10 Lessons Digital Marketers Can Learn from HBO’s Silicon Valley

Do you like to binge-watch a TV series?

I don’t do it often. Hardly ever, in fact. But yep, I’ve done it before. For me, it’s one of life’s simple pleasures.

Every once in awhile, I’ll find a series totally “binge-worthy.”

It can make you a little crazy, especially if you spend the better part of the night glued to the TV.

But it’s pretty friggin’ enjoyable.

One series in particular that’s binge-worthy is HBO’s Silicon Valley.

If you’re unfamiliar, it’s about a team of young IT entrepreneurs who launch a startup called Pied Piper.

The show chronicles their successes and failures along the way.

It’s super funny and perfect if you’re at all entrepreneurially inclined or just like to geek out on tech.

But I also think there are some golden lessons digital marketers can take away from the show.

After all, even though it’s a comedy series with some wacked out episodes, it does have a lot of truth in it.

I’ve spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley, so I can relate to what’s going on in the show.

The show is legit.

Whether you’ve been at it for years or are new to the game, you can learn something that’s practical, even from a comedy like this one.

Here are 10 lessons to be had from HBO’s Silicon Valley.

1. Being flexible is a huge asset

You’ve probably heard the statistic that eight out of 10 businesses fail within 18 months.

While this stat is debatable (The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 50% of all new businesses make it to their fifth year and one third make it to their tenth year), many businesses do in fact fail.

But if you’re flexible and nimble, you can switch up your game plan to account for change and unexpected curveballs along the way.

In the show, the team’s initial idea was to create a music app for songwriters to ensure they weren’t infringing on any copyrights.

But after getting feedback, they quickly realized this idea wasn’t going to fly.

What did they do?

They took a completely different approach and developed a “compression cloud” solution, widening their demographic significantly.

Just like in the show, adaptability in business is incredibly important in real life.

It’s not always who’s the smartest or who has the most financial backing.

Sometimes, success comes to those who are most able to adapt to change, making the necessary adjustments.

If it’s clear a particular digital marketing technique isn’t working, you may need to change your direction to get the results you’re looking for.

2. Don’t burn bridges or make enemies

Erlich Bachman is a funny guy.

But he’s also quite crude at times.

He has a bad habit of pissing off venture capital firms and thus missing out on valuable funding opportunities.

As a business owner or a marketer, you definitely don’t want to do that.

Relationships are huge.

In many cases, your relationships (or lack thereof) can make or break you.

Don’t take them for granted.

Always make an effort to remain professional even if you don’t always see eye to eye with everyone.

Even if your colleagues’ ideas completely suck, don’t bash them for it.

Instead, conduct yourself with tact.

3. Don’t overlook legalities

We live in an extremely litigation-happy world.

You see it in Silicon Valley—the show and the real thing.

Thankfully, there’s this guy:

He’s very uncool, but he knows how to keep the startup from getting screwed over by lawyers.

And it’s a good thing because “there are over 100 million cases filed in US state courts every year.”

Law is a recurring theme in Silicon Valley, especially as it pertains to intellectual property.

When it comes to digital marketing, you’ll want to have some basic knowledge of branding and trademark law to ensure you’re not overstepping your boundaries or infringing on anyone’s brand identity.

Check out this resource from Branding Strategy Insider for more details on this.

4. Be careful of shameless publicity

There’s an old saying that “any publicity is good publicity.”

But this isn’t always the case.

At one point, Erlich tries to shamelessly generate publicity for himself and Pied Piper.

In the process, he blows through massive wads of cash, nearly ruining the company.

The point is be careful about how your brand is depicted and with whom you choose to align your brand.

And let’s be honest.

It’s not all that difficult to tarnish your brand’s reputation.

Between review sites and social media, a few unsavory comments can quickly bring the walls crumbling down.

Although you can’t totally control how the public perceives your brand, try to stay away from stupid publicity stunts that may do more harm than good.

