You've created excellent blog content. You're driving traffic to your most important blog posts. However, your system is incomplete. Don't hit the Go button until you've got all of these parts in position... The following is critical:
If your readers do not provide you with their email address, they will not return to your site. Even if they enjoyed the content! Even if they are potentially interested in your product! If they're not in your orbit, they'll get distracted, forget about your site, and never return.
You invest money to create high-quality blog articles and even more to bring traffic to them. Don't let first-time visitors pass you by without requesting that they join your email list.
Content Enhancements
Content upgrades come into play here. Every blog piece, especially the essential ones that you promote with ads, should have one. A content upgrade is additional bonus content provided in exchange for the reader's email address.
To make your content upgrades convert like crazy, you must master two things:
It must be truly valuable and actionable.
They don't have to be very long. They should not simply be additional written content. However, your reader should be able to use it that day. I like to think of it like this: Your article explains the notion. The content upgrade is the technology that allows you to put that concept into action.
It must be relevant to the article's content.
Every content upgrade is unique to the article with which it was provided. Readers who arrived at this post via a link did so because they were experiencing the problem that this article claims to fix. If your content upgrade helps them attain that objective even more (and your piece retains their attention and earns their trust), they're more likely to input their email address to get the bonus content as well.
For example, this article (of course) includes a content upgrade. It is a set of repeatable methods that you and your team may use to put this system in place.
Magnets for Leads
In addition to content upgrades, which are specific to each blog post, I recommend that you create a global lead magnet.
A multi-day drip email course, an ebook, a white paper, a recorded or live webinar, or any combination of the aforementioned may be used. The aim is to provide yet another entry point for people to join your email list and receive additional value from you.
The idea is to keep the content of your global lead magnet centered on the problem that your company addresses for clients. It should immediately transition into a pitch to trial or buy your product. In other words, educate people on the problem, why it exists, and how to solve it. Then, promote your solution as the greatest (and most efficient) way to solve that problem.
For example, at the time of writing, Audience Ops had two global lead magnets:
One example is our recorded video workshop, Sell to Strangers. The other is Content Marketing on Autopilot, a 5-day email crash course. Both are intended to educate readers on why the absence of a systematic content marketing system makes it difficult to attract and retain clients (and how developing such a system solves that problem).
Many individuals will sign up for your worldwide lead magnet directly, possibly via a popup or slide-up form on your website. Others, however, may join your email list in another way, such as by signing up for a content upgrade. As a result, you should have clever email automation in place to guarantee that people who join your list but haven't yet received your lead magnet are given the opportunity to do so. Check out my essay on setting up an email automation flow with Drip.
Others may visit your site and, for whatever reason, decline to input their email address on their initial visit. So the next stage is to close that gap...
Action Items:
Make certain that your articles include high-value content upgrades.
Create and distribute a global lead magnet.
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