You’ve been blogging for a while but you’re not seeing the growth you crave.
Traffic is starting to grow, but you’re not able to convert those visitors to regular readers (yet.)
You know the importance of building an email list, but your conversion rates just aren’t where they need to be.
So, let’s fix that, shall we?
In this post I’m going to share 5 powerful conversion hacks that will help you convert those one off visitors into regular readers. Your blog will grow faster as a result.
Let’s get started:
1. Build targeted landing pages for your lead magnets
What is a landing page exactly? A landing page can technically be any page on your website that someone lands upon.
But, what I’m talking about are conversion-focused landing pages. This type of landing page stands apart from every other page on your blog.
It has no navigation. No distractions.
It’s a single page with a single conversion goal. In this case, to sign up and download your lead magnet.
Here’s an example that I created for FunnelOverload.com:
So, why should you bother with a landing page when you probably have opt-in forms on your blog already?
Landing pages convert better than any other type of opt-in forms. By a significant amount.
The example above hasn’t been split tested and was built in a rush for a new website. And it converts at over 30%. Crazy right?!
And one of the great things is that you can get very granular with who these pages are for. You can create one for each lead magnet, or you could create one for each type of person that may want to download your lead magnet (or, each audience persona.)
Alternatively, you could use a stand-alone landing page tool to build your pages, but these are usually a lot more costly.
Once you’ve built your landing page, you can start off promoting it by doing the following:
Add a link to your social media profiles
Share a link on your social networks
Add a link to your navigation bar
Create unique Pinterest graphics to promote your landing page
But, by far the most effective use of conversion-focused landing pages is to use them as part of a sales funnel together with paid traffic.
2. Offer category targeted lead magnets
Lead magnets are a great way to get more people on your email list. But can you take them a step further?
Yes, you can!
You may have heard of something called the content upgrade technique. These are just post-specific lead magnets). But, this isn’t what I’m talking about here.
You won’t need to create incentives for each one of your blog posts. Wow, that’s a lot of work!
Instead, I’m talking about creating lead magnets for each of the main topics you talk about on your blog. In your content management system (e.g. WordPress), they can be arranged by category.
Here’s the big question: What sort of results can you expect?
It depends on a lot of variables. Your copy, your offer, your content, and a few more things.
But, when I tried this for an agency I used to work for – the result was a 300% increase in email sign ups.
Here’s how to get started:
Take note of up to 5 main topics you cover on your blog
Make sure they’re organised by category
Create a lead magnet for each topic/category (you can use PDF versions of the post, PDF’s with bonus tips, templates, or checklists)
Create opt-in forms for each category
Add your opt-in forms using a tool that supports category-level targeting (Thrive Leads or ConvertPro are solid options, if you use WordPress)
Integrate your email provider
The part where this gets tricky is integrating your email provider. With some email providers, it may mean creating several different email lists.
Or, if you use the Thrive Leads plugin, you can integrate a transactional email service and it will email the lead magnets for you.
Another option is to use an email marketing service like ConvertKit because they have a unique way of handling email sign up forms. For every form you create, you can assign a lead magnet by providing a URL or file download.
You can customise the confirmation email, and once a user confirms their subscription, they get access to the download.
Sidenote: I won’t go into GDPR here since I’m not a lawyer and most lawyers would likely disagree on what’s necessary. That said, it’s important to ensure you are completely transparent about what people are signing up for. Just so we’re clear, this isn’t legal advice, okay? 😉
3. Add social proof to establish your authority
You’ve probably seen examples of social proof all over the web.
We’re talking about testimonials, trust logos, and any data that a company shares that makes it look impressive.
Here’s why these trust indicators improve conversions:
On a psychological level, we assume that if a bunch of other people are taking one course of action, that it’s the correct course of action to take.
Now, when you display powerful examples of social proof, it can help to establish you as an authority, and build your credibility. In a nutshell, it gives people more of a reason to listen to what you have to say.
And in a world where we’re all vying for the same spot-light as countless other bloggers – social proof matters.
Now, what can you do with social proof?
Whether you’re adding testimonials, or trust logos, prime places to add this social proof include:
Homepage
Service pages
About page
Opt-in forms
Landing pages
Sales pages
Order pages
It’s also important to note that social proof can actually be positive or negative. Display something noteworthy and you’ll create a positive sense of social proof.
When it comes to negative social proof, it’s typically an issue when displaying numbers. For example, if you have social media widgets that tell people you have 10 followers, what you’re actually saying to them is “hardly anyone followers me and you probably shouldn’t either.”