5. Building a brand is a process

If I’ve learned anything during my time as an entrepreneur, it’s that patience is a huge benefit.

We live in a microwave culture, where instant gratification has become the norm.

And many marketers get frustrated and disillusioned when they don’t see overnight success.

But it doesn’t work like that with branding.

It takes time. Sometimes, it takes several years for any noticeable results to emerge.

In Silicon Valley, the team goes through a lot of twists and turns before Pied Piper becomes a household name.

So, a big part of making it is simply staying the course.

You need to have the mental fortitude to keep moving along and take it step by step.

But the thing I love about branding is the snowball effect, when a brand keeps getting bigger and bigger with time.

While your brand equity may be next to nothing initially, it keeps growing to the point of explosion.

Understanding that branding is a process that takes time should help sustain you when things seem bleak and you’re tempted to give up.

6. Embrace mistakes (but learn from them)

I absolutely love this quote from Nobel Prize winner Frank Wilczek:

If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake.

This simply means that mistakes are an inevitable part of making progress.

I’ve learned not to beat myself up too badly if I botch something or even flat out make a stupid mistake.

I just chalk it up to progress.

In Silicon Valley, people make mistakes all the time, but they always work to get past them.

In digital marketing, you’re likely to make plenty of mistakes along the way.

I know I did (and still do).

But as long as you’re genuinely learning from your mistakes and utilizing that knowledge to improve, you should be good to go.

7. Strive for a healthy work/life balance

Working hard and having a strong work ethic is good and all.

But it shouldn’t come at the cost of your own personal well-being.

I know this all too well because I have workaholic tendencies.

In the show, Richard explains to his doctor that he’s been having night sweats induced by stress.

The doctor explains that this can be a precursor to bed-wetting, which is never a good thing.

It’s quite embarrassing.

Try not to allow yourself to get overwhelmed with your marketing activities.

Strive to find a healthy work/life balance, and recharge your batteries from time to time.

This will make you more effective in your marketing, and you won’t have to worry about being an adult who wets the bed.

8. Keep your eyes on the prize

It’s easy to get distracted in business and marketing.

There are always new techniques and tactics that can distract you from what you’re good at and what’s really working.

For instance, at some point in the show, the team is forced to work on a non-core product, which ended up being a major distraction.

In turn, this created a road block on their path to success.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t experiment, but it’s important to focus on your strengths and not lose sight of the ultimate goal.

9. Quality is key

At one point, Gavin Belson, CEO of a competing company, presents company’s new product Nucleus, which ends up being a complete disaster.

This serves as a reminder that quality should always be of the utmost importance.

You want to put in enough time and energy to ensure your audience is getting the best possible experience.

Whether it’s creating blog content or running your social media campaign, it’s better to focus on quality over quantity.

Taking shortcuts is never the way to go.

10. Make the right hires

If you’re assembling a marketing team, you need to go about it the right way.

Don’t carelessly choose someone without ensuring they’ve got the chops and will mesh with your culture.

A bad hire can kill your vibe and stall your progress.

In the long run, this can also put a damper on morale and be disruptive to team chemistry.

For tips on hiring and creating an awesome team, I suggest reading this article from Wired.

Conclusion

Although Silicon Valley is a comedy, there are many lessons that can be applied to digital marketing and business in general.

In fact, I feel a lot of wisdom can be extracted from this show.

Whether it’s learning to adapt in an ever-changing marketing world, learning from your mistakes, or simply refraining from being a douchebag, the lessons from Silicon Valley can make you a better digital marketer in many ways.

Can you think of any other business- or marketing-related takeaways from the show?

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What is Keeping You From Success in Your Online Business? Niche Pursuits Survey Results…

A couple of weeks ago, I surveyed my audience, to help me better understand what their business interests were and what they felt was keeping them from succeeding.

Today, I'd like to share those survey results with you.

