Should you place a Call-To-Action (CTA) offer inside of your content?
Almost every piece of content is going to contain a CTA…as that is the chief aim of writing the content. In short, when you create great content that provides an audience you can, in return, provide an opportunity to advertise.
As part of your content marketing strategy, the goal of your blog should be to educate your audience, stir the right emotions, and build a positive memory of your business as it pertains to your expertise. But it’s also meant to drive traffic, increase social media conversations around your business, generate more conversions in the form of downloads, and add email subscribers to your marketing list, etc. If you are not actively compelling your audience to take action, you aren’t doing your job as a marketer. That, of course, doesn’t meant that you act like a pimp and try and get you audience to buy from every piece of content you create, it is about getting them started in the funnel you are targeting and some funnels have longer processes than others. But you should always be compelling your prospects to take the next step.
There are 5 types of offers for your blog post.
– More Content
– Lead Magnet
– Flash Sale
– High Ticket Offer
– Premium/Membership Content
Offer More Content – Make a Call-To-Action to read another blog post, watch a video, etc. This can be something on the same subject, a cross subject, or a completely random topic.
Lead Magnet – Send readers to a “gated” offer requiring an email address.
Flash Sale – A low dollar offer or tripwire offer; make a deep discount offer (usually over 50% retail)
High Ticket Offer – Send readers to a high-ticket offer sales page.
Premium/Membership Content – Make a Call-To-Action to join a community or membership site.
Figure out what you want your blog post to do. What do you want your reader to do? Do you want them to make a Call-To-Action (CTA) to read another blog post, watch a video, listen to a podcast, etc? The goal is to increase the number of touch points your reader has with your brand a first time, a second time and a third time.
The two keys to higher conversion rates are Relevance and Consumption.
Relevance – to the eventual offer you will make.
Consumption – of the content (they’ll never click the CTA if they don’t consume the content). This is why it is important to focus on delivering something that is CONSUMABLE. Do you really think they are going to consume that 280-page eBook? Think again. If you are like most people, you have a folder full of eBooks you have downloaded but have never gone through. Do you want your eBook to go into the same pile? Of course not, so focus on solving one problem really, really well and then deliver that content. It doesn’t matter if the PDF file is two pages, prospects will love you because you solved the one problem they needed to be fixed.
When we refer to relevance it means relevance to the offer available and the content itself is congruent. They are one in the same and they have the same end result meaning that the person that is reading your download offer is also buying what you are selling. This is what you want.
The higher the congruence, the higher the offer will be, contingent that your offer is good. Be sure that whatever your posting about that it relates to your offer. For example, give your reader or prospect a piece of the pie and if they want the upgrade or rest of the pie then they can buy it.
6 Steps to Writing a Blog Post That Sells
Step 1 – Write Backwards.
It is a good idea to start with what your goal is. By knowing this, the entire process becomes easier as you know what the end goal is.
Type the CTA first of what you want your reader/customer to do. It needs to flow in a way that is clear as to the action or steps you want your reader to take.
Do you want to…
– Increase Touch Points with the brand
– Relevant Leads
– Customer Acquisition/Activation
– Offer Awareness (of a high-ticket offer)
– Offer Awareness (of premium/membership content)
– Consumption (of premium/membership content)
Now let’s look at choosing a topic…
Step 2 – Choose your topic.
You are going to learn how to blend this easily into your CTA. Remember high relevance equals a higher conversion rate.
You need to answer these 5 questions:
1. What does the prospect need to understand/learn/know before (the CTA) they will convert?
2. What barriers do they have to converting? (to becoming a lead or a customer)
3. What objections do they have to converting? Why would they not want what opt-in or buy what you are offering?
4. What are they thinking about/worried about/researching/talking about before they convert on what you have to offer?
5. What is the primary pain point your prospect is experiencing?
If you can answer any one of these topics, you will understand how to relate your blog post to the CTA you are offering the reader or prospect.
For example, if I am in the marathon space and I need you to believe you are able to run a marathon even if you (your prospect) believes they can’t or has doubts. Sometimes you have to get into your prospect’s head and have the conversation they are having in their head. They may be having doubts about being able to run a marathon. So you ask the question, “Why would I buy the physical training product if I don’t think I can do it in the first place?”
I need the reader to believe they have the ability to run a marathon. So I would write a simple post called “Are you ready to Run a Marathon?” and I would put that out there. People that raise their hand and read that are people with high relevance. They are very likely going to want your lead magnet and likely to get your Marathon training workout.
Another example, what if you knew that there is an objection to having enough time to train for a marathon because your prospect is thinking I have a job, I have kids and I got all of these things going on etc. I don’t have time to train for a marathon. So we make this your topic.
How would you overcome that objection with content? You could say “ How to run a marathon with (Almost) no training.”
What if you knew it was something the prospect was researching. What running gear do they need? Then you could use this as your topic:
10 Must–Haves for Marathon Runners.
Once you get a more solid relevant topic the biggest obstacle between you using this piece of content to generate leads and sales and not using it and it not falling flat on its face is consumption of the content. If your piece is not able to be consumed, your prospect will never reach your CTA; therefore they will never click on it. This means they will not have a positive experience with your brand and if they come to your blog post they are not able to consume it.
