The idea behind having a blog is to post free content regularly in order to attract an audience. The hope is that someone will find your blog through a Google search and enjoy reading it. Eventually, you want this person to buy something from you.
Does that sound familiar?
We’ve all been there before–when you’re trying to make your blog generate leads and revenue. Here are some tips on how to make your blog more than just another page on your website.
I’m going to assume that you’re using WordPress as your content management system for the purposes of this post. WordPress is the most popular blogging and website platform across the web, so the same strategies will work for you regardless, although you may have to tinker with the details.
1. Build a sidebar fit for a king
The sidebar on your blog can be a great way to generate leads. By connecting with your readers and providing content that they are interested in, you can use the sidebar to get creative and increase your leads.
Optimizing Your Sidebar for List Building
There are a lot of plugins you can use to add an optin box to your sidebar, which will help with list building. Which one you use is not nearly as important as making sure that you actually put an optin box in your sidebar to collect visitor email addresses.
To make your sidebar in WordPress look attractive, you’ll need to get a banner designed to fit within the sidebar. The banner should be the width of the sidebar on your blog, which will vary depending on your website’s theme. You can make the banner any height you want.
If you want a banner designed, you can go to a website like UpWork or Freelancer and hire a designer. The cost will depend on the designer you choose, but it will be around $30-60. The designer will be able to give you a banner which looks great and upload it within 1-3 days.
After you have your banner, go to the WordPress “Widgets” section. There should be a sidebar widget where you can add HTML code for your banner. You can have a banner that clicks through to an optin box (2-step) or to any other promotion.
We want the conversion numbers for this sidebar to be as high as possible, so we need to make sure there is a gift or ‘lead magnet’ that is irresistible to your target audience when they sign up.
2. Dominate with content upgrades
As we mentioned in the first tip, a content upgrade is a form of lead magnet which can provide value to your readers. The first step we need to take in designing and putting together a content upgrade is….well, creating the content.
The easiest content upgrade to create might be a checklist. So, for example, if I were using a content upgrade for this post on my blog, I could call it “The Blog Lead Generating Machine Checklist.”
The more value you provide in your content upgrades, the more likely people are to opt into them. You can turn each content upgrade into a mini product, depending on how much time and money you have available.
Create an offer that is so good that it cannot be refused.
You can integrate your content upgrade in your post in three different ways.
- Custom Code: If you’re tech savvy you’ll be able to customize the CSS and make it look good when you want to add a content upgrade within your posts, but it generally looks the best if you know what you’re doing. You can hire a developer to do this for you too otherwise use one of the alternatives below.
- Using an Image: Go to one of the freelancing websites mentioned and get a banner generated which features your content upgrade and then integrate that into the post (sometimes more than once between paragraphs). Use ‘clean’ images and make sure they’re designed with conversions in mind so be sure to include words like ‘Download Now’ or ‘Click Here’ so it’s clear what clicking the image will do. Canva is a great resource if you want to do this yourself and trust your design skills.
- Linking Text: Similarly to above, you can link text within your post to your content upgrade. This is the easiest option as it takes no designing or hiring. All you need to do is link up your text using WordPress so it opens either your landing page or an optin box and you’re good to go.
These are several ways to set up content upgrades on your blog to generate leads.
3. Have an A+ retargeting & follow up game
I’ve seen retargeting content upgrades be very successful, especially when combined with Clickfunnels’ advanced features. With Clickfunnels, you can do a lot more than just retargeting content upgrades. Groove funnels is another option you may want to consider.
An example of a mini content funnel is when we take a group of people who have already engaged with our brand and create content that is specifically designed to keep them engaged. We can use retargeting to our audience to make sure that they see our content and are more likely to engage with it.
Mini Retargeting Example
We’ll create a retargeting audience that only includes people who’ve visited a specific post, and we’ll only show that audience the ad for 7 days after they visit the post.
We can build a Facebook Ad to direct our visitors to a video series.
As people visit your website, they will see a page offering a video series of value in exchange for their email address.
In addition to building a lot of trust and rapport, you can also sell a modestly priced product. I’ve seen cases where people have sold products worth up to $2000 just by creating a video series.
After you run an initial ad for seven days, you can add bonuses to the same offer to Retarget specific posts. For example, you could offer a free ten-minute Skype call. You should then test this campaign in your market to see how it performs.
