Blogging is a hugely versatile digital marketing activity. Yet, most marketers and SMB owners limit their use of blog posts to attract awareness-stage consumers to their websites.
Sure, using blogging in combination with SEO to maximize high-quality website traffic is a great way to boost brand and product awareness — especially if you consider that 51% of all content consumption comes from organic search and that the most effective content formats include short-form and long-form articles.
Nonetheless, that doesn't mean you should neglect your company blog's role in nurturing leads and creating sales. With the right approach, producing and publishing blog content can benefit your brand during every sales funnel phase, helping you easily reach your conversion goals.
So, if you're looking to up your digital marketing strategy to make it easier to attract, engage, convert, and retain customers, here's how to use your company blog to reach your goals.
Establish Brand Competence and Credibility
One of the most significant benefits of blogging is that it can help you build brand credibility. Considering how important a business' reputation is to consumers making purchase decisions, this tactic could make a genuine difference to your conversion rates.
Check out Edelman's The Collapse of the Purchase Funnel special report from December 2023. You'll discover that 88% of shoppers need to trust a business before investing in its solutions.
And it's not just a promise of getting high-quality products that people want. Today's consumers also expect businesses to demonstrate competence, be ethical, and reflect their audience's lifestyles and identities. Do all of these successfully, and the rewards include elevated conversions and a boost to your customers' loyalty and willingness to advocate your business.
With this in mind, if you want to use your company blog in a way that will nurture leads and create sales, explore methods to establish brand credibility and competence.
For instance, investing in UGC-backed content, like customer success stories similar to those on the Ramp company blog, provides valuable opportunities to show your organization's positive track record at solving customer pain points.
Source: ramp.com
Alternatively, you could utilize your company blog to support your claims by relying on external expertise. Something as simple as including an author's bio or "Scientifically reviewed by" badge can help show web visitors that your claims are backed by proof.
Or, you could even take a step further and invite industry experts to contribute to your blog to nurture leads. Take a look at how Eight Sleep did it in this 2023 interview with longevity expert Peter Attia.
Source: eightsleep.com
Boldly Compare Your Product to Competitors'
Another hugely beneficial way to employ your company blog to boost conversions is to align your content marketing strategy with prevalent consumer behavior trends.
For instance, in 2024, most buyers conduct a solid amount of research before making purchasing decisions.
Data from Salsify suggests that at least one-quarter of shoppers spend between 30 and 60 minutes researching products to buy. And up to 32% of people go through a purchase evaluation process that lasts several hours or days.
If you also consider that a growing number of people are turning to product and price comparison sites to research products, it becomes evident that producing content for the evaluation stage of the buyer's journey is a must for creating sales.
One easy way you can do this is to boldly compare your product to your competitors' solutions.
On the surface, this may seem counterintuitive. Nonetheless, knowing that your prospects will seek out this content format, it's better to give it to them on a platform where you control the narrative (and influence how they continue their shopping journey).
For example, take a look at Vidpros, a popular video editing service. They have an article on the Top 17 Unlimited Video Editing Solutions that compares the brand's service to multiple alternatives. Nonetheless, the article gives the business the chance to point out everything that makes its solution unique and superior. Plus, the resource creates multiple natural opportunities for the brand to call its prospects to action, maximizing their chances of clicking on a CTA button and converting into clients.
Source: vidpros.com
Create Repeat Customers with Educational Content
Converting new customers is a great way to grow your business. But, unfortunately, it's not enough to ensure the long-term success of your company.
If you want your business to continue growing well into the future (instead of never making it to its fifth birthday, which is the case for almost half of all registered companies), you must invest in customer retention.
One of the best methods of doing so — apart from improving the customer experience — is to produce blog content focused on creating repeat customers.
If you can help existing customers get the most out of their purchases, you can trigger re-conversions. This strategy can also help build impressive customer loyalty, allowing you to win more positive word-of-mouth social proof and increase your customers' overall lifetime value.
For inspiration on how to do this on your company blog, check out Chisos, a company that sells comfortable cowboy boots. In its article describing the break-in process for cowboy boots, the brand presents readers with valuable information on everything buyers need to know about the changes their newly purchased footwear might go through with wear. What stands out about this brand's content strategy is that it boldly pairs text with video. It's a marvelous way to increase web visitor engagement, ensure better comprehension, and maximize information retention, resulting in a more lasting effect than just a simple blog post.
Source: chisos.com
Be Subtle with Product Links in Your Content
Why do consumers interact with blog content?
