Author: Franz Malten Buemann

In our 2021 Executive Marketing Leadership Survey, 20% of marketing leaders described company blogs as one of their “most important channels” for hitting goals.
The enduring importance placed on blogging isn’t shocking. Not only can blogs boost your SEO, overall site traffic, and online presence, but they can also help prospects learn more about your industry, brand, product, or service.
But, starting and running an effective, traffic-generating blog requires a lot of time and energy. And, if you’re a marketing manager on a tight budget, you might only be interested in tactics that directly benefit your bottom line.
As you determine how you’ll invest your time, effort, and money in 2021, you might ask yourself, “Will my blog posts actually lead to purchases?”
To help marketers answer the question above, we surveyed nearly 300 consumers using Lucid software to learn if reading company blog posts had ever led them to make purchases from that brand.

Do Blog Posts Lead to Purchases?
While the growth of other content strategies, like video marketing, might have you thinking that consumers will only buy products after seeing them on other platforms, you might be surprised by how consumers responded to our survey question.
When we asked, “Have you ever purchased something from a company after reading a blog post from them?”, a whopping 56% said, “Yes.”

Data Source
While blogs are no longer the most commonly used type of marketing content, data like the small survey above reaffirms that blogging is still an effective way to market your brand and even sell products.
Why Blogs Lead to Purchases
If your company has a blog that discusses your industry or how your offerings can help with the average reader’s everyday pain points, your audiences can discover and gain trust in your brand’s expertise. That trust and credibility could ultimately lead to purchases.
Why? If a prospect trusts the advice or information given in your blog posts, they might trust that your offerings are better quality than your competitor’s because your brand knows the industry, what customers want, and the pain points that your product or service solves.
Even if you prefer video, social media, or visual marketing strategies, it’s important to remember that blogs can help you sell products in ways that other content types can’t.
For instance, while videos and images might only give prospects a glimpse of how a product or service works in real life, blog posts can offer extensive information that a visual content editor might need to cut to avoid overwhelming a viewer on social media or other platforms.
And, while blog posts offer more chances to provide in-depth information than some content types, they also could increase your search ranking and allow more opportunities to link directly to a landing or purchasing page. Because of this, consumers could find your content via search, read your post, and click straight to a product purchasing page with low friction after your content has persuaded them to buy a product.
Additionally, because most blog sites allow you to embed videos, podcasts, and imagery, your company blog can also be a great place to promote your other marketing assets while still informing prospects about your brand.  
In the next year, consider a mix of content marketing that includes blogging. Not sure how to persuade shoppers with your blog posts? Here are a few quick tips.
How to Lead Readers to Purchases
Strategically place product page links and CTAs.
Aside from mentioning your brand, product, or service where it feels natural in your blog posts, you can also use hyperlinks to link out to product pages, or CTA buttons that draw slightly more attention to a product or offer without directing reader attention too far away from the blog post.
At HubSpot, we usually place at least three CTAs related to a blog topic in each post: a text-based CTA in the introduction, a larger banner image at the bottom, and a slide-in CTA that shows up to the side of your text as you’re scrolling through the middle of the post. This allows three mentions of a product or offering without interrupting the reader’s experience.
Offer a free resource:
If your brand sells a subscription, service, or product that’s on the pricier side or needs leadership approval from your company, blog readers might need more than a few blog posts to trust your brand and invest in your product. In that case, you might need to focus on lead-nurturing rather than sending blog readers directly to a purchasing page.
HubSpot and many other blogs have grown their contact and qualified lead lists simply by creating a free downloadable resource, such as an ebook, template, or research report, and offering it through CTAs at the end of blog posts.
Below is an example of a recent free research report resource we offered at the end of one of our Sales Blog posts:

To access free — but gated — offers, readers must give basic information about themselves and their company. From there, they receive an automated email or instant download of the resource while also becoming a contact — or lead — and enter our lead-qualification process to see if they could be a good prospect to reach out to.
The HubSpot Blog’s free resource strategy results in thousands of qualified leads per year that could potentially convert into HubSpot customers. You can learn more about how to implement it on your blog here.
Remember, quality beats over-promotion.
In another recent Lucid survey, one-third of our group of general consumer respondents most commonly read blog posts to “learn something new.” Meanwhile, roughly 20% read blog posts for the sake of entertainment.
As a content creator, it’s important to remember that readers will likely find your blog because they’re looking for information related to an industry they work in, want to learn something related to their hobbies, or need solutions for a pain point they deal with in their daily or professional lives.
Odds are, they’re not looking solely for promotional content. If a reader visits your blog site and finds nothing but blog posts filled with product shots and cheesy advertorial language, they might lose interest in your content and might not develop the sense of trust needed to make a purchase.
While it’s wise to place a few unintrusive CTAs in your blog posts, and even mention your product or service when it feels relevant, be sure your content primarily offers valuable guidance, advice, and information that will help your reader and fulfill their needs.
For example, in this post about AI social media tools, we give valuable information about how to implement AI-based technology in a social media process while listing HubSpot as one of the tools readers can use. While we still mention our offerings, the post’s goal is to show readers how multiple AI tools can streamline a marketing process.
Creating Your Blog Nurturing Process
Ultimately, every brand has a target audience with different interests and content needs. While one blog strategy, such as free resources, will work well to generate qualified leads for a B2B company, other tactics, like simply linking to a product in blog posts, might be more lucrative for consumer-facing brands.
As you focus more on turning your blog traffic into revenue, keep these questions in mind:

