Blogging is a solid way to connect with potential and current customers while educating them on your products or services. The problem, however, is that it’s a lot easier said than done. In this article, we provide the 8 business blogging tactics to generate more sales.
Many businesses struggle during the initial phases of their blog campaign and need help developing ideas and strategies to get it off the ground, while others have trouble keeping traffic coming back after they’ve had some success.
If you find yourself in either group or want to improve the results of your current blogging efforts, this blog post is for you.
The following eight tactics will not only help your business blog stand out but also help you generate more sales in the long run.
#1: Blog Consistently
Consistency is the key to success when it comes to business blogging. Rather than just randomly blogging, you should maintain a constant schedule that is compatible with your business goal.
If it’s more geared towards improving business relationships, you may want to make your blog posts as frequently as possible so that they remain fresh in the minds of potential clients and partners.
On the other hand, if your primary intention is to advertise your services and generate more leads, then you may want to schedule your blog posts less frequently.
So how do you come up with a blogging schedule that is perfect for your business?
1. Calculate how often you can blog
With the right amount of time, energy, and resources at your disposal, how often can you really dedicate yourself to writing new blog posts for your business blog?
Consider your personal and professional commitments in life and determine what schedule would work well with most of them. Be practical in your approach.
2. Find out the best time to blog
Are you most alert and focused at certain times of the day or week? What about the weather? Do you feel more inspired when it’s sunny or stormy outside? Or is there a particular place that you like sitting and writing? Take all of this into consideration to determine the best time to blog.
3. Determine where you will blog
Do you prefer to work from home or in a quiet, secluded environment away from the distractions of daily life? Or would you rather sit at your local Starbucks and sip on your favorite latte as you pound out your thoughts on a laptop?
#2: Add Relevant Call to Actions
The more relevant you are with your call to action, the higher conversion rates you will have. There is nothing worse than seeing a non-relevant call to action in a blog post.
Since this article is about generating more sales from your business blog, here are two types of calls to action that will most likely drive more sales.
1. The Nudge Call To Action
What you can do is include some subtle phrases in your blog post to get readers to take action. Such as “If you want to save time…”, “…if you don’t want to waste money”, “…if you want more information”, or even “…if you are wondering how to do it”.
These types of phrases will help nudge your readers into taking real action and click through to your sales page.
2. The Redirect Call To Action
This is the type of call to action that you should use if you want your readers to redirect their attention elsewhere and then come back later.
For example, it could be a link for them to read more about your product or even to your contact page where they will be able to get in touch with you.
#3: Use Customer Questions
A lot of times, people will ask questions directly on your Facebook page or Twitter account. When they do that, take a look at the things they’re asking about and see if there’s an opportunity to create content around it so you can answer their question in detail using a blog post.
Keep in mind that you might have other customers who have a different question than the one you just answered.
So if you answer one question and then it’s not really a unique problem, come up with multiple ways that you can answer the same or similar questions in different blog posts to get more mileage out of your content.
Answering customer questions through your blog posts is a great way to put yourself out there and show customers the type of work you’re capable of doing, which can eventually lead to an increase in sales.
If your blog posts relate to a product or service that you sell, this is also a great way for you to get links back to your site so that Google sees it as an expert on the subject matter and gives you that coveted top spot of search engine rankings.
#4: Conduct Effective Keyword Research
Before you even think of writing your blog post, it is important to conduct keyword research. A lot of people skip this step. That’s a mistake.
You need to analyze the best keywords for your content and then use them in a clever way so that you can rank on Google’s first page. This will ensure that you get good traffic that converts into sales for your company.
Keyword research is a long and tiring process. But it is worth it if you are prepared to put the effort into it. Make sure that you do not rush through this step.
It takes time and patience but the benefits will be exceptional for your business. Your prospective customers will be able to find you easily on search engines too.
It is common for people to focus solely on Google when it comes to keyword research. The reason for this is that most people tend to think that searches are made only through Google.
But, they are wrong. There are other search engines like Yahoo and Bing, which also get traffic and people frequently use them for searching. It is best to optimize your business website using keywords that appear in all three popular search engines and not just Google.
#5: Write Long Form Blog Posts
The easiest way to attract backlinks is to create great content for your blog.