4. Use the right lead generation tools
There are a few different tools and templates out there that’ll help you create different lead gen assets to use on your site:
- CTA Templates: 50+ free, customizable call-to-action (CTA) templates in PowerPoint that you can use to create clickable CTA buttons to use on your blog, landing pages, and elsewhere on your site.
- Lead Generation Software Tools: This free tool from HubSpot includes lead capture and contact insights features, which will scrape any pre-existing forms you have on your website and add those contacts to your existing contact database. It also lets you create pop-ups, hello bars, or slide-ins — called “lead flows” — that’ll help you turn website visitors into leads immediately.
- Visitor Tracking: Hotjar has a heatmap tool — a virtual tool which creates a color-coded representation of how a user navigates your site — that helps you understand what users want, care about, and do on your site. It records visitors and tells you where they spend the most time on your site. You can use it to gather information on your lead generation forms, feedback forms and surveys, and more.
- Form-Scraping Tool: A form scraping tool that collects submissions on your website’s existing forms helps you automatically consolidate all your leads into your contact database, regardless of which form visitors submitted on your website. HubSpot customers can create and embed forms using HubSpot, which automatically populate into your CMS. Non-HubSpot customers can use a form creation tool like Contact Form 7, JetPack, or Google Forms, to automatically capture form submissions and input them to a contact database.
5. Create amazing offers for all different stages of the buying cycle
Your website’s visitors are not all interested in speaking to your sales team or seeing a demo of your product. Some visitors, who are at the beginning of the buyer’s journey, might be interested in an informational piece, like an ebook or a guide. Other visitors, who are more familiar with your company and near the bottom of the journey, might be interested in a free trial or demo.
Offers and calls-to-action should be tailored to each stage of the buyer’s journey, and should be present throughout your website.
You will need to spend time creating content that is valuable and will teach your leads what they need to know. If you do not offer anything for those who are not ready to buy, then they may never come back to your website.
If you want to personalize your website even further, try using smart CTAs. Smart CTAs are designed to detect where a person is in the buyer’s journey, whether they are a new visitor, a lead, or a customer, and display CTAs accordingly. Personalized CTAs have been shown to convert 202% better than basic calls-to-action.
6. Keep your messaging consistent and deliver on your promise
The most successful lead generation campaigns are those that fulfill their promises and create a continuous experience from the ad copy and design to the final product. Make sure that your campaign sends a consistent message and provides value to everyone who interacts with it.
If you want your lead gen campaign to be successful, it needs to match the rest of your website and product. This way, you can more easily move your leads to the next stage. Your campaign should focus on more than just getting an email address, but also on developing new customers.
7. Get your sales team involved
We talked about lead scoring in other articles, but it won’t work without input from your sales team. How will you know if a lead is qualified for sales if you don’t know if your defined SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads) are successfully sold? Your marketing and sales teams need to be aligned on the definitions and the process of moving a lead from MQL (Market Qualified Leas) to SQL to opportunity. Otherwise, you won’t be able to capture leads effectively.
It is important to be adaptable to changes in your sales strategies and how you nurture leads through your sales funnel. Your plans may need to be altered over time; make sure to keep everyone informed of any changes.
8. Use social media strategically
While social media is typically thought of as best for top-of-the-funnel marketing, it can still be a helpful and low-cost source for lead generation, as shared in the lead gen strategies above. The key is to use social media strategically for lead generation.
Add links in your social media posts to the landing pages of high-performing offers, telling visitors that you’re sending them to a landing page. This will set expectations.
Analyses of your blog can be used to determine which posts generate the most leads, making it easier to draw connections between social media posts and lead generation.
Contests are a fun and easy way to generate leads from social media while also providing valuable insights into your audience.
9. Remain flexible and constantly iterate
Your lead generation strategy should change along with your target audience. Use A/B split testing to see what CTAs work best, which landing pages convert better, and what copy captures your target audience. Experiment with different layouts, design, UX (User Experience) , content, and advertising channels to find what works best.
This blog post goes over the basics of inbound lead generation process and how important it is to have a strong offer, CTA, landing page, and form. It is important to be in close touch with sales so that high quality leads are being handed off regularly, and to never stop testing in order to improve lead quality and increase revenue.
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