Have you ever had a hard time proving the real value of your company’s blog?
The importance and benefits are evident: the blog is an excellent channel for relationships and traffic generation.
But what about when we need to go further and take all of these visitors to a new stage of the funnel? Have you ever felt this pain?
In addition to generating traffic and a relationship channel, the blog also plays an important role in generating Leads. In Blogger Cage, we have identified some points of conversion that have generated very cool results.
I will share here the ones that have worked for us, but I emphasize that there is not a single killer formula, but several ways to generate Leads. It also does not mean that they should all be used at the same time. Less can be more sometimes.
9 Techniques to Generate Leads with a Blog
The most important thing to generate Leads is that the traffic is qualified.
It doesn’t matter how optimized for conversion the post is. If the person entering the blog is not your company’s persona, they will not convert.
It may seem strange, but this is quite common. That is why the importance of generating content that can, even if minimally, relate to your product or service.
If you do this, you are ready to start generating leads on your company’s blog and, consequently, transform this space into a customer acquisition channel.
I leave below 9 techniques to generate Leads with a blog, all of them were tested here at Blogger Cage and are active until publication.
1. Newsletter subscription
This is the most primitive and easy way for you to capture the contact of your readers. If he came to your blog and is consuming some content, you may want to continue reading more, but not necessarily today.
Making a signature field available for him to receive new posts by email is an easy way for you to approach him.
There are several places within a blog where this can be used. It can be in the top menu, in the sidebar or as in the Blogger Cage, in the footer.
2. Banners
To direct users to a Landing Page and generate Leads, it is worth taking advantage of all the visual appeal that a banner can provide.
It can be an image, or if you have more resources, an animated GIF to get even more attention from the reader.
When properly positioned (and in the right context) the banner has the power to attract the reader’s attention and instigate it by clicking. They can be positioned in several areas, in the header, sidebar, footer or along with the post.
Here on the Blogger Cage, if you are accessing via desktop or laptop, you must have noticed that we have a banner in the sidebar. By clicking on it you will be directed to a Landing Page with a rich material offer.
If you use WordPress, you can use a plugin to create different banners for different categories. Thus, the offer becomes more contextual and you increase your conversion rate.
3. Internal links
Not only does a banner live with a good conversion rate. To the right extent, internal text links can be very effective.
Just as it is important to recommend other texts throughout the post to keep your reader as informed as possible, the same is true for Landing Pages links. The big advantage here is that the user will not only spend more time consuming your content but will convert and become a Lead.
Remember: the same goes for the banner tip, the higher the link ratio to the content the user is reading, the greater the chances of conversion.
4. Pop-ups
Pop-ups are controversial. A lot of people are against its use and, possibly, you already bothered with some.
But that only happens when they are really inconvenient.
If the pop-up is offering material that complements the content that the person is reading or a benefit in line with their expectations, why not use it? After all, this pop-up shows an offer that the person would like to receive.
The best practice for using pop-ups is to be contextual. In Blogger Cage we do so, we do have pop-ups in the posts, but they are totally related to the content of the text.
In this article, for example, you are likely to be impacted by a pop-up on blog-related material or content, because that is what you are studying now. It wouldn’t make sense to put a pop-up promoting Blogger Cage Marketing, for example.
Another tip is shooting. Always opt for pop-ups with the “exit-intent” trigger, that is, they are shown when the reader is leaving your page, so as not to disturb your reading.
Finally, if you are reading this post on a mobile phone or tablet, you will not see any pop-up. On cell phones, this format can be even more inconvenient, so we suggest not using it.
In the example below, we have a post on Lead Generation on Facebook.
5. Forms in posts
In some cases, it is possible to cut the user’s path to conversion. But here, more than ever, there must be a connection between the offer and the content.
Inserting a form inside the post is like throwing the Landing Page fields into the text. It is one less way to go and this usually brings good conversion results.
Here on Blogger Cage you can notice that there are conversion forms in practically all posts. The form below is an example:
Important: there are different types of forms for different article formats.
If you are reading this article directly on the Blogger Cage, the form is probably for downloading a blog material.
If you are viewing via AMP (that is, you did a Google search on your cell phone) or via Instant Articles (accessed via Facebook via cell phone), the available form is smaller and simpler.
This is because these two tools (AMP and Instant Articles) do not accept certain codes, including the forms we use here. Still, the tools each have their forms functionality, as mentioned.
6. Audio player
At the beginning of this article you have an audio player, did you notice?
Offering content in this format is very interesting for several reasons. It serves to help those who have difficulty reading, to improve accessibility or simply to make content available for people to consume content while performing other activities, such as walking or traffic.
But more than that, this format can be a good lead generator for your blog.
Here on the Blogger Cage, we used the Vooozer player for this. If you enter your email, you will be able to hear this entire post and the other audios from Blogger Cage, without having to convert again.
7. Video player
In addition to audio, another format that continues to grow and that can help your audience is video.
Investing in the diversification of formats is an important step for companies that already have recurring content production, and the video cannot be left out.
Bringing the video into the context of Lead generation, one possibility is to “imitate” what is done with audio.
In the Blogger Cage we use the Samba player, which has integration with Mailchimp, to generate Leads. There are other tools on the market, like Wistia, that can do this.
Ah, it is worth emphasizing once again here that the context is everything. Do not make a video without direct relation to the subject of the post. If you are asking for the contact of your reader, deliver content that is related to your expectations.
8. Chatbot
“Hi! How about getting some personalized content recommendations for you? ”
The little question from our chatbot has helped thousands of people find the best content for their current Digital Marketing needs.
With a sequence of questions and alternatives, you can set up a chatbot to interact with the user and capture their email.
Of course, this is the example we use here on the blog, but there are several other ways to set up a chatbot. Everything will depend on your offer and your audience.
Here at Blogger Cage, the tool we use is Drift. But we have several others to recommend that have integration with Mailchimp. You can find them on this page.
9. Content upgrade
If you’ve been reading this text in order, right from the start, you’ve probably seen the word “context” a lot.
In fact, for all conversion points, this is very important. So here is the super asset of conversions via the blog: offering a first value and then complementary material for the person to continue informing or studying.
Some ways to do this are:
- If you have a spreadsheet or practical material, make a more theoretical post, explaining how to use this material and offer the download;
- If you have an eBook with several chapters, choose an excerpt from this material or create a summary in a post;
- If you have a report or survey to share, make a post to promote them;
- If you have several published materials, make a post compiling them, curated.
The subject is good and worth a post just about it. And in fact, we have one.
The example below, from the post, Which marketing metrics really measure the success of my business? , shows you how you can promote a spreadsheet through a blog post.
I hope the article has shown new conversion options for your company’s blog. Leave your comment below on what you thought and say what type of conversion you didn’t know (if any)
Ah, if you can, share a novelty or a different alternative with us. Let’s continue exchanging experiences! 🙂