8 Strategies To Improve Conversion Rates From Your Blog Posts

 

You ever written one of those blog posts which seem to get pretty decent traffic, but it doesn’t seem to be doing you any good?

Many of us do. I know I do. In fact, I’ll show you one of them. My post on getting a big whiteboard on a small budget gets pretty good Google traffic every day, but it has very little to do with what I do and for that reason it doesn’t do me a lot of good. It generates more clicks to Lowes than to any of my own stuff. 🙂

So, it got me thinking about how to maximize the results from these kinds of posts. In fact, it goes right to the heart of maximizing conversions from any blog post.

Thing is, every single blog post you have on your site can be a marketing asset for you… IF you treat it right. This is sort of the bread and butter of content-based marketing.

On that note, here are some strategies for maximizing conversions from individual blog posts.

#1 – Include A Targeted Lead Magnet

Take the topic of your blog post and think up an additional lead magnet that would complement the material. Then, include an opt-in form for them to get that resource.

To maximize your opt-in rate, the lead magnet needs to be pretty tightly related. Resource lists are great for this. For example, if you had a blog post on how to do something related to making videos, then a resource list where you list your top 10 specific pieces of equipment under $100 to make awesome videos would be a good lead magnet.

#2 – Link To A Followup Post

If you think about it, a person arrives on your blog for content… not to be sold. Sometimes, they need to be led forward to qualify them as a valid lead.

So, at the bottom of your post, you can link prominently to a “next step” post. The link should be pretty prominent and leave them with the feeling that they’re not done yet, and they need to click that link to continue what they’ve started.

Now, what you link them to can be just a standard blog post. However, a more effective marketing funnel would be that the content you point them to be more like a content landing page. Keep it focused and remove distractions. And of course, give them a call to action when you’re done.

#3 – Include A Call To Action Box

You can include a targeted call to action box at the end of your post. The plug-in I recommend for this is Magic Action Box (buy through me and get a bonus).

Now, if you have one of those posts which is getting good track yet underperforming, then I would give that post a specific, unique call to action. That way it is tightly targeted and more likely to convert.

#4 – Use Tweetables To Increase Social Shares

Go through that blog post and find some short, cool snippets that you can take from it and share on social media. Little quoteables that would fit within Twitter’s 140 character limit (including your link).

Then highlight that quote using something like the Click To Tweet plug-in. Get more social shares and magnify your traffic just a little bit more.

#5 – Include A Quiz

Quizzes and tests work well for lead generation. Ask them for an email in order to get the results and you’ll find a large percentage will oblige. If you gamify it by allowing them to see where they compare compared to others, you can do really well, too.

Creating a quiz like this is a little more technical than other things you could do, but there are shortcuts. The Gravity Forms (buy with bonus) plug-in, for example, has a quiz add-on available and you can also integrate it with your email host provider and collect leads that way. Another option might be a third-party service like Interact.

#6 – Place a Targeted Affiliate Product Offer

This strategy works best if you have a high-traffic post which isn’t really earning you anything. Monetize it using a targeted affiliate product offering.

You can do the same with a banner ad, IF you use banner ads on your blog.

#7 – Remove The Sidebar

Simply put, if you have a blog post which is pulling decent traffic already, then for all practical purpose it IS a landing page. Treat it like one. Remove the clutter (such as your sidebar) and keep the person’s attention more focused. Then whatever call to action you include on it will perform better.

Now, if you’re using a typical free theme on your blog, removing your sidebar from an individual post will prove challenging. This is one of many reasons why I recommend you use a framework such as Genesis/StudioPress (buy with bonus). Just makes like so much easier.

#8 – Magnify Results Using Native Advertising

If you implement some of the other strategies in this post on a blog post which is performing well traffic-wise, then you can drive more traffic to it using paid advertising.

Native ads are ads which appear in context with the platform they’re on. So, Facebook newsfeed ads, promoted tweets, promoted Youtube videos, etc.

So, the basic outline of what you would do is this:

1. Use your Analytics to find those blog posts which seem to be pulling more traffic.
2. Individually optimize the post for max conversions (using the tips in this post)
3. Create a social media ad to pull more people to that high-performing blog post and expand your audience.

The theory is simple. If the post is working, drive more people to it in a proactive fashion.

How I Would Apply This

At the top of this post, I mentioned my whiteboard post which is an example of a post I wrote that (unexpectedly) gets a decent amount of traffic yet is rather untargeted to my business.

Now, as of this writing, I haven’t done a thing with it. But, if I were to go in there and maximize the results from that incoming traffic, here’s a couple ideas I would look into:

1. Remove the specific product mentions from the post and instead put them into a resource list. Then, ask them to opt-in for that. Now, this isn’t a perfect idea because it would probably result in unqualified leads getting on my list, but it is an idea.
2. Create a new front-end product targeting home-based entrepreneurs who are interested in perfecting their home office. This takes into account that somebody looking to perform this whiteboard project is probably that kind of person. And, that kind of person may also be interested in using online marketing to grow their business. So, a cheap “office hacks” kind of product to get people into my funnel might work.

You get the idea.

It comes down to first putting yourself into the mindset of the person visiting the post, then finding a targeted “next step” which would make sense for them.

I mean, that’s pretty much the art of marketing summarized into a single sentence. 🙂