How to Turn Blog Traffic into Conversions
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Publishing consistent content to your blog is a vital aspect of an effective SEO and content strategy. It helps with search rankings, keeps the website current, increases click-through-rates, establishes authority, helps you target long-tail keywords, provides an opportunity for internal linking, and most importantly, connects you to your audience. So, although it may be difficult to clearly chart the results, there’s little doubt that it plays a critical role in driving your company forward.
Blog Traffic in Isolation
Blog traffic is a measurable indicator that you want to monitor in order to gauge whether or not your marketing strategy is succeeding. If the numbers indicate a steady increase in blog traffic, there should be a corresponding increase in other key metrics. However, since it is primarily a top of the funnel (ToFu) marketing strategy, simply having a blog won’t drive conversions in and of itself. It requires a pointed and intentional methodology. Fortunately, this isn’t difficult so long as you know what you’re doing.
There are easy tactics you can incorporate into any highly trafficked blog to increase conversions.
Read on to find out what they are!
How to Turn Blog Traffic into Conversions
Your blog is an incredible opportunity to convert a reader into a customer. Attention spans may be short, but blog readers are typically far more patient than a random visitor on your website. They’ve clicked on your article because it, at the very least, piqued their interest. Therefore, you have a golden opportunity to sell a product or service without seeming like you’re doing so. The following steps are but a few of the actions you can take to escalate conversions:
Craft Content According to the Buying Cycle
A well-crafted blog can help guide readers towards a sale. You just have to handle them correctly. In order to do so, it’s helpful to understand the buying cycle:
- Need – The customer knows they need or want something, but don’t know what that thing is. They have a problem, but they don’t know how to fix it.
- Initial Research – The customer hops online to Google a solution. Typically, this is where keywords related to your content come into play.
- Final Research – The customer discovered the solution to the problem in the form of a good or service. Now, what’s left is deciding where to buy it from.
- Purchase – The customer settles on the optimal option according to ratings, reviews, price point, and other relevant factors.
If you want to turn your blog traffic into conversions, you must write with this in mind. Your goal is to intercept those who are in the initial research phase and provide information, convincing them you’re that answer they were searching for.
Incorporate Clear CTAs
As mentioned, the fundamental point of any blog post is to convince readers they need your good or service. Whether they realize it or not, they’re susceptible to your suggestions, particularly if you’ve already built up your authority and captured their attention with your high-quality copy—it helps to lower their guard and make them supple in your hands. So, if you’re not incorporating clear call-to-actions (CTAs), you’re missing out on a golden opportunity.
As mentioned, blogs are the top of the funnel. Your goal is to drive them further down into it. CTAs act as the proverbial tracks that guide your reader to your intended destination. Once they’ve learned everything they need to from your content, the next step is to encourage them along. For example, if you were a drug recovery center called New Paths that was writing about the symptoms of addiction, you would want to end with a CTA that says something like:
“You might feel as if your addiction is insurmountable. Discard that notion immediately. Ignore the voice of doubt in your head. You can conquer this. Our team has worked with thousands of people who were once standing in your shoes. They made it. You can too. Let us help you as we helped them. Reach out today or visit our homepage to speak with a professional service provider. Together, we can start you on a new path.”
Newsletter Signups
Once you’ve created a blog that receives steady traffic, you’ll begin to establish a regular reader-base that wants to check out anything you write. They want to be up-to-date, so why not make that easier for them? You can do so by encouraging them to sign up for your newsletter and providing the choice to opt-in. This will keep them abreast of any new piece you release and also helps establish routines. In this way, you can obtain more potential customers’ data and can utilize that to grow your email list.
Now, you may be tempted to use that sign up to also send them:
- Promotionals
- Sales opportunities
- Emails
Few actions will make them lose trust in your company and hit the ‘unsubscribe’ button faster than a deluge of content they didn’t ask for. Instead, take the long route. Cherish their trust in you and nurture it by only providing them with new and fresh content. As a relationship and a habit forms, they’ll be far more receptive to more salesy pitches.
