Everyone says blogging is important to small business.  But…does it really lead to increased sales?  Here’s a great post digging into the strategies you need to do just that.

Does Blogging Really Increase Lead Generation And Sales?

BY JAMES — FILED UNDER BLOGGING, CUSTOMER ACQUISITION, SALES

Nowadays everyone has a blog. Forbes, Walmart, mommies with children and even hobbyists.

Why? Because they make money. You may think that a blog is something you create for fun and has no place in a business environment but you would be wrong. Very wrong.

Blogs today are being used to generate leads and increase sales, today I will show you how.

FIGURING OUT A CONTENT STRATEGY

Acquiring leads or increasing sales with a blog all starts with a content strategy. As with most things in business you need to come up with a plan to reach your goals, measure your progress and to continually adjust to optimize operations.

A content strategy should be focused around your goal – be it to rank higher in Google, provide customers with information or generate leads and drive sales.

All of the following goals are achieved by giving your readers value. Value in the form of information, entertainment, help or anything else that tickles their interest. A Blog is the medium through which you provide them with this value.

Let’s say you run a health club and your biggest market is middle-aged moms who want to live a more healthy lifestyle. How can you generate leads via blogging to attract this clientele? Have any ideas?

Well I have a few.

Let’s solve a problem they have (by providing value). This can be in the form of diet advice, which foods to eat, what to avoid, how to better plan meals throughout the day or eat healthier as a family.

Perhaps give away a free eBook, create videos on YouTube showing simple exercises they can do at home or recipe ideas for a healthier living. Whichever method you use it’s extremely important the content adds value.

By showing them the way to reach their goals with solid advice and actions, positions your business as knowledgeable and trustworthy. If they trust and respect you – they will buy from you.

HOW TO REEL THEM IN

So we threw out the bait (blog content) and they loved it, but how do we reel them in? There’s a number of ways.

If you decide to give away a free information product (like an eBook), in exchange for the book you ask for the lead’s email address. Within actual blog posts you can place opt-in forms or have links to other parts of your site where you sell products.

With these emails you can create email campaigns that nurture your lead into a customer.

PROOF THAT CONTENT MARKETING GENERATES LEADS AND DRIVES SALES

KISSmetrics allocated over 90% of their marketing budget on creating blog content. In a case study written by Neil Patel, the founder of KISSmetrics, he said for the month of January they spent $5,380 on content marketing with an average of two posts per day going live.

Source: Quicksprout.com

Neil stated for January 2014 they generated a total of 5,057 leads via their blog. KISSmetrics’ total lead count for the month was 8,144, with 62% of all leads coming from blogging.

How did they get that many leads? Well let’s take a look at their blog.

They have placed various lead magnets all over their blogs offering readers free guides and information that solve their problems.

KISSmetrics’ products start from $200 and go up into the thousands. At almost a $1 a lead that is money well spent don’t you think?

How much are you willing to pay for a single lead?

CONTENT MARKETING OR SOCIAL MEDIA?

Both.

Social media marketing and content marketing are both extremely viable and practical options for gaining leads and sales that you would be crazy not to use both. Generally speaking, Facebook and Twitter ads will get you leads and sales in a much shorter time due to their advertising options, but they cost more.

Content marketing takes time with some many businesses not seeing any kind of ROI for months. For the first year of their operation KISSmetrics didn’t make a single dollar using content marketing.

But when the floods gate broke and the started to roll in – they kept on coming. Combining content marketing with SEO will rank you site higher on the search engines bringing you a steady flow of leads for each month.

Using your social media accounts you can publicize your blog posts to followers and place social follow links within your blog to integrate both options.

Are you happy with the results your blog is bringing your business or are you lacking a creative strategy? Maybe you’re looking to create valuable content but are not sure where to start or which mediums to use? Whichever problem you face we are the people to speak too.

If you have any further questions about content marketing and how it can bring your business more leads and sales today, leave a comment or contact us today!

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