4. Use contrasting colors for your calls to action
If you want any of your readers to complete a specific action, you’ll need to display a call to action. Otherwise known as a CTA.
This will typically come in the form of button. Whether it’s attached to an opt-in form, part of some sort of call out box, or on it’s own.
The only problem with most buttons is they don’t stand out. This is because there’s no contrast between other colors in the design.
So, if your blog uses a lot of blue in it’s design – don’t use blue for buttons. Use something with more contrast such as red or orange. In my brand color guidelines I like to refer to this as the “action color.”
Here’s an example:
While this example isn’t from a blog, this page from 20i.com illustrates my point perfectly. Notice how the green buttons contrast the rest of the design?
If you’re not sure what color buttons would still match the rest of your design, while standing out, consider grabbing the hex code for one of the colors from your design.
You can then use that tool to find a number of colors that you can use.
5. Split-test your opt-in forms & landing pages for maximum conversions
The web is full of best practice advice that will help you improve conversions.
But, it’s important to understand that best practice isn’t always right. It plays on the law of averages.
Think of it like the foundation to a house. Every house needs a foundation, but there’s a lot of building to do afterwards.
So, when focusing on improving conversions for any element of your blog, use best practice as your starting point. Then run tests to further improve your conversions.
WordPress plugins like Thrive Leads and ConvertPro will take care of this for your opt-in forms. And some landing page builders have this functionality built-in (Leadpages and Unbounce are great examples.)
But, if you want to split-test your landing pages and don’t have the functionality built-in, you can always use Google Optimize – there’s a bit of technical setup to deal with but you can get started for free.
Wrapping it up
Growing a successful blog is a marathon. Not a sprint.
Regardless of what stage you’re at, these ideas will help you move those conversions in the right direction.
Now, it’s time to take action. There’s no better time than now.
About the author:
Adam Connell is a content strategist with a background in SEO and email marketing. He used to manage the content marketing efforts of international brands. Now he teaches bloggers how to get noticed at BloggingWizard.com
If you want to successfully promote your business, you need to know how to create effective landing pages. Distraction free landing pages can help you generate more leads and sales. If set up properly they can achieve conversion rates as high as 60% or more.
Therefore, today I am going to show you how to create landing pages that convert…
Find a landing page software:
The first thing you must do is get yourself a landing page software. Of course, you can always hire a designer to create the landing page for you. But using a tool will save you time and work out cheaper.
Most of the top ones provide access to several templates with which you can design your landing pages quickly. You also won’t need to hire a designer every time you need an edit. A couple of good landing page design tools you can try are Leadpages and Unbounce.
They have templates that will make it easy for you to design webinar landing pages, product landing pages and more.
Design the landing page:
After you choose your landing page software choose a template that will suit your project best. Then you can begin designing your landing page. Start by writing a headline. It should be both attention grabbing and enticing as it needs to convince people to read the rest of the landing page.
You should also optimize it for social media so that the headlines will drive more clicks and shares.
Next, write the body copy. The goal of the body copy should be to convince people that signing up for the content in exchange for their details or buying the product is worth it. The best way to do this is by discussing the benefits of the content or product.
Start with a short paragraph and then continue with bullet points that quickly state the benefits.
After that you can end with a call to action that asks people to ‘Sign Up’ or ‘Buy Now’ to gain access.
Here’s a good example of a landing page from Hubspot that promotes a free marketing assessment…
As you can see it starts with an attractive headline followed by a sub headline. After that you have a couple of short paragraphs which are followed by bullet points that state the benefits of the assessment.
Finally, it ends with a call to action that asks people to fill up the form.
Another important step they have taken here is adding their logo at the top. When people see this they will instantly know that this is a promotion from Hubspot. If you don’t have a logo, you should at least add your company name at the top.
Attach it to a domain:
The aforementioned landing page design tools can host your landing page. So, you can set them up there. But if you want them to have an extra layer of credibility you should host it on your own domain. When people see that the name on the logo matches with the one in your URL they will trust you more.
So, attach it to your website.
If you are a startup and haven’t got a website, you can purchase one using a domain name finding tool.
When you type in the name of your company in the search field it will find all the domain names available and you can buy the one you like most.
Once you have a domain you can attach the landing page to it and it will look very credible. Some landing page design tools have their own WordPress plugins. So, if your website runs on WordPress, adding the landing page to it should be much easier.
Send traffic and test results:
The next thing you must do is send traffic to this landing page. This should be done through both organic and paid methods.
