Guest Article

If you run a small business or an ecommerce website, generating leads is probably one of the most important things you focus on. As a business owner, your first concern is to attract people to your business and get them interested in your product or service, so you can convert into a customer.

One of the most potent ways to generate leads is through your blog. Your blog works as a platform to increase your digital presence on the web along with leveraging content to drive traffic from search engines. Here are 7 ways to generate leads through your blog:

1. Craft creative and eye-catching blog headlines

Reading a unique and appealing headline is perhaps what pushes us into reading an entire post or article. Your headline should be able to raise the curiosity of your target audience and give them a glimpse of what they can expect to read in the body of the article.

A catchy headline that stands out and isn’t too generic will keep your readers glued to your blog, perhaps out of curiosity or excitement for what’s going to come next. According to a few studies, 90% of the readers only take a look at blog titles while only 20% of those take the time to read the content.

Here’s an example of an infographic by Hubspot to help you write better headlines

1. Give your readers a reason to look forward to hearing from you

The best way to engage readers is to give them relevant quality content, consistently, if you always keep your content focused on your customer and provide solutions, while teaching them something new, they will look forward to getting your next post.  Also, if you occasionally surprise you readers with perks, such as a giveaway, exclusive content or a major interview with a celebrity expert will successfully generate a good number of leads through your blog.

If you run an online shopping website, you could offer an incentive like a discount off the next purchase to your readers who subscribe to your email newsletter. These kinds of tactics can greatly help you attract people on a regular basis.

2. Prioritize your customers

Making customer satisfaction your primary goal will make your business attain a better position in the mind of your blog reader. Therefore, it’s essential for your blog to focus on the needs and requirements of your customers. While blatantly marketing yourself on your blog might come off as fascinating to you, your readers and customers might not be particularly interested. Try an online customer survey to collect feedback from your blog readers. This will allow you to get to know your audience which will give you data to generate an amazing lead magnet. Such surveys can demonstrate to your audience that you care for them. Customer care and service always reaps great results.

3. Use the “value first” strategy on your blog

Offering something valuable to your customers, in return for their email address is often referred to as a ‘lead magnet.’ This valuable item could be a free eBook, a checklist, a short guide to a video series on something your audience will find useful. For instance, if your blog talks about freelance writing, you could offer an eBook to your readers on ‘unique tips to start a freelance writing business’ in exchange for their information.

For example, Wishpond provides a free eBook to subscribers using their email list.

1. Use video too…

For those web visitors to your blog who are not keen on reading content, capture their attention with a short, fun videos.  Adding innovative videos, graphics and pictorial presentations on your blog also has promising results and is likely to create a certain image in your subscriber’s minds, which may keep them coming back to your blog. Always close with a call-to-action in your video to get their email address.

2. Add a touch of social bling to your blog

One of the biggest ways to attract audience and create leads is to share your blog posts on various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Making use of social buttons by adding them to your blog can greatly help you create leads. For instance, if you let your audience subscribe to your blog through their email and if you place your social buttons in the right place, you could grab people’s attention. This will also make it easy for your audience to contact you and establish communication.

3. Who doesn’t like free trials?

Giving your customers a chance to try your product or service for up to 30 days for free can significantly help you to generate leads. A free trial of sorts can attract prospects to your blog and turn them into customers. This method usually works well for subscription based businesses and increases their ability to build leads.

There is no one way to do things. There are lots of inbound marketing solutions out there, you just need to try a few, and you’ll start to see your email list and prospects grow in no time.  The above mentioned tactics will also increase your visibility and reach many times over.  Once you get intentional and measurement about leads your sales will grown

About the author:

Audrey Throne is a mother and a professional blogger who writes about on health, technology and management. She has completed her masters in English literature from university of Birmingham. She is associated with Airg team for development work.