How To Use Your Blog To Get Leads
Think, for a moment, about your company website. A customer may find your site and take a look at your company info, what you have to offer, maybe your About Us page. They’ll make a judgment and maybe they’ll decide to use your services or maybe they won’t. There’s one thing they won’t do―come back to your site. Why would they?
Answer: To read your blog, of course!
Why Blog?
Why would you need a blog? You can regale readers with success stories about your product or service. You can give them helpful tips that relate to your product. You can share the latest news about your product. Your blog can be fun or serious or informative. But most importantly, it engages potential customers with your website where you can turn them into a sale. Approximately 61% of consumers say they’ve made a purchasing decision based on a blog post.
Here are some ways you can increase readership (traffic) and get your blog to work for you:
Prompt Them To Join Your Email List
If they’re reading a post, ask them to join your email list so new blog posts can be sent directly to their inbox. This will serve as a monthly (or however often you post) of who you are and increases brand recognition. Once they’re on the email list, you can entice them further with coupons and other special offers.
Offer Exclusive Content
There are content mills where you can buy content related to your business but the content is not exclusive to your site so the same article can be sold to a hundred other companies. Why would anyone choose yours when they can get the same content on a hundred other sites? Make your content unique and provide your own expertise.
Promote Your Blog on Social Media
Facebook and Twitter are great places to push your blog and get others to share it for you which opens up a wider audience.
CTAs Are Your Best Friend
Using CTAs (Call To Action) can be used to entice potential customers into taking a step further, to bring them to a form page, to sign up for your email list, or buy your product. You can include them within the text of your blog posts or at the end or use them in time-delay pop-ups that ask them to join the email list to get more blogs or to click to read more about the topic. We’ve all seen those “before-you-go” exit pop-ups the come up as we’re about to leave the page. These can be very effective at further engaging the reader as are slide-in ads.
Hyperlinks Are Pretty Good Friends Too
Hyperlinks drive traffic and increase your search engine rankings. Use them throughout your blog to site sources. You can also use them to link to relevant areas of your own website including past blog posts. Once you’ve got the whole blog thing down, consider writing guest posts for other sites. You can link back to your own website.
Make It Visual
Humans tend to be visually-minded creatures and by adding visuals to your blogs can help the reader stay engaged. Infographics, quality photos, and videos can bring your blog alive and make it more shareable.
Post Consistently
For your blog to be a constant reminder, you should post consistently. Set a realistic publishing goal that you can keep up with. You don’t want to let long periods pass between postings. Keep ‘em coming on the reg.
Allow Comments
Allowing comments to your blog posts is a way to further engage readers. It creates a discussion that could generate sales or give you ideas on how to better serve your customers. Be sure to reply to each one, even the negative ones, in a respectful manner that shows you and your business in the best possible light. You could even ask questions at the end of the blog to encourage a response from your readers.
You may think that blogging is a hassle or added expense but it’s one that is definitely worth your while. Putting out a regular blog is a new opportunity to bring in more customers, each one like a potential gold record. Without it, you’ll only ever be a one-hit-wonder.