4 tips to grow your blog's audience

Christina Galbato may have started as a travel blogger, but her career as a content creator has taken her on a different journey — helping other creators achieve their goals. “I started to notice a lot of the questions I was getting were less about ‘What are your travel tips for this?’ and more ‘How can I do what you do?” she shares. Galbato has made it her mission to help other bloggers and influencers earn success while remaining authentic and relatable. She sat down with us recently to share her top tips for attracting readers to a new blog. 

1. Listen to your audience

Listening to your readers can help you create engaging content. When Christina realized her audience was interested in learning more about her business, she shifted gears and started creating content and classes that answered their questions. “I think the biggest thing has been constantly having conversations with my audience and understanding where they're at — remaining connected to what my audience wants to see is really important,” she explains. 

2. Focus on branding 

From your color scheme and imagery to the title of your blog, your site should let readers know at a glance exactly what to expect from your posts. “You always want to make sure the content you're creating is in line with your brand,” Christina says. Your site’s branding should always reflect the kind of content you’re promoting. For example, if you’re hoping to attract a high-end audience, she suggests going with “a more refined theme, maybe even adding some serif fonts as they tend to be more luxurious.”

3. Keep new readers coming back

Once someone has discovered your blog, it’s important to stay connected so they’ll know about your future posts. One of the best ways to do this is by offering bonus content in exchange for joining your mailing list. “You have to give people some sort of incentive to get on your list,” Christina says. “People only take action when there's something in it for them, so I would recommend creating some sort of freebie opt-in that your audience would be interested in.” Expert recommendations and educational content are great ideas for bonus posts. 

4. Promote your blog online 

So, how can you attract readers to your blog? Digital marketing can seem overwhelming at first, but Christina has a few suggestions to help you get started:

• Learn SEO: “Before you even start writing blog posts,” Christina says, “I would get educated on SEO (search engine optimization) because that will really inform how you're writing your posts.” She recommends using KeySearch to find popular topics and keywords to help your blog rank in search results for your niche. 

• Get on Pinterest: “One of my favorite things about Pinterest is that you don't necessarily need to have a following for a pin of yours to really pick up,” Christina shares. It’s okay to start small — three or four well-designed pins that tie in to your niche are enough to bring new readers to your blog. 

• Give sneak peeks on social media: Blog posts are what Christina calls “macro content” — larger pieces that can be broken down into smaller pieces for use on social media or Web Stories. Social media is a great way to tease parts of your blog posts and entice your followers to click through to your blog. In her social posts, Christina shares, “I offer a tiny little snippet of what's in the blog post, and then tell people, ‘For more, for the juiciest stuff, you're going to have to go to the blog post.’" 

For more tips from Christina — including how to build brand partnerships after you establish your blog – check out our full video interview. And don’t forget to visit Christina’s site to learn more.