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Blogging Mistake: Failing to Optimize for Lead Generation

Blogging Mistake: Failing to Optimize for Lead Generation

No one likes to make mistakes. But they happen. In the world of content marketing, sometimes marketers can get so caught up in the act of creating content that they overlook the purpose it is being created.

Yes, business blogs are meant to serve readers with information, improve SEO, increase website traffic and establish your authority. But they are also meant to do one other important job: generate leads.

The Mistake: Not Optimizing Blog Posts for Lead Generation:

Your blog generates leads by drawing readers in and by providing the real estate for placing calls-to-action that link to landing page forms where your readers exchange a bit of contact information for an offer, which could be a downloadable ebook, a coupon, a free trial, a blog subscription, a webinar or any number of other options.

If you are not optimizing your blog with offers and calls-to-action, you’re missing out on a tremendously powerful business opportunity to generate leads, diminishing your blog’s ROI.

The Fix: Use Calls-to-Action:

Luckily, there is a relatively simple fix: Use calls-to-action to link readers to related offers.

Every blog post you publish should have related calls-to-action, in addition to the standards CTAs you may use on your page headers or sidebars.

1. Contextual links to offers

These are the most subtle CTAs, simply a single word or phrase hyperlinked to a landing page for a relevant offer. They can also link to an additional blog post, a product description page, or an FAQ with more information about the topic of the blog post.

However, for them to be a way of generating leads, they need to go to a landing page that can capture that lead information. Here’s an example from one of our recent blog posts:

Each company needs to agree on its specific definition of how to qualify leads before passing them from marketing to sales, but it should always follow these five basic steps.

The first link goes to a related blog post with more specific information; the second leads to landing page for a Lead Qualification Checklist. Both are subtle, but invite readers to dig deeper into the information available within our content.

 (In case you want to read more, the blog post that passage comes from can be found here: 5 Ways to Improve Your Lead Qualification Process.)

2. In-text calls-to-action

In-text CTAs are a more direct command or suggestion, but don’t stand out from the rest of the text graphically. Instead, they provide a description of the offer to which they link, spelling out benefits the reader may find.

An in-text call-to-action might look like this example from the marketing blog published by our partner HubSpot:

Blogging Mistake: Failing to Optimize for Lead Generation3. Highlighted text calls-to-action

You can also incorporate text-formatted CTAs that appear in the middle of a blog post, breaking up the text and standing out because they are in a larger font and/or different color.

These might be linked to the same offer you will promote at the end of the blog in an in-text CTA or as a image-oriented button, but offer a chance to catch readers who might not read the entire post.

When we use them, they look like this:

Blogging Mistake: Failing to Optimize for Lead Generation4. CTA buttons for related offers

A fourth type of CTA you can include in your blog posts, suggesting related content or offers, is an image or button.

At the bottom of each of our blog posts, you’ll find a horizontal CTA like this one:

Blogging Mistake: Failing to Optimize for Lead Generation

The CTA should always before an offer that related directly to the subject of the blog post—after all, that topic is of interest to your reader.

These image CTA can be incorporated in other ways as well. HubSpot frequently uses a slide-in CTA; other websites will utilize a pop-up that is triggered as readers reach the bottom of a post.

Things to offer:

In choosing what offers to highlight with the CTAs in your blog posts, remember to keep them relevant and to promote content or other offers that appeal to all stages of the sales funnel.

1. Content (ebooks, webinars, templates, case studies)

Much of the content you offer will be aimed at the top of the funnel. This includes introductory material, such as ebooks or webinars. For those readers who may be in the comparison or consideration stages of the buying journey, you might want to include offers that provide more direct usability, such as templates or calculators, along with more in-depth content such as case studies.

2. Product-focused offers (free trials, discounts, demos)

A second type of offer would be one directly related to a product or service, rather than content or information.

Calls-to-action to reach this group, which may be closer to a buying decision, would include product demos, free trials or discounts.

With all of these options for the type of CTA and the type of offer, the mistake of failing to optimize your blog posts for lead generation is an easy one to fix.

What other mistakes do you see business bloggers making? Find the solutions for 14 more in our free ebook. Download 15 Business Blogging Mistakes and Easy Fixes and give your blog a tune-up to get it ready for a great year of lead generation.

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