When you first look at a blog, what is that grabs you (other than the topic and writing)? In this post, we wanted to share some blog tweaks you can make to your blog right now to really make an impact and stand out.
Blog Tweaks
Where’s your Call to action? (CTA)
CTAs are one of the most commonly forgotten blog components. Our CTAs are currently in the making. We recall a handy piece of advice from a friend in a WordPress workshop: Most people think the next step for visitors to take on their websites is obvious. To visitors, it’s not. Your visitors are on your blog because your topic interested them. Pull them in further into your website will more compelling, RELATED info.
Effective CTAs have these things in common:
- They make SENSE (and hopefully cents too) with the content already on the page. Your CTAs should naturally blend with the info already presented on your blog post. For example, at the end of a blog about a particular event, you could add a “See the Agenda” CTA to connect readers with a logical next step. As visitors start to understand your event, you can then move them onto “Register Now” etc.
- They APPEAL to your audience. Just like decorating your kitchen or painting your wall, make your CTAs attractive by being bold and colourful. You don’t have to be over the top, like the first point, it still needs to make sense with the blog itself.
- Have SIMPLE commands. Our rule of thumb is to keep one idea or action to one CTA. Don’t make your visitors think. Everyone should be able to easily understand what the next step is without taking time to ponder what you mean.
- Personal CTAs. Create more than one CTA – you could have on at every stage of the sales funnel, so they’re more personal and relatable to the user. If the visitor has already read your blog and perhaps even already looked at details pertaining to an event mentioned, then you can move them onto registering. Setting this up is all about tracking. Collect as much data on your website visitors as you can. What pages do they visit over and over again? Sort data and activity history to identify trends, then give each visitor suggestions and CTAs that meet their needs. You could do this if you have hubspot or if you have WordPress, download a CTA plugin to help you capture this info.
Optimise for Mobile
You’re at an event and you tell your new friend, to jump on your website. Within a few seconds they have their phone in their hands and quickly tap your website in, it loads and it’s a complete mess!
You have to scroll from side to side; perhaps play around with orientation, and you lose interest from them trying to navigate around your site. Make your website mobile friendly! As the public express their love of smartphones and tablets, you can count on Google to make your site harder and harder to find if it’s not mobile-friendly.
According to Search Engine Watch, 72% of users want websites to be mobile friendly and 67% are more likely to make a purchase or use your services if your site work well on other devices. So, if you’re not already catering to the masses of people checking in on their smartphones, now is the time to start. The easiest way to get in on mobile is to select a mobile-friendly theme with your content management system (CMS). This should be easy, as most CMS themes support responsive design, automatically adjusting your website based on device size and orientation. If you don’t have this option, you can work with a designer to create a mobile-friendly experience.
Eliminate Multiple Logins
Have you ever logged into a website where you had to re-enter credentials when you need to access your online community or register for an upcoming event? It’s distracting, frustrating, and creates a disconnect for your members and visitors. Why should you have to sign-in multiple times? The system should already have your information.
If you want less frustration and more engagement, remove multiple logins by setting up a single sign-on process. Like using a Facebook sign in or Google +. This eliminates a key barrier to participation, making it easier for people to get involved.
Repurpose your most popular posts into an email magnet
If you’ve been blogging for a while then you certainly have a post of two that’s been shared and commented on a lot. Usually, this is a good sign that people are interested in that kind of content. Now it’s time to repurpose it! If you are still scratching your head on what kind of email freebie to get people to sign up for your e-mail list then you can repurpose that blog post into a video series. Furthermore, you can turn the video blog post into a PDF or eBook.Offer your repurposed post as your e-mail freebie or CTA freebie to collect names and addresses.
Make an impact and include aggregated content
Use the internet and all it has to offer to make your blog more colourful, interesting and relatable! If you find a pin from pinterest that pretty much illustrates your post, embed it in your post; if you find multiple tweets for people’s reactions to something, include them; found an awesome, relevant YouTube video? again share it in your blog!
We hope these points have given you a few ideas to tweak your blog right now – share with us what works for you and add your own ideas. We’d love to read more and implement them ourselves in the next few days.