Blogging — when done right — can increase your lead generation by a whopping 67%. It’s common knowledge that blogging is an excellent way to increase sales, so why do many businesses struggle to see results?
Here are some proven suggestions to help improve your blogging efforts and begin to move the needle and drive revenue.
Develop A Strategy
Developing a strategy for each blog article is just as crucial as planning an overall strategy for your website. To effectively sell your products and services, you need to understand the journey your buyer is going to take, from the time they learn about your business to the point of sale.
Once you understand your prospect’s buyer journey, you can plan the perfect piece of content for each stage. Blog articles are perfect for the awareness stage. The awareness stage is the stage when strangers learn about your business for the first time.
In this stage, your blog articles should give them what they want (Google search intent) and then quickly tell them what you need and how to get it (buy your products & services).
Optimize for SEO
Merely writing a winning article isn’t enough. When you want to ensure your articles get found, you have to optimize for SEO (search engine optimization).
Optimizing for SEO can be pretty tricky when you’re not familiar with the lingo or the requirements, which is why hiring an SEO expert may be necessary. This will help your posts rank for the most relevant keywords.
Include Social Proof
Social proof comes in the form of testimonials or case studies you can collect from various sources (social media, google reviews, blog comments, etc.) and include within your blog articles.
Every good blog article needs a little social proof if you want the reader to trust what you’re saying and follow your advice.
Use social proof to prove your talking points and to prove your products and services are worth their time and money.
Establish Authority
Establishing authority means proving you're an expert or thought leader in your field, and it’s another way to connect with the reader and convince them you know your stuff.
Use relevant stats or quotes from other experts in the industry in your article when you want to establish authority.
For example, find a news story on your topic, pull a stat or a quote from someone they interviewed, put it in your article, and cite the source.
Include Article Upgrades
No one wants to read a monotonous giant wall of text. Numerous studies have proven this time and time again.
In one of the most recent studies, they found that 43% of readers admit to skimming blog posts. That’s not all. They found that people only spend an average of 37 seconds reading blog posts.
With those kinds of stats, it’s crucial you include article upgrades such as podcasts, videos, photos/graphics/illustrations, and other engaging content to get their attention, so they follow through on the call to action.
Add a Lead Magnet
Lead magnets are downloadable offers locked behind a subscription form, so readers have to sign up to receive it.
Lead magnets are crucial for building a healthy mailing list of subscribers interested in your products and services.
Some examples of lead magnets you can use are white papers, guides, worksheets, and even templates.
Don’t Forget the CTA
The very end of your articles should always tell the reader what to do next. This step is called the call to action (CTA).
Give the reader what they were looking for in the article, and also provide additional ways to learn more, or solve their problem. For lead generation, describe the benefits your products and services offer to the reader’s unique situation, and then tell them how to buy.
Need help planning and implementing some of these strategies? Schedule a complimentary strategy session, and we’ll help you get the lead-generating site your business needs!
