With major Google algorithm updates occurring over the past couple of years, the importance of blog posts and fresh content has grown significantly. It is clear that unique, optimized website content is a key factor in driving up search engine rankings and increasing organic traffic. New website visitors are great, but so are qualified, repeat visitors that consume content. Many marketers overlook the importance of blog subscribers and how growing this number can significantly impact your overall inbound success.
Visitors that subscribe to your website’s blog tend have a much higher conversion rate due to the fact that they regularly hear from you and buy into your company’s thought-leadership. Overall visit-to-lead conversion rate is often a metric many marketers focus on, and growing your blog subscription list can certainly improve that percentage. Here we will discuss 4 simple ways you can boost subscribers to your blog.
1. Blog Subscription Form to your Listing Page
Your blog listing page is “home base” for your website’s blog content. Many visitors reach this page looking to read your content and find answers to their industry questions. By adding a subscription form to this page, either at the top or on the sidebar, you will be encouraging visitors to subscribe and get your content via email. For those that have been to your site in the past and continue to read and share your blog articles, this is a convenient option. Just by adding this form to your main blog listing page, you should see an uptick in these subscribers.
2. Email Sign-up at the End of Blog Articles
Just like adding a relevant content offer CTA to the bottom of your blog posts, having a separate section to subscribe to content will prove to be very effective. When a reader has made it through your entire article and is at the bottom of your page, this is the point in which they are most engaged. They have already found value from your content, and it is the perfect opportunity to encourage them to subscribe. Consider adding a simple email sign-up after the CTA, just as you might with an author bio.
3. Blog Subscription Checkbox on Landing Page Forms
Another simple, yet highly effective, change you can implement is a pre-filled checkbox onto content download forms on landing pages. This checkbox can say something along the lines of “I would like to receive educational articles via email” and can automatically enroll these contacts into the blog subscriber lists. This is easily done with a workflow and should add these contacts to the instant subscribers smartlist. What’s great about this option is that contacts are already in process of providing you their contact information in exchange for content such as an ebook or whitepaper. Offering them blog articles via email is an expected next step, which many contacts take advantage of.
4. Promote Blog Content on Social Media
If you’re not doing this already, we can’t stress the enough. By continuing to share and promote your blog content across various social media channels, you will certainly see an increase in blog subscribers. The main reason for this is that those that follow you and are connected via social media are often the same contacts who will sign up for blog articles via email. These folks have already “liked” your pages and see your content on their social feeds. By giving them the option to receive this content daily in their inbox, many will sign up and even share this content on their own networks.
These suggestions are just a handful of easy ways to boost subscribers to your blog. The key is to consistently publish new, original content that is worth sharing and targeting specific persona’s pain points. By writing quality content that encourages additional sharing and further engagement through content offers, you will see an improvement in repeat website visitors, qualified leads, and overall conversion rates.
What actions have you taken to grow your blog subscriber lists?