How to transform your blog into an automated lead generator

You've set up your blog and are now producing content like it's your job. It's now time to optimize your blog for lead-generation.

The first step in creating great content is to create it. You're putting a great blog post on a poor website, and you're ruining the purpose of that great content.

Another daunting task is to make sure you don't get in your face. How can you optimize a website for lead generation? This is the right place for you. These are 10 tips that will make your blog a lead-generating machine.

Quick Takeaways

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  Before you can optimize, it is important to understand why blogs are a great way to generate leads.
  
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  Content you create is a key factor in lead generation. This includes presenting yourself in a way that makes you a thought leader and providing exclusive content to increase your chances of getting more leads.
  
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  Your blog's layout can make or break your lead generation efforts. There are many aspects that you can optimize, including banner ads, sidebar real estate, and social media sharing.
  

How blogging can help you generate leads

1. Establish your position as a thought leader and build trust

Thought leadership is a type content marketing that taps into the talent, experience and passion within your business to answer the most pressing questions of your target audience about a topic.

You can demonstrate your industry expertise by producing insightful content on an ongoing basis. Your position as a thought-leader will be established quickly by providing valuable content that is not available to others.

Your brand will become a trusted resource by educating your readers about the industry that you work in. If you do this regularly, your brand will be recognized as a trustworthy voice that is worthy of their attention and patronage.

Trust takes time. It takes time to build trust with a prospect. It is important to show that you are not just a fly-by night operation. Be consistent and reliable.

Quality content published in a consistent fashion shows that your service or product is a long-term investment and not just for a quick profit.

2. Optimize Your SEO

Blogs increase your digital presence and make you more visible to search engines like Google.

Blogs can increase inbound links up to 97% which will improve your search ranking. These factors can be used to attract more search traffic and increase your blog readership.

Image Source: HubSpot

3. Build domain authority

Your content will rank higher on search engine result pages (SERPs) if you have domain authority. Blogging is an asset that builds domain authority. Your blogging doesn't stop just because your budget is smaller. Paid assets, on the other side, are a different story.

4. Engage Your Audience

High quality content will attract the right audience. This content draws them in, grabs their attention and increases your chances to convert them into loyal customers.

You can use your blog to answer questions. To maximize your results, however, you need to ensure that you are doing this consistently. It is important to prioritize the content you create. You will not be heard if you are too sales-y.

5. Better Lead Quality

Offering a reward for their contact information in return for your attention is a great way of generating qualified leads.

Blogs can be used to attract visitors. In exchange for something of their value, they may give their email address, postal code, or other details.

Qualitative leads have a higher likelihood of achieving a longer customer life expectancy than cold leads. Their contact information can be used for advertising and target marketing purposes.

10 Tips to Optimize Your Blog For Lead Generation

How can you make your blog a lead-generating machine? These are some ideas that you might consider:

1. Offer exclusive “Gated” Content

Do you remember how we presented ourselves earlier as thought leaders? That is again where it comes in.

Loyal followers will get a little more content than casual readers. To maximize the benefits of both the paid content and the free content already posted to the blog, you should do this in addition. We use AdRotate, a WordPress plugin that allows us to insert banner ads in our content without being too invasive.

Image Source: Orbit Media Studios

People will be more inclined to subscribe to gated content if you establish yourself as a thought leader by consistent blogging.

Make an ebook detailing your process. Your public post should be shared with your audience. Encourage them to download the ebook. Hosting webinars can provide clients with detailed feedback, customized for them if they provide their contact information.

It is important to collect contact information from potential customers. Once you have this information, you can start nurturing the top of your funnel leads.

2. Your blog should be integrated into your main website

Although you might feel tempted to create a separate blog, you will miss many opportunities to generate leads.

Your blog will not benefit from the search engine ranking boosts you get from linking to your blog. The blog must reflect your brand identity.

Visitors might first come across your brand via a blog post. They might not even land at your homepage. You want to give them seamless customer experiences, regardless of whether they are on your blog or your main website.

3. Use marketing tools like the Slide-in CTA and the Hello Bar

Slide-in calls to action (CTAs) are a handy tool that you can use to help blog readers who have scrolled all the way down to the bottom of your article. This is a sign that your prospect is interested in your content. The Slide-in CTA is a great tool to help you get your prospect interested in your content.

