January 24, 2017 By Angie Herrera
How You Can Use Your Blog To Grow Your List
Blogging more often could be your secret weapon for growing your list.
Believe it or not, your blog is one of the most valuable tools on your website. It may take the most work, but it’s well worth the effort.
Odds are, you’ve probably tried all sorts of marketing tactics to grow your list, but have you worked on your blog? That seemingly simple portion of your site may be the best tool for adding to your list.
There’s a reason why so many websites focus on content creation. It’s not just about showcasing ideas and products. It’s about bringing in traffic and conversions.
Blogging more often could be your secret weapon for growing your list. (Get this photo)
Draw In More Traffic
High-quality blog content draws in far more traffic than poor quality and no blog at all. In fact, content marketing leaders see 7.8 times more traffic than non-leaders. It’s also a cost effective way to draw in more traffic as it costs 62% less than most outbound marketing, but generates triple the leads.
Anytime you’re drawing more traffic to your site, you’re increasing the chance of conversions. If you’re including calls-to-action on your blog, you’re not only growing your list, but gaining loyal visitors at the same time.
Odds are, you’ve probably tried all sorts of marketing tactics to grow your list, but have you worked on your blog?
Always Offer Useful Content
If you want your blog visitors to sign up for something, you need to first give them something of value in return. Before they pay any attention to a CTA, they want to know more about you. Your blog is a chance to show them that your business provides value.
Instead of quick, short posts about products or upcoming sales, always offer useful content. There’s always a debate about whether quality or quantity is most important, but the truth is, both are important. The one thing everyone agrees on is that useful, relevant content always works better at bringing and keeping more visitors on your site, which helps grow your list.
Describe And Offer Digital Products
In addition to content, your blog has the opportunity to offer something else - digital products. It’s nothing new to offer something in exchange for an email address. A free ebook or special video entices visitors to provide their email addresses. If your blog helps drive traffic to your site, it serves to reason that combining your digital offer with your blog post creates a killer method of growing your list.
Naturally mention your offer within your blog post and don’t forget to remind visitors to grab their free product at the end of the post. It’s an unobtrusive CTA that encourages more signups. It’s also easy to add in to your blog posts with a simple hyperlink. While it’s not flashy, it does it’s job well. In HubSpot’s study, anchor text CTAs accounted for 47% to 93% of leads within a blog post.
Add In CTAs To Blog Content
All CTAs on your blog aren’t created equal. Anchor text CTAs work well, but that’s not all you’re limited to. You still have areas all around the page to add in a noticeable CTA. After all, what if someone doesn’t read far enough to notice the anchor text? The key is making sure you’re placing the CTA in the right spot to get the most attention.
Grow and Convert’s study shows welcome gates, feature boxes and pop-ups are the most effective places. When it comes to specific posts, adding the CTA within the text and at the end tend to be more effective as they stand out as readers go through a post.
Nothing To Lose But Time
If you’re not sure if blogging actually will help you grow your list, think about what you have to lose. You’re likely already spending money trying to grow your list. With the exception of time, blogging is free. After all, you already have a website. Spending a little time building your blog is a cheap investment that could pay off handsomely as more readers add their emails to your list