In this last post in the series, we’ll look at how to drive conversions from a blog post. Blog post optimization is a bit different than the other three pages we’ve covered thus far.
So, unlike a product page or a traditional landing page where conversions are measured by purchases or trial sign-ups, blog posts typically target lower-hanging conversions like newsletter sign-ups or downloads.
Below, I’ll cover some key things to include to ensure your blog post is built for conversions.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to structure your blog posts
- What are “social share” buttons
- How to use related articles section
- The benefits of having a sidebar on your blog
- How to use newsletters or lead magnets
- Why you should be linking to your top blog posts
So, How Do You Structure a Blog Post to Drive Conversions?
Blog posts tend to follow a pretty specific format–a compelling headline, H2/H3 subheadlines, images/videos throughout, and plenty of white space.
This graphic from Business2Community does a nice job mapping out how to format a blog post for readability–and driving internal clicks and shares.
Social Share Buttons
Social share posts encourage your visitors to, well, share your content with their followers. The core benefit is, they’re an easy way to get more traffic to your site.
Related Articles
While I already mentioned including internal links throughout the body, adding another section for recommended content presents an additional opportunity to drive clicks.
When you have related articles down at the bottom, that makes it so when somebody reads it, it’ll increase the time on site, encourage clicks on internal links, and improve the overall usability of your website.
Additionally, highlighting top categories is another way to drive traffic internally by helping readers find more content related to their interests.
Sidebar
Every blog, if possible, should include a sidebar.
Here’s why:
Let’s say someone performs a search and lands on your site–they might have no idea where they are on the internet.
Here’s an example from the video. If you Google “what is SEO,” you might see the following snippet from the Ignite Visibility site.
When you click the snippet, here’s what you’ll see:
The sidebar brings context into the mix, giving new visitors a bit of information about your brand.
I like to think of this as the elevator pitch for Ignite–so no matter what, even if this person leaves without taking action, they now know a bit about the company.
Additionally, you might include ads in your sidebar to support your “macro-level goals” and actually convert from your blog page.
Newsletter or Lead Magnet
Another classic blog optimization tactic is getting people to sign up for a newsletter or some sort of lead magnet. If they put in something–and by something, I mean their email, they get something back.
Hubspot promotes both the newsletter signup at the top of the page and a related download that scrolls with you as you read the blog (notice, too, how the article is about CTAs and the download offers 28 CTA templates):
And, here’s another example from OptinMonster promoting an e-book. What’s nice about this one is, it promises twelve actionable tips for driving revenue from website traffic:
In any case, there are a couple of things to keep in mind about lead magnets.
- It doesn’t matter if it’s a template, checklist, e-book, or a full-on content library–it needs to be valuable to your audience.
- It should promise a “quick win.” What does this resource help your audience achieve?
- It needs to match the stage in the buyer’s journey. Save the e-book downloads for the middle or bottom of the funnel when audiences are actively researching solutions. Early on–make it short, digestible, and related to the original blog post.
Surface Valuable Resources
Another idea is to link to your top posts of all time. We’ve done this on the Ignite site, offering 100s of free marketing courses, links to our podcast, tons of resources.
While this isn’t an official “lead capture” method, it is an effective way to increase page views by offering valuable resources. For example, if you look at that “How Long Does SEO Take” post again, I’ve included links in the sidebar to all of these other resources:
Wrapping Up
Ultimately, driving conversions from your blog posts is all about creating multiple opportunities for readers to learn more about your brand–whether that’s reading more blog posts, downloading a lead magnet, or just learning that you exist.
This post wraps up the 4-part CRO series–I hope you found these helpful!