Adding a newsletter sign-up is simple. It can be done in one of the following ways:
- Pop-ups
- Sliders
- Static ads
- Navigation bar
Webinars
Webinars offer you a great opportunity to further establish your authority and build up trust with your reader base. You don’t want to build up a reader base that’s only interested in written content, you want to create users who are enthusiastic about everything you have to say regardless of the media tool. Such long-form content can provide immense value in several ways such as:
- Better demonstrate why they need your good or service
- Provide vital information on a related topic
- Train them how to use your good or service
A simple way you can convert viewers into customers is to end the webinar with a CTA that asks them to sign up or offers discounts for those who do.
Utilize Targeted Pop-Ups
If you have a blog post that is receiving an especially high amount of traffic, a strategic tactic you can incorporate is placing a pop-up on that specific page. The pop-up can be utilized as an opt-in form, similar to the opt-in tactic discussed in the newsletters subsection, or it can also be used to point users to a transactional page on the site. Pop-ups can accomplish the following:
- Grow your email list
- Drive blog subscriptions
- Fuel lead generation
- Promote content
- Increase conversions
Understandably, your first thought on pop-ups might be that they’re annoying and ineffective. In truth, the numbers paint a different picture. According to Sumo.com:
- The top 10% highest-performing pop-ups averaged a 9.28% conversion rate. And, by conversion rate, we mean someone who saw a pop-up and took action.
- Only 3 out of 100 people ever have pop-ups with conversion rates over 11%.
- The average conversion rate for all pop-ups is 3.09%.
While these numbers might not seem staggering, that conversion rate far surpasses that of traditional embedded ads.
Tailor Your Blog to Your Specific Audience
Many blogs make the mistake of writing generally or universally. While you may think the best way to lure in your game is by setting traps everything, when it comes to goods or services, there is typically a standard audience for specific things. In other words, you have an average user.
Although you may have readers that are outliers, it’s best to optimize your content for your targeted user. If you’re a beauty blogger, you’re most likely not trying to convince a hunter in Appalachia. If you are a holster manufacturer, you’re not aiming your content towards teenage girls. Since you can’t help everybody, it’s best to focus on your target audience and create content that is geared explicitly for them. By speaking directly to them, you win their trust and convert them into sales.
In order to do this, it’s helpful to gauge what type of person is most likely to respond to your content. Factors might include:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Marital status
- Profession
- Income
- Education level
- Interests
- Problems faced
Once you’ve collected the reader data, you can build out customer profiles, which will inform future content or marketing campaigns.
Make It Readable
It’s important to acknowledge that not everyone will carefully read through every word you write. In fact, a large portion of traffic that reaches your blog will consist of people only trying to quickly skim for the information they’re looking for. With that in mind, it’s essential that you craft content that can be digested at a glance. Ways to do this include:
- Keep paragraphs short, no longer than six lines of text
- Use bullet points to break up word-dumps
- Select a font and size that’s easily readable
- Utilize bolding, italics, headers and sub headers for important points or sections
- Add images or infographics to highlight key information
Converting Blog Traffic
Converting your blog traffic is easier said than done, but it’s not as complex as you might imagine. If you take a pointed approach, create engaging content, and tailor it to your target audience, you will increase your website’s conversion rates. It won’t happen overnight, but few good things in life come without patience and dedication.
Sources:
- Court, D. McKinsey. The Consumer Decision Journey. (2009). https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-consumer-decision-journey
- Bestor, S. Sumo. Pop-up Statistics: Findings From Analyzing 2 Billion Pop-up Examples. (2019). https://sumo.com/stories/pop-up-statistics
- Khanal, D. Grow and Convert. How to Convert Blog Traffic into Customers with CTAs: The Complete Guide. (2018). https://growandconvert.com/conversion-rate-optimization/blog-conversion-strategy/