Nowadays it is not unusual for many businesses to show their online presence via one or more blogs, in addition to the usual social media accounts. Regardless of whether the on-premises designated employees or third parties administer the representative blog, using this tool the right way attracts leads. When the blog does not generate traffic and ultimately sales, something went wrong. The dilemma regarding the blogs’ utility in lead generation (and even qualification) seems to have brought back a firm positive response in that instances where the blog is tuned for success.
Therefore, instead of discarding a useful tool, it would be highly recommended to analyze what could improve your blog’s traffic and customer engagement rates.
Quick techniques for lead generation improvement
There are a few technical tweaks that serve in leveling the market trends when it comes to the blog functionality, functionality and focus:
- Consider the best way of inserting CTAs in your posts (send your readers to eBooks, whitepapers or other online resources via hyperlinks with cleverly placed in-text/over the text CTAs; you might also use a slide-in CTA or a margin banner that invites visitors to sign-up; avoid overlapping and crowding the page with too many versions of the same CTA; you can also insert a CTA into your comment answer);
- Try some content-to-marketing customary tools, such as the Hello Bar plugin suggested by the previously quoted source, or its alternative.
- Use the power of pop-ups in style; time-delay or exit pop-ups have their own mesmerizing value if they are scheduled just the right way – have you ever found yourself appreciating the art of a nicely-designed pop-up showing a while after you opened a webpage and you are already caught by the topic? Setting the pop-ups not too early nor too soon creates a pleasant experience for your readers and inspires quality;
- Employ gated content for the more specialized or sophisticated pieces of content – a technical element that has its correspondent in the content strategy plan, where the decision of what should be gated and what not belongs;
A strategy for your strategy – avoid redundancy
Besides the technical solutions and the standard strategy options, there are a few mistakes lead-generating blogs should avoid when striving for a distinct voice and unique value (source: The Sales Lion):
- Avoiding a high Content Saturation Index or CSI; of course a company blog would most likely have content related to the product or service it streamlines, nevertheless try and avoid the plain overlapping with repetitive content that is found all over the Web (theme, topics, text and titles included);
- Tune your headlines for the best SEO practices; in view of that, occasionally assign collaborative tasks for your SEO and content writing professionals that are useful in sharing the specifications of each activity and in reaching a common ground for the blog titles’ best interest;
- Do not forget about some of the marketing’s basics, such as targeting; focus your blog by including niche and industry targeting in order to make your voice stand out in the crowd;
- To the same purpose as above, display opinionated content; of course this content should be based on experience, tests or at least referenced, but repeating boring clichés and standard ideas is not useful in grabbing your audience’s attention; backing up your content with personal experiences and case studies also serves well the attempt at offering catchy, interesting materials; encouraging your employees to write about their hands-on experiences can also deliver authentic content and uncover hidden talents;
- Give your blogs an extra chance by offering it adjacent support via business networking – in a professional manner; reach the influencers in your field, connect, share ideas and circulate your company’s articles;
- Optimize your page for conversions, optimize for mobile and keep a constant eye on your conversion rate in relation to your landing pages; employ the SEO tools to boost the results of your posts and be in touch with the trending topics, diving into the hot issues in your field as soon as the discussions related to certain subjects fire up in the online environment.
The importance of good content in lead generation
The medium in business blogging has matured and flourished enough for the readers to have formed an educated eye – authentic materials stand out from the repetitive, reloaded ones. In order to provide valuable materials your audience will engage in, there are a few recommendations:
- Research heavily for each topic before producing and publishing the materials;
- Compare your posts with the related posts available on other webpages, to have an idea of what is missing, of what else you might bring in to motivate your readers and determine them to come back to your publication on a regular basis;
- Choose an angle when approaching a topic that is viral, paying attention to motivate your stance and to alternate understandably non-neutral articles with generous neutral and (always) reliable posts; when opinions are divided on a topic, it is only natural your posts go in favor of your business specificity, but presenting the opposite view in summary shows strength and equilibrium and might even serve in underlining the validity of your position;
- Familiarize yourself with the main types of content and decide which type to focus on; alternatively combine them to keep your audience interested; a publication can also develop cyclic materials that would motivate readers to regularly visit the page, e.g. each Monday can feature a review of last week’s events/topics, each Friday can translate into less heavy topics, anticipating the weekend and so on.
It is important to keep your dynamism and motivation even through the less rewarding times (conversion rates or traffic -related issues), since one of the most important elements in blogging-sourced leads is that these are (almost) qualified leads. Once a person goes through the process of discovering your blog, going through the written materials and subscribing to your updates, their acts are not singular and random – you are dealing with a peer, a potential customer who took his/ her time to go through all the necessary steps and who shows interest in your activity and your posts.
Therefore, continuously improving your blog while paying attention to keep the features that attract your visitors is a worthy activity, since sooner or later satisfying results will start showing.