How to Turn a Blog into a Lead Generation Machine

With Google putting high-quality content above everything else, the focus of just about every digital marketing campaign has shifted toward producing tons of content readers can find useful, on a regular basis. But, of course, your goal as a marketer is not just to help your audience solve problems. Your ultimate goal is to get them to take action that will eventually turn them into leads, prospects, and eventually, customers. It's about you selling your product or service, but in a way that will benefit both your business and customers.

But, before you can get to the sales part, you need to generate good leads, and one of the best channels through which you can do that is your blog. While your official website serves the same purpose, your blog allows you to create more in terms of content, as well as boost your online presence. In this article, we have put together a list of six different tips you can use your blog to generate leads for your business, so check it out.

1. Your Blog Should be an Extension of the Official Website

Because most of the content you produce is offered through your blog, some readers will wind up there first, instead of the official website. That is perfectly OK, but you still need to guide them to visit the website, as well. You can do that by setting up your blog as part of your website. We are talking both technically, by making a subdomain, for example, blog.officialwebsite.com, and visually, by keeping the same identity throughout.

2. Help Your Audience Solve Problems

The reason why people are seeking out content online is because they are looking for a solution to a certain issue they are having. Instead of using your blog to merely promote or advertise your product or service, focus more on finding actual answers, and building good content around them. It is exactly the same when it comes to your choice of topics. Regardless of how relevant you think they are, it is about what your audience wants and needs.

3. Be Consistent

In addition to producing awesome and useful content, you should also be able to do it consistently. It is up to you to decide how frequently you will publish new posts. It can be every day, or once or twice a week. If you don’t really think your writing chops are that great, or if you are too busy wrestling with other aspects of your business, you can always hire a freelancer, or someone to help you out on regular basis with creating high-quality posts. Once your readers get used to all content you have published so far, they will keep coming back for more, and you will have a better chance of turning them into leads.

4. Make Your Posts Concise and to the Point

Although long, detailed pillar posts certainly have their place, the majority of your blog posts should be direct, punchy, and concise. These days, readers scan the content, rather than read it, looking for information that will catch their eye. In case they don’t find it, they will go somewhere else. Break up your text into short paragraphs, use subheadings, and present all of your key ideas and conclusions right away. That way, your users will know exactly what they are getting, instead of having to read through huge blocks of text, and then leaving, not finding what they came for.

5. Headlines Are Really Important

Most readers nowadays will not just scan the content, but they will skip it altogether, in case they don’t find the impactful headline. And it makes perfect sense because, in real life, you are more likely to walk into a shop which has a nice window, right? Plus, every new post allows you to increase your online presence and improve your position inside the search engine results, which makes you more visible to your target audience.

6. Don’t Forget about Social Media

More visitors means more opportunities for you to turn them into leads, it’s as simple as that. Since social media are one of the best channels for generating traffic, make sure to have an active presence there, and to equip your blog with social media buttons, letting your users know that they can follow you there as well, and subtly push them toward sharing your content. This goes double for major social networks, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

• Answer The Public - Enter your keywords, and the tool will provide you with an extensive list of phrases and topics you can use as a basis for your future posts, in case you are running low on ideas.
• Blog Post Headline Analyzer - This useful tool will analyze your headlines, and assign a rating for each one, based on its readability, SEO, and emotional impact.
• Best Essays - Online writing service which gathers professional writers and editors that can check your content and make sure it’s free of any grammar, spelling, or stylistic errors.
• ProWritingAid - If you find that you can’t afford a human editor, or if you think that money could be spent to help your business in some other way, then the next best thing would be to use ProWritingAid. It’s a brilliant editing tool that will help you make sure your posts are spotless.
• Canva - Create stunning visual content without any previous experience in design, including social media cover images, visual quotes, and infographics.

Conclusion

Now that you know what you need to do, and armed with the necessary tools, go out and create the best possible content. Your audience will not be able to resist it, and if you have followed all the steps laid out in this article, they will jump at the chance to provide you with relevant information and/or to become your customers.