In total, I received about 400 responses.  Going through all the responses, I was definitely able to spot a few trends and areas that people are most concerned about.

So, first I'd like to share the survey results with you.  Then I'll share a bit more about my plan to address the issues people brought up in the survey.

Niche Pursuits Survey Results

I wanted to get an idea of what business people were most interested in first.  Although I've done a lot of Niche Site training (see Niche Site Projects 1, 2, and 3), I've also seen some great success with Amazon FBA.  So, I wanted to see what my readers thought…

Question 1: What online business are you most interested in learning more about?

As you can see, nearly 72% of those polled are interested in learning more about Building Websites (niche or authority websites).  Wow, that's pretty overwhelming!

Only 11.7% are interested in hearing more about Amazon FBA, and 12.5% want to hear more about eCommerce.

The results speak pretty loud and clear, the overwhelming majority of you want to hear more about building niche or authority websites.  Message received.

Question 2: What is your biggest fear or frustration when it comes to starting or growing an online business?

This question was simply a text field that people could fill out with their own answers.  The screenshot above is just a random sampling of the types of answers received.

In general, people's biggest fear or frustration was finding time to work on projects, putting lots of effort into something to only see it fail, knowing if you are on the right track, and going into the wrong niche.

Question 3: If you could have Spencer and the Niche Pursuits team (Jake and Jason) teach you about any topic, what would that be?

I apologize that the screenshot doesn't show the full answers; however, I think you can get the gist of it.  Here's the top 5 responses (multiple selections were allowed):

• 53.1% – Niche Sites – General Strategy
• 51.2% – Niche Selection / Keyword Research
• 42.3% – Link Building Strategies
• 37.9% – How to develop a content schedule and overall strategy
• 32.5% – Niche Sites + Amazon FBA (how to build a high traffic website and launch a physical product)

So, clearly people are interested in learning more about niche sites, keyword research, link building, and content strategies.  People are also interested in learning how to launch a physical product from their niche sites using Amazon FBA.  I definitely have experience doing that.

Question 4: What is your biggest obstacle to starting a successful online business?

Again, some of the answers are cut off on this image; however, here are the top 5 responses:

• 36% – Finding the right niche or keywords to target
• 34.9% – I lack focus and leave many projects unfinished
• 34.1% – Link Building / Outreach
• 33% – Writing Content
• 26.2% – An Exact Blueprint to Follow

So, these responses are quite eye opening to me.  Many people feel like there are some basic knowledge gaps that are preventing them from succeeding.  They are struggling to find keywords, link building and outreach is a concern, and they don't know how produce good content.

However, I think the second most popular response is quite telling and perhaps the most honest answer for many people: “I lack focus and leave many projects unfinished”.  After all, many of the other “knowledge” based concerns can be overcome with time.

You will never know everything from day one, you can learn a little bit each week as you consistently put forth effort.

So, I do feel like focus is a big obstacle for many people and is something that needs to be worked on. After all, if you focused on building just 1 website for an entire year or more, I'm confident you would learn everything you needed and start to see success.

Question 5: What is your ideal, perfect outcome (and how do you think you’ll get it)?

This was an open ended question, with just a text field.  So, the screenshot above is just a sample of the responses received.

However, in general, people really want to make enough money to replace their day job, and they want to do that through their own website.

The answers for how people will achieve this outcome typically revolved around: putting in more time and effort, focusing on niche sites, more education or training, and just working harder overall.

My Plan to Address These Survey Results

If I were to boil down these survey results into just a few thoughts, here's my takeaway of what people want or need:

• More information/education related to building niche sites, keyword research, link building, and content creation.
• More focus and commitment
• A bigger side income, so they can quit their jobs

I don't know if I can provide all of these things directly.  However, I do feel like I can provide the education and information needed.

I can't directly wave a wand and make you more focused and committed to a project; however, I have some ideas to help.  And then of course; hopefully the outcome of the right knowledge and the right focus and commitment will be a decent income.

