So, you want to generate more leads?
Every business in sales wants more leads, right? Many businesses run a blog, but don’t keep it up to date, or don’t bother to tailor their content to the needs of their potential buyers at the various stages in the buying cycle. Starting a blog from scratch can be a daunting task in itself, but don’t worry. You don’t need to be a great writer to be a great blogger.
If your content is full of spelling mistakes or a grammatical error here and there, it won’t do much for your credibility. But it doesn’t need to be perfect. If you know your business and your industry, and you can write well enough, here are five points to think about that will turn your blog into a lead generating machine.
1. Don’t write to sell, write to solve.
Marketing people always seem to struggle with this. The idea of spending their precious resources on writing some content that isn’t sell, sell sell can seem crazy to them. Counterintuitive, even. But think about this: you want to capture people who have a problem. People in your target buyer demographic. By solving their problem, you’re positioning yourself in their eyes as a source of trusted information. They’ll come to you when they’re in a position to buy, because you’re credible.
2. Keep your blog consistent.
Just publishing a load of blog posts in a week and then leaving it dormant is not good enough. You need to publish on a regular basis. Keep a schedule and you’ll generate some regular visitors. This should in turn generate you some regular leads. If one of your website visitors finds a piece of your blogging content particularly compelling and knows that next week there will be a similar piece going online, they’ll come back and read it! Give your readers a reason to come back, and then there’s another potential opportunity to sell your product or service to them.
3. Keep your blog simple.
This is blogging. You’re not writing an essay here, it’s not going to be graded. Break your information down into chunks that are easy to digest. In the real world, within a couple of seconds of clicking onto your blog post, the reader will have made a decision about whether or not they’re prepared to read it all. If they can’t see good, simple information clearly and quickly, they’ll click away. People are impatient. So break it down into short paragraphs, or bullet pointed lists, or even… ahem, a numbered list. A sure-fire way to great lead generation is keeping people on your site.
4. Give users direction through your content.
When the reader has finished reading your blog post, where can they go? If your visitor has no opportunity to explore your website or your content even further, they’ll click away… and there’s no chance of them becoming a lead. If you have similar content, direct them to that. If you have premium content like a brochure or an eBook that requires their contact details to download it… then give them access! Easy lead generation at it’s finest.
5. Promote it!
Share your content on your social media channels. Social media is key to getting your message across in this day and age, to utilise it. After all, it’s free! If you spend ages getting your content written and researched, why not get it out to as many people as possible? Social sharing can play a huge part here. And add social icons so that people can share your content. The extra exposure doesn’t cost you anything.
Final Thoughts
Get some great images in your blog. Stock image sites like Unsplash or Pexels are great resources for this.
If lead generation is a raw subject for your business, why not consider the full inbound marketing methodolgy? We’re experts!