post. This plug in will suggest related posts to your audience.

I use a pipdig theme which comes with the related posts option! I truly love pipdig themes if you are in need of a high quality, multi functioned theme. SO MANY CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS!

Also note: plug ins are awesome. If you are currently on a free blogging platform you might not have the option to use plug ins. If you are wanting to make the transfer to a self hosted website you should do so NOW! Siteground is having a labor day sale currently, VERY affordable. JUST SAYING (: They have a live chat team that will help with the transfer process.

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Break Up Your Content

If you want to grow an engaged audience you need to make sure your content isn’t overwhelming. If you overwhelm your audience with a ton of text right off the bat, they might just exit out. I find it very important to use headings & images when you can to help break up large amounts of text! Your words matter but so does having visually appealing content! Seeing large amounts of text can be intimidating.

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Related: Create a monthly vision for your blog

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Well, that concludes my tips!!! I hope you found it helpful!

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