How to Get People to Engage With You and Your Blog

This post is based on Episode 116 of the ProBlogger podcast.

In the past few weeks, I’ve talked about the first three phases in which your readers were warmed up and turned into enthusiastic fans:

And today I want to tell you all about the last step: commitment.

Yes, it’s nice when people subscribe to your blog, follow you on social media and share what you say. But what you Really They should speak to you, participate in your conversations and even start new ones.

How can you get people to stop lurking and join in?

Be the community you want to create

If you want people to deal with you, you need to deal with them.

For some of you, this will be easy. My wife is pretty good at it, especially on Instagram. If someone makes a comment, they will make a comment and then set off to like their page. She loves that kind of engagement.

But some of you might struggle a little. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s like any other skill: some people learn it easily, while others have to work a little harder to get there.

Unfortunately, you really have to deal with your readers before you can expect them to deal with you.

When I look back at my own blogs, there were times when I was great at it. But there were also times when I wasn’t that good at it and my blogs suffered from it.

It is a big commitment. However, if you are ready to make this commitment, the strategies I will share with you will make a real difference.

Set up an autoresponder

Last week I talked about getting people to subscribe to your mailing list. But what happens when they do do subscribe to?

In many cases, they will receive an email entitled “Thank you for subscribing”, which will tell them what they are receiving, how often they will receive it and how to unsubscribe.

And that’s it.

However, if you set up an autoresponder, you can also deal with it.

When you register with Caz and Craig Makepeace yTravel blog, You will receive a number of emails that have been set up with an autoresponder. The first email will thank you for your subscription, explain what the email is used for, and explain when it will be sent: “Every Wednesday you will receive an email with a personal inspirational message. “

You will also learn how to get the free audio download they offer when you sign up and what to expect in future emails. (Yes, they send more than just this welcome email.)

But what I really love about this first email is inviting your readers to respond: “Answer now and introduce yourself. Tell us what is your travel dream, why travel is a priority for you and what is the biggest obstacle on your way at the moment? How can we help?”

Do you remember that a few weeks ago I said you should think about what your readers dream of and what you want to achieve? Caz and Craig immediately ask for this information. They even ask the reader about their priorities and weaknesses.

Above all, it is an invitation to build a relationship and deal with it.

In their next autoresponder email, they will talk about how they will help readers make travel part of their lives. In other words, they make a bold promise. They also contain links to three articles that are closely related to the pain of the reader and what he wants to achieve and bring people back to their website.

(This is important. It strengthens your brand and gets you used to returning to your website.)

And they end their second email with another invitation to reply: “P.S. Don’t forget to reply to our emails at any time to let us know that our website is missing content that we like to write about. “

The third email addresses the pain of the reader: “We found that there are five reasons why you shouldn’t travel. We have written a number of articles to help you find ways to overcome these obstacles to overcome. ”This not only brings the reader back to his website, but also gives him a quick win.

What to build a committed relationship with your readers? Then let them know in the first few emails by getting them used to returning to your website.

Create engaging content

Another way to get in touch with your readers is to create engaging content.

You can sum up each article by simply asking a question at the end (“What is your best tip for finding new readers?”) And encouraging your readers to their answers.

But you can also create content specifically to motivate your readers.

One way is to create a discussion post based on a specific question. You do not provide any answers in these posts. Instead, ask your readers her Reply.

In the early days of the digital photography school, a reader asked, “How do I photograph a funeral?” (Family members who were unable to attend in person asked you to photograph a funeral.)

And I just couldn’t answer it.

But instead of answering, “Sorry, I can’t help you since I’ve never photographed a funeral,” I asked the question in a post and asked my readers if she could give an answer.

It was an amazing discussion with many readers making suggestions (some from personal experience). And it showed me the strength to start a discussion. My readers could see that I was interested in helping them and hearing what they had to say.

Will other readers send me? her Questions, and an ongoing series of discussions began.

Another thing we do at the digital photography school is to challenge our readers weekly. We announce a topic for the week and then ask everyone to take a photo on that particular topic. At ProBlogger we did similar things with writing challenges. I would ask everyone to write a certain type of mail (list mail, opinion mail, etc.) and then I would share a link to their post.

You can also conduct surveys and surveys. However, don’t just collect the information, but share it with your readers. We often present the results in another blog post that shows that we have not only received the information, but are also willing to share and interpret the results.

Start live streaming

One of the most effective ways to get in touch with your readers (and get them in touch with you) is to use live video.

Whether you’re using Facebook live, Zoom, Twitch, or anything else, it creates an incredibly engaging experience. They don’t just type out a comment and publish it. They are with you on the screen too.

In some of my live Facebook sessions, 30 to 40 people asked questions or left comments. And experience has taught me that the same people are likely to leave a comment on my blog.

It also gives your readers the opportunity to meet, which is an integral part of the engagement. And live streaming is a great way to introduce your readers to each other.

Create content events

My last tip for building engagement is creating so-called content events.

In 2005 I published a number of blog posts entitled “31 days to build a better blog”. For the first time, I made a series that lasted more than a week.

When I announced the series earlier this month, my subscriber numbers jumped quite a bit. But this month the commitment to ProBlogger went through the roof.

Why? Because each of these 31 blog posts invited people to do and share something. (For those unfamiliar with the series, I gave everyone an activity on their blog every day and invited them back to share the results.)

And when the participants saw what everyone else had done, they started to engage in one another.

Yes, it generated a lot of traffic. But it also caused a lot of “stickiness” and brought people back to ProBlogger every day. And it’s a great way to get them to show up regularly, deal with you regularly, and notice the other people on your website

Turning content into an event with a certain timeframe is a powerful thing. Some people stay for the duration of fear of missing something. But others will join because they know it will only run for a month (or maybe a certain number of weeks) and they can add it to their schedule.

So there you have it. How to get your readers to engage with you and your blog. This is the final stage in which you turn your readers into enthusiastic fans.

Do you have any other tips on how to get in touch with your readers and how they can get in touch with you? Feel free to share them in the comments.

Credit: Maxim Bhm