Beyond Blogging

Most people would agree that blogging is one of the pillars of good content marketing, but they don’t always understand why.

Blogging shouldn’t just be writing post after post without a deeper strategy behind what you’re doing.

That’s what I want to talk about today.

Specifically, how you can generate new leads based on the strength of your content.

It’s wonderful when someone ends up buying your products or services directly from an experience with your content, however, that’s typically not the case. Usually, after taking a look at your content, they move on to something else.

Even if they’re going to leave, you still have the opportunity to create a relationship in some form. Grab their email address, or engage their interest in your business. That’s where the whole concept of lead magnets comes into play.

A lead magnet is something you can offer to an individual on your site that will interest them in continuing the connection with you and your business.

If you can solve a problem they have or answer a question on their mind, then you can begin the next step in your business connection.

What happens with most businesses is that they have great content and they also ask visitors to join their email list.

That will work to a degree, but it’s not nearly as powerful as having something truly unique as well as value to offer the particular audience you’re hoping to attract.

If you can answer a question or solve an issue you’ll be able to capture more of your page visitors.

You can do this via a landing page or an opt-in pop-up that lets visitors to your site know about your offer.

I’ve had the most success with pop-ups because I already have a strong flow of organic traffic on my page. When a visitor comes to my site to read an existing article I’m ready to provide them with another offer. What’s key to note is that my offer is carefully chosen to appeal to my target audience.

I’ve studied my blog data for many months, and if I didn’t have enough of my own data I’d look at my competitors. I know what topics tend to get the most views and shares, for me that’s my Facebook related articles.

Every time I publish one of these it has a long shelf life where it continues to rack up organic traffic. They’re pretty basic topics, often quite technical, but they’re excellent pieces of content.

That gives me all the information I need to create a Facebook-related lead magnet.

The two basic types of lead magnets I suggest can be classified as “content upgrades” and “gated pieces”.

Content upgrades are when you take an existing piece of content on your site and offer additional resources like PDFs, spreadsheets, or worksheets.

Gated pieces are content that can’t be accessed on the main site and require some type of transaction whether financial or informational.

When your lead magnets are data-driven you’re taking the guesswork out of what type of content your audience will respond most to and on your way to building a stronger list.

Action Steps

  1. Look at your blog data from the past year, and if you don’t have data look at your top 3 competitors.
  2. What topics do the best in terms of organic views and shares?
  3. Create a lead magnet based on what blog topics perform the best.
  4. Offer your lead magnet as a pop-up on your relevant blog pages.
  5. Develop a content upgrade to an existing piece or offer gated content like an ebook.

 

Result You Will Achieve

Lead magnets that are created based on a data-driven approach that will increase the size of your email list.

Mentor: Mike Allton

Blogger of The Social Media Hat. Mike has been blogging for over a decade, and won Top Social Media Blog from Social Media Examiner twice. He is considered one of the foremost experts on blogging and content marketing.

This article is based on an EHQ interview with the mentor.