Wasn’t it frustrating when you would spend hours writing a college paper, only to realize that your teacher never read it? The same feeling comes over content writers when they realize that their blogs are getting very little attention.
Though there are SEO benefits to maintaining a blog, the main purpose of creating content is to get people coming to your site. You can’t help people solve their problems or develop meaningful relationships if they aren’t visiting. But how do you continue to bring new traffic to your blog? Are there any fresh ideas that you haven’t tried?
Generating new subscribers is very important to managing a successful blog. The first and most important step is to create content on a regular basis. This way, you have new information for readers to check out. Aside from this, there are some ways that you can draw people in.
To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of traffic-generating ideas that are fresh and unique. If you haven’t tried them yet, give them a run and let us know how they work for you!
Let’s begin!
Optimize Your Top Blog Posts
One of the first things that you can do is optimize your top blog posts for subscribers. This won’t take a lot of time, and the content is already there.
What do we mean by optimize?
Essentially, we are talking about making the blogs more efficient for your subscribers. This may include adding in new long-tail keywords, making the content mobile friendly, adding in a sliding CTA or adding a smart subscription CTA.
It’s best to use your top performing content because you know that people are enjoying it and you’re seeing traffic from it. Of course, you will need to discover what this content is, so you use a tool like BuzzSumo or HubSpot’s Blog Dashboard to identify which pieces to focus on.
Insert Opt-in Checkboxes to Your Landing Pages
Adding a simple opt-in checkbox can increase subscribers. If users like what they see, all they have to do is check the box.
The best place to insert these checkboxes is on your landing pages. You already have the prospect’s attention, and they are ready to follow through with a desired action. By filling out the form and taking advantage of the offer, they can also subscribe to your emails and access new content, incentives, offers, etc.
Now, you might be thinking, “Why not make the opt-in box checked by default?” An auto-checkbox would be a great way to ensure that more people would subscribe to your blog, right?
Remember that you want the box to be the prospect’s choice. This looks much better on your part, plus it avoids you from getting a list of low-quality subscribers. So, give people the choice to opt in, but do provide the box on your landing pages.
Give New Subscribers More for Doing Less
With a smart CTA, you can offer something extra to new subscribers while ensuring that the CTA isn’t shown to a returning subscriber.
For example, some companies offer a downloadable ebook or whitepaper that is traditionally reserved for “loyal readers.” Or, they might offer a discount or coupon code off the regular prices. These types of incentives are especially beneficial for prospects who are on the fence and still unsure about signing up.
Make sure that you are watching the engagement rates of your content if you do decide to offer these types of incentives. It’s possible that people might be using you just to get a single discount and aren’t really interested in your emails.
Add Smart Subscribe CTAs to Your Blog and Homepage
We’ve talked a bit about smart CTAs, but let’s go over them in more detail. Smart CTAs show the right message to the right visitors at the right time. They’re smart like that! These CTAs can be placed on your blog, homepage and About page. The CTAs show up only to people who haven’t subscribed to your blog.
Smart CTAs should be treated just like traditional CTAs: short, simple and easy to fill out, requesting as little information as you need. If all that is required is an email address, ask for just this. The more complicated things are to fill out, the lesser chance people will sign up for them. Also make sure that you test your CTAs to see where they perform the best.
Offer a Valuable Course or Online Workshop
All lead generation content is not created equal. Some carry more weight than others, such as when comparing a certification course and a whitepaper. Though the whitepaper may contain some great information and useful facts, it doesn’t do much to propel the reader further into their career. A certification course, on the other hand, has the power to do exactly that.
Think about educational courses, live seminars or workshops you can offer. It might sound like a tall order, but start small and consider some of the things you can teach people.
For example, a digital marketing agency might host a webinar where they share inside secrets about how to increase Facebook followers or double their email list. A fashion company may launch a workshop that teaches people how to dress business casual. A company that sells meal kits might host a live show where they cook their most popular dishes.
The purpose of offering this type of content is to build relationships, show off your brand’s personality and get people to trust you. Also, put a spin on things by offering viewers some type of reward at the end of the course, even if it’s something simple like a digital trophy.
If you’re short on resources (and time), consider hiring a freelancer to help out. Though you still have to pay a freelancer, it saves you from having to hire on a full-time employee, and you only need to pay for specific tasks. If you have the content written, for example, have a freelancer spice it up.
Use Your Manners & Ask Nicely
We also thought that we should point out the fact that it’s completely OK and within reason to ask people to follow your blog. If you are too aggressive, pushy or annoying with your CTAs, you could rub people the wrong way. Asking nicely is perfectly acceptable.
Search Engine Watch, for example, has a CTA that gives the options of “No thanks. I am not interested” and “No thanks. Ask me later please” for people who aren’t ready to convert. Other CTAs are a bit more sassy or comical, so you’ll have to strike a balance between your brand voice and what your audience responds to. This is where A/B testing comes in handy.
Do keep in mind that newcomers won’t know your brand voice, so if you try to be funny and come off as being rude, you could lose prospects. Again, split test your CTAs to see which ones are best received by your audience.
Conclusion
We hope that these ideas for bringing traffic to your blog have motivated you to try some new things. Sometimes all it takes is a new perspective to get you out of a rut and seeing more action. Most important is that you don’t lose sight of the benefits to blogging. As long as you continue contributing thoughtful, relevant content and trying creative ways of reaching prospects, you will continue to grow your subscriber list.
