I had a company of ants growing up—several, actually.

My siblings had theirs, too.

They were tiny, sometimes almost invisible, cracks on the walls of our childhood home.

For whatever reason, we called them ‘Our Companies.’

Out of these holes would march a colony of sugar ants in straight lines headed for places where they could find sugar. 

I would watch them for hours, fascinated by their coordination.

(I was bored most of the time. So I had time to spare for ant-watching).

The years have come and gone, and even though I no longer have my companies of ants, I see a similar pattern with brands and websites.

When done right, blogging has the same effect magnets have on metals—I loved playing with magnets too— and sugar on ants. It can pull and attract leads to your business. Every time you publish an engaging, value-packed blog post, you leave a goody jar open, and it will only be a matter of time before leads start trickling in like ants crawling toward sugar. 

Blogging and lead generation sure work hand in hand.

Did you know?

• Brands that prioritize blogging have 13 times higher chances of a positive ROI.
• B2B marketers with blogs get 67% more leads than those without.
• 80% of B2B marketers generate leads through content marketing.
• Content marketing generates 3x more leads than traditional marketing and costs 62% less.

Tips for generating leads through blogging

Want to generate more leads through your blog page? Then, these tips will come in handy. 

1. Create high-quality content consistently. 

Lead generation through blogging works better when your brand puts out high-quality content consistently—emphasis on ‘consistently.’  If your goal is to have leads flocking to your website, then it is only fair to leave a trail of great content that will attract quality leads and keep them coming back. 

The best approach to generating leads through your blog is not to create content to generate leads. Instead, you want to create helpful content that serves your audience and caters to their pressing needs. In doing that, you are setting up your blog to become a treasure chest of valuable information that in itself has the potential to attract leads. 

It is worth noting that although consistency is a watchword in the blogging space, quality will always trump quantity. Consistently publishing and promoting mediocre content is counterproductive, as doing so increases the chances of turning your leads off. Your best bet is to create well-researched and valuable content targeted at your audience, their interests, and pressing needs.

2. Understand search intent

It all begins with a search. Potential leads spend every waking moment typing words and phrases into search engines, searching for answers to questions and solutions to problems—so much so that Google records a whopping 8.5 billion searches daily. 

With this large number of search queries launched by potential leads, you can open the door to your website through your blog page. To do this, you must understand search intent.

Think of search intent as the goal on a user’s mind when they type specific words and phrases into a search engine. The search engines go a step further to crawl the entire web, searching for pages with the most satisfactory results to the search queries. Yes, we can’t read minds, but we can anticipate the search goals of our potential leads and infuse them into our content, making it easy for them to find us.

There are four common types of search intent: 

• Navigational intent: In this case, users search for a specific page or pages they are familiar with, like Apple, Quora, and Reddit.
• Informational intent: This search intent comes into play when a user searches for information about a person, place, thing, product, service, and whatnot. To make the most of informational intent, it is good practice to conduct keyword research for likely words potential leads would type when looking for pieces of information and include them in relevant blog posts.  
• Commercial intent: Remember the last time you went on a search engine and typed in specific keywords, hoping to find information to influence a buying decision? Well, that was you exercising a commercial search intent. An example of a phrase influenced by commercial intent would be, ‘Best window blinds for summer.’
• Transactional intent: With transactional search intent, a user has most likely decided to buy a product or service and is looking for the best possible deals. 

Now to the big question. How do you determine user intent?

There are several ways to determine search intent, including:

• Critically investigate potential search queries: put yourself in your leads’ shoes. What words and phrases would you type into search engines if you were looking for something your brand offers?
• Examine the Search Engine Results Pages to see what appears on the first page. 
• Conduct surveys to gain insight into real users’ intent.
• Examine your website to see the keywords performing better than others.

3. Prioritize user experience

People don’t just want to read through long blocks of text. They want a visually appealing, brain-stimulating, value-adding experience that provides them with answers and much-needed solutions. Beyond the quality of your content, they want a seamless experience. User experience optimization is one of the secrets to turning your blog into a lead-generating machine. 

Here are some tips for prioritizing user experience on your blog: 

• Use easy-to-read text.
• Make your text scannable.
• Keep your paragraphs short and compelling.
• Use relevant visuals.
• Adopt a user-friendly design.
• Avoid broken links.
• Optimize your blog for speed and minimize page load time.

4. Use relevant calls to action where necessary.

Bravo!!!

You have conducted thorough research to understand search intent and created high-quality content optimized for a remarkable user experience. What next? 

What would you have your leads do? 

Click a link? 

Sign up for a newsletter?

Contact you?

Download a lead magnet?

Whatever it is, it’ll be wrong to assume they would know what to do—they can’t read your mind. You must spell it out in clear and easy-to-follow terms. That way, they know what you want them to do, and if compelled enough, they will take the specified action.

A call to action on your blog posts is advisable for relevant blog posts if your goal is to attract leads and pull them into your sales funnel. See it as inviting your leads to interact and engage with your brand.

5. Distribute! Distribute!! Distribute!!!

You have done the heavy lifting. Your blog post is live. While it might be tempting to pour yourself a glass of wine and wait with fingers crossed to celebrate an influx of new leads, you still have some work to do—promotion and distribution to multiple channels.

Here is where you drive as much traffic to your blog page as possible. A good example is to share your blog content through relevant social media channels with a link that goes back to your blog page. Can you see how this can spread the reach of your content to new audiences and leads? 

Good content should be seen, and your job is to spread it far and wide.

 Get to work!

Look around you, and you’ll see that there are leads everywhere—some searching for answers, some looking to learn new things, and most waiting to be nurtured by brands that have invested time and resources into making their blog pages valuable sources of information. Your blog can make this list if you start today and work on creating high-quality content, understanding search intent, prioritizing user experience, using calls to action, and distributing your content across relevant channels. 

No doubt, creating content that generates leads takes time and effort. However, you don’t have to do the heavy lifting alone. At The Fourth Writers, we help brands like yours stay on top of their content game with high-quality content designed to convert.

Feel free to reach out whenever you need the content weight lifted off your shoulders.