My immediate plans to provide better education and perhaps some motivation is through a live training workshop this Thursday (May 25th) at 6pm PST / 9pm EST.

I'm preparing a presentation that shows the exact steps I've used to build successful niche websites that have achieved the results you can see on my last income report here.

This will be an strategy session of the entire process from start to finish for building a successful niche website.  I'm hopeful that this step by step process will help make it clear what is involved in the entire process, so you can feel confident moving forward.

Register for the Niche Site Strategy Webinar Right Here

In addition, on the webinar with Jake, Jason, and I (the Niche Pursuits Team), you will have the opportunity to ask your questions.  Live Q&A is always fun, and will hopefully allow you to walk away with a clear plan.

Also, during the webinar I will bring up something new that is part of my plan to give you the blueprints that you need and the additional support and motivation that you might find helpful in your online journey.

So, hopefully you'll join me on the webinar to see what the latest updates and plans are for Niche Pursuits.

Register for the Niche Site Live Training Here.

Overall, if you have any additional thoughts or questions, please leave those in the comments below.  What do you think of the survey results?

 

The post What is Keeping You From Success in Your Online Business? Niche Pursuits Survey Results… appeared first on Niche Pursuits.

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The Link Building Strategy Behind These 3 Incredible SEO Case Studies

Use This Daily One-Hour Digital Marketing Routine to Get 40% More New Leads Each Week

Routines. We all have them. Some we follow daily—consciously. Others we follow on a subconscious level, unaware of them.

Whatever they are, routines are incredibly powerful.

Over a span of time, the right routines can be key contributors to both our personal and business successes.

If you’ve read any of Tim Ferriss’ books or listened to his podcast, you know he’s a staunch supporter of routines.

In his most recent book, Tools of Titans, Tim discusses some of his personal morning routines, e.g., making his bed, meditating, and journaling.

He feels doing these things enables him to operate at a higher level and be more efficient and productive.

And you know what?

I totally agree!

Routines can be a huge help for boosting many different areas of your business, especially your digital marketing.

Developing certain routines has helped me get ahead, and I’ve even shared what a day of my life typically looks like.

Here’s a snippet:

Of course, that was back in 2011, and I’ve modified things a bit.

But the point is that creating and following an effective digital marketing routine can have a tremendous impact on all aspects of your business.

In this post, I’d like to provide you with an outline of tasks I recommend you work into your daily routine. They will help you generate up to 40% more new leads each week.

And don’t worry, the time commitment is minimal—roughly one hour.

But when done on a consistent basis, this routine will significantly increase your lead generation.

Let’s get to it.

The correlation between leads and sales

First, I’d like to briefly explain why effective lead generation is so important.

I probably sound like Captain Obvious by saying that leads are important, but I found some interesting statistics that paint a clearer picture of the exact correlation between leads and sales.

Here’s a screenshot from a HubSpot article:

And here’s a graph that illustrates how sales increase along with the volume of leads:

Notice on the far right side that 28% of companies with over a billion dollars in annual revenue generate over 10,000 leads per month?

Now look on the other end of the spectrum on the far left-hand side.

The overwhelming majority of companies (82%) with less than $250k in annual revenue generate 100 or fewer leads per month.

That’s not a coincidence.

The lesson here is get quality leads, and the sales will come.

Which areas should you focus on?

So you’ve got one hour to devote to digital marketing.

How do you decide where to place your effort?

As you probably already know, I hardly use any strategies at random.

I prefer to base my tactics on cold, hard data.

That’s why I think it’s smart to examine which lead sources are the most beneficial.

According to another study from HubSpot, the top three lead sources across the board are:

• Social media
• SEO
• Email marketing

Besides a variety of techniques that fall under “other,” it’s clear that these bring the most leads.

Based on this data and my own experience, here’s how I suggest you spend the one-hour block of time you devote to boosting your lead generation.

