A blog is one of the most important channels for the success of a company’s digital strategy.
Through it, it is possible to attract potential consumers, make them more familiar with the solutions the business offers, and build authority for the brand. In addition to all of this, an effective blog is fundamental to email marketing.
The reason is clear. By producing qualified content relevant to the buyer persona, you will create a loyal audience that trusts your company and considers it a source of relevant information. With this kind of connection, it is easier to get blog subscribers.
When someone subscribes to your blog, it makes room for more effective approaches and increases the chances of conversion.
Subscribers receive exclusive materials via email, and if they like the experience, they tend to recommend your brand to others.
So how does one increase their subscription rate? In this text, we will talk about 6 techniques. Enjoy your reading!
1. Optimize your top blog posts for subscription
As engaging as they may be, not all of your blog posts will reach high viewing levels. It’s only natural.
So identify those with the highest performances and make the necessary optimizations to turn them into subscriptions generators.
Often, these contents may be older posts with great SEO scores. That way, no matter how much you create new content, it remains among your top materials.
At this point, it is important to check if there is a need to update the post information or if you are dealing with evergreen content.
To find your top posts, just go to your Google Analytics dashboard and filter your content by the number of views.
Once you have identified them, add attractive CTAs, and encourage readers to subscribe to your newsletter.
2. Add opt-in boxes to your landing pages
Landing pages remain one of the most important elements to generate leads and perform micro conversions. However, their dynamics have changed a lot in recent times.
Today, to really reap the benefits of this resource, it is important to rely on interactive landing pages.
Nevertheless, the point is that these pages receive a large number of visitors who, in one way or another, are interested in your business.
If your strategy is effective, they will fill out the form, provide their contact information, and become leads.
Since it’s a process that users are used to, why not take advantage of it to also increase your number of subscribers?
To do that, you can simply add opt-in boxes to all your landing pages, like in this Hubspot example.
3. Focus on offering quality experiences
No strategy to attract blog subscribers is effective if you don’t produce quality content that generates user satisfaction.
However, we know that this type of strategy is increasingly challenging, as the large amount of content produced daily generates enormous competition between different blogs.
That’s why it’s vital to create unique experiences. Each one of your contents must count on elements that generate engagement from the reader, whose attention is increasingly difficult to capture. Only then will they become interested enough to turn into subscribers.
Therefore, in addition to producing content suitable for the buyer persona, addressing relevant themes, and using techniques such as storytelling to engage the reader, seek to differentiate your brand.
Next, let’s talk about two practices that can make your blog experience unique to the audience.
Interactive content
Interactive marketing is a strategy that is gaining more and more strength. It’s not a surprise.
Studies show that interactive content is much more efficient than static materials in generating brand differentiation, besides being more effective in educating and engaging the consumer.
So, inserting interactivity into your strategy allows you to add elements to your blog that have much more potential to attract the reader.
An interactive quiz, for example, is a unique experience that can make the visitor notice the quality of your blog.
Interactive content is also an excellent way to collect data from your site visitors. This way, you can better understand their motivations and create CTAs and other triggers to facilitate the subscription.
Live blogging
The public that consumes content on the internet is obsessed with fast, relevant, and current information.
Offering live experiences is a way to generate a sense of urgency and exclusivity among visitors, contributing to creating a positive reputation for your brand.
When it comes to live blogging, the possibilities are endless: live news coverage, developing weather reports, sports events.
This is something already common on platforms like Twitter, but it can be integrated into your website using a specialized platform.
What does all this have to do with the blog subscription?
If users realize the value in the content you are live blogging, they will understand that the only way to stay up-to-date on the subject and not lose out on any content is to become a subscriber.
4. Add smart subscribe CTAs to your pages
As you’ve already seen, calls-to-action are key features for converting readers into blog subscribers.
However, for CTAs to be effective, it is essential to adopt practices to make them really convincing. That’s where the concept of “smart CTA” comes in.
In a nutshell, it is a tool that changes the message that appears on the screen according to the visitor’s characteristics. So you can configure the CTA to appear only for people who are not yet blog subscribers.
As a result of this segmentation, the conversion rate tends to grow.
It is important to consider the characteristic of each page before configuring and launching a smart CTA.
For example, in your blog posts, the message dialogues with people who already know the blog, so you can use a more direct approach. A good idea is to insert a banner at the end of the content, like this one:
Your homepage may not be the most suitable location for this type of CTA.
Generally, this is the page where you display the main information about your company and, therefore, it is valid to avoid distractions.
However, if increasing the number of subscribers is a priority, you can add smart CTAs for a period.
Another interesting and little explored tip is to pay attention to your “About” page.
This is one of the most visited areas on your site and, in theory, is accessed by people who have some interest in your brand. So why not try to convert that high volume of traffic into more subscribers to your blog?
5. Don’t push too hard
The security of personal data is a hot topic not only among agencies but among all citizens.
People take precautions before sharing their information and avoid giving them access to brands they do not trust. Therefore, you should adopt a friendly, non-aggressive approach when reaching to potential subscribers.
As much as you want to highlight your content’s value, avoid making the user feel coerced to subscribe.
We’re talking about those messages where the “yes” option is casual, but the “no” option is somewhat passive-aggressive:
- “Yes, I want to learn more!” / “No, I don’t like being informed.”
- “Yes, I’d like to receive updates” / “No, I will miss this opportunity.”
If the visitor notices that you are pushing too hard, they will be suspicious of your content’s real value. So, expose your advantages, but gently and subtly.
In addition, there is the issue of user experience. Sign-up banners that take up a large part of the screen and make navigation difficult, for example, can generate the reverse effect to what you would like.
6. Use A/B tests to optimize your whole blog strategy
A/B tests are fundamental to ensure the efficiency of any Digital Marketing strategy.
When we talk about blogs, this tool can help optimize a variety of elements, such as the use of images, the number of headings, title formats, and so on.
When the blog is optimized, the growth in the number of subscribers is a natural result. However, A/B tests can also be used more specifically.
For example, to decide which type of message is most suitable for a smart CTA, you can test different options.
Because A/B tests are such essential tools for the constant development of your strategy, they should be an effective part of your marketing efforts.
The tests can be performed in different ways and are usually offered by the best content platforms.
Increasing the number of blog subscribers is a way to expand the potential of your company. After all, a good email marketing strategy, combined with the production of qualified content, results in increased lead attraction, retention, and conversion.
With more blog subscribers, you can leverage your email strategy.
And to increase — even more — your results, check our article on how interactive emails can boost your conversions!
