How to Promote Your WordPress Website ‘Off-Site’

Whenever people think about off-site promotion, email marketing immediately comes to mind. But apart from creating a dynamic email campaign, what else can you do to promote your WordPress website off-site?

In this article, we look at a variety of off-site techniques that you can implement online, and offline, to help you reach a wider audience and drive traffic to your WordPress website. From guest posting and podcast hosting, to a variety of social media strategies, local advertising and attending events in person, hopefully you will find some tips here help you promote your site.

Write Guest Posts

Guest posting is a great way to promote your WordPress website off-site. Guest posting is when you publish one of your own posts on someone else’s website. Although it is often for free, you will get your bio with a link to your site displayed under the article. Therefore, not only will your article help you reach a new audience, it should also drive traffic to your site.

To start guest posting, contact websites in a similar niche as your own site, as well as your direct competition. These site’s readers are your target audience, and it is these people who you want to try and reach with your guest posts.

When you write a guest post, although you are giving away content for free, your articles still need to be of the highest standard. Choose topics that are interesting, unique and help the readers solve some sort of problem. Readers will decide whether your website is worth a visit based on the value and quality of the guest post, so make sure you impress them.

Appear on Podcasts

Appearing as a guest on other site’s podcasts is another way to reach a wider audience and drive traffic to your website. Again, you will need to go out of your way to contact a variety of different sites to ask if you can speak on their podcasts. Make sure these podcasts are in some way relevant to your niche, so the audience you are addressing is your target market.

You may be asked to co-host a podcast or be an interviewed guest. Either way, plan out carefully what you are going to say and make sure the wisdom you provide is valuable to those you are trying to appeal to. It is also important that your personality comes over in the podcast. This will help your visitors connect with you on an emotional level, increasing the chances of them visiting your site.

Before agreeing to speak on a podcast, check that the producer is happy for you to promote your website and share your site’s web address with the listeners. If possible, provide some content (on your site) that supports the topic of the podcast and is useful for the audience. You can then share the URL for the extra content on the podcast, encouraging listeners over to your website.

Create Your Own Podcast

Creating your own podcast and listing it on iTunes is another great way to promote your site. You can easily create a podcast with WordPress. Millions of people download from iTunes, so also adding your podcast (or series of podcasts) here will give your website possible exposure to a huge audience.

During your podcast, you can endorse your site’s content and subtly explain why listeners should visit your site. Just don’t overdo it. No one wants to listen to a podcast that is all advertising and no substance. Create podcasts based on interesting and useful topics, always related to your website’s niche. If your audience is impressed with what they hear, they are more likely to check out your site.

Reviews and ratings are an important aspect of making it big on iTunes. The more positive reviews you have the more likely your target audience is to download your podcast, even if they have never heard of you or your website before. To build up your number of reviews, at the end of each podcast remind your listeners to leave you a review.

Be Present On Social Media

Being constantly present and engaged on social media is an effective way to build up your social fan base. It is this following that you can share your content with and promote your website to.

Firstly, you need to identify where your audience is hanging out. Then make those social media channels your focus. Spend time each day liking and sharing other people’s posts. Follow others in your niche, and comment on their images. And post relevant articles and content from your WordPress website.

Using an automated tool like Buffer enables you to be active on social media, even when you are asleep. You can automatically share WordPress posts with Buffer by scheduling your articles in advance to be published at any time of the day or night. Buffer also lets you manage all your social media accounts from the one dashboard, saving you time logging in and out of different accounts, and helping to keep your social strategy well organized.

Create a Facebook Page

A Facebook page to promote your business is a great way to create an engaged community around your website. As Facebook is still the biggest of the social media platforms, with over 2 billion monthly users, a Facebook page is pretty much a must-have.

A successful Facebook page should be constantly updated with interesting and useful information. Ask and answer questions, encouraging people to post on your page and discuss a variety of issues. Make sure your page contains links to your website, making it as easy as possible for your Facebook followers to visit your WordPress website.