While you do this watch out for the conversion rates to see if they meet the industry standards. If it is not converting well enough you should make some modifications to see if it improves.
Split test different versions:
Another thing you can try is to split test your landing pages right from the start. This is where you create different versions of your landing page and then simultaneously send the same amount of traffic to all of them to see which converts the best. To help with split testing you can use a free tool like Google Optimize.
Now create your landing pages…
This is how you create landing pages that convert. Start by getting a landing page design tool. Next, choose a template and add your copy to it. After that you can attach it to a domain and send traffic.
While you do this you should regularly monitor your page to make sure it is converting well enough.
How do you create your landing pages? Do you use any tools or do you design them from scratch? Please leave your comments below.
There are literally millions of businesses occupying social media space just vying for a customer’s attention.
They are pulling out all of the stops to promote their business, to get customers to buy their product. So it’s safe to say that there is stiff competition in the socialverse.
For a business to survive and thrive you must have a strategy that works. And in order to create an effective social media strategy you have to know what the latest marketing trends are.
Otherwise, you won’t get a return on the time and money you invest in your marketing plan.
In this post, I’m going to cover the latest social media marketing trends for 2018.
Social Media Marketing Trends For 2018
Social Media Examiner published their 10th annual social media marketing industry report. More than 5,700 marketers were surveyed and they shared how they will use social media to grow and promote their business.
The most commonly used social media platforms marketers are:
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
YouTube
Pinterest
Snapchat
And in spite of Instagram’s ever-growing popularity, Facebook is still holding its own. A whopping 94% of marketers use Facebook followed by 66% who use Instagram. And…2 in 3 marketers claim Facebook as their most important platform.
The Most Commonly Used Types of Content
Social Media Examiner asked marketers to identify the types of content they use in their social media marketing. The chart below shows the percentage of marketers for each type of content.
Visual Images
I can’t tell you how important visual images are. It is what will drive a customer to take action, like clicking the link to your blog post.
When people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later. Brainrules
80% of marketers said they will use visual images in their social media marketing plan.
Social media is busting at the seams with brands trying to get a customer’s attention so it’s important that your visual images stand out from the rest of the digital herd.
Studies demonstrate that images receive a high response rate, and are a very effective technique for generating leads.
So how can you use visual images in your social media marketing?
Infographics are not only a quick and easy way to share information with your audience, they are also highly engaging. It is a graphic visualization tool to capture attention and to tell a story while the reader consumes the content.
There are tools like Piktochart to create your own infographics but you can also find infographics created by other marketers in just about any industry on Visual.ly.
Video
The digital landscape is exploding with video content. As a matter of fact, 77% of marketers plan to increase the use of video.
According to Hubspot: 54% of consumers wanted to see more video content from a brand or business they support.
Adding video to your social media marketing plan is an effective way to draw more attention to your business. Remember a video should be interesting, engaging and helpful for viewers, reaching their pain points, their sweet spot to want and need your service or product.
Here are some of the ways to incorporate videos into your social media marketing plan:
Create short and simple instructional videos to show your audience how your product works
An audience loves original, out-of-the box videos. A good example is one Dollar Shave Club created to promote their blades:
You can also create thank you videos to show gratitude to your audience for using your product or service
Blooper videos are also popular so share those out-takes and goof-ups!
Blogging
Customers prefer live videos over reading a blog post but blogging is still an important, fundamental tool to drive your business success. You can incorporate videos into your blog, further boosting the readability interest with active content.
Blogging is means to keep your audience informed of the latest trends in your industry, develop your reputation as a thought leader, provide updates about, and to your product, and be a valuable resource hub of information. A blog also aids in building your community of loyal, interested followers. Followers can become customers because they know, like, trust you.
Quality content is essential. It truly is KING! Be the subject matter expert to drive social waves to you and your business. Rich and relevant is a must.
Here are some of the stats that caught my attention:
According to the infographic, 80% of customers would rather watch live videos from a brand than read a plain old humdrum blog post.
Live streaming can be used to make announcements and give updates on your products. You can do a live event to promote your business. And you can do a live behind the scenes video to show your audience the creative process for your brand.
Now, live streaming is popular on many social media platforms but Facebook is killing it! Statistics show Facebook live videos are watched 3x longer than regular videos.
So if you’re wondering whether you should use live video streaming, the answer is YES!