What information is valuable to my audience?
Does my product require lead nurturing such gated offers?
Will the tactic I’m using seem over-promotional or disengaging to my audience?

Want to learn more about how the HubSpot blog generates leads? Check out this post from one of our content acquisition managers. Or, take down these tips on how to make money blogging.
Before you check out those pieces, be sure to download the free resource below. 

We ended 2020 by participating in the first-ever ParDreamin’, a four-day virtual conference spotlighting Pardot’s marketing automation capabilities and bringing together a vibrant community of business leaders, marketers, and more. 
Organized by Sercante, a marketing technology consultant that specializes in Pardot implementation, ParDreamin’ 2020 celebrated innovation with a packed schedule of sessions to inspire and educate all roles and levels of Pardot users. Sessions covered a wide range of topics geared toward administrators, developers, consultants, and nonprofits. 
More than 3,400 attendees logged in from 62 countries to hear from top marketers and industry leaders speak in keynotes, panel discussions, fireside chats, and live Q&As. And 58 speakers took to the virtual stage to share how they use Pardot to transform their businesses in a fast-changing world. Throughout the conference, key trends emerged around what to expect as the marketing landscape continues to evolve. Let’s take a look at two core takeaways from ParDreamin’ and how you can use them to boost your marketing in 2021 and beyond.

MARKETERS ARE ON THE FRONT LINES OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

COVID-19 fundamentally changed the way businesses interact with their audiences. Now, it’s more important than ever to have a 360-degree view of your customer. 
Marketers have always cared about delivering a great customer experience. But now they own it. And with the acceleration of digital transformation, marketers are working to bring marketing, sales, and service together on a single platform to create unique experiences that grow customer relationships. ParDreamin’s leading keynote featured powerful examples of how leveraging technology can be a key factor for success. 
When the pandemic upended the global supply chain, Noodle.ai CMO Gail Moody-Byrd and her team needed to figure out how to transform their operating model to meet changing market trends. They realized that a personalized approach to customer experience was crucial. The Noodle.ai team worked together to update their AI algorithms to reflect the new dynamics impacting supply chain and manufacturing customers. Noodle.ai marketers used Pardot to send customized communication to prospects. Because they have a single source of truth for their pipeline data, the team delivered a tailored customer journey and continued growing their revenue, even in the pandemic.
Meanwhile, buildOn Chief Experience Officer Carrie Pena had to rethink her organization’s entire approach to customer experience. Using Pardot, buildOn marketers sent personalized emails with relevant content about their virtual activities — including a live-streamed ground-breaking ceremony — to students and donors. By personalizing the content, buildOn delivered real-time impact and brought supporters together in new ways to promote their mission.
CONNECTED DATA IS EVERYTHING
Marketing transformation is more than transforming the logistics of your business — it also means transforming the relationship with your customers. 
Delivering on customer experience and growth can be hard when your data is disconnected. Siloed data (and siloed teams) that rely on outdated legacy systems can make it challenging for businesses to keep up with the rapid pace of change. Marketers must create a single source of truth to unify disparate data sources and provide a seamless customer experience.
Adam Blitzer, executive vice president and general manager of Salesforce, made the case for using a single platform like Pardot to harmonize data and align teams. With many employees continuing to work remotely, connected data makes it easier for marketing, sales, and service to come together and collaborate on account engagement. Through each stage of the customer journey, teams can align on joint metrics and share important information. A single source of truth is also key to personalized messaging.
During the closing keynote, we learned how InsideView puts connected data in action. InsideView marketers use analytics from their own products to help them target the right accounts. Then, using Pardot’s Engagement Studio, they orchestrate a personalized buying journey with relevant content for each account. Once the lead has been nurtured, sales is brought in to seal the deal.
Having data in one place allows internal teams from any company to better understand customer engagement patterns. Sales reps get a deep understanding of the marketing campaigns their customers are a part of, which makes it easier to identify their needs and deliver the right product. Marketers can use Einstein’s AI-driven attribution model to track the success of their campaigns and tailor their approach for future accounts.
THE FUTURE OF MARKETING IS HERE
Bringing your data and your teams together in one platform is a must for marketing transformation. Omnichannel personalization is key to customer experience, and a robust data platform ensures that you’re seeing the right information at the right time to make the right decisions for each customer. With a strong data and personalization strategy, your business can achieve new levels of growth — no matter how fast the world changes.
For more marketing insights, get your free video pass to ParDreamin’ 2020.

