Video on building a blog with Joomla

You've heard it a thousand times: you can't do Inbound Marketing without a blog.

But you may be wondering - how does all of that writing translate to an actual boost in your revenue? I've got the answer for you, and I'm also here to provide you with a checklist to take blogging from an annoying task to an invaluable medium for driving sales.

For many, blogging seems like a poor use of a lot of time. By the time you think up a topic, research it, write a post, and promote it, you're looking at 2+ hours invested. And I'll admit it - those naysayers are right.

If you're blogging without a purpose, and if you're not optimizing your blog's structure for lead nurturing, your time will likely be wasted (in terms of tangible ROI). Fortunately, that doesn't have to be the case.

According to HubSpot, 82% of marketers have earned a sale from their blog while citing it only requires 9% of staff time. (Source)

How do they do it? Successful business bloggers create optimized content that speaks to the pain points and informational wants of their carefully crafted buyer personas.

They use their blog to educate and help those individuals, and to nurture them down the funnel into customers and advocates.

Sound like a hefty task? It is, but it's clearly not out of reach. Here's what you need to do in order to join the ranks of master business bloggers:

Start with "Why"

Here's the hardest lesson you'll ever learn in blogging: your audience doesn't care about you.

Ouch? I know, I know.

The fact of the matter is, your audiences only care about subjects that will help them. Whether it's making their life easier, doing their job better, or accomplishing their goals faster - they will only come to your blog if it speaks to the subject matter they care about.

Everytime you sit down to write a blog post, think about why you're covering that topic. Is this an article you know will give value to your community - or is it just an "easy" topic you're writing to save some time?

If you can't articulate why your audience will care, you shouldn't waste your time writing it. 

If you want to really amp up your efforts and niche appeal, write posts that speak to unique customer information wants at each stage of the funnel. For each persona your brand speaks to, create a topic that informs them from TOFU to MOFU to BOFU to a sales interaction.

Need some help coming up with these elusive subjects? Check out this article.

Put a Face to Your Name

Here's the deal: in order for people to care about what you say, they usually need to know who you are.

One of the best ways to communicate that is to add an author bio to your blog, and link that bio to your Google+ page for rel=author status.

Did you know that Google search results utilizing rel=author have been proven to drive a click through rate up to 150% higher than those that don't? (Source)

If you're unfamiliar with the difference in those types of results, check out the SERP below. The links with photos are using Google Authorship:

From a search perspective, that makes Google Authorship (and it's super easy implementation) more than worth it.

But beyond boosting your clickability in SERPs, adding a face and author bio to your blog posts can improve your credibility and relatability on actual blog posts.

There's a reason credible news sources from the Associated Press to the Joomla Community Magazine all implement author bios: putting a face, and back story, to an article can make a huge difference in the way readers experience a post.

Keep it Visual

Whenever possible, incorporate visual or multimedia content on your blog.

This quick tip helps keep your reader engaged and breaks apart what (at least visually) seem like monotonous blocks of text.

Speaking of which, it's advisable to write your blog to look less like a college History essay and more like a compilation of short bursts of information. Be generous with line breaks, and keep your sentences to the point.

People spend all day reading blocks of emails and lengthy texts - shake it up by providing them with a bit of content that's easier to read and digest...even if it is just a trick of the eye.

The more you can engage your audience on a blog post, the better chance you have of keeping them around to convert down to a sale.

In short, the goal is to avoid evoking this feeling:

Pave a Path

Successful marketing doesn't tell people what to do - it helps them take the steps they need to fulfil their goals.

Whether it's printing a free recipe or purchasing a lawn chair, your job is to help your reader (and prospective customer) get to their intended destination.

Your blog will be driving traffic to your site (with all those reader-focused topics you uncovered in step 1), but none of that traffic can convert into customers if you don't provide them with a clear path to do so. 

The key to a conversion is a much-talked about component of Inbound marketing and website optimization: calls-to-action.

If you follow the jInbound blog, you know we've talked a lot of about calls-to-action in the past. From how to create them in Joomla to optimization tips, Inbound marketers take calls-to-action seriously.

Within the blog environment, calls-to-action should live in two places: your sidebar, and at the bottom of the post. Generally, a sidebar CTA is a general download or trial offer, which the bottom CTA is hyper relevant to the blog subject matter.

Both of these function to give the reader a next step in their journed towards becoming a customer. Rather than providing them with a great free resource (your blog post) and letting them slip away, you direct them down your conversion funnel.

Make is Sharable

One of the biggest mistakes a blogger can make is to fail to optimize their posts for social sharing.

If you're not incorporating social buttons on your articles, you're missing out on a major opportunity to amplify your content and brand reach. Consequently, you're stiffling happy readers from providing a digital word of mouth recommendation to potential customers.

Social buttons are a lot like CTAs - people often have the "next step" somewhere in their mind, but may need your cues to take it.

By simply enabling social sharing, you're taking the question away and giving them a one-click step to share the great information they've found.

You know that turning on social buttons in Joomla is pretty simple, so don't want another day to implement this easy but essential feature. 

Consider this list your launching pad for creating and maintaining a revenue-driving blog. These ideas are not all-encompassing, but they are a great first step toward blogging for sales. Let me know how it goes!