How to Write Blog Content that Sell [& Grow Your Business]

Would you love to learn how to write blog content that sell and grow your business?

Are you committing so much time and resources into creating blog content without any commensurate returns?

Then ensure that you read this post to the end because I'm about to share with you some little expert tips and strategy that will you create better content that make your sales again and again.

Over the last few years more and more business owners, latching onto the advice of the experts that content marketing is an absolute necessity for businesses today, have added a blog to their business website.

Most of these business persons devote a lot of time and resources to creating content while having an eye on the various blogging statistics being released every year. Stats like:

“Companies that blog produce an average of 67% more leads monthly than companies that don't.” [DemandMetric]

“Businesses that have a blog post frequency of 16+ posts per month generate roughly 4.5x more leads than companies that publish between 0-4 posts monthly.” [HubSpot]

And,

“Marketers who prioritized blogging received 13X more ROI than companies that did not in 2019.” [HubSpot]

As impressive as those stats look a lot of business person report little to no results from their blogging efforts.

Why is this so?

Related: How to Write Blog Post Titles That Drives Attention & Traffic!

Why Your Blog Content is Not Selling

Before we dive into discussing how to write blog posts that sell, it’s important that we answer the question of why many do not have success with their content marketing efforts.

If you have been into this blog content writing of a thing for some time now you must have read a number of guides and articles on how to start a blog, how to SEO optimize your blog and how to write great content.

Of course, the basic premise of content marketing is very simple: Create valuable content for your target audience, and give it to them.

But while most of these how to articles are helpful in a number of ways you must understand that writing great content does not automatically translate to sales.

You can write the most helpful, interesting content in the world and make no money from it simply because you haven’t written the content in a way that makes sales. For your blog content to make sales it must be written with the bottom line objective in mind, whatever that is.

Generally, profit is the bottom line for any organization except it is a non-profit organization. It’s important therefore that you create blog content that help you to achieve your business goals.

Specifically, these are the top reasons why most blog content do not sell:

1. No or weak call-to-action

When you have no call-to-action in your content, or your call-to-action is weak, you’re basically wasting your time. People can’t read your mind. When they don’t know what action you want them to take they would do nothing.

2. Off-topic content

You may be tempted to add content to your blog that isn’t related to your main topic as a way to try to draw more traffic, but this only weakens your position in the search engines and offers you little to no benefit with regards to leads or sales.

3. Content that goes on too long

Sure, search engines love long content. Some people even love long content. But creating long content solely for the purpose of getting traffic isn’t going to do you any good. Especially if that content drags on so long, and is so boring, that people leave before they have a chance to see your call-to-action.

4. The Content is not goal focused

Some people believe that any content is good content, because it’s another article that can draw traffic. But it’s a waste of your time to write content that isn’t specifically geared toward helping you achieve your business’s goals.

5. Useless popups or other interruptions

Do not, absolutely do not, include popups, interstitial ads, or any other type of interrupter for anything that isn’t directly going to assist you with your main business goals. You’ll upset visitors and potentially lose them. Instead, save those interrupters for times when you are trying to achieve your goals, such as getting more email subscribers or selling a product.

Now that you’ve known some of the mistakes that can cause your content to fail let’s now consider how to best create content that does sell.

Related: Alert: Your “Killer” Content is Killing Your Content Marketing Efforts!

How to Create Blog Content That Sell

1. Determine your business goals

The first step is to decide exactly what your primary and secondary goals are for your business. Your primary goal could be to sell a particular product or service while the secondary goal is to build your email list.

Of course, you could turn that around with your primary goal being to build your email list while getting sales is the secondary goal.

2. Figure out the content to create

Once you’ve chosen your goals, you can figure out what type of content you should create to best reach your goals.

For example, if list building is your primary goal and you have a lead magnet for that purpose every blog post that you create should focus on the topic of the lead magnet. This way you can have a call-to-action in your content asking people to subscribe and get your lead magnet.

