Blogs are an essential part of digital marketing, but many brands and bloggers struggle to increase conversions. Here is a list of 19 considerations for increasing conversions on your blog. Do you want to stop wasting money on content marketing? Particularly when it isn’t bringing in any money for you? Sure, you can put advertising on your site, but until you have millions of visits every month, you’re not going to make a lot of money.
Take a look at the illustration above. That content site, which is monetized via AdSense, has over one million unique visits every month. Can you figure out how much money it brings in every month? You were incorrect if you estimated $10,000 or even $20,000 each month. Ad revenue on the site is barely $4,000 per month. However, when hosting and maintenance expenses are taken into account, the site loses roughly $3,000 every month. So, what’s a better way to turn visitors to your blog into customers?
Considerations for maximizing conversions on your blog:
1. Be aware of your target audience.
If you don’t think about your audience first and foremost, you’ll go nowhere. Isn’t it self-evident? However, many bloggers get it incorrect. They create irrelevant material and then scratch their heads, puzzled as to why it didn’t do well. Even if you create fantastic material, it will be useless if your readers don’t like it. You must determine what your readers want and make it a reality. But how can you find out what your readers are thinking? Surveying your readers is one of the most effective methods to learn more about them. To find out precisely what your audience wants, you may send out an extensive survey or set up phone conversations with select readers. After then, have a look at your comments area. Read each comment carefully and pay attention to what your readers have to say. You’ll probably notice that some sorts of postings get more comments than others. Also, keep an eye on your social media data. Which articles have been retweeted or shared? Last but not least, I’ll talk about Google Analytics, which is one of my favorite tools for getting into the heads of your viewers.
Google Analytics (GA) may provide you with a lot of information about your visitors. You may learn where your viewers are from and their interests by doing research. Every blogger should be familiar with and utilize GA.
2. Offer a lot of value.
As a blogger, your first objective should be to provide value. I’ll even go so far as to suggest that running a genuinely outstanding blog is impossible without delivering a crap ton of actual value. But, can you sell only based on its worth? It’s an excellent question. So let’s look at what occurs when the price is removed from the equation. Tom Morkes had a popular blog, but he quickly discovered it wasn’t lucrative. As a result, he produced an e-book and distributed it to 166 people. Don’t laugh just yet—you’ll be surprised by the outcomes. Tom went with a pay-what-you-want model to give his readers an option. And a large number of his readers opted for a fee of $0.
On the other hand, Tom’s readers donated an average of $15 for each e-book. And by giving things out for free, he earned an incredible $493.50 in the first month. Take a look at the statistics for yourself:
This is an excellent case study that demonstrates how effectively value can sell. Even if you give it out for free, you can sell it like crazy if you have precious information.
3. Provide material that is in line with the user’s goal.
Creating content that fulfills user intent is one of the most straightforward methods to increase conversions. But, what exactly is “user intent”? When someone types anything into Google, they are expressing their goal. For example, if I wanted to go to Delhi next week, I would search “tickets from Atlanta to Delhi” into Google. As a user, I want to buy a plane ticket from Atlanta to Delhi, India. Google would provide various airlines with flight timings and prices in response to my question.
There are three basic categories of user intent, which are sometimes referred to as “query types.”
- The user is attempting to get to a specified website. “Quick sprout blog,” for example.
- Informational: The user is attempting to get knowledge. “How can I enhance the conversion rate of my blog,” for example.
- Transactional: The user is attempting to buy or complete a transaction. “Coupons for Huggies diapers,” for example.
Google is quite adept at figuring out what kind of query you’re running and what the top results are. For example, Google gave a fast and easy option to buy plane tickets based on my transactional inquiry when I looked for them. When you write long-form blog posts, you’re probably aiming for informative questions. This kind of search often results in blog posts. (By contrast, transactional inquiries frequently result in product pages.)
(Photo courtesy of kernmedia.com) However, we must first comprehend the following: What role does user intent play in conversions? The solution may be found in the purchasing funnel. A buying funnel is a marketing tool that shows how customers decide to purchase something.
The purchase funnel has several variations. But here’s the gist of it:
- First, the product is brought to the prospect’s attention.
- Next, the opportunity starts to think about, investigate, and compare several items.
- Finally, the customer makes a choice and purchases the merchandise.
