Believe it or not, your blog is an important sales tool. Every post your write is a chance to make a sale or warm someone up to an idea. But heads up…This is only true if you know how to write blogs posts that sell. Not just any blog post will get people clicking through to your sales pages and lead pages.
So how do you craft effective blog posts that sell like crazy? Follow these simple strategies.
- Know Your Audience
- Eavesdrop on their conversations. Visit niche forums, social media groups and blog discussions. This simple step will give you a great insight into what your audience thinks about certain topics and products in your niche.
- Interact with them on social media. Here you take it a step further by actually talking to your audience. Ask them questions, find out their pains, figure out what kind of solutions they’re looking for.
- Outline and Research
- Find a good quote or inspirational story to share at the beginning of the article. This is a great way to engage someone emotionally.
- Statistics and other data to back up your claims in the article. For example, you might share a sobering real estate statistic. You can then launch into a post about how the reader can avoid being a statistic.
- Craft a Compelling Title
- Share benefits. The idea here is to answer the “what’s in it for me?” question that’s floating in the back of your prospect’s mind.
- Arouse Curiosity – Sometimes this is as easy as using a word like “secrets” in your title. This makes your prospects want to find out what you know that they don’t.
- Use Social Proof – This headline gives your reader the impression that everyone else is doing this. For example: “Here’s What The World’s Best Real Estate Agents Do To Help Buyers Create Wealth…”
- Ask Questions – A question can arouse curiosity, help qualify the reader, or even just engage them by making them think.
- Include a Strong Opener
- Tell a story. Share a story about how someone very similar to the reader overcame the same problem your reader is now facing.
- Share a shocking fact or statistic. The idea is to get someone to sit up and pay attention. For example, share a shocking fact about how many people (real estate fact) each year.
- Say something unbelievable or controversial. Is there something in your niche that almost everyone believes is true? You can shock people right out of their seats by opening an article that goes against this mainstream thought. Ask a question to at least get people considering the idea that something might not be true.
- Bust a myth. Do some people in your niche believe something that is hurting their results? Then you might open by busting this myth.
- Ask a Question. This is a great way to engage your readers and get them to start qualifying themselves.
- Introduce a Solution
- At this point you’ve given your reader something useful, such as an overview of a process, tips or something else to help them solve their problem. Now you need to introduce the rest of the solution, along with the benefits of this solution.
- Include a Strong Call to Action
- After following the previous steps, you’ve led your reader right down to the end of the article. And best of all, the reader is very interested in this solution you’ve been talking about. Now it’s time to drop a call to action in front of them along with a link. This is where you tell them what to do next, and why they should do it. For example, include a link to your free lead-capture download.
- Proof and Polish
- Read it out loud. This will help you catch portions of your content that are bumpy or otherwise don’t read well.
- Get someone else to proofread. They’ll catch the errors, as you’re probably too close to the work to see them.
- Look for ways to make the content more engaging. Sometimes this is as simple as using different words. For example, instead of saying something is “fast,” you might describe it as “lightning quick.” This paints a picture in the reader’s mind and draws them into the content.
As you just discovered, writing blog content that sells has a part in the technical side of writing, such as good grammar and spelling. However, it’s also about knowing your audience, drawing them in, and then leading them to your call to action.
How to Write Blog Content That Sells