For the most part, people read blogs to learn something new (or be entertained). In other words, they're not on your blog to find new ways to spend money. Instead, they want valuable and original answers to questions about their pain points or interests.
If the learning process organically leads them to a point in their buyer's journey where they're ready to convert, they'll see a product link as a beneficial navigational cue. But if they're just getting started learning about a new concept, an invitation for them to buy your products is far more likely to result in alienation or a negative brand impression.
If you want to use your blog to nurture leads into customers, do your best to optimize how you add product links to your blog.
On the one hand, it's essential to include these conversion elements in your resources. Nonetheless, try your best to do it in a way that's in line with your blog posts' context and readers' intent and that clicking on a link genuinely benefits your web visitors.
For inspiration, check out how Transparent Labs approaches product page links. In its 8-Week Body Recomposition Guide, this business severely limits all product mentions. Yes, there is a short section allowing readers to purchase recommended supplements for body recomposition. Still, apart from that small section, all other links are focused on backing claims with scientific proof or giving readers advice on further resources to explore on their way toward achieving their dream body.
Source: transparentlabs.com
Or, if you feel like this approach might come off as too sales-oriented for your target audience's current position in the sales funnel, you could do something similar to EXT Cabinets. In its What Are Flame Tamers on a Gas Grill article, the brand leaves out product links altogether. Instead, it saves its opportunity to create sales for the end of the post, where it invites web visitors to get a quote for their outdoor cabinets. This is the perfect example of a low-stakes CTA that still resonates with readers moving toward the lower stages of the buyer's journey.
Source: extcabinets.com
Take Advantage of Readers Who Might Be Ready to Convert
Even though minimizing sales pressure may generally be the safer way to engage and capture quality leads, it's not always the best way to use your company blog to create sales.
You see, some people may need hours or days to research their purchases. But others may be ready to click the "Buy" button mere minutes after reading your value proposition. In fact, data shows that 84% of people have engaged in impulse shopping behavior at some point.
So, if you feel like your target audience may be ready to convert, it's perfectly acceptable to be bold with your product links on occasion. Of course, this doesn't mean you can populate blog posts with irrelevant (or even intrusive) CTAs.
To make these conversion incentives meet your readers' expectations, you'll need to prioritize a strategic approach when mentioning products. If you make them visually attractive, you'll make them more likely to stand out, allowing you to boost sales among first-time website visitors who are close to the bottom stages of the sales funnel.
For instance, check out how Academic Influence does it. In the "Dynamic College Search Tools" section of its article, this brand introduces a conversion element to its blog post that comes off as a valuable feature instead of a pushy sales tactic. The way it's visually emphasized helps it stand out among the other links on the page. Plus, the fact that the microcopy specifically mentions the ability to receive personalized results further helps these conversion elements attract the attention of Academic Influence's audience.
Source: academicinfluence.com
Don't Hesitate to Give Knowledge Away for Free
Lastly, don't fall into the trap of thinking that every blog visit must end with a conversion to guarantee success.
Instead, consider this: most consumers need several brand touches before becoming ready to make a purchase decision. Plus, people form brand opinions over the course of multiple interactions.
So, if you want to nurture leads to maximize their chances of converting into customers, prioritize providing value. Furthermore, do your best to encourage first-time web visitors to return to your blog (or interact with your business on social media). That way, you'll create opportunities to win these consumers over and convince them of the superiority of your solutions over anything else in the market.
One way to achieve this goal — especially in the B2B sector — is to give proprietary information away for free or create valuable tools your prospects will want to use in the future.
For example, if you check out the Alcon Lighting blog, you'll see that several of the posts include valuable interactive elements. The How to Determine Total Required Lumens for Your Space article masterfully educates readers on everything they need to know about lighting design. What stands out is the calculator feature. It's not just a handy tool. More importantly, it turns the blog post into a page readers will want to bookmark, returning to Alcon Lighting's website in the future. Once they become ready to purchase, they'll already be quite familiar with the brand.
Source: alconlighting.com
Final Thoughts
How you approach the content creation for your company blog is entirely up to you. Ultimately, you want to produce resources that will align with your target audience's wants and needs and position your brand in a positive light that will help you engage your ideal customers.
However, if you're serious about using your company blog to grow your business, don't underestimate its potential for nurturing leads and creating sales. So, don't hesitate to implement the tactics discussed in this article. They won't require a resource-intensive production process (in fact, you could easily apply them to existing blog posts). Yet, their impact can be significant, especially if you want to better integrate your digital marketing strategies with your conversion efforts.