Congrats! The prospect has turned into a paying client. This is how the funnel appears:
Within the second step of the funnel—research and comparison—you, as a marketer or website owner, are targeting a person. It’s worth noting that the user’s purchase funnel includes the research stage. They may make a purchase depending on the information they obtain based on their inquiry and purpose.
The user gets what they desire from your material. Do they need specific details? They’d want to hear a solution, right? DDependingonversation? Fill in the blanks with your material that suits them, and they may make a purchaser’s needs.
This kind of information may ultimately result in a purchase. As a result, I urge that you present material that is in line with the user’s goal. To put it another way, figure out what the consumer wants and then deliver it to them. Remember that the individual entering in a query is not a paying client at this stage. They are a person in search of information. They will be closer to becoming a customer—to converting on your content—if they trust your website and content.
4. Provide a link to a product that is related.
A simple yet efficient approach for attracting attention to your shop is to link to one of your items. But there’s a catch: you have to share a relevant product. For example, the conversion rate will be low if your blog article makes the perfect pumpkin pie and you add a link to your wine tasting guide. This is because your readers are there for the pumpkin pie. However, if you send those same people a link to your pumpkin-pie-making tutorial, you’ll get considerably better results. Carol Tice of Make A Living Writing demonstrates how to use this strategy:
Carol’s piece is about a freelance fraud, to give you some perspective. She’s letting readers in on a guaranteed money stream by providing this product after the blog piece. You’ll brighten your readers’ day if you solve their issues by recommending appropriate items.
5. Describe a ridiculously useful application of your product.
Understandably, no one would want to purchase your goods unless they could see its advantages. So don’t be shy in highlighting the benefits of your items. However, you mustn’t be just promoting your product as the greatest invention since sliced bread. Instead, you must provide clear, thorough explanations for why your product is excellent to your audience. This is something that MailChimp excels at. Their blog article “Why Clients Render Email Differently” highlights their Inbox Preview tool, but it doesn’t sound like a sales pitch. Instead, it discusses the distinctions and similarities across email clients that readers should be aware of.
This portion is crucial: you can benefit from this post even if you don’t purchase their goods. Your blog content should still be informative and valuable. You’re merely informing your readers that your product can help them get the outcomes they see you can benefit from this post k faster. To put it another way, don’t your readers tell them, “You have to purchase this to receive anything nice.” Instead, give them the nice things right in the mail.
6. Write a blog about your clients.
Sharing client feedback on your product may be beneficial. Your readers will get more interested in your development by discovering how it benefits actual people without feeling forced. This is what TOMS does with its “Locals Who Give Back” blog series. Every article features a TOMS customer who is making a positive impact in their neighborhood.
Don’t worry, and you don’t have to be TOMS to do this. All you have to do is turn your consumers into heroes. Then, listen to the tales of everyday people and broadcast them to your audio positively connect with these tales right away, which means they’ll engage with your brand even more.
7. Participate in affiliate marketing.
There’s a reason why tried-and-true approaches have stood the test of time. Affiliate marketing isn’t any different. But you know what I despise? When a blogger tries to conceal the fact that they use affiliate links. If your visitors like your site, they’ll gladly help you out by purchasing something they were previously interested in. Smart Passive Income’s Pat Flynn offers two outstanding affiliate marketing rules:
Don’t be a pushy salesman trying to sell your readers’ items. Instead, make your readers’ life easier by recommending things that will help them.
8. Resolve an issue.
Problems will always exist, and people will always desire to solve them. That’s when you try to sell your readers’ items trust by solving their concerns with your blog entries. They’ll eventually want to see what you have to give. SumoMe does this by publishing monster manuals on a regular basis that cover a wide range of topics. And, as you can see from their articles (such as this one on content updates), they cover everything. They don’t leave a single stone untouched. However, you don’t have to write thousands of words to solve problems—shorter might be just as effective. Whatever method you choose, make sure you’re comprehensive while resolving your readers’ issues. Give them a long-term solution, not a quick repair with duct tape.
9. Give away a sneak peek.
Do you know what the issue with many items is? They’re all talking at the same time. A well-written description can make any product seem fantastic. Give your readers a free peek if you know you’ve got something good. Allow them to participate in the activity so that they can see for themselves how fantastic your product is. Give your readers a free trial of your subscription service if you have one. Give out the first chapter of your e-book if you have one. My challenge to you is to give out more than you believe you should. Instead of merely giving out one chapter of his book Permission Marketing, Seth Godin made the first four chapters available for free. (The deal is still valid!) Despite the free preview, the book went on to become a worldwide success among marketers.
