In our modern digital world, writing crosses over into myriad niche industries, from business to marketing and even music. Even for the most talented musician, it takes more than just know-how to stand out in today’s dynamic music industry, which is saturated with unique artist personas and viral videos. But don’t underestimate the power of good old-fashioned music blogging to attract attention to your work and bring in new customers.
But what should you write about in order to engage your fans? Fortunately, you have plenty of options, and diversity is key. You want to project an image of industry knowledge, talent, and passion for the music industry in order to turn first-time visitors into regular readers. Here are some helpful tips for writing engaging content on your music blog.
Start with Goal-Setting
First, ask yourself what you want people to do once they read your content. Is the goal to inspire? Inform? Promote a particular song, album, or artist? Prompt visitors to subscribe to your newsletter?
Whatever your desired result, the number of visitors who perform that action is known as your conversion rate. Ideally, you want your readers to become repeat visitors to your site and share your content, increasing your traffic and overall conversion rate.
And if your site has a small number of conversions, it could be due to a variety of factors. Perhaps your music blog’s hosting platform is slow, causing readers to seek information elsewhere, or maybe your visitors are overwhelmed by pop-up advertising.
One of the top reasons a blog doesn’t convert readers is due to a lack of understanding of user intent and marketing trends. But writing blog posts that will keep readers coming back is a relatively simple endeavor, even if you only have nominal experience as a writer. You can engage readers over the long-term by simply writing about what you know and what inspires you.
Topic Brainstorming and Finding Your Niche
Once you’ve determined your blog’s overarching goals, then it’s time to figure out topics. Fortunately, your options are virtually limitless. For inspiration, check out the blogs of your competitors — what kinds of posts are popular on those sites? Look for posts with high numbers of likes, shares, and comments in order to identify trends and pinpoint the writing and formatting styles that keep fans coming back.
Your music blog posts could highlight a new or innovative industry trend, or write about tricks of the trade, from production gear you love to your favorite guitar riffs. Writing not only about what you know, but also what you’re passionate about, gives you an authenticity that new visitors to your site will appreciate.
By the Numbers: Ideal Blog Post Frequency
With the constant stream of blog posts and content that saturates the internet every day, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. Especially when you’re just starting out in the music blogging industry, strive to post a new article on a weekly basis. According to Forbes, that timeframe will keep your website fresh and relevant without taking up too much of your time or alienating potential regular readers.
That said, post frequency means nothing if your content is low quality. When your blog posts are grammatically correct, properly formatted, and completely original, you’re likely to see higher conversion rates and more frequent shares.
And speaking of shares, your social media presence plays a key role in ensuring that your content commands attention.
The Social Media Connection
Writing and uploading an article isn’t the end of your music blog’s marketing journey; in fact, it’s just the first step. In order to drive traffic to your site, your posts need to attract attention.
Where newer blogs are concerned, social media promotion often provides a leg up, allowing you to reach a wider audience. By promoting a blog post on your social media sites, your current followers will be compelled to check out your content. And, if they like what they read, they’ll share it with their friends and followers.
That engagement cycle is critical to successful music promotion. Numerous artists rose to prominence thanks in part to their engaging social media presence, including Christian rock acts Mercy Me and For King & Country.
Final Thoughts
Content marketing and SEO aren’t necessarily part of every musical entrepreneur’s background, but today’s most popular artists often use skills unrelated to their music in order to engage loyal fans and attract new ones.
In order to rise above the countless artists looking to make a name for themselves in the music industry, musicians may need to get creative and think like an entrepreneur. And an eye-catching music blog full of interesting, creative content is an ideal starting point for fan engagement and retention, as well as successful promotion.
This was very helpful for an assignment that I had to do for school! I thought that the part about how you have to have diversity in your writing, and how to do that. I also found that when you said that you need to follow what people are interested in, attracting a wider audience and whatnot, was interesting.