You Need to Sell Your Blog Posts!
One of the biggest mistakes that bloggers make – but still expect reactions and feedback – is to ignore the basic fact that in order to engage their readers, they need to sell their blog posts. No, I’m not talking about literally selling your content on article market websites. I’m talking about selling ideas through your blog posts to your most favorite customers, your readers. Are you ready to close this sale?
It’s not a big stretch of imagination thinking of your ideas as if they were products you need to sell through you blog posts. Looking back at a past article on Blogsessive, we can link the proper blog post structure to one of the most basic, yet highly effective selling technique: The AIDA Model.
What is AIDA?
AIDA is an acronym that stands for: Attention, Interest, Desire & Action, and is a selling model developed back in 1925 by psychologist E.K. Strong Jr. Don’t be fooled by the date. The AIDA model still holds strong and is still being considered by many as the copywriter’s best friend.
How does this model apply to writing blog posts? Simple! It is enough to link each of this acronym’s letter to one of the four main elements of your blog post:
- Come up with an attention grabbing title;
- Write an interest startling introduction;
- Proceed to creating desire and motivation in the body part;
- Close with a call to action.
Now, let us get down and dirty with each of these four steps.
The Title – Grabbing Attention (A)
You know that it’s a fast world we’re living in and time has become more and more valuable. With this increased value, people have reduced the time they spent scanning blogs to scanning blog posts, and nowadays to mostly scanning titles. So, you should consider your post’s title as your first idea pitch. Make sure it’s a winning pitch, otherwise, the “sale” will most probably fail before it even begins.
In order to write a good title you need to be concise, focused and why not, intriguing. Address a real problem, a real interest. A good title generates a spontaneous question or dilemma within your reader’s mind instantly.
Let’s take this post’s title as an example. It uses a direct approach through “you” and it creates a dilemma: Why the heck do I need to sell my blog posts? Or maybe there’s something else the author is trying to tell me?
Now, let’s twist the title a bit (more) and take a look at a less fortunate format: “Wondering if writing is anything like selling”. A title like this shows uncertainty. People don’t have really have time to waste with your insecurity. People need facts and they need them quick. The most probable reaction a title like this would get is: “OK dude, keep wondering! Let me know when you find out.”
The topic of writing attention grabbing titles is itself a very big one and I will not develop it here any further. Instead, I’m going to guide you to some of my favorite posts on this matter, the “How to Write Magnetic Headlines” series on Copyblogger.com.
The Introduction – Generating Interest (I)
So, you’ve managed to write a pitch-winning headline, what’s next? Now, it’s time to sustain your readers’ attention by writing an introductory paragraph that gets in touch with their interests.
State the problem right from the start. Let readers find themselves in your little “case-study”. Let them know that you have come up with a solution to their problem. Also, know that interest wear off pretty quick and in order to further engage your readers, ending the introduction with a formula that actively involves them is a good idea. Take this article’s introductory paragraph for example and see how it ends:
Are you ready to close this sale?
If you have managed to generate enough interest, your readers will definitely continue reading the post body.
The Blog Post Body – Creating Desire (D)
Now, it’s time to build on the readers’ interest. You have convinced them that what you’re about tho share sounds good, in theory, but how will they be affected?
Writing the body is an action-benefit game. Simply listing the actions they need to take, or an item’s features in a review is not enough. You need to motivate readers and this is done by explaining how each of the actions or features will influence them and solve their problems. Come up with real examples, testimonials if necessary. Strengthen your theory with solid facts.
Do not make the mistake of keeping your best for later. Hit your readers with the best you’ve got, right from the start. Make an impression. If not, you risk loosing their interest before they even get to read your “best section”.
Remember to always keep the writing at a conversational level in order maintain the reader engagement. I’ve talked about engaging writing before if you need to refresh your knowledge.
The Closing – Call to Action (A)
With enough desire built, it’s time to seal the deal. A successful idea sale is confirmed by the feedback you receive through comments, emails, backlinks and so on. Summarize in a small phrase the best of your post for those who scanned through the body part, then jump to the “call to action“.
The time for pleasantries is gone. When closing your article, you don’t need to give options. There’s no need for questions that might encourage readers not to deliver feedback.
Stay away from questions that might return a negative answer ( “Have you used ‘product X’ before?” ). They are bound to keep readers away from that comment form. Who wants to waste even more time discussing the negative impact or lack of experience with an action or product?
Instead, be decisive. Encourage readers to interact through subtle persuasive lines like “Share your experience with me / the community!”
Sometimes, a post scriptum (PS) empowers the call to action by delivering an amazing feature that deliberately left out.
PS: Have I mentioned that this technique improved my comments rate with over 200%?
And That’s How You Sell a Blog Post
You capture attention. You build interest. You create desire and then hit your readers with the most powerful call to action you’ve got! The AIDA model is indeed your best friend.
And since titles are decisive to win the first pitch, pitch me with your best title so far and a link to the blog post you’ve “sold” best!
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This article is a perfect example of what you are saying too!
The title grabbed my attention, the first paragraph made me want to read on, the next few were interesting then you sold it to me at the end because here I am writing a comment.
Inspiring post!
Quality content is the King, and not easy to make one you need research deeply to contribute to your readers and if the readers is highly educated people then it would be more challenging to optimize from comments and feedbacks to the original content both parties growth together, yet the writer must have highly skilled in journalism
Very good distillation and angle.
.
Liked it.
The “weird” part is I have just published the “same” post with a twist – i compare blog posts with “boy meets girl” story. My post is a boy and the reader is a girl. How do I create the excitement and translates into the real thing – lobe? This is what i write in my post
Bottom line – i do agree, one needs to sell blog posts by creating an appalling story with tons of value.
AIDA — excellent.
and here is a question for an experienced blogger like yourself:
Why do blog posts appear in reverse chronological order (latest post on top) but the comments to the posts appear oldest first?
Nice post. I remember AIDA from way back in school. I haven’t heard the term in a long time. It’s nice to look back on it now. It’s like Dale Carnegie’s ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’. A classic so ahead of it’s time it’s still relevant today.
Interesting take on this, and I think it works well for writing across the board. Even though you’ve added a step, it kind of reminds me of how piano concertos are supposed to work; catchy first movement to get your attention, emotional middle movement to capture your soul, then a rousing final movement to send you out of there feeling good. Great stuff!
Hey everyone, thanks for you inspiring comments.
Mitch, very nice association with the piano concerto. Makes a lot of sense!
Great post. I hadn’t heard the acronym before.
Oao, really helpful post. I had no idea about the matter.
This sounds like step by step to make a converting landing page.
Its harder with blog I reckon, theres just too many distraction
I used to create original articles and do not want to sell or purchase articles
Dhar, you need to read the article again and understand what it debates. It does not talk about doing commerce with your blog posts, but about “selling” ideas to your readers. Where selling is getting the readers to understand and read your blog posts in full, and pass them along.