Updating social media (15 minutes)

Considering the fact that social media ranked as the top lead generation tactic for B2C and B2B2C marketers, that’s where I recommend you begin.

More specifically, spend roughly 15 minutes updating your accounts.

When it comes to posting, it’ll depend on the social platform.

For instance, most experts agree one post per day on Facebook is plenty.

However, tweeting 15 times per day on Twitter is quite acceptable for most brands.

If you’re uncertain just how much you should post, check out this post from CoSchedule.

It takes data from 10 separate studies to explain the ideal social media content volume.

I’m not saying you need to follow it to a T, but it should provide you with a general baseline.

Since you’ll want to update multiple times a day on certain networks, such as Twitter, I recommend batching—the process of taking care of your day’s work in one sitting.

In fact, batching is a scientifically-backed method for increasing efficiency, which I practice on a regular basis.

Two specific tools enabling you to batch like a boss are Buffer and Hootsuite.

For instance, you can auto-post across several networks like it’s nothing.

You can even auto-schedule days or weeks in advance.

Engaging on social media (5 minutes)

The second part of your social media session should be spent on engaging with your audience.

I find this to be less time-consuming than updating, and it can usually be done in around five minutes, assuming you’re not a massive brand with a huge following.

Spend this time responding to comments, leaving a comment or two, and generally interacting with your audience.

Perform SEO research (20 minutes)

Now, let’s tackle SEO.

I don’t think I need to tell you how important having a presence in search engines is.

If you need a reminder, consider this:

• 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine.
• 81% of people perform some type of online research before making a large purchase.
• 57% of B2B marketers stated that SEO generates more leads than any other marketing initiative.

Time spent on SEO is time well spent.

But which specific SEO tasks should you focus on?

Here’s what I suggest.

Identify keywords

Sound keyword research is still very much integral to effective SEO.

Although keywords don’t play as big of a role as they used to (remember when good ol’ fashioned keyword stuffing could help you rise to the top?), they’re still important.

I like to conduct brief keyword research sessions, where I look for opportunities and take note of anything that looks promising.

I can quickly reference those keywords later, when I’m writing a blog post and deciding on phrases to use in titles, meta descriptions, and so on.

More specifically, I like to target long-tail keyword phrases.

Long-tail phrases not only make it easier to rank but also have higher conversion rates.

For a comprehensive guide on long-tail search, check out this post I wrote on NeilPatel.com.

Analyze your SEO

I think we can all agree there’s an inherent level of instability to SEO.

It’s perpetually in flux.

For this reason, you should constantly keep tabs on the current state of your site’s SEO.

Consistent analysis will help you identify trends and patterns that can be quite useful.

This could be something as basic as determining which keywords are bringing in the most traffic or something as complex as analyzing your link profile to spot unsavory links to disavow.

It really depends.

Of course, you’ll need the right tools to properly analyze SEO.

For an overview of popular tools, refer to this post from HubSpot.

I’m also really big on using Google Search Console.

If you’re unfamiliar with how it works or how to use it, just read this post I wrote.

Keeping tabs on SEO in this way will help you correct mistakes early on and capitalize on key opportunities.

Email (20 minutes)

Last but not least, there’s email.

Some of you may find it strange I included this considering it’s pretty antiquated.

But all I care about is results.

As long as a tactic generates leads, it’s worth my attention.

And the bottom line is that email marketing gets results as long as you do it right.

Just check out these stats:

So devote the last 20 minutes to email.

It’s way too easy to get sucked into the black hole of email, wasting time on useless messages, marketing spam, or unnecessary chit-chat.

I get a ton of email, so I have to prioritize my time and energy when I attend to it.

With that being said, here are some tasks and activities you’ll want to engage in:

• Writing email blasts – The ideal frequency varies, but “17% of companies are sending 4 – 5 emails a month to their contacts, 8% 6-8 times, and 8% more than 8 times a month.”
• Researching ideas for potential email topics
• Managing email distribution
• Analyzing your email marketing strategy (e.g., examining churn, why people are unsubscribing, your click-through rate, etc.)
• Making adjustments where they’re needed.

