B2B marketers get 67 percent more leads when they implement blogging as part of their overall growth strategy. But if that's the case, then why does your blog seem to collect nothing but dust? The fact is that blogging definitely works to bring businesses more traffic and help them convert that traffic into revenue -- but only when it's done right. If your blog is failing to boost your business, here are four possible reasons.
1. You Don't Keep to a Schedule
Do you blog every day, week, or month -- or do you add a post whenever you happen to have some spare time? A haphazardly updated blog is a haphazardly followed blog. If your readers don't have any clear idea about your posting schedule, you'll never "train" them to anticipate and actively seek out your next tidbit of information. Worse yet, a blog that hasn't been updated in months gives the impression that you simply don't care about keeping your readers up to date -- or possibly that you've gone out of business entirely!
2. You're Addressing the Wrong Audience
This blog post addresses business owners and marketing professionals tasked with maintaining their company's website marketing efforts, because that's its intended audience. Your blog needs to address your intended audience -- and if you wish it to deliver leads that represent your target market, then you'd better be talking directly to those individuals, whether they're home consumers or CEOs. This may require you to clarify the identity, needs, and demographics of your target market more closely than ever before -- and in the end, that's a good thing, because the sharpened focus will enable you to improve your marketing effectiveness, not only in your blog but across the board.
Who is your blog talking to?
3. You're Not Relieving Readers' Pain
Do your blog articles drone on and on about this or that feature, or deliver the same industry news that can be found on a thousand other blogs like yours? If so, that's probably a key reason it's not performing for you. Most people performing keyword searches related to your industry, products or services aren't just browsing out of idle curiosity -- they're trying to resolve a pain point of some kind. This is great news for you, because you get to come to the rescue with a blog article that expresses empathy for their situation and then gives genuinely helpful advice or instructions for improving it. Take the thorn out of that lion's paw, and you'll have a customer for life.
4. Your Titles Don't Inspire
These days the Internet is so overrun with blogs, feature stories, white papers, studies, and other kinds of article content that a typical keyword search may yield hundreds or thousands of such articles. Faced with a solid page of potentially useful articles, which one is the reader likely to pick first? You guessed it -- the one with the most interesting or arresting title. A great title has at least one compelling attraction that makes is irresistible on some level. It might be the promise of a concise set of important tips (such as "4 Reasons Your Blog Isn't Converting Leads"), or it might be a theatrical, even sensationalized statement ("Your Blog Is Dead! Here's Why").
"What a title! I MUST click on it!"
5. You're Not Including a Clear Call to Action
No matter how helpful, compelling, and entertaining your blog content may be, it won't deliver leads unless you consistently include a call to action. Once your audience is in the palm of your hand, it's absolutely imperative that you tell them what you want them to do next. The call to action could be as mild as "Contact us to learn more" or as direct as "Now that you know how this product can help you, click here to order yours right now!" A blog article that simply fizzles to a halt without issuing these "marching orders" may be strong enough to inspire a return visit, but it won't turn the current visit into a sale.
From maintaining a consistent posting schedule to commanding your readers to take action, you have the power to turn a moribund blog into into a lead generating and sales conversion monster for your business. The sooner you make a few necessary changes, the sooner you'll see results -- so go for it!