Podcasting
Podcasts are a low cost, high impact content platform to promote your business, reach your target audience, personalize your brand and share your voice. Typically, it’s unfiltered, an opportunity to humanize brand and provide a more authentic feel than other types of content marketing.
Podcasts expand your reach, touching the lives of many. In a report by Edison Research, they found that in 2018 (so far) 44% of Americans, 124 million people, have listened to a podcast. 73 million listen in on a monthly basis. Pretty impressive.
TIP: Pat Flynn wrote a great tutorial that has step-by-step instructions to start a podcast.
Messenger Bots
Messenger bots came into the scene back in 2016 and have become a leading tool in content marketing. This form of content marketing took off when Facebook figured out how to take payments in messenger so users wouldn’t have to go to an external website to make purchases.
And from there a new trend was born!
Bots uses Artificial Intelligence to understand a user’s question and provide the right response according to the conversation flow.
It’s designed to help your customers in a more “personal” way and can help businesses provide content and resources to help customers. It adds another layer of communication to help convert viewers into customers.
Here is a list of Messenger chatbots you can check out:
Investigate the available platforms and tools to further your audience engagement and customer journey. There are many to choose from and while it can be overwhelming, start small but think big impact. Be creative and innovative, not a copy of the competition.
Experiment. The key to a working social media marketing plan is to analyze your results and tweak your plan as needed.
Over to you: What’s working? What isn’t? What are your favorite platforms?
Whether your business is real estate in Michigan or SEO services in Chicago, virtual assistants (VAs) can be major game-changers — at least if you know how to use them properly. Designed to support you remotely, a virtual assistant handles the same kinds of tasks that traditional assistants do: clerical work, marketing assistance, web design help, etc. But, as an added benefit, they handle those tasks in their own locations, saving you the costs of office space or equipment. What’s more, 91 percent of them can handle those tasks more efficiently when remote, according to a study from TINYpulse.
So, what’s the key to make the most of these assistants? The answer is strategy. Rather than hiring a VA and waiting for benefits, what you need is to think intentionally about the partnership. With that in mind, here are some key tips for knowing how to get the most out of your virtual assistant!
Know what tasks to delegate. According to Natalie Sisson at The Suitcase Entrepreneur, one of the best ways to make use of a virtual assistant is by delegating several time-consuming tasks — and saving yourself at least two hours each day in the process. What tasks add up to big savings? Sisson suggests letting your VA manage your calendar, use social media, manage your emails, handle minor blogging tasks, take care of basic bookkeeping, manage your email marketing list, and take on customer support. Other resources suggest tasks such as researching data, updating membership sites, writing transcriptions, creating images for blog posts, moderating forums or creating quick redirects on your site.
Always give thorough instructions. No matter what tasks you give your VA, aim to overcommunicate about their instructions. This is especially true upfront when you’re beginning to train your assistant. According to an article at EOFire, “you should set aside specific time each day during those first few weeks to train them on [the tasks you’re delegating].” In other words, rather than sending minimal information and hoping your VA figures out what you mean, provide clear, detailed information that answers potential questions before they arise. Think about this: The better you communicate with your VA, the less likely you are to deal with repetitive follow-ups and back-and-forth emails that waste time and lower business efficiency.
Set deadlines when appropriate. If you give your VA tasks that need to be completed in a certain time frame, set deadlines. This helps set expectations for how quickly work needs to be done, keeping your assistant on track.
Follow up in the early stages of a project. After giving your VA a larger project, follow up about 10 to 20 percent into the job. Ask how things are going, see if there are any questions, and adjust as needed. This small step can save you big headaches down the road if some part of the project didn’t get communicated.
Share documents. Avoid miscommunications or lost work by using cloud storage for all documents. Whether you go with Google Drive, Dropbox or another solution, you’ll never have to worry that your VA’s latest work is hard to access.
Respect their schedules. VAs are not employees. They often have more than one client. As such, you can’t expect them to be available round the clock or to respond right away whenever you contact them. Find out what their typical work hours are, and respect their schedules. This can help you make the most of your relationship over time.
Consider time-keeping software. Just because someone works remotely doesn’t mean you shouldn’t monitor them the way you would any employee. Consider using time-keeping software to track hours and projects.
Empower your VA with more involvement. To truly maximize the potential of a VA partnership, encourage proactive behavior. How? Instead of thinking of your VA as a contractor, think of him or her as a partner. So, rather than only delegating minor tasks, you can let your VA grow in responsibilities and the accompanying sense of ownership that comes with them. Instead of just having your assistant update spreadsheets, for example, have him or her follow up with prospects.