Conclusion

Routines are important.

Developing a practical and tactical digital marketing routine can be your ticket to generating a high volume of leads that can take your business to the next level.

In fact, following this specific formula could very well help you bring in 40% more new leads each week.

Doing so will enable you to maximize your effort and accomplish more with a nominal time investment.

But here’s the thing.

You need to stick with it. This is super important!

To see real success requires that you follow this routine pretty much on a daily basis.

Not that you need to become a workaholic, but consistency is key here.

Do you follow any certain routines to optimize your marketing?

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These 2 Ridiculously Simple Tactics Will Boost Your Conversion Rates by Next Tuesday, Guaranteed

If there’s one thing I hear all the time, it’s this:

“Neil, I just want to get more conversions from my website.”

That’s it. That’s the big one.

I get it. Conversion rates are notoriously low.

By vertical. Low.

By channel. Low.

By device. Low.

It doesn’t matter whether I’m talking with a group of startup entrepreneurs in San Francisco, a meetup of marketers in Sao Paulo, or a team of e-commerce geeks in Seattle, everyone wants more conversions.

Heck, I want more conversions too!

Are there some simple ways to turn up the conversion juice and make more money from your blog, e-commerce site, startup, or landing page?

Yep, there are.

And I’m about to show them to you.

First off, though, why did I write this article? For whom?

After all, I write a ton about CRO (conversion rate optimization). Why another article?

Because tactics. Simple, practical, easy tactics.

Most people I talk with are just looking for a few plug-and-play tactics—things they can do on an average Tuesday afternoon to get more conversions and make more money.

These are two that I recommend.

“What?! Only two?”

Yes. The reason I’ve given you only two is because I don’t want you to be distracted by stuff that doesn’t work!

These two CTA-boosting techniques will work. And if you implement them this Tuesday, I guarantee you’ll have more conversions the following Tuesday.

Use popups

It’s time to open the proverbial can of worms.

Yes. It’s time to talk about popups.

When you visit Teachable.com, you’ll see this:

And after five seconds, you’ll see this:

What just happened?

A timed popup.

Popups are synonymous with pull-your-hair-out levels of frustration. It’s accepted as absolute truth that popups are bad.

But are popups bad?

According to some people, yes.

Jakob Nielsen surveyed users on their responses to popups: 95% of them rated the experience of “pop-ups in front of your window” as negative.

That survey of 605 respondents was conducted in 2004.

In Internet epochs, 2004 is the equivalent of the paleolithic era.

And back in 2004, popups were pretty bad.

I mean, look at this. Really?

But today, popups have matured into an art form: they are helpful, compelling, useful, and valuable.

The real truth? Popups are not bad. And if you want to increase conversions on your long-form content, I strongly suggest you use popups.

Derek Halpern says it like this,

If you don’t use popups, you’re an idiot.

I try not to call people idiots, but I do agree with Derek’s point: you should use popups.

Popups are a useful, powerful, in-your-face technique that can skyrocket your conversions on long-form content.

On his blog, Derek himself uses this popup on the article discussing popups:

Think about it like this. Users who don’t like popups may not be your ideal customer anyway.

Never thought about it like that, did you?

If you lose a reader for disliking your popup, you have not lost a customer. You’ve just lost a visitor. And that’s okay. In fact, it might be a good thing.

I will always counsel you to make website improvements that enhance the user experience. Some may argue that a popup is detrimental to the user experience.

We need some balance between the perceived tension of UX and marketing goals.

To help achieve this balance, take a look at a handful of representative statistics:

1. Using the List Builder popup, Sumo Me collected 23,645,948 email addresses in 24 months.
2. One marketer instantly doubled his conversion rates by using an exit overlay popup.
3. Derek Gehl reports a conversion boost of 162% after adding a popup to his website.
4. A recipe blog experienced a 10x boost in conversions after adding a popup.