Also, make sure your free preview is jam-packed with helpful information. Don’t give out a free trial or an introduction for a short time. Give your readers what they want, and when there’s no more free material, they’ll be more than willing to pay for it.
10. Organize a competition.
The promise of anything for nothing is irresistible. You may use this to your advantage by hosting a contest on your blog. “How can I create revenue if I’m giving something out for free?” you’re presumably wondering. This is how it’s done. Contests are a great way to expand your audience and generate interest in your company. You’ll have many more people to share your items with after a successful contest. Go social with your contest to receive the most outstanding results. Use Rafflecopter, for example, to provide additional entries to those who do things like and share your page on social media:
11. Make a weekly webinar available.
Consider hosting a weekly webinar if you offer a product or service. The webinar should not just focus on your product or service, but rather on something that will help your prospective clients. For example, although KISSmetrics sells a customer analytics product, we often conduct webinars on marketing-related subjects since our ideal customer is a marketer. Giving consumers helpful marketing information increases their confidence in our brand, which leads to more signups. Plus, we can always integrate our analytics system into our webinars if we perceive a match.
The challenging element about webinars is that you must persuade those who are watching to join up for your product or service. Here are the two methods we use:
- You may tell those who are watching your webinar to sign up for your product or service by asking them to do so. I’ve discovered that if you can get 10% of your visitors to convert, you’re doing quite well, particularly if you’re leading them to a premium product. If you urge people to sign up for your premium product during the webinar, just around 5% of the audience will really do so.
- Offer a free trial: Include a “check box” when people sign up for your webinar that allows them to sign up for a free trial of your product. Using this strategy, we generally get 41% of individuals who sign up for our webinars to join up for our free trial.
12. Make a remarketing payment.
Because content marketing can attract millions of visits via the use of infographics, content guides, and plain old blog posts, driving traffic to your blog is considerably simpler than driving traffic to your leading site. You’ll want to remarket to your blog’s readership after you’ve built up a sizable following. You can pixel all of your blog followers using services like Retargeter and Perfect Audience so that when they visit strange websites like TMZ, they see a banner ad for your firm. When you remarket to your blog followers, we’ve discovered that you’ll obtain a click-through rate. 2% of the population 3.58 percent of individuals who come to the site will become clients.
13. Gather email addresses.
Email marketing is my preferred method of monetizing a site. It takes a lot longer than the other ways, but the conversion rates are usually excellent.
Let’s start with the many methods for collecting email addresses on your blog:
- Popup: Using technologies like PopUp Domination, you should be able to get 1% to 3% of your readers to give you their email address.
- Sidebar: You should be able to convert.5% to 2% of your readers into email subscribers by including an email opt-in form in your sidebar.
- Blog posts: You may include an email collecting box at the conclusion of each blog article. In most cases, with this option, 75 to 2% of your readers will convert to email subscribers.
I understand that the numbers above vary greatly, but it all relies on how many of these opt-in options you use. The more you utilize, the more cannibalization you’ll experience, lowering your overall percentages. However, if you give anything up for free in return for someone’s email address, such as an eBook, your rates may be more significant. You’ll need to set up an email drip system after you get the emails. The email drip is typically made up of at least seven emails that are sent out automatically over time. You can simply build a bubble using services like MailChimp, Aweber, or SendGrid. Within those emails, you must educate and market to your consumer base over time. A decent email drip automatically sent roughly 5%. So, if you acquire 100 emails, you should expect 5 of them to become clients. You create bubbles for you if you’re bad at writing within those emails. Email copywriting aims first to educate, build trust, and last sell. And you can’t do everything in just a few emails, which is why the rule of thumb is to sell on the seventh email since it’s difficult to complete everything in less than seven.
14. Develop a following of dedicated readers.
The first thing to remember when it comes to turning visitors into customers is that loyal visitors convert first. They are early adopters who believe in what you are saying and appreciate what you have to give.
You may boost the loyalty of your visitors by performing the following:
- First, respond to every email you get from your subscribers.
- Responding to comments on your site helps demonstrate that you care about your readers.
- Give individuals more knowledge and unique material regularly, all for free.
Although these three strategies will aid in the development of a dedicated following, you should also consider using videos. People look forward to viewing videos because they have a greater perceived worth. However, if you are uncomfortable in front of the camera, webinars are a viable option. They’re exactly as effective as other kinds of films, but they’re better for selling things or services.
