How to Get Your Blog Readers to Take Action

You’ve started reading an article about 3 ways to increase your ROI when a notification pops up about another article—"10 Ways to Gain 100,000 Followers.” You’ve been thinking about your follower count, so you save the first article, just like you’ve saved dozens of others you plan to get to one day.

Non-stop distractions, waning attention spans, and busier-than-ever schedules make it hard to stay focused. If you’re a marketer, you not only have to worry about your own ability to concentrate, but your customer’s.

How Do You Get Readers to Click?

There’s conflicting research as to whether technology has shortened our attention spans, but there’s no question that it’s hard to stay focused in the internet’s ever-rising ocean of content. There’s just so much information competing for everyone’s attention.

Marketers sometimes have dueling goals when trying to reach customers – you may want long posts for SEO, but you know perfectly well your average reader isn’t going to read 2,000 words.

Let’s save the issue of getting readers to your blog for another time. Assuming you manage to get someone to click through to one of your posts, how do you get them to read enough so that they click a call-to-action link or button for more information?

Whether you want them to see a demo or just learn more about how your products and services will solve their problems and make their dreams come true, here are some ways to get your readers to take action.

• Put effort into your introduction. Hook your reader from the get-go. Cite surprising news or statistics, share a colorful anecdote, use humor, tell a success story, or share an inspirational quote. Once you’ve piqued the reader’s interest, they’re likely to stick around to see what else you have to say.
• Place the most important calls to action (CTAs) up top. CTAs are not like dessert—you don’t want to save the best for last. If your reader gives your post more than 15 seconds of their attention, they’ll likely just skim it.
• Give your reader more than one chance to act. Place “soft” calls to action in multiple places throughout the post. No matter how beautiful your copy is, one point will catch one reader's eye, while another will grab the attention of someone else.
• Work to keep your reader’s attention. Be interesting and giving. Share valuable information in your post. This builds trust that your offers hold value.
• Make your offer worth their while. Make sure your CTA provides readers with something useful to them. If you’re offering gated content, keep the reader’s trust by ensuring the asset is worthy of the information you’re requesting from them, and definitely don't abuse or share that information.

If you want to keep the relationship with your blog readers flowing, call them to action (both directly and passively) repeatedly and early in your blog post. Be sure to keep your reader interested by offering information useful enough that they trust you with their valuable clicks.

Blogging is only one way to attract prospects and customers. Email me at susan.lapoint@pivotslc.com if you want to learn more about creating content tailored to your customers.