How to generate leads through blog posts: 5 tips

How to generate leads through blog posts

One major sign of a growing business is an increase in the number of customers or clients (however you refer to your leads) that request for your product/services. While there are many ways to generate these new customers, I will teach you in detail the power and importance of one of the many ways - blogging, and how to maximize it. 

Recently I did a blog post for a client of mine who majors in fabrics business in Nigeria. In less than a month, she had several customers contacting her through the post, and making enquiry on her product. If you are new in business, we call these people 'Leads'. Now, I'm about to show you what I did that had practical results, not something I read on a blog. 

How to grow your customer list through blogging

1 Start a blog

The best way to start a thing is by STARTING. To some, starting a blog looks like a huge mountain. Some feel you've got to have some N1,000 dollars in your account before you can start a blog, which is untrue. There are some blogs that you don't need a dime to start. One of them is www.blogspot.com Even if you might have to pay someone to create it for you, you won't have to spend much to do that. 

There are other blogs you can start with a lesser amount too, depending on what you want, your budget, and the purpose of the blog. The  good news is you can start a blog today. And the reason you should is because the persons that started their blogs when you first thought of it are making money with it now that you are about to start. This is to say the earlier the better. 

2 Post articles consistently

More important than starting a thing is consistency. The world is full of starters, but we know only a few that finished and finished strong. Sincerely, starting a blog is easier than posting regularly. Consistency requires posting as often as you can. 

The general question people do ask is, how often should I post? Well, I personally recommend between 1 and 3 articles per week, provided it is not a news blog where you have to post hourly.  And the reason for this is explained in the next post.

3 Quality above Quantity

A quality post will always, always attract more people. Reason is there are millions of blog posts on the internet that deal with several issues. But wealth of information is not the same as depth of information. Some blog posts are simply different from others. They are long, carry experiential knowledge of what is talked about. 

For instance, a drummer who has succeeded in his field writes on his mistakes and failures, and successes, giving vivid instances. He then draws out lessons from them to teach others how to be successful as a drummer. Such blog posts will always be read, shared and referred to often. 

When people surf the internet for specific topics, they are not just looking for information; they are searching for a working solution. When they find such a post, they want to look for other blog posts written by you, to read, because now you have given them a reason to trust your content for its quality. And before you say Jack Tanko, they are already taking certain actions such as signing up for email or newsletter, or even contacting you for your services/product. 

Always try hard to write content that your readers will find useful at all times.

4 Promote your post

Starting a blog is good, posting regularly is important, preferring Quality above Quantity is importanter; but promoting your blog post is importantest (lol). Here is why it supersedes them all. Even among the few content that carry depth, some are still unknown. So it's like putting a lot of hard work into something and then putting it out there, expecting result and getting none. 

After writing a quality blog post that speaks a lot about your product or services, and attaching an irresistible call to action, you need to get it out there in front of your target audience by all means.

If you sell for instance, Emotional Intelligence Knowledge in form of coaching, certified courses, and public lectures, then your blog post will be about Emotional Intelligence: the reason why some fail and some succeed. Your target audience at this point will be career people, entrepreneurs, business owners, CEOs MDs, NGOs, School teachers, Leaders, etc. You know that sharing on Instagram or Snapchat is about the wrong place to be. 

Now note that when it comes to post promotion, it is not always about paid promotion or search engine optimization. There are several ways to promote your blog post. Here are a few you might find useful:

a. Promote your blog post using email: 

Remember I said something earlier about people subscribing to your email? Good. Naturally, your blog should be configured in a way that it allows for people to subscribe to your email to receive weekly email from you on information or lecture regarding the product, or service. Here you

• Build your email list
• Attach link of your latest post to the mail.
• Persuade them to click and read.
• Enable social sharing for your email.

b. Promote your blog using LinkedIn

LinkedIn is about one of the best places to promote your blog post. Facebook is like a market full of many people: buyers, sellers, onlookers, gamblers, thieves, etc. But LinkedIn is a lot more specific. It is a network of business-minded folks, and thus one of the most ideal places to share your post. 

And here is how to go about sharing. As of the time of writing this, LinkedIn permits not more than 700 characters. You can therefore copy the most captivating parts of your post (not more than 700 characters) and paste it there, then add the link below and ask them to click on the link to read further. 

c. Promote your blog post using Facebook

The fact that Facebook is not as audience-specific as the rest does not make it useless to your blog post. Facebook still remains the social media platform with the highest number of users. Therefore, similarly to LinkedIn, you will share your content, ensuring that the following is done:

• Use popular hashtags on Facebook. You can get an idea of the hashtags to use when you check the Trending on Facebook.
• Post at targeted times and days. Post when Facebook users are likely to be online. Saturdays, Sundays and Fridays in the evening are usually good times to post on Facebook.
• Post frequently, breaking down into bits some key points in the post, adding the link to it and asking them to click to read further.

d. Promote your blog and blog post through Twitter and hashtags. 

Twitter is another avenue to promote it. The characters are much lesser on social platforms. Nevertheless, maximize it in the best way you can. Be strategic in your use of hashtags. 

5. Reply comments with a CTA

The comment sections of an article are one of the best places to generate leads. For people to comment, it means they have read through the post and they value it enough to react to the post. It might come in the form of commenting or asking questions in the comment box. 

If one is asking for more info about the topic, it is a chance for you to call them to certain actions such as calling you, chatting you up, sending you mail, etc. You could also drop a link there that will take them to a landing page, where the conversion process will begin. 

One mistake though that many do is to assume they can do all of these on their own instead of looking for professionals in the best position to handle that. The unwillingness to pay for it makes them get cheap, unsatisfying results. So, I'll suggest, if you ever need a good blog content writer, or a social media manager, or someone to create a blog for you, you can send us an email call or WhatsApp on +2348137884995.

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