15. If you’re going to utilize a form, keep it to three fields.
If feasible, I recommend using just one field (an email address), although this depends on the goods you’re offering. SumoMe needs the user’s email address:
They’ve put three fields on the form for establishing an account, which is a different purpose:
But, it’s still simple, quick, and efficient.
16. Create a conversion action with a minimal barrier to entry.
The term “conversion” has a straightforward definition: “The moment at which a marketing message receiver takes the required action.” You’re not asking your blog reader to whip out their credit card and hand over their cash when you ask for a conversion. Simply put, you’re requesting that they take the next logical step. This is often a simple, low-cost, and reasonable strategy to advance the connection.
The following are some of the most popular conversion actions. Each of them takes a few seconds and a few clicks:
- Subscribe to our newsletter by email
- Try it out for free.
- Obtain a resource
- Likes on Facebook
- Follow me on Twitter
- Follow me on LinkedIn.
- Follow us on Pinterest.
- Follow me on Instagram.
- Circle on Google Plus
- Subscription to YouTube
Let’s have a look at a few of examples. Each of them may be found in a long-form blog post. Buffer urges you to sign up for a free account to get started. The header shown below is permanent, which means it will appear as you navigate down the article:
You may get a copy of Optimizely’s client tales from their blog:
A shadowbox popup on the Marketing Sherpa blog invites you to join their mailing list:
Finally, Kissmetrics invites you to sample their software as a service (SaaS):
17. Make it engaging and convincing.
Don’t lie, cheat, or steal when you’re asking for a conversion. Simply tell the truth and ask for what you want. The appropriate users are eager to convert. However, there are instances when a little persuasion and simple don’t illustration. You’ve when you’re asking for a conversion, undoubtedly see this small box if you follow my blog:
I included the call-to-action box in my post to urge you to get your website assessed. You have a decision to make. I’m not going to twist your arm. However, I am attempting to convince you. And the reason I continue to use that box is that it works!
18. Make the content awe-inspiring.
The experience will be made or broken by the quality of the material, and you will lose conversions if you don’t pay attention. You’ll lose readers if you can’t grab them and keep them engaged since no one wants to read thousands of pages if the subject is boring them to tears. So how do you keep your audience engaged for so long? There is a technique to this: try to provide tremendous value to each word you write. Your writing will be more focused if you are continuously seeking to provide value. It’s usually a nice thing when it happens. (It’s also a good idea to brush up on your copywriting abilities.) I’ll be the first to say that you can put your emphasis on giving value while still having trouble generating excellent content. There are, thankfully, additional methods you may employ: Short paragraphs, subheadings, and plenty of pictures are all good ideas. This will allow readers to go through the content more quickly, improving the chances of their finishing it. Take a look at this article from Buffer:
Longform text necessitates the use of subheadings. Your readers will get weary if they browse through your content and see paragraph after paragraph after section. Fast. Make sure your readers know where they are in your article at all times. Subheadings may be used as mile markers to remind readers of the current subject. You must, of course, involve research. Your audience wants to know that what you’re saying is supported by facts. Posts with real-life examples and case studies do better than those without any data. This is an important step that you should not miss! The substance of your post is critical to conversion. Do you believe people would want to give you their email addresses if your content doesn’t impress them? (Spoiler alert: they aren’t going to.)
19. Request what you desire.
“Ask, and you shall get,” as the saying goes. In the world of internet marketing, this is true. It’s present to ask the user to convert. They want to go ahead and do it. Simply said, all you have to do is ask. A company that employs free consultations as part of its sales process should provide one to the user.
Here are a few such examples:
Users should be asked to generate a heat map like this by a firm that offers heat mapping analytics:
The conversion action you pick is determined by your objectives, but sometimes all you have to do is ask.
Conclusion
Blogging may be pretty lucrative. All you have to do now is concentrate on turning your readers into clients. Your objectives determine the conversion action you picknce. You’ll notice a boost in conversions if you only advertise things you know will enhance your readers’ lives. After a period of writing and engaging with your readers, you’ll see that it’s a tiny community. These aren’t statistics or figures. They’re people with issues that need to be resolved, and you can assist them. It’s all about helping others. When you concentrate on giving value, turning them into clients becomes more straightforward.
Related Tags
- blog conversion optimization
- blog posts that convert
- conversion rate optimization strategies
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