Recommended: How Do You Craft A Killer Blog Post? [INFOGRAPHIC]

Types of Blog Content that Sell

Now, let’s look at the types of blog posts that have the potential to get results for your business.

1. Top Lists

If you do a little check online you will discover that “top lists” articles are very popular. There’s a reason for it. This type of content is perfect for a lead-in to a call-to-action.

For example, you could create a blog post titled: “The Top 5 Must-Have Tools for Every Small Business Entrepreneur” and then have your call-to-action at the end of the article asking people to opt in for your lead magnet.

2. Interviews

Interviews with industry experts and popular figures in your market will draw a lot of attention, and they help lend a little credibility to your call-to-action.

If you’ve interviewed someone people recognize, not only will it draw in more traffic, it will also make people naturally feel your own information is more likely to be good.

3. Guest Posts

Like interviews, guest posts by popular people within your niche lend credibility to your own calls-to-action.

4. Tips & Tricks

People love articles that provide simple tips and tricks in an easy-to-digest format.

Lists of 5-10 tips and tricks on a particular topic draw a lot of readers, and make it easy to lead in to a call-to-action.

5. In-Depth Tutorials

In-depth tutorials always tend to be big draws, but they’re also excellent for getting people to take action.

A good in-depth tutorial will bring in a lot of traffic, and it will also give you a lot of credibility if it is well-written and interesting.

6. Video

Video is a type of content that has huge potential for getting people to take action, because you can actually ask them to take action in the video itself.

One powerful thing about video is that people who are watching your video are much more likely to hear your call-to-action than someone who’s just reading a lot of text.

So video can be extremely effective.

Recommended: How to Make Content Marketing Work for Your Brand

Content that Sell: How to Increase Conversion With Your Content

Now that you know how to create good content and how to get people to take action when they read your content, let’s now consider a few tips on increasing conversions.

1. Segment your content

If you have a website or blog that has multiple types of content—for example an outdoor website that has sections for fishing, hunting, and camping—it’s important to use different calls-to-action for each section.

While it is easier to create one single report covering all of the outdoor hobbies on your site, the truth is that you might just be turning off people who only like one aspect of the outdoor life.

For example, someone might like fishing, but not care for camping or hunting at all. If you have a free report that covers camping and hunting as well as fishing, that person probably would not subscribe.

It’s better therefore that you segment and create a unique lead magnet for each topic. You can also segment your mailing list into separate topics to be sure you aren’t later marketing hunting products to camping fans.

Of course, you could always have a generic mailing list signup box in your sidebar for people who want information about every topic.

2. Use multiple calls-to-action

You don’t have to limit yourself to a single call-to-action in each article. For example, you can have your normal opt-in box at the end of the article, but you could also ask them to view another related article on your site.

This would help you get more page views, and also give you another chance to get the subscriber if they didn’t subscribe after reading the first article.

You could also put your subscription box halfway through the article, and then put a call-to-action for a paid product at the end, or vice versa.

3. Retargeting

If you use an ad service like Facebook or YouTube, you can include a retargeting pixel on your website so you can run ads to people who have visited your site and perhaps didn’t buy anything or subscribe when they were there before.

They may have not subscribed or bought the first time for a number of reasons but by using retargeting you will have another opportunity to convert them into a buyer or subscriber.

You can run ads that specifically target people who have visited your site in the past—people who have already proven they’re interested in your offerings, because they’ve visited your site before.

Recommended: Top 5 Blogging Mistakes that’s Frustrating Your Efforts (and How to Fix Them)

Conclusion

Writing good content isn’t necessarily enough to get you the results you are looking for. You have to craft that content specifically to get results by creating content that naturally leads users to want to take action.

Always write your content with conversion in mind. Whether your goal is to sell a product, grow your mailing list, or even make money from advertising on your site, your content should be written with that goal in mind.

As long as you keep your goal(s) in mind when creating your content, you’ll find your conversions growing. More people will take action, and you will get closer than ever to reaching your goals.