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Have you heard about Voice Commerce? According to Visual Thesaurus, people can speak 125 to 150 words per minute, which’s over three times faster than the average typing speed. Because of this inherent human ability, voice search became a new daily habit of our lives. It’s more natural for people to talk than to type or click. If you are still not convinced, as per Search Engine Watch: ‘62% of voice speaker owners have made purchases through their virtual assistant, and 40% of millennials use voice assistants before making online purchases’. Voice search is the future of retrieval, don’t fall behind and implement it in your online store.

 

Let’s spill the tea: What Voice Commerce is?

 

Voice Commerce is a modern solution, which makes it possible for site search users to get results by speaking their query instead of typing words. Voice recognition systems follow everyday use of language, so it is a natural experience as if you were speaking to a human. With the use of voice search, your online store will become more user-friendly and pleasant for your customers. Speed up the shopping process with fast access to products!

 

65% of consumers ages 25-49 years old talk to their voice-enabled devices daily (PwC),
Close to 50% of people are now researching products using Voice Search (Social Media Today),
20% of mobile queries are now voice searches (Search Engine Land),
61% of consumers say voice search is most useful to them when their hands or vision is occupied (Social Media Today),
Voice Shopping is estimated to reach $40 billion in the US by 2022 (Invesp).

 

Overall, Voice Commerce not only enables to complete actions quickly and easily, but also streamlines our lives in ways never before possible. Due to this, you can reach for interesting items with just a few words! What’s more, with SALESmanago it is your decision how the icon of Voice Commerce will look, or maybe you want to add it to the search bar? It is all up to you!

.carousel {
padding: 0 30px;
}
.carousel-control.left,
.carousel-control.right {
background: transparent;
font-size: 50px;
height: fit-content;
width: fit-content;
color: #cdcbcd;
}

.carousel-control.left:hover {
opacity: 0.9;
}

.carousel-control.left:focus,
.carousel-control.left:active {
opacity: 0.5;
}

.carousel-control.right:hover {
opacity: 0.9;
}

.carousel-control.right:focus,
.carousel-control.right:active {
opacity: 0.5;
}

.item img {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
}

.carousel-control {
top: 50%;
transform: translateY(-50%);
}

.item {
min-height: 470px;
}

@media (max-width: 440px) {
.item {
min-height: 280px;
}
}

Previous

Next

Decide how you want the Voice Commerce to be accessed – through an icon or perhaps a button. Fully customize its size, color, even frame.
Design an icon or a button that will allow quick and simple search via voice commands. Adjust it to the appearance of your site and make it attractive to the eyes of viewers.
Transfer the illusion of speaking to a real consultant to your online store, no matter which device, desktop, or mobile phone your visitors use. Voice Commerce will always find what they are searching for.

 

Take your Online Store to the new level of mobile shopping experience by deploying Voice Commerce technology seamlessly integrating Google Services, CDP data, NLP, and Artificial Intelligence.

Provide one-click access to Voice Commerce anywhere on your website and allow customers to instantly use Voice Commands during the search and purchase process.

Encourage your website visitors to interact with your store via voice commands by displaying dedicated personalized and engaging call-to-actions integrated with Voice Commerce solutions.

Analyze to what extent customers use Voice Commerce to explore,  find and buy products on your website. Use advanced reports and search analytics dashboard to measure the success of usage.

 

Make your customers’ life easier: just say it!

 

Improve Customer Experience and increase your sales, users are much more likely to use voice to make their purchases,

Open yourself for a new target, Millennials are willing to embrace new voice solutions,

Keep things simple and just let your customers tell what they are looking for. With searching by voice, finding products is available regardless of time or place. No more warring of wetting your device while doing home chores,

Fully customize the appearance of Voice Commerce! Choose the placement of the button, shape, or even animation,

Enable users to search faster and more conveniently, save the time of your visitors and make them feel more productive,

Look your best! Develop your site by making it comfortable and more intuitive to use, all with a unique fitting design.

 

If you think that this is the same as using voice commands available on your smartphone you are probably wrong

 

SALESmanago Voice Commerce

Voice Search on mobile 

One-click access to Voice Commerce anywhere on your website
Yes
No

Possibility to design and add Voice Commerce icon to the search box 
Yes
No

Personalized dialog box with a call to action for searching products (e.g. Hi, tell me what you are looking for) 
Yes
No

Available on mobile and desktop
Yes
No

AI product recommendations
Yes
No

NLP technology-supported search results
Yes
No

Analytics of Voice Commerce usage 
Yes
No

marketing automation marketing automation

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