Most online marketers I know would love to see a bar graph like this for list growth:

Growth like that came as a result of using popups.

Considering the issue from a data-driven and results-oriented perspective, you’ll see popups work.

But before you rush to install a popup creator, listen to this:

• The average popup converts at 3.09%
• The best popups convert at 9.28%

That’s a huge difference!

My guess is, you want the conversion rate of the best converting popup, right?

Sean Bestor’s guide on the subject shares all the juicy details.

To sum it up, here are the eight elements of ultra-converting popups, as explained by Sean:

1. Popups with more context have higher conversion rates.
2. The highest-converting popups don’t appear immediately.
3. Being unclear with your headline and offer will sink your conversion rates.
4. Personality creates interest.
5. The best popups offer something of value.
6. Popups shouldn’t appear immediately after a visitor closes out.
7. Calls to action need to match the offer.
8. Exit popups need an overwhelmingly valuable offer.

Let me show you four examples of effective popups.

This popup is from Authority Hacker:

Here’s one from GetRooster:

This popup is from AmbitionAlly:

Here is one from Convince&Convert:

All the best-performing options have a clear ask and an obvious next action, and they provide obvious value to the user.

Keep in mind there are different types of popups. Here are a few of the popular ones:

• Timed popups. The popup appears after the user has been on the page for a certain amount of time.
• Scroll popups. The popup appears when the user scrolls to a certain point on the page.
• Slide-in popup. Instead of offering an intrusive popup experience, this popup slides into the user’s view, only partially obstructing the content.
• Entry popups. The popup appears as soon as the user lands on the page.
• Exit popup. The popup appears when the user is about to leave the page. The technology is a bit complex, involving cursor directionality, velocity and timing to determine whether the visitor is about to bounce.

Today’s popup technologies are advanced enough to keep you from having to do any programming or complicated jiggering.

Most popups allow you to customize them to your heart’s content. The framework and structure, however, are completely primed for popup success.

Instead of distracting yourself with issues of UX or conversion rate increases, ask yourself a simple question: How can I give the greatest value to my readers in the most obvious way?

If popups aren’t the answer, don’t use them.

But if popups can deliver value on that level, use them without regret.

Place CTAs everywhere

One major reason why most blogs aren’t as effective as they could be with their conversions comes down to one simple thing:

They don’t have enough CTAs.

Wait, what? CTAs?

CTA stands for call to action. It’s marketing jargon for asking the user to do something or to respond in a certain way.

It’s easy to think of the CTA in a simplistic way.

Buttons, right? A CTA is a button. Like this…

Whether or not you use the dreaded “submit” button copy is entirely up to you.

A CTA can be a button, but a CTA is a whole universe of things.

My point is this. Your CTAs should be more than just buttons. In fact, your CTAs should be everywhere on your page.

Let me be entirely transparent with you. I love blogging. I love the written word. I love content.

And when I feel as if my content is being crowded out by a bunch of rude CTAs, I get a little nervous. I might even get a little defensive.

If you’re feeling that right now, I understand.

But I still want you to consider the following statement: for your long-form blog to be effective, you should always be presenting the user with your call to action.

Let’s take a look at a few examples, and you’ll see what I mean by this.

Here’s a blog article from Hubspot.

At the very top of the page, before we read beyond the title of the article, we see no less than three CTAs.

(You could make a reasonable argument that the social sharing icons are also CTAs, but I’m not counting them.)

As you scroll down the page, watch what happens. It’s subtle, but you’ll notice how the top navigation bar fades into a persistent header.

Watch the gray bar at the top of the page:

Now, no matter where you’re reading on the page, Hubspot is presenting you with a CTA:

When you reach the end of the article, you are presented with three CTAs:

These CTAs are not intrusive or over the top. They are simple invitations to the user to take things to the next level.

