How To Turn A Regular Blog Post Into A High-Performing Sales Tool

Your blog is what drives traffic to your website. However, one sad reality is that not all users explore your website. If they did, then it would have been easier to make a sale.

Given this problem, you need to spice up our blog pages. You need to turn them into a sales machine. Today, I will show you how to turn a regular blog post into a high-performing sales tool.

Here’s how:

• Create Side Bars
• Use Anchor Texts in the Right Places
• Create Sections for Your Product Ads
• Offer Discounts

Create Side Bars

All your blog posts must have sidebars so you can turn them into a blog sales funnel. It does not really matter if you put the sidebar to the left or right. What matters is that you have one.

Then, you have to ensure that your products or services are carefully displayed in your sidebar. Make them visible and make them enticing, so people who see them would think about clicking your images.

Most website owners think of sidebars as a place to put ads from networks like Google AdSense. If you are an entrepreneur, you do not need ads like this.

Instead, you need to advertise your own products.

Here are some benefits of placing your products in your sidebar:

• The images are visible
• They are accessible
• You can easily change them
• They are not obtrusive

If you are using WordPress, adding and deleting the content on your sidebar is easy. The thing is that not all themes have sidebars. To be able to take advantage of this technique, make sure you use a theme that has a sidebar.

As a last note, what I strongly recommend is that your program your WordPress account to open links on a new tab. This way, the user stays on your blog page while the image or link he clicked opens in another one.

Sidebars are effective because the user does not have to navigate your website anymore. The top products you want to sell will be there, and they should be easily accessible without affecting user experience.

Use Anchor Text in the Right Places 

Anchor text is great, but only if used properly. What do I mean by this? What I mean is that you have to use long-tail keywords as anchor text.

And when I say long-tail, I do not mean to use this in the context of SEO. I am referring to long-tail keywords that resonate with your reader.

For example, you may be selling a pair of red shoes. If you use the phrase “red shoes” as an anchor text, I believe that the reader is not likely to click this. So, even if you link your product page to the term “red shoes,” it will not generate clicks.

So, what should you do?

What you have to do is to use an anchor text like “a pair of durable red shoes.” As you can see, this makes a big difference. When a reader comes across this anchor text, he will naturally be curious about what this pair of durable red shoes are about.

And, if he clicks on the link, he is taken to your product page. As always, make sure that the page opens on another tab. This way, the user can still read your blog.

Even if you are in affiliate marketing, this technique will still work. Use your affiliate links in the anchor text, and then see your sales hit the roof.

Lastly, make sure that you use the long-tail keyword appropriately. Do not insert a lot of them. Two to three of them should be enough, or your reader will see right through you and hate you for being too salesy.

Create Sections for Your Product Ads

Many themes on WordPress allow you to change the content of specific sections. The beauty of this is that on the blog pages, you can standardize the content of that section to contain your products.

In some WordPress themes, you can create shortcodes. However, it is also rare that you can create a section for your blog post. What you can do is to use a web-builder tool like Elementor.

Once you have this tool, you can create a section like a carousel. This carousel is a template, and you can add products in there, along with details of how much they cost, and even buy-now buttons.

After polishing the section, you can save it, and it will give you a shortcode. Every time you write a blog post, you just need to paste this shortcode, and the carousel will show on your blog.

But where?

It depends where you pasted the shortcode. If you pasted it in the middle, it would appear in the middle.

The great thing about this approach is that while you are showcasing your products, the products stay in one section only. If the customer does not like to view it, then he can keep scrolling to read more of your blog.

You are not limited to a carousel. You can create slide shows, standard “ad-looking” blocks, add many more types of sections. It is really up to you how you want to show your products. You can create several sections, and then use different types for different blog posts. 

Offer Discounts

I highly recommend that in your blog posts, you offer discounts. As I mentioned earlier, most of the people who go to your website will not bother exploring it.

If so, then they will not see what marvelous offers you have.

But if you show it to them somewhere in your blog, then they may just be interested in exploring your product pages.

You can show this offer as a small banner in the middle of the blog, or as part of your blog text. I would recommend the banner so you can easily replace the content if you are no longer offering the discount.

Whatever you do, I strongly discourage you from using pop-ups for things like this. Pop-ups are obtrusive in blogs. When people are in your blog, they want to read. The last thing you want to do is to disturb the reading experience.

Pop-ups are often closed. People do not read them, so do not bother using them. What I can tell you is small horizontal banner ads are the most effective for this.

They will not disturb the reader, and they can easily scroll back up to check out the offer if they want to, or after they have read your entire blog post.  

You can also use this section to offer freebies in exchange for the customer’s email address. This is great if you are trying to build an email list.

Summary: how to turn a regular blog post into a high-performing sales tool

Your blog is your primary tool to drive traffic to your site. It is also the best way to convince your reader that you are credible.

As such, you have to use your blog as a sales tool. The four methods that I described earlier about how to write a blog worked for me, and they should work for you. However, I would caution you from being trigger happy.

What I mean is that you should use the approaches I mentioned with caution. Do not fill your blog posts with lots of offers and ads for your products. Use these four techniques sparingly and only in the right places.

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