Pretty much how do we flip the south?
This is a different question than the topic question ("What would we have to do to make WV and AR competitive again?") Which one are you interested in discussing?
The answer to the first Q (how do we flip the south), that is already underway (or has already happened in some states). VA has flipped, NC and FL are competitive, GA is probably going to flip in either 2020 or 2024, and TX is trending D and could flip in the next 20 years. MD and DE never went R, if you count them as Southern states (I do, many others don't). It's not the
entire South, sure, but Dems are already competitive in a large part of it and the most EV-heavy states.
Your second question (how to make WV/AR competitive again), is somewhat nonsensical. WV and AR were never really "competitive" states, they were solid D states and then flipped. AR especially, was a one-party state for most of American history. At really no point in US history could it be said to be a "competitive" state, where both parties had a legitimate shot at winning it. Maybe 2000, but that's really it, and I'm not even sure about that.
If really what you're asking is what would have to happen for WV/AR to become D states again- a realignment where the demographics in those states become part of the D base again.
If you're looking for a Southern state that is likely to flip D (and perhaps surprisingly so, to some people), what you want to look for is MS, not WV and AR. There is already a thread on that
discussing it extensively, but the long and short of it is- there is a long-term demographics problem there for the GOP that isn't hard to discover and will soon become pretty apparent, maybe as early as the 2030s.