As a long-form content creator, I am not bothered by it in the least.

Instead of distracting the user from the valuable content, it is inviting the user to go deeper.

Let me show you another example, this time using a mixture of two content types—video and text.

Squarespace’s blog features this account of John Malkovich:

Perhaps the most outstanding feature of this content is its visual appeal. CTAs are visually understated, but they are still there.

One invites the user to read more articles. The other points to newer and older articles. And the most important CTA of all prompts the user to play the video.

Now that the user’s attention is focused on the video, a CTA is placed in their line of sight:

For users who are on the full video page, the CTAs are still there. Although obvious, they do not detract from the immersive visual experience of the video:

A business like Squarespace is focused on visual excellence. They have to be. User experience is paramount.

Their CTAs do not impair the visual appeal of the website at all!

One of my favorite examples of CTA is Buffer.

Why? Because Buffer, a social media SaaS, is recognized for extraordinary content.

When you land on any of its blog articles, you’ll see this CTA:

The CTA is always in your line of sight.

In the gif below, you’ll see me scroll through the entirety of the the main blog page and then navigate to one of their long-form articles.

Don’t worry about catching the content I’m scrolling through. Instead, keep your eyes on the blue CTA at the top of the page:

Let’s take a closer look at one of their long-form articles.

The layout, formatting, and presentation is a paragon of design simplicity. Even so, there are two powerful CTAs:

The CTA “Share with Buffer” is particularly powerful. Its intent is to share the article socially, but the actual event prompts the user to sign up for the service.

The article itself is 2,500+ words. That quantity speaks to the value of the content and suggests its high quality.

When you get to the end of the article, you’re again presented with several CTAs, not counting the social sharing icons:

If you continue scrolling past the comments, you’ll reach the end of the page.

Even at the bottom, you’ll see more CTAs:

I think you’ll agree that Buffer has outstanding and valuable content. Its CTAs do not in the least detract from its quality content.

Want another example? This time, take a look at this massive 11,715-word magnum opus from AudienceBloom.

My red circles destroyed the visual appeal of the page, but I wanted to point out the four CTAs at the top of the page:

There are seven CTAs at the bottom of the page:

The reason I showed you each of those examples is to demonstrate that conversions depend on CTAs.

Instead of hiding your CTAs or consigning them to a button or two, put them out there—everywhere!

According to the principle of least effort, users are not going to work hard to respond to your CTA.

The principle of least effort has its most profound applications in information-seeking contexts and behavior.

An information-seeking client will tend to use the most convenient search method, in the least exacting mode available. Information seeking behavior stops as soon as minimally acceptable results are found.

What does this psychological factoid have to do with your CTAs?

This: Make your CTAs easy and available for the reader to access.

By virtue of their activity, your blog reader is an information-seeking client. Your CTA is designed to secure some level of commitment from your readers before they leave.

If you have clear CTAs distributed throughout the blog, you stand a greater likelihood of engaging their attention and securing their conversion.

Conclusion

You have a simple goal: get more conversions.

I wish I could say, “Yes, getting more conversions from your blog is easy!”

It is.

And it isn’t.

• Creating long-form content is not easy. At least not in my experience.
• Launching a comprehensive content marketing campaign is not simple.
• Hiring growth hackers, developers, marketers, and writers isn’t a breeze.
• Designing a compelling landing page and blowing it up with value isn’t a cinch.
• Conducting months of split and multivariate testing is complicated and time-consuming.

But boosting your conversion rates?

It doesn’t have to be that hard!

I’m not trying to end on a false happy note either. The fact is, with the right tools, you can get a lot more conversions from your blog.

Sprinkle in some popups, hand out CTAs like beers at happy hour, and you’ll get instant improvement.

I guarantee it.

Implement these tactics, and report back here next Tuesday. I want to see what you’ve done.

from Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/2pT9AKL