Blogging grew to be much more than just a hobby over the past few years. Nowadays, almost every company that looks to their reputation, visibility and credibility has a blog. The main reason is that blogs are meant to provide consumers with more information, entertainment and education that company websites. Many businesses leverage blogging for content marketing, social media exposure and SEO, among other things.
However, just like website design is important so is the blog design. If a website is one side of the coin then your blog is the other. In other words, both blogs and websites must complement each other and they must be well-designed. Otherwise, your followers will soon start to lose their interest and you won’t be able to convert them.
What’s more, blogging has become so widely spread these days that consumers are quite familiar with it. That said, they know how to avoid common conversion strategies used by companies. That’s why your blog design needs to be exceptional if nothing else then to encourage visitors to convert out of their own volition. With that in mind, here’s how a blog design impacts the customer conversion rate.
Have a dedicated subscription page
First and foremost, you have to ask yourself: “Why would anyone want to subscribe to my blog?” A lot of companies simply assume that consumers will throw themselves at their blog but that isn’t the case. If you provide more information or something valuable, as well as something relevant to consumers with your blog, you have to let them know and explain it in detail.
After all, you want to give consumers a good reason to not just subscribe to your blog but also give you their email address so that you can send newsletters and updates to them.
In today’s world of information that flows freely across the web, consumers aren’t too keen on simply giving out their sensitive information just like that. Therefore, as a vital part of your blog’s design, you must have a dedicated subscription page that will both highlight and explain the benefits of subscribing, the value the consumer will get out of it, as well as the perks you will provide to subscribers.
Offer something unique
When someone says design, the first thing that comes to mind to a lot of people is visuals. Although visuals are an essential aspect of a blog’s design, they aren’t the only ones. The fact of the matter is that design encompasses numerous things. That includes the very content you produce on your blog all the way to the structure of the blog itself and the tone of voice you use to address your followers.
Now let’s talk about what you actually offer in your blog. In 9 out of 10 cases, chances are that you offer some kind of content, whether it’s informative, educational or simply entertaining. That’s, after all, one of the main purposes of a blog.
However, how unique or relevant is your content or the offer itself? If a consumer can find the same type of content on a dozen different blogs, forums or even social media, then they’re not very likely to subscribe now, are they? Have a look at this example on how social media and content marketing, with a blog as a catalyst, can create a unique approach that will do wonders for conversions. It may help you develop something unique of your own.
Down to the visuals
As mentioned before, visuals are an essential aspect of your blog’s design and we’ll explore them further now. The same rules that apply to website design when it comes to visuals also apply to your blog. For instance, it only takes 50 milliseconds for consumers to form a first impression of your pages based on visuals alone.
This fragment of a second determines whether or not someone will stay or bounce off. Therefore, let’s start at the very beginning, which is your color scheme. Colors have a major impact on consumer emotional response.
If you’ve already developed a brand for your business, then you know that colors on both your website and your blog must be in accordance with your brand. Otherwise, it will generate inconsistency. The next step is to focus on other visuals, such as images and videos. Blogs have grown past simple text and you need to enrich it with visuals. You can increase customer engagement rate by 37% with great content but that engagement can go up to 48% if it contains stunning visuals.
Work on the functionality
Just like websites, blogs also have to be highly functional if you want to convert people. Functionality is probably one of the biggest game changers when it comes to conversions. You can have the best visuals and amazing content but if your blog is too slow, then it’s all for nothing. Consumers simply don’t tolerate slow loading pages.
A single second delay in page loading time can result in a 7% decrease in conversion rate. The majority of consumers will abandon a page if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. That’s why you need to properly optimize your blog, especially if you have high-quality visuals embedded within the pages.
Furthermore, other functionality aspects include mobile responsive design, cross-browser support, proper navigation and categorization, among other things. In other words, if your blog doesn’t provide consumers with an exceptional experience then they have no reason whatsoever to subscribe to your blog.
Blogging has become essential not just for businesses but also for individuals who have something to share with the people today. Designing a blog isn’t easy but it’s crucial to have a good design if you want to favor good conversions. That’s why it’s important to discover what works best for your blog and develop a design your customers will adore.
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