Drive Traffic From Blogs to Start Purchasing

We know, you have a product and you want to sell it. We get it. Your customers get it.

The biggest change we see in website blog conversions is when business owners stop selling in their blog because it’s just not the place to do it.

And it’s not how you drive traffic from blogs.

Or drive traffic to call to actions or entice readers to take action.

Why you ask?

Hang on because this is going to get bumpier than you expect.

First, as you already know, people don’t like to be sold to. But, they especially don’t like to be sold to when they are just looking for information. And, they can absolutely tell when there is an underlining product or service being pushed. Yes, that’s correct. But you knew that already.

So, what’s different? It’s because this “looking” stage is the most precious stage of a potential lead generation that you can have on your website. And you may be driving them away with one of the many simple phrases, such as simply adding “Call us today” at the end of your article. Now, we want to add that you CAN ABSOLUTELY add this phrase to the end of your blog posts, but you need to know when, where and how.

But, of course, there’s more than that and it’s much more entailed. We’ll go through it all for you to get your blog out of the “boo” stage and into the “we’re going to be friends for life” stage.

Blog Articles are the New Commercial Branding

There are multiple stages of the buying cycle and the first stage is the “looking” stage. This is where you need to provide these crucial readers a buttload of your industry related information. This is where you need to start establishing your brand and creating authority.

No selling. No Selling. NO SELLING!

As a salesperson, one of the biggest lessons we learn on how to get someone to buy, is what? That the customer has to TRUST you, right? So, how do you gain a person’s trust online, with a blog article? It’s very simple. By being a source that provides value, gives information, makes them feel like you are HELPING them, and prove yourself a person of authority (someone they can keep coming back to).

Commercials taught us a lot back in the day about marketing to consumers. In general, they taught that on average, it takes a potential lead to remember a service, product or related item 7 times. Now, if that said commercial was incredibly outrageous and struck a chord immediately, then this would be an exception, not the rule.

Commercial advertising still has its effect, however, it’s been pushed more and more online into our YouTube ads, direct ads on sidebars, email marketing, and even banner ads. They are called interruptive marketing now.

How do old-school commercials relate in today’s online marketing? They add up to roughly the same average or viewer remembrance. In part, a potential consumer will not pay attention to your ads directly (types as listed above) until they’ve seen your name or brand about 7 times. This is where blog article campaigns and knowing your target market buying stages comes into play and become your secret weapons. Take that competitors!

How Do You Gain Trust From Potential Customers And Leads?

It may seem like an obvious question, but online, it needs to be discussed and thought out in a plan.

Let’s be honest, anyone and potentially everyone can do what you do. Given they physically are capable. But, the biggest mistake you can make is thinking that people will.

Let me ask you, how many self-help books, DIY shows, DIY magazines, step-by-step guides, helpful tips, tricks, and magic erasers are there to help people do WHAT YOU DO all by themselves?

Hundreds? Thousands? Millions!? Yes, probably somewhere between the last two. But yet, there are people like you who are in business to do it for them.

Why? Because they won’t. They’re lazy. They don’t want to do the hard work and they want someone else to do it. They don’t have the time to waste either. Think even beyond that when we mentioned about people being capable. There are entire groups of people (potential consumers and leads) who are actually physically INCAPABLE.

That’s why you are in business in the first place and will continue to be in business. Remember that going forward and stop being afraid to share, care, and inform.

Don’t Sell The Pros and Hide The Cons

One of the most ridiculous conversations I have had to have as a marketing director was with a home remodeling company doing a comparison piece on the pros and cons of two different types of countertops. He was all for providing comparisons, as long as they didn’t show negatives and promoted the one he wanted to sell. This approach was all wrong, of course.

For his current readers and his potential customers, he was doing a disservice, came across as pushing one countertop over the other and ultimately not providing a full article with all the pros and cons as described. Could he sell both? Yes. Could one be beneficial over the other to different needs of different customers? Yes. But he didn’t HELP the readers choose, instead, he decided which one he preferred for them. The readers would never know their best option with limited amount of biased information. In fact, when (not if) they did more research, they would find much more complete comparison information articles elsewhere.

Overall, he was not listening to his own target market pain points because to him, they were in the DIY’ers, but in fact, they were just in the first stage of his own buying cycle. They were looking for a reliable source, to provide them all the details of both good, bad and the ugly. Maybe they wanted the more expensive product and didn’t mind the extra minimal maintenance because that one was more luxurious. He will never know because he is stuck in constant salesman mode.

So, why do business owners struggle so much with giving away helpful information to their target market? It’s very clear: it’s fear that they are providing them the exact information to do it themselves, will no longer need their business’s services, or will not buy.

Well, this is just plain rubbish.

As a business owner, you have to relax your ideas of sharing too much in a blog post, to provide too many how-to articles, giving DIY projects or telling the good, bad or ugly (including cost) of products for target market groups.

They WANT to know. DESERVE to know. And they WILL find out. So, it better be FROM YOU.

Share, Care and Inform

Remember all those self-help, DIY and step-by-step guides we mentioned earlier? Yes, they’re already out there! That’s right. Everything YOU know is already available to them RIGHT NOW. So, how can YOU zone into your target market group that already has the information that can have them do it themselves?

Psst. Here it is. YOU tell them.

You need to be transparent. And you need to be helpful. Soon, they will be seeing your name keep popping up, they read your articles before they are ready to buy, but potentially they are going to be ready. And then, upon the seventh day, the seventh hour: POW-ZAP-BAM! They are researching, ready to buy and just happen to choose YOU.

Why? Because they know you. You were there helping them along the way. You provided them all the ideas and tools and encouragement to say, “You can do it!”.  They may have failed or perhaps did only a little part and now need you to do the big stuff that they just couldn’t do.  And now, because they’ve been repeatedly exposed to you throughout the buying phases, they TRUST you.

Start to think about what you know. What do your customers ask? What do they try to do before they look elsewhere? How can you show you care about their struggles by sharing more information with them and inform them on how to do things easier, quicker, and save a penny or two along the way? Because when they’re ready to do the big stuff, make the big purchase, you are the one they will remember and feel the most comfortable with giving their check card.

Once you determine your buyer cycle stages for your business, plan articles around those stages and start sharing them with potential consumers, you are going to see a wonderful transformation from just readers to movers and shakers who are clicking those call-to-action buttons, filling out your lead forms and picking up the phone to call you!

Where Do You Start? A Buyer Cycle Guide

In order to fully explain this, we have to start you with your own buyer’s cycle. While we will provide you a general guide, you will need to determine these stages for your own business to get the best outcome. Go to the Buyer Cycle Guide to get a full grasp on your buyers and set up your own article plan.