So, you want more sales leads from your blog or website?

When it comes to Internet marketing, there are probably more posts written about building traffic, than any other topic.

In today’s post, I’m going to suggest we focus at least as hard (or harder) on converting targeted traffic into high value inquiries.

The traffic puzzle

You see, no matter how many targeted visitors a website or blog attracts, the value of those visitors is determined by your ability to engage them in a way, which compels them to take some kind of action.  If they find you through your awesome SEO skills or your social networks, but they leave just as fast as they arrive, they are of no commercial value to you and you are missing a great opportunity.

The commercial value to you comes, when you figure out how to convert visitors into either clients, leads, blog subscribers or newsletter readers.  Simply attracting eyeballs, with no conversion, makes little if any commercial sense.

The keyword puzzle

In an effort to attract as much targeted search traffic as possible, many people keyword stuff their posts and pages.  This is where certain words or phrases are repeated over and over again, in order to make search engines believe the post is extremely relevant to whatever the subject is.  Whilst this may increase your place on Google’s SERP (Search Engine Results Page), it often causes the actual message to read extremely poorly.  Also, if you over do it, your site can be penalized by Google, which is not a wise move.  Content that reads like it was written for Google tends NOT to engage or convert people.

The challenge is to write your pages and posts for people and use those keywords and phrases in a way that reads correctly for people, whilst making them easy for search engines to see.  In my experience, this is a lot easier than many people claim.

Whilst content optimization is a huge subject, my marketing blog manages to attract a great deal of targeted, search engine traffic daily, by publishing targeted content and using subheadings (where it says The Keyword Puzzle 2 paragraphs above) and occasionally optimizing titles.  The fact that the content on that site is written for people and they value it, means I have a lot of links pointing to that site.  Each link acts similar to a vote, encouraging search engines to rank the content there higher.

But it’s all driven, by creating valuable content, which is on topic.

The conversion puzzle

An attractive product or service, with a compelling offer, which gets in front of the right person.  That’s quite a challenge, but each step is extremely important.

Here’s a closer look at each of those elements:

An attractive product or service

The best marketing on the planet is no match for a dull or poor product.  I have seen people waste thousands on marketing, which generated very few sales, simply because they had not made their product or service good enough.  The foundation here, is to have a great product or service.  It’s hard to get people fired-up for something that’s pretty average and almost impossible, when the offering is below average.

A compelling offer

In order to inspire a reader to take action (buy from you, subscribe etc), you need to know how to motivate them, with your words.  This takes study, testing and measuring.

Quick Tip: Collect every marketing message, which inspired you to buy something or take action.  See what you can learn from them, which you can incorporate into your own marketing messages.  You can save a huge amount of time using this process!

A targeted reader

It’s essential that you get your content marketing in front of the right people.  You see, if you are selling dog food, even great dog food, and your marketing message is extremely compelling, I’m not going to buy it… because I don’t have a dog.  Many people make the mistake of chasing “the numbers” and they forget the importance of targeted readers and followers.  Unless you are communicating with the right people, you are wasting your time and missing an amazing opportunity to build a fantastic business.

In summary

Yes, it is important to ensure that your website or blog gets all the targeted traffic it can, from Google and co.  However, it’s what happens when they arrive on your site, which seals the deal.  You need them to take action, to; email you with a lead, subscribe to your site, sign-up for your newsletter or recommend you on their social networks.  This means taking the time required, to learn how to engage them, motivate and inspire them with your words.

Don’t miss out: For more free information on professional, content marketing, remember to subscribe to this blog so you don’t miss future posts!

Photo: zoonabar