Website Marketing: 4 Secrets to Making More Sales from Content Pages

Once you begin adding content, like your articles, to your website, an amazing thing starts to happen with your web site marketing.  Your traffic begins to increase, as visitors are finding your site based on keyword searches that they do that result in them landing on your content pages.  As I’ve added more content pages to my site, I’ve discovered that about 60% of my traffic comes to my site via these kinds of searches.

When visitors arrive at your site, ideally they will look around for additional info. After all, most searches are conducted in pursuit of free “how to” information. So, how can you optimize your opportunity to get your visitor to take an action?  Traditionally I’ve recommended using hover ads and opt-in boxes, but there’s another little-used strategy that I’m beginning to implement:  inserting a call to action at the bottom of your content page.  A key point to remember in this strategy is that your call to action on a content page should relate to the page content in some way.

Here are 4 secret strategies that you can regularly use on your content pages to make more sales via web site marketing:

1.  Ask visitor to get on your list.  The first trick to getting someone to buy from you is to get them to opt into your list.  By including a graphic image and brief description of your client attraction device (free giveaway) along with the sign up box form for them to complete to get on your list, they can immediately choose to join your list, if they so desire.  The magic words to use to relate joining your list to the content on the page are, “For more helpful tips or articles like these, I invite you to…(your call to action here).”

2.  Invite visitor to subscribe to your blog.  Perhaps you have blog posts that are related to this particular topic on your content page.  Invite your visitor to subscribe to your blog’s feed or subscribe for blog updates via email and point your visitor in the direction of the related posts she should visit.

3.  Product promotion.  If you have begun to create information products, many pieces of your content probably relate to (or were taken from) those products.  This is an ideal time to place an image of your product at the bottom of your content page with a short description of the product.  Offer the visitor two options:  one to buy the product now, or the option to get more information about the product on the long sales page for that item.  Remember that your product should relate in an obvious way to your content (i.e. don’t place a product about how to groom your dog on a content page about organizing your office).

4.  Google Adsense:  In some cases you may not have a call to action that makes sense to give to your visitor.  Instead (or in addition to another call to action), you may want to use that content space for your Google Adsense ads.  Google Adsense is a program in which you can display Google Adwords ads on your pages and get paid a small fee for every click-through from those ads that occur on your site.  I don’t usually recommend that you place these on your content pages, but if you have a niche blog, for example, with articles written by others on a particular topic, Google Adsense ads can become one of your business revenue streams.

Make your content pages work (and sell) for you.  By implementing one of these 4 strategies, your start to see your list, your web site marketing  (and your bottom line) grow in no time!

Here’s a great tool to help you add a call to action to your content pages if you use WordPress as your blog or web site platform, WP Subscribers.  This plugin offers an amazing array of features, including:

• Add An Optin Form with a “lightbox” (a popup with the background darkened, so that all your visitor sees is your Optin Offer, so they either have to subscribe or dismiss your form in order to see the page underneath…)
• Have a Footer Bar or Header Bar Opt-In Form — especially if you want to attract the visitor’s attention, but not hit them with an “in your face” popup requiring them to take action
• Display hidden content: Rarely seen outside of expensive WordPress membership software, but you can have it — get your visitors salivating to see more, and show it to them after they’ve opted in.
• Subscribe on commenting: Get the ideal subscribers — those folks already commenting on your blog … this makes it super simple for them to do — all they have to do is click a checkbox…
• Subscribe on registration: Not something most blogs offer, but if you offer user registration, why not make it so it adds them to your email list (the one of your choosing, of course!)
• Put a “Subscribe” Box In All Your Posts: Hey, a sweet, quiet, simple request for them to signup to your email list to get more … you just gave them great content, show them how to keep getting more…
• Put a “Subscribe” Box In Particular Posts…(shhhh…remember the “Get The Rest Of This” from the Optin statistics above? He split a great post into two, kept the first half in the post and the second half in a pdf. The visitor had to opt-in to the subscribe form in the post to get the second half.)
• Create a “Cascade” of Exit Popups…under precise “fighter pilot” control…each popup with its own content, each sending the user to a unique URL…and you can add the “cascade” to all your pages or any of your pages…you choose…!
• Put Your “Subscribe” Form anywhere you want on your WordPress blog…
• Mix’n’Match all of the above to your heart’s content…

Get more info here.