Step 3 Pick a post type
Choosing the right post type….
1. Listicle – This is a consistent performer. People respond to Top Ten List of…..5 list of that….
Here are some example Listicle blog post titles…
- Top 10 List For Planning a Wedding on a Budget
- 12 DIY Easy Crafts You Can Make at Home With Your Kids
- 10 Ways To Save a $1,000 on Your Monthly Expenses
2. How to Post – This is a great way to overcome objections.
It can help to break the “how-to” information into steps, phases or categories.
In any case, I advise you to begin the ‘How-To’ post with an outline and write from there.
Here are some example How-To post titles…
- How To Plant Organic Herbs in a Raised Garden Bed
- 5-Steps To Teaching Your Kindergartner to Read at Home
- How To Eat Healthy While Your Away on Vacation
3. Content Aggregator –Hybrid form of list post. The author of blog did not create blog post. It was curated with a lot of stuff together and was made into one.
The Content Aggregator is a hybrid form of the Listicle that uses OPC — Other People’s Content.
To find the most socially viral content and aggregate it in one post you can use a tool like Buzzsumo.
Here are some example Content Aggregator titles…
- 12 Chicken Recipes That Your Family Will Love
- 5 Easy Make-up Tips For Your Next Holiday Party
- 10 Weight Training exercises that will increase your libido.
4. Crowdsourced Post – This post type leverages the authority of other experts and influencers. Simply ask 3 or more experts the same question and aggregate the answers into a single post.
Here are some example Crowdsourced Post titles…
- 10 Pro Body Builders Share Their Best Bicep Exercise
- 5 Morning Routines From From Fortune 500 CEO’s
- How 12 Veteran Salesman Spend 15 Minutes Before a Cold Call
5. Embed Reactor – High quality and fast. Go find a youtube video that has a high number of views if possible because you know people liked it. Make sure it is relevant to your post. Embed the video and write a quick reaction to it. Did you like it or disagreed with it? Another option is to use is a slideshare presentation or infographic (check out visual.ly) and write a reaction. Bonus points if the video, Slideshare or infographic is already popular. The title of these posts are usually a variation of the title of the resource you are embedding. Think about how you are going to lay out the information for your reader.
This is the fastest way to create top shelf content — with speed.
Note: You may download templates for each of these post types by logging on to The SEO Revolution Facebook Group and clicking on the file tab.
Step 4 – Consumption
The more barriers you put in front of your reader — the fewer clicks you’ll get on your call to action.
The Headline
I cannot overemphasize how significant it is to create a good headline for blog post. Your headline is everything.
Clear but not cute – maybe funny to you but confusing to everyone else
Complete, but not wordy – The headline should generally be 8-13 words. Be complete Write the headline a few times to get it right.
Compelling but not “hypey”
The Headline is a promise if they open up and read your post. Don’t fall into the game of “bait and switch” as so many headlines do. Think Answers.com and how much you want to kill them, or the link to a video about three foods to avoid to improve your health and 18 minutes later they still haven’t mentioned a single food let alone three. Deliver what you promise.
Introduction
The first sentence should be…
– Short
– Punchy
– And curiosity based
For example, You finally found it….
Transition
Transitions are also critcal like stop signs. When you switch topics or create sub-headlines those are chances for your reader to bail. You want them to glide into the next idea. This is an example of how to keep the reader moving…
Formatting
The key is to break it up to make it more consumable.
• Add…
• Bullets
• Numbered List
• Line Breaks ( you shouldn’t have many paragraphs with more than 3 sentences in them.)
• Blockquotes
This will help your reader to consume your blog.
Step 5 – Use the “Deep Tease”
It is not a good idea to use the Deep Tease all the time as your reader/prospect could become less intrigued they see this technique used too often. However, if it is used properly then it is very good for consumption. An example might be “7 Things You Need to Know About Diabetes and # 2 Will Surprise You”. Basically, you want to say something that will grab the readers attention and make them want more.
Find something really cool or most relevant in the article and deep tease it in the traffic source. You can use a Deep Tease from a Headline whether it be an email, a tweet, or facebook update. Then you send them to dive deep into your article or content to get them to look for it.
Step 6 – Insert 2 Types of CTA
Both text links and graphics (banners) can be used as calls to action in your blog posts. Most readers are used to clicking on text links — so it is good idea to provide them. But don’t forget to draw attention by building a banner as well. Madewell has two call to actions on their blog asking readers to sign up for the newsletter and shop their clothes.
When creating your call-to-action it is a good idea to place a button on your banner ads for your readers to click on. Canva is an excellent tool alternative to use when building your banner ad if you do not want to hire a professional graphic designer.
Another great tool for your blog is Google Analytics.
Do you want to know how to measure your conversions?
If you want to know how to measure your conversions then I recommend setting up your Google Analytics. You can access this information by logging into Google analytics and click on Behavorial Reports and then click on Inpage Analytics. This actually shows how many clicks your CTA received. Inpage analytics also lays out a heat map over your page and tells you the exact amount of clicks you received. Google Analytics is an excellent resource for tracking progress on your website.