The more in-depth, high quality and useful your content is, the easier it will be to get links.
With more links, you’ll be able to get more traffic and rank higher in search engines. Which can lead to more leads and sales.
Your blog posts will be more effective if they are:
a) In-depth – long form: 1,500+ words
b) High quality: well written, useful information
c) Timely – relevant to current events or news in your niche
Here are three tips to write long form blog posts:
1. Develop an outline before you start writing
It will help you stay on track and provide structure for your article, which is essential for long form content. Also, when you’re done with the first draft, you can go back to your outline and fill in any gaps that may have been overlooked during the initial writing stages.
2. Break your content down into digestible chunks
Your article’s structure should be based on providing value to the reader. It is crucial that you provide a compelling introduction with a hook (attention grabber) and a thesis statement (your article’s point). In order to have organized, structured content, I suggest writing your introduction first, then writing each body paragraph before writing the conclusion.
3. Cut down on fluff wherever you can
Fluff is the extra stuff that’s not necessary and just clutters your article, like filler words (e.g.- um, you know…) and sentences that don’t contribute to your point or thesis statement.
#6: Create Solution-Based Content
Some people start a blog to express themselves. But from a business perspective blogs are best used to reach out to customers and prospects.
By writing blog posts that solve problems related to your business, you can communicate with a market in a way that’s valuable to them.
Through the sales funnel, they will learn more about your company and want to take advantage of your solutions.
Writing solution-based blog posts is a powerful strategy. And with the right approach, it doesn’t have to be difficult — or creative.
To help you develop a solution-based approach for your own blog, here are a few questions that will give you a leg up on creating valuable content:
1) What is the value of my product or service?
2) How can I show my customers the value of my product or service?
3) What pain points does my business solve for the market?
4) Why should a blog post on this topic be valuable to a reader like me?
5) How can I use images, graphics and videos to communicate the solutions?
6) What are the benefits of this solution to my current and future clients?
These questions may sound simple and similar, but it’s important to fully think through the questions and generate as many answers as possible.
A solution based approach will help you come up with posts that solve specific problems for your business and/or industry. When you take this route, you’ll write blog posts with more actionable value for readers — which in turn boosts click-through rate and helps you generate leads.
For example, instead of writing an article called “Social media strategies for restaurants”, you might name it “How to find the right social media marketing tools for restaurants”.
#7: Write Content that Aligns with Your Customer’s Interests
Given how much people tend to be tied up in their daily lives, your blog should act as a valuable resource for them to take a break from it. This is where you leverage the existing enthusiasm of your customers.
What are they really interested in?
Ideally, you should select a theme that will be used for your blog posts. For example, if you are selling baby accessories, you can write about the best buying tips and parenting advice.
When you write posts that are perfectly aligned with your customer’s interests, you can be sure that they will take interest in your blog. This leads to increased traffic and revenue for your business.
Also, growing sales through your blog becomes very easy when you focus on your existing customers.
How?
It’s very simple. You only need to acknowledge the needs of your present customers and make sure you address them through your blog posts. This way, they will be more likely to come back for more of what is provided in the blog posts.
#8: Make your Posts Scannable
When a reader reads your blog post, they skim through the content. So you have to make sure that your content is scannable. Therefore, you need to break up the text, add images, and include bulleted lists where possible so that people can skim through your blog post easily without getting bored.
This also makes your blog posts more readable, which in turn will make it easier for search engines to spider the pages.
There are several tools you can use to check if your blog posts are scannable or not. You can also run an eye-tracking study on your readers and see how they read your content, but that is not a free option and costs some money.
Making your content scannable will help you get your blog noticed by search engines and will also naturally lead to more readers coming on board and spending time on your blog.
8 Business Blogging Tactics to Generate More Sales – Conclusion
We hope that you enjoyed learning about these strategies and are ready to apply out 8 business blogging tactics to generate more sales.
If you want to drive more sales, we suggest incorporating the tips and strategies outlined in this blog post into your marketing strategy.
By doing so, you’ll be able to create content that is effective at solving potential customer pain points while also driving traffic back to your site. If you want to learn more about SEO or our services, get in touch with us.
What are some ways you can use these tactics? Let us know below!