Keep an open dialogue. Check in with your VA from time to time to see how things are going. Ask for questions, concerns, comments or other suggestions. You may be surprised what you learn through this kind of follow-up. Likewise, try to be available via email or Skype for quick questions that come up for your VA, especially in the beginning when he or she is still learning about your business.
As an entrepreneur or small business owner who wants to save money, scale your business, boost efficiency, and work smarter, you can’t afford to ignore the potential of virtual assistants. So, to make the most of your relationship with one, keep the nine tips above in mind! By thinking strategically about your VA, you can maximize the benefits of using one.
Author bio: Shanna Mallon is a contributing writer for Straight North, one of Chicago’s top Internet marketing agencies providing SEO, web development and other online marketing services. Shanna has been writing professionally online since 2007.
To successfully promote your business with social media, you need a strategy in place. A well-built strategy provides your business with a path that works. It also makes it easy to measure results and check if what you are doing is working or if you need to make changes.
Therefore, in this post I am going to show you how to create an effective social media strategy for 2018. Read my tips and implement them to ensure you get positive results from your social media marketing in the new year…
Choose goals:
A strategy only works if it is results oriented. Hence, before you create your strategy you need to choose goals. For example, if you are running a business the main goals of your social media strategy should be to generate more revenue or things that contribute to boosting revenue like traffic and leads.
Most people make the mistake of choosing apex goals like increasing engagement and followers. These goals are important too and should be part of your strategy, but they shouldn’t be your apex goals. Only have apex goals that have a direct impact on your revenue. After that begin choosing the secondary goals that can have an impact on your apex goals.
Research your audience, social networks and competitors:
Once you know your goals you need to conduct plenty of research to learn as much as you can about your audience. For this you should conduct interviews and surveys.
Conduct social media research
Also, checkout the latest social media demographics research put out by credible organisations like Pew.
Once you know your audience and the networks they use you should conduct research on the social networks they are most active on. Next figure out which ones you would like your business to be active on.
Once you know the social networks you want to use you can learn the best practices and use social media analytics tools to spy on your competitors. See what type of content they create and how it is working for them.
Practice visual content creation skills:
If you look at the fastest growing social networks right now (Pinterest, Instagram and Snapchat) you will realise that they are very visual centric (you can only post visuals on these networks). Also, if you checkout recent research on established networks like Facebook you will see that images drive the highest engagement here.
This is why you should invest plenty of your time to learn as much as you can about creating visual content. This should include understanding basic design principles and the types of images that fare well on different networks.
Once you understand this, creating great visual content shouldn’t be a problem as there plenty of online visual editors that make the process of design easy. They come with premade templates and design ideas too.
Create social media visuals
A company that certainly understand the importance of visual content is Whole Foods. Make sure you checkout their Pinterest and Instagram pages to gain some inspiration.
Incorporate blogging and other content:
Building a social presence with engaging content is an important step, but along with this you must share content from your blog. This lets you transfer some of the engagement onto your blog where you will have the opportunity to convert traffic to leads and sales.
Write longer posts
For best results you should step away from creating short blog posts as a study by Buzzsumo found that long posts between 3,000 and 10,000 words get the most shares. But make sure the entire post is filled with quality information. Just beefing up a blog post with filler content won’t do.
Write long top quality posts
An example of a quality post is Social Media Marketing Made Simple by Neil Patel. It is over 3,000 words long, but every inch of it is filled with quality information.
You should publish long posts like this a few times a week. But if you are pressed for time try you can write them once a week or once every 2 weeks.
Along with the blog post create other forms of content like ebooks, white papers and webinars that can convert blog traffic into leads.
Regularly modify your strategy:
No matter how carful you are with the initial research, you won’t set up the perfect strategy in your first attempt. On top of that industry trends change and social networks are redesigned with the introduction of new features. Hence, you should use a good analytics tool to regularly analyse your strategy and make any modifications if necessary.
Gradually you will be able to build the perfect social media strategy. Of course, you will need to make modifications every few months as trends and features change.
Now go and set up your strategy for the new year…
These are all the steps you must follow while creating an effective social media strategy for 2018. Start by choosing your goals and gathering as much data as you can on your audience and the social network they frequent. Next spy on your competitors and see what’s working for them.
After that get active and begin creating visual content and blog content that will help you accomplish your business goals. And don’t forget to regularly analyse your results and determine if what you are doing is working.
Mitt Ray is the founder of 
Author bio: Shanna Mallon is a contributing writer for 
