Syed Naimath 9 years ago
Promo Box are a call-to-action, prompting users to move forward. Creating a sense of urgency, delivering information, drawing attention-yes, that is a promo box for you.
Go with the flow. Use the promo box to sell digital products such as e-books, photographs, software, and apps. Instead of forcefully introducing these products at the blog post end, tie them in seamlessly with the content of the blog.
At the end of the post, this blog asks readers to download a free copy of an eBook. Promoting an eBook right at the beginning of the post might not have been so effective. So the poster first built a rapport with the readers so that they will be more likely to download the eBook if they think that the post was beneficial for them.
This can be done on a post-by-post basis. Affiliate marketing involves you promoting a product related to your blog niche. Any resulting sale brings in a referral commission for you!
An example of this is the Hostgator coupon codes, prompting users to click to view the codes or go the merchant’s website.
Another way you could promote affiliate products is doing it category wise. This means that if you have a travel itinerary blog, with ‘travel destinations’ being one of the categories, you could promote an eBook on the best travel destinations around the world.
On the website Green Head, you will find relevant promo boxes according to different categories of cooking, leisure and design, among other categories. Here is a screenshot from the website.
In the leisure category, you will find a wide range of products ranging from backpacks, beach balls, and water slides to pool floats.
The ‘Beyond’ category clubs together many random yet fun items such as a tranquility Pod and a Time Capsule!
LeadPages is software which makes content giveaways ‘easier than ever’. Using simple templates offered by LeadPages, you can create opt-in pages for the readers.
It also allows you to create giveaways on multiple pages. With the help of this software, a two-step procedure can be created. The two-step content procedure will get visitors to click on an image, button, or a sentence before they see the opt-in box. This works better than when you place the opt-in box right on the page where they might ignore the opt-in box and move on. The opt-in on the right side of the image is an example of two-step content upgrade.
The website ‘Daily Positive’ has an email opt-in form in a nice, blue promo box, with a captive reminder that it already has over 44,000 subscribers. Talk about catchy and persuasive! The promo box pops in front and center with a motivating quote: ‘A positive thought in the morning can change your whole day’.
The whole blog gives you a nice, captivating, warm welcome when you arrive on it. Seconds after you land on the home page, this opt-in form appears, motivating you to subscribe for its emails. The click button doesn’t just boringly proclaim ‘Subscribe me’. It says ‘Make me more positive,’ getting the online readers already excited over what is to come.
This makes a lot of sense because your users can easily download these entries and read ‘em as per their convenience! The blog can be downloaded with pictures and text by the visitors for easy reading.
Blog posts can be saved in their entirety and saved in a wonderful PDF file for your online viewers. So instead of the dull .xml file, your entire blog can be in PDF format. This can be done with the help of a tool called Blogger Backup. It is open-source and free. ‘BlogBooker’ is also helpful.
‘I don’t like giveaways’, said no one ever. If you are an artist, you could put up some artworks to be downloaded, thrilling your customers! It is a great way of promoting your new works of wonder.
A free trial leads the way to purchase. This is why you will see promo boxes of free software trial for 30 and 60 days. Many times, a good product will sell on its own, leading the user to purchase it at the end of the trial period.
For example, in the image given below, they have promoted free artistic giveaway of postcards. But what is more enticing is that they have engaged the customers too. The blog post tells its readers that since they have learned quite a few techniques and skills from the blog, now is the chance to put these skills to work and get this postcard printed for free.
Old posts may get buried down in a heap of blog posts! Bump ‘em up with a promo box to engage visitors and to make them spend more time at your website. Link your old posts if they are relevant to what you are writing now on the blog. The readers can get more relevant content and greater understanding.
You could also link to your old blog posts in a sidebar. Even better, if you have an e-newsletter subscription option, best is to make use of the old blog posts through that venue.
In the following image, they are promoting their previous post by stating what is in it for readers. The previous post can be prequel of the current post or just a post that you deem relevant to your target audience.
If you visit popular blogs like Mashable and TechCrunch, you will notice related blog posts next to or below the article. Promote your most important, evergreen, and insightful articles regularly through these channels.
If a reader has read your blog post and scrolled down till the end, it indicated that they were interested. You can show similar content to the reader by gauging the target audience. Or you can promote your evergreen and most important articles and pages.
Like in this image, this is how the Harvard Business Review promotes subscription to its readers.
but some readers might just click it away and not pay attention. To counter this, you could publish only a partial post with a promo box appearing at the blog post’s end. This effectively promotes the membership in order to see the full content. Many of Harvard Business Review website’s articles are locked up for exclusive members only, prompting visitors to sign up and take advantage of the valuable information. The reader is engaged enough by the time he reaches mid-article and may be motivated more to subscribe.
Promote your social media presence with the help of your blog. Facebook and other social networking sites can make good content viral, in a matter of minutes, making themselves indispensable for bloggers.
If the content on your blog is share-able, it can be read by multiple users without you having to reach them actively. This free promotion of content will be done by your readers, not you.
Engage your visitors by making them part of a two-way conversation on Facebook. Users love it when you get to hear their side of story (on social networking platforms). Plus, you will also benefit from the analytics of your Facebook page.
Even with little site traffic, you can garner sponsors by having a clear ‘sponsor’ or ‘advertising’ promo at the top of your blog. Once the potential sponsor clicks on this promo box, it could lead them to an advertising page in which you could state prices, payment methods, visitors’ demographics, and traffic statistics. Also, talk about what potential benefits the sponsors draw out of this.
Put together a clear and comprehensive sponsorship package to outline what is required from the sponsor and what the sponsor will receive in exchange. At the end of each package, introduce a call to action by making a button saying ‘purchase’.
This promo box beautifully shows the amount of money collected for charity.
If you have multiple services to offer such as designing, developing, writing, and consultancy, you could give them a boost by informing visitors through promo boxes placed strategically on your website, in relevant posts.
Each promo box can introduce your products in a different way. For instance, you could give away some deals and promotions. Or you could present some social proof to show how your services are faring with other customers.
A social proof is the positive impression created on your potential customers when they see other customers using your service and being happy with it. A customer testimonial is one way to go about it. Instead of you putting in a positive word for your products, let your actual customers do it for you.
Picture courtesy: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-proof-examples-landing-pages
Creating a sense of urgency has helped businesses in drastically upping their conversion rate.
For this to work, increase the clarity of your offer. You could do this with the help of improved visuals. Add a value proposition such as giving away products worth $1,300 for just $300 and creating urgency by stating that this is valid only for a limited sales period.
A good example of this is Groupon. With their regular deals, they are quick in creating an air of urgency by showing how many customers have bought it. Plus, the countdown timer is used to really hammer in the point that not much time is left.
In the promo box, encourage users to tell about their experiences, stating that you would be thrilled to hear from them. Or perhaps, introduce a little competition for your readers? But do it through a promo box to garner the attention of readers so that no one misses it and everyone can participate.
Many blogs invite readers to pen their thoughts and send in to the blog. If you are inviting guest bloggers, why not do it in a fun way with the help of promo boxes, to make your blog look more enticing? Tell them you would love to have a peek inside their lives and make friends out of your readers. This will tempt your readers to write about themselves and participate on your blog.
Well, that is just about it now! And do tell US what you think about our blog post?
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