Guest post by Rashed Khan

According to research carried out by Social Media B2B, companies with an active blog generate 67% more sales leads than those without blogs. If you have a business, then this alone should be enough of a reason to create a blog on your website.

However, generating traffic and making the most of your blog is a skill that needs to be mastered. If done incorrectly, a blog can adversely affect your sales as the quality of the content can give an indication as to the quality of your general business practices.

With that in mind, here are some tips on making the most out of your content strategy by turning casual blog readers into converting customers.

Give solutions to problems

One of the main reasons people use the internet is to find answers to their problems. Your blog’s readers read your blog because they believe it will help or benefit them in some way.

It is safe to say, humans in general are often very fickle. If your content doesn’t give them reason to come back, then they won’t. Think about the benefits of using your product or service and try to relate it to the problems that your customers have.

Before you can do this, you first need to find out what problems exist and you can do this by looking at what questions people are asking on forums within your industry, on social networking sites and also on sites like Quora  which allow users to ask and answer questions.

Find out the key industry questions and simply answer them. You can then go back to the place where the question was asked and tell the person asking the questions that you have answered their question on your blog.

Inform rather than sell

Providing solutions to problems is a good way of converting traffic to your site into sales. However, the digital generation are very good at smelling a rat. Your potential customers want to feel like they are making their own decision rather than being forced to make a purchase.

When creating your posts, it is not always necessary to mention your product at all. When you do, talk about the problems your customers might face, and when mentioning your brand offer statistics and talk about how your product solves these problems.

Make use of case studies, positive feedback and events you attend

Has anything positive happened to you or your business lately? Then don’t keep it to yourself, let your readers know.

Compile positive feedback and case studies about how your service helped a customer and post it on your blog. Your target market may be following events in your industry and if you’re attending that event then why not tell your customers about this by mentioning it in a piece of content before and after the event.

Analyze which posts convert

To write blog posts that convert into sales, you first need to know what types of posts convert. Make use of web analytics tools and visitor level call tracking technology. These tools will show which posts are resulting in a sale and which posts aren’t.

Web analytics tools can show the number of people who read a particular page and then go on to purchasing a product from your website. Visitor level call tracking technology can show the number of users who made a phone call after reading a particular post. If a number of people update your blog then this technology can show whose blog posts convert the best and whose don’t.

Reply to comments

If your customers are asking questions or discussing something on your blog, there is a good chance that your blog readers are interested in one of your products.

However, if there is a barrier stopping them from making that purchase, remove this barrier by replying to their comment in a useful way. Remember, helping your potential customers should be the focus of your online strategy.

BIO: These tips on converting blog readers into customers have been written on behalf of visitor level call tracking experts ResponseTap.

You May Also Like…

• Top 5 Facebook Best Practices for Small Businesses
• Beginner’s Guide to Leveraging Social Media For Your Small Business
• Old Habits Die Hard: Why 2012 SEO Strategies are Worth Giving Up