Grow Your List With Your Content

All marketers will tell you that the most important asset you can build is your email list and it is something they all wish they had focused on earlier. You own your list and can follow up with highly targeted email marketing to turn prospects into buyers.

Creating lead magnets of various descriptions is a great way to entice people to part with their valuable email address in return for a highly valuable free gift.

These gifts can be reports, checklists, video, audio, infographics etc. The point is they must be high-quality and extremely useful; in fact, your readers should be prepared to pay for it. Don’t go for volume; we are all swamped with too much information, and this is why quick checklists and the like are becoming more popular than a 100 page eBook!

OK, now that you’ve created and made multiple freebies and given your audience multiple entry points to your list, you can focus on growing your list, and a great way to do that is to write highly informative content on your blog, and then to offer a congruent freebie in exchange for their contact details.

By the way, if you are serious and want to take your blogging and content marketing to the next level, check out the Rapid Blogging Blueprint. This is a premium level training that takes you through each and every step of setting up your own highly profitable blog and profiting from it. You can check it out here.

Of course, you need to get eyes on the content first, so let’s look at a few ways to attract readers to your blog content using a couple of content marketing staples.

Write Enticing Headlines

When creating content to get more traffic, it’s important to make sure that people are interested in the topic. Interest begins with appealing headlines that make people curious enough to click on them.

So, what makes them curious? Many things in a headline can make the reader mentally ask a question when they see the wording and phrasing.

Let’s look at a few strategies and techniques you can use in your content publishing, specifically your headlines.

Some tips for writing effective headlines include:

Use Numbers – Using a number implies a certain amount of information will be given to the reader and it makes them curious. Compare these two headlines. “How to Build Your List” or “7 Free or Low-Cost List Building Strategies”. Which one would you be more likely to click, if you were interested in building your list?
Use the Right Keywords – It’s essential that you know what words your audience uses when they talk or think about their needs, pain points, and the solutions. This is because knowing the exact phrases and concepts will help you choose the words, phrases, and feelings that will persuade them to take action. You can also research keywords using tools like those from SemRush.
Make Readers Think and Question – Using the right words can challenge your audience’s perception about something, just by reading the title. It can make them think, “How can that be?” or “Have I missed something?” This works well if you craft a title that mentions their problem and hints at the solution using an unexpected word or phrase.
Mention the Benefits – People always care more about their results rather than how fancy the features are. A good way to develop a click-worthy headline is to focus on the benefits or the ultimate result of the solution provides. For example, “Save $50 Per Week Using These 3 Tools.”
Offer Realistic Hope/Promise – Another tactic you can use to create headlines is to offer realistic hope and solutions. “How Single Mother Quits Waitress Job and Earns Six Figures with Part-Time Home Business” is a good headline that offers readers hope and encouragement for changing their status quo. The headline promises to tell you how to earn six figures from home, using the single mother as their case study or example. However, the hope must be realistically do-able for most people. Avoid unbelievable, sensationalized, exaggerated, or click-bait headlines at all costs.

Taking the time to create the right headline for your target audience ensures that you reach and connect with them in a more personal way – through their needs, thoughts, and feelings. Once they feel connected with you and want the benefits offered, they are compelled to sign up for your opt-in freebie or other item.

Make On-Page SEO A Top Priority

Another way to get more traffic to your opt-ins is to rank higher on SERPs. On-page SEO can help you accomplish this. Your audience usually finds you via search engine result pages (SERPs). A search engine’s job is to provide their audience with a list of relevant, useful information and content, based on the words they used in the search.

Your job is to ensure that your target market can find your content using the specific words and phrases that are natural to them.

Here are a few SEO strategies and tips to help you rank higher on search results pages:

Titles – Use keywords in the first three words of page URLs and titles. Try not to use more than 50 characters per title. Be sure to clean up the URL by taking out the stop words unless it makes the URL misrepresent what the content is about.
Make Content Long Enough – Long content of 2000+ words isn’t a must. However, when it comes to getting more traffic, Google and other search engines tend to rank longer content (2,250 to 2,500 words) higher on the results pages. Hubspot reported that some readers prefer to read content that contains at least 2000 words (current in 2021 but the ongoing trend is for higher quality lengthy content). So, the take-away here is to incorporate both types of content on your site. Depending on your goal, your “ideal” word count likely needs to be greater than in previous years.

Keep in mind that you are writing for your readers and they don’t count words. They want accurate, detailed information that fully answers their questions and solutions that help them fix their problems. Give them what they want/need and a little more.

Avoid Duplicate Content – This is important whether the content is on your site or off your site. If you have duplicate content on your site due to sales pages, set the site to skip indexing the duplicate content. Also, avoid plagiarizing by double checking content using a service like Grammarly.com or Copyscape.com.
Include Meta Descriptions – These are necessary to ensure that your audience can find you. Include the keywords that help your audience find the content. If you use software like Yoast SEO, it will help you optimize your content.
Create Title and Alt Image Text – Don’t just upload an image to your site without filling out this information. This is helpful to search engines and readers, in case the images don’t load. A side benefit is that it helps people with visual impairments to read your site more easily.
Use Header Tags – You have H1, H2, and H3 header tags that you can use to organize and make your content look better and make certain words stand out. In addition, it helps search engines determine what information is important. Make these tags logical with the most important words using H1 tags.
Edit Well – Spelling and grammar do matter. If you spell things wrong, the search engines may not send the traffic your way. If people find the content, they won’t trust you as much if you have these issues. You don’t have to be perfect, but you do need to use grammar that is appropriate for your audience.

Finally, be sure to add internal linking under the articles and blog posts with relevant content. This helps your audience find related information on your site. In addition, it also helps search engines to properly map your site and send the traffic to you.

If you want to know more about nurturing you list, check out the featured resource below for a free Simple List Building report; download, read it and take action 😊