The box in the lower right-hand corner contains an irresistible offer that your prospect won't resist. The CTA can be in the form a whitepaper, detailed information about the post or any other valuable content. In exchange for contact information, it could also come in the shape of a whitepaper. This CTA is usually less irritating than pop-ups.

A Hello Bar is a bar at the top of a website. It typically spans the entire page. Because it's located at the top of a website, visitors are likely to see it first when they open the page, it's easy to miss. Many Hello Bars include a call-to-action to drive traffic to squeeze pages or landing pages.

If readers don't click right away, but continue to read the post, they will notice that the “Hello Bar”, which follows them while scrolling through the content, is not a distraction. It is a powerful tool that can drive targeted traffic to your site and build your email lists in a short time.

4. As often as possible, link to other useful internal resources

Write a blog post that is related to other posts and content. These words should be linked throughout the post (e.g. Link these words (i.e. Database Marketing) to other resources in your site.

Keywords can be linked with landing pages and other pages. This can lead to deals or offers that may interest your prospects. You could offer a webinar, course registration, a free trial or an ebook on a specific topic. There are many options!

5. Maximize the Real estate around a blog post

Your website has prime real estate: the “leaderboard” at top of your blog, the sidebars to either side of each post and the space at end of articles are all prime real estate. These spots are prime real estate and should not be wasted by not placing CTAs, banners or buttons in full display.

Image Source: Marketing Insider Group

A footer after a blog post can be used to add a supplementary offer, or other exciting content. This space can be used to link directly to landing pages that encourage email subscriptions or CTAs that need to register.

Every blog comes with a sign-up for our newsletter, as well as the top blogs of all times and additional content that is related to the blog you are currently reading. You will see a button in the right column to download The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing as you scroll.

6. Include Irresistible Perks

Offer them something they won't resist. Consider offering discounts or free shipping to customers who sign up for your newsletter if you are selling tangible products. This increases your chances of getting new customers and subscribers. This is the one I shop at every online store. ?

Sometimes, a physical catalog can be used to collect email addresses. IKEA creates leads by offering prospects the choice to either download an online catalog, or have a printed copy sent to their address. Fill out the form with your physical or email address.

You can also use this button to stay in touch with prospects. It adds them to your email address for updates and other perks.

7. Add Subscription Services

Your visitors will appreciate the convenience of signing up for a subscription service to receive blog updates via email and RSS feeds. Subscribers are notified whenever you publish a blog article.

Many blogging platforms offer subscription plug-ins. Other email marketing services may integrate a plug in that allows you build your subscriber list. This can also be offered by other providers like FeedBlitz and Mailchimp.

You can make your subscriptions even more profitable by creating a lead nurturing series for new subscribers.

8. It's easy to share your content on social media

This can be done by placing social media icons within and around your blog posts. This encourages people to share your content on Facebook and Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or other sites. This will help your audience expand their online network.

Social sharing is a great way to increase traffic to your website.

9. Utilize Guest Posting

It's great that you already have great content. Why not make it available on other sites? Guest posting is a great way to increase your authority and reach broader audiences than your own website. Partnering with blogs will allow each blog to benefit from the rankings of others. If you want to increase your small business owner leads but aren't an authority in the industry, you can partner with other blogs. You can reach a new audience by guest posting on other blogs.

10. Follow an Editorial Calendar

Consistency is key to lead generation via blogging.

A schedule must be followed for publishing regular content and creating new posts based on the editorial calendar. This can be done manually, using automated platforms, or by working with an agency that maps topics and publishing schedules on either a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

You can avoid burnout by creating a sustainable plan that delegates certain tasks to freelancers or other content creators in your team. This could mean that you outsource your content creation plan completely.

Blog Your Secret Weapon

Bloggers would have a lot more ease if engaging content could be summarized in a simple algorithm that can be fed into a machine and used to create posts with a click of a button.

It is best to develop a strategy to produce quality content on a regular schedule.

Remember that blogging is only a means to an ultimate goal. The end in this instance is lead generation and a healthy bottom line. You also have the opportunity to build relationships with customers that no other software or apps can match. It's important that you are involved in order for it to be successful.

Blogs can be a key part of your business, and help you generate leads. Your perseverance and persistence will pay off over the long-term if you follow best practices.

Are you feeling overwhelmed after reading this article? Your best option is outsourcing your blogging strategy. You've found the right website. To learn more, check out our SEO Blog Writing Services.