Marketing Your Blog: How to Make Your Readers Need You

Welcome to the first in this new weekly post series on Blog Marketing. If you missed last Monday’s Blog Marketing Mondays introduction, check it out now for an overview of what this series is all about, along with the new updated schedule here at Blogger’s Alchemy.

“You can have everything in life you want, if you’ll just help other people get what they want.” ~ Zig Ziglar

Blog Marketing: Who Does Your Blog Serve?

Simple question, simple answer.

Your blog serves your readers.

More specifically (I love specificity, don’t you?) it serves the unmet needs of your reader.

So if you don’t (yet) know what the real, underlying, unmet needs of your readers are, you’ll have to be darn lucky to fulfil them. If you don’t fulfil their needs, you ain’t gonna get them coming back, and parting with their ‘hard earned moola’ for your services, whatever they may be.

Whether or not you have many readers yet, it’s never too late to connect with your target readership and find out what their needs really are.

Once you’ve found out, speak to those needs, answer them, fulfil them, and you’ll have an unshakeable foundation for a fantastic and successful blog (really, you will)

Passion vs Your Reader’s Needs

I’m all for passion in blogging. When a blogger is enthusiastic and excited about the topics they blog about, it comes through in their writing, and gives them the sustained energy required to do what it takes to consistently build their blog and business (along with these other successful blogging habits)

But your passion alone (in most cases) is not enough.

Where your passion meets the needs of others is where your blogging efforts should be focused. That’s where the rewards of successful blogging lie.

Meet your passion but neglect the needs of your reader – you’ll fail to build a readership and convert it to sales, subscribers or clients.

Meet your reader’s needs but not your passion – you’ll won’t enjoy the process, you’ll produce lower quality work, gain less satisfaction, and have a harder job sustaining your interest in the whole venture.

Make sure you do both.

How to Discover The Needs of Your Readers

Ask Them.

Direct, one on one interaction and engagement is the best way to find out what your target market wants and needs.

But it’s not the only way. Here’s some more:

• Join relevant groups on Facebook, LinkedIn and other Social Media. Engage in discussions and post questions to uncover what people are looking for within the subject of that group.
• Make friends with the people you meet online via Social Media and forums, and chat to them. As you get to know them better, find out where they’re at and what needs they have which aren’t being met.
• Use online ‘Answers’ pages to find out what people are asking about that relates to your niche. Yahoo Answers and the Answers pages in LinkedIn are good ones to start with.
• Run polls and surveys. You can do this easily through a Facebook fanpage with tools like Polls for Pages and (have you liked the Blogger’s Alchemy Page yet?), or using tools like Survey Monkey, Polldaddy or Twtpoll.
• Twitter Search and Topsy.com will help you to ‘listen in’ on what’s being talked about on Twitter around any given keywords.
• Put a call to action in your blog posts which invites questions. Engage with your readers in the comments section and pay attention to the questions they’re looking for answers to.
• Create a blog post series based upon the questions of your readers. My friend Mavis Nong has used this strategy very effectively over on her Attraction Marketing Blog.
• If you do any kind of consulting in relation to your niche, make sure to ask your clients what their biggest struggles, quesitons, challenges and needs are (and listen very closely to their answers!)

Delving Below the Surface

Once you’ve begun to engage with people, pose questions, and listen to answers, it’s time to look deeper to discover what the root needs are of your target market or readership.

As an example, let’s say the common problem which keeps coming up is traffic generation (and that is a common problem!).

That is a whole problem in itself, but it’s only one slice of a bigger issue.

Traffic Generation is a part of a process.

The process is ultimately (in most cases) about creating income via an online business of some kind.

Bringing traffic to your blog or website is one step in the overall journey of bringing in visitors, converting them to prospects, and then into customers (and finally into evangelists – why not?)

So the core need here is not traffic, it’s income, which is about survival, freedom and comfort.

Speak to these deeper needs whilst you solve the direct problems your readers face, and you’ll elevate the profile of your blog fast.

Do it in a way which is unique and sets you apart from your competition… Now you’re talking…

Blog Marketing Tip Summary

The content and direction of your blog should be oriented to fulfilling an unmet need for your target readership.

That’s where your success will lie. That’s how to make your readers need you.

That’s where you’ll give the most value, and receive the most renumeration for your efforts. And since you’re going to all the trouble of building a blog – you may as well get recognised and rewarded for your efforts, don’t you think?

Your turn: What other ways do you use to connect with your reader’s needs, wants and desires? And for your part, what do you need most to reach your blogging goals? I’d love to know…

Image adapted from: ‘We Need You’ by Juliana Coutinho – Atttribution 2.0 licence

 Blog Marketing Tips: How to Make Your Readers Need You © 2011 Blogger’s Alchemy