4 techniques for higher converting blog posts
If you’re writing blog posts for you business, you probably realise how great they are for getting people to visit your site. I mean, free helpful content, who wouldn’t want to stop by?
I’m a huge believer in blogging for your business. I have seen really great results from “playing the long game” and blogging consistently twice per week. My two largest traffic drivers are Google and Pinterest, and both of those are because I’ve been blogging.
Related Post > Why You Should be Blogging for Your Business
So we know that blogging gets people to your site, but then what? If you’re just adding blog posts, and nothing else to hook the reader in, you’ll have people visiting your site then, just as quickly, leaving. That is the worst mistake to make.
You put in huge amounts of effort to write, publish and schedule blog posts, now you need them to actually be getting you clients.
There’s a couple of techniques you can use to your posts that will encourage your readers to stick around, hear more from you and become a long term fan, rather the a once off reader.
EMAIL OPT INS
One of the most important things to have in EVERY blog post is a form where your reader can sign up to get on your email list. You’ve got people visiting your website (which is hard enough) now try to get them onto your email list. That is the ultimate goal! Because once they’re on your email list, you have their permission to show up in their email inbox, which is way more personal, and the conversion rates for email lists are super high.
Related Post > Why You Need to Have An Email List
Now, this doesn’t mean you have to create a different content upgrade/freebie for each blog post, especially if you’re blogging multiple times a week like me, that would seriously be exhausting. Even just having one great content upgrade is better than having none. Add these to ALL of your blog posts in exchange for your readers email address.
Try to tailor your content upgrade and your blog niche to your target audience, and you’ll start converting your readers into email subscribers.
(psst, check out the example below, but seriously, sign up!)
RELATED POSTS
This one is easily overlooked, but highly effective. Have you ever been reading a blog post then accidently stumbled down the rabbit hole of “related posts” or “other posts you may be interested in”? Heck, I know I have. And that’s exactly what we want to do to our readers!
We WANT people to stay on our website, the longer they stay there the more they will trust us, learn from us, and be motivated to come back or purchase something from us.
If you have a blog sidebar, this is a great spot to put related posts or related categories. If you don’t have a sidebar (like me), you can add related posts to the bottom of the post. This is a great way to catch readers before they are about to leave.
Another effective way to add related posts is to add them throughout your text. If you’re writing about something that you have previously gone in depth about, add a link in your post like this:
Related Post > How to Add Related Posts to Your Blog in Squarespace
PINTEREST OPTIMIZED BLOG IMAGE
Are you using Pinterest to promote your blog? If not, you should be. And I REALLY mean that. Pinterest usually accounts for about 20% of my traffic every month, and all I’m really doing on there is sharing my blog post images. Those are some pretty good statistics, right?
Related Post > How to Use Pinterest for Your Business
Hopefully I’ve convinced you to get on board Pinterest, but even if you’re not, you should still be using this technique.
Optimizing your blog post images for Pinterest is relatively self explanatory, so they perform better on Pinterest! Just Pinning your blog images isn’t enough, you need to make sure you are following Pinterest images “best practice”, otherwise they won’t perform as well as they can.
If you’re not using Pinterest to promote your blog posts, I still suggest you follow the best practices because there’s a good chance others will be Pinning your awesome content.
Related Posts > How to Optimize Your Blog Post Images for Pinterest
Another wee side note, add a “Pin It!” button to your images to encourage people to Pin them!
SHARE BUTTONS
You want to make your content easily shareable. If it’s easily shareable, it’s more likely to be shared (duh), and if it’s shared, it’s more likely to be read (double duh!).
Most website development platforms have this as an easy option. For example in Squarespace, you can choose which sharing icons you have in every blog post, they make it super easy. You can also use a huge range of 3rd party plugins to add different ways to share your posts.
However you do it, just make sure you do. You don’t want to miss out on people potentially sharing your work on social media, free and easy marketing!
I hope you are adding these 4 things to every Single Blog post you publish! Which of these techniques is working for you? Let me know in the comments!
