Image via This Time Tomorrow
It’s a great idea to write about new topics as you continue to blog, as that is where you’ll actually understand what your audience is excited about, what they respond to, and what resonates with them.
However, now more than ever, you need to focus in on what your strategy is. If you are a fashion blogger with an audience tuned into clothing, keep the focus on that. If you are mommy blogger with an audience excited about kiddie clothing and home goods, focus on that vertical. It’s easy to try and tap into every single vertical, but keep the focus on what your audience already expects from you and you’ll notice a more engaged audience.
Check out Krystal Bick from This Time Tomorrow. She is good example of a blogger tuned into her audience. She honed in on the fashion vertical from early on and slowly expanded to travel in more recent months while still engaging her fashion audience.
Now it’s your turn! Follow the steps below to ensure you are fully engaged with your audience and targeting them as best as possible.
- Answer this question: “What vertical do I associate with the most and what makes up the majority of my content?”
- Look at your analytics and find the top 5 articles in the last few months to see what engages your audience the most.
- This should be the vertical you are targeting. If your readers are excited about travel tips, then bring them more of that. If they love your outfit photos, make sure you are doing those weekly. This is where you will grow your loyal following.
- When you find your vertical, implement actions to engage that target audience.
- Cater all of your affiliate links to that vertical.
- Create product widgets that support your vertical.
- Make sure 85% of your content supports your main vertical. We all like to add new DIY’s and recipes in during the holidays, but keep to your main angle and you’ll see that you will keep your usual audience happy and loyal and your brand mission will remain unwavered and uncompromised, meaning people will see you as more of an expert in your vertical than if you flip-flopped.
Happy (Strategic) Holidays!
Carlina
Great article! This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I have a blog that focuses (for the most part) on natural beauty/skincare. But on my YouTube channel I talk about natural beauty and books. I really want to start posting more bookish things on my blog too but fear this will confuse readers if one day I’m posing about nontoxic lipstick and the next about a Fantasy novel… I feel like this works okay for YouTube because I separate them into playlists, but I wonder if I should just start a separate blog for all things book related – fiction reads at least.