To get the best results on Facebook you should consider paying to promote your page. Facebook adverts are easy to set up and help ensure that your posts target new potential followers, as well as reach your current followers. You can also set up remarketing, promoting your page to those who have already visited your site but not yet followed you on Facebook.

Once you have built a strong following on Facebook you have an active platform where you can share your website content, promote your website, and market your services and products. However, remember that your page needs to add value to your readers. Don’t make your page too promotional or sales based, as it will lose your followers.

Run Competitions on Social Media

Running competitions on social media is a great way to get your brand shared with a wider audience and advertise your site’s content or products. Facebook particularly lends itself well to competitions, and I am sure you have seen more than a couple of competition entries being shared by your friends.

A Facebook competition is easy to organize. Simply create a post containing a picture of what could be won. Facebook viewers need to then like your page and share your post to enter the competition. This will result in new followers and will help market your website.

To get started, first you need to choose a prize to give away. The nicer the prize the better, generating more interest in your competition. However, always make sure that it is relevant to your WordPress website’s niche, and that you can afford such a giveaway. You should do a bit of research regarding giveaways in your area. Some countries, states and/or cities have laws about giveaway prize values. For example, in the USA a prize valued at $600 or more would require you to send the prize winner a 1099-Misc form at the end of the year to include in their taxes.

After selecting a prize you’ll need to layout the rules. This includes includes clearly identifying the prize and it’s value, giveaway duration, methods of entry, who can enter, how the winner will be chosen and technical issues (how you’ll handle duplicate entries, power outage, natural disaster, etc). If you’re using a third party service such as Rafflecopter, they have a rules/terms generator that makes this legal bit much easier.

The next step is to take a beautiful photograph of the prize. An attractive and eye-catching photograph will help grab people’s attention, and encourage them to join the competition, like your page and share your post.

Lastly, after a set time period, you need to announce the winner. Make a big deal of this, to remind your Facebook followers of the competition you have been running, and to continue your site’s promotion.

Create Your Own YouTube Channel

Creating your own YouTube Channel is another effective way to promote your WordPress website off-site. Five billion videos are watched on YouTube everyday, so it is a great platform to use to help you reach a new market, as well as drive traffic to your site.

To create your own YouTube Channel, simply sign up and add the necessary information. This includes giving your channel a name, uploading your website’s logo to your channel, writing a description, and adding links to your website and social media channels.

Producing videos for your YouTube channel can be time-consuming. To save you time re-inventing the wheel, try and re-generate content you have already posted on your website in text form. This will ensure content is relevant to the type of audience you want to connect with, as well as ensuring you don’t burn yourself out.

There is much you can do to encourage your YouTube Channel viewers to visit your website. Write a description for each video, with a call to action and your website’s address. Discuss content from your website in your video, and share a page’s URL where viewers can read more. And make use of YouTube’s cards, that enable you to add notes to each video displaying links to your WordPress website.

Attend Events

As well as online, there are many offline activities you can also participate in to help market your WordPress website. Wordcamps are a great opportunity to meet like-minded individuals and help get your name and brand known amongst the WordPress community. Once people have met and made an emotional connection with you, they are much more likely to remember, visit, and even recommend your site to others in the future. Local meetups, or industry conferences are other good marketing opportunities that could be fruitful.

Consider Local Advertising

If you have a physical store or premises, local advertising of your business and website could be rewarding. Consider advertising on the local radio, or in local papers or magazines. Sponsoring an event or a local sports team may also be a good way to promote your business and drive traffic to your WordPress website.

Wrapping Up

Not all of the off-site marketing methods mentioned in this article will be appropriate for your site’s niche. Choose the techniques that you think are a best fit with your WordPress website. Then create a plan of action to make each strategy work for you. Good Luck!

Which strategies will you use to promote your WordPress website off-site? Please share your thoughts in the comments below…