Awesome List Building With Your Perfect Blog Post

This post was most recently updated on September 29th, 2022

You can do some Awesome List Building With Your Perfect Blog Post, if you just keep these few things in mind.

Now, it’s true, not every blog post is designed for list building.

In fact, not every blog post should be designed for listbuilding.

That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t include list building elements in every blog post.

You can and you should.

But you don’t need to make every blog post look like you’re begging people to join your list, either.

There’s a fine line between being awesome and cool, and being a troll and a spammy you know what.

So, keep that in mind.

Meanwhile, let’s talk about writing a perfect blog post for list building.

When you’ve got it right, it should be something you can share everywhere your little feet can take you, and always be building your list with it.

It’s a virtual “pounding the pavement” strategy that works, if you’ve got that perfect blog post going for you.

So, let’s dig into that a bit, shall we?

How To Write A Perfect Blog Post

So what is a perfect blog post anyway?

It’s an article that

• gets your readers engaged
• draws them both feet into your niche topic
• really interests them in what YOU are all about
• spotlights your authority
• builds an authentic bond of trust between you and your readers

A perfect blog post is designed to make your readers want to know more about you, more about your business, and more about getting more involved with you.

How To Write A Blog Post

Each time you sit down to write a blog post, think carefully about

• WHO you’re writing for, and
• WHAT MESSAGE you want to convey

So the first thing you need to do is to determine who your audience is for your blog post.

Ask yourself if your audience…

• is interested in what you have to say
• gets lots of value and help from your blog post
• will get key benefits from your blog post

When you answer those questions, you will know who your audience is.

Now, when it comes to developing your message it should be simple.

Knowing who your audience is requires that you know precisely what message should be.

Your audience defines your message, just as your message defines your audience.

Set out to deliver a clear message.

That message should perfectly address the needs, desires, struggles and challenges of your audience.

If your audience is dying to learn how to buy and trade gold, your message is to show them how to overcome the most common, key challenges to buying and trading gold.

It’s that simple, but so many folks just don’t make the connection between what their message is, and what message their audience is waiting to receive.

I struggled making this connection too, so I know how easy it can be to do.

Elements of a Blog Post

The things you need to put into your blog post are these.

A compelling headline or title

Compelling headlines should reflect the message that you are delivering.

Make sure the title of your article includes the keywords that are relevant to your message.

Include words of emotion and power.

This will draw your readers into your article.

The body of your article.

The body of your article is obviously meant to convey your message as convincingly and meaningfully as possible.

Do your research.

Start with a great outline.

Then, fill in the pieces of the puzzle, and you have your blog post.

Valuable references.

Assuming that you are not an expert on everything related to your topic, it is important to reference expert articles and blog posts.

That can help give substance to your message.

If you know that somebody is really good at Twitter marketing and you’re talking about social media marketing in general… then link out to an article by that person.

This helps give your readers more information from a wider body of experts other than you.

Remember, your readers are not primarily interested in you.

They just want their problem solved and their concerns addressed.

If you send them to somebody else who can help them get the value they’re looking for, you become their hero.

They will love you for it, and visit back often to get more of their problems solved either by you or by someone your refer them to.

Either way, it’s all good for you 🙂

Engagement factors.

Make every effort to engage your readers in conversation and calls to action.

Don’t just give information and boring statistics.

Don’t just solve a common problem and leave it at that.

Give your readers things to think about.

Try to relate the information to their particular concerns.

Ask questions and elicit emotion… excitement, fear, inspiration.

Try to develop healthy comment threads that people want to be involved in.

Your blog post is not meant just to inform but to engage.

In fact, engagement is probably far more important than informing your readers.

Calls to action.

Calls to action are the most important reason to write a blog post.

Yes, you want to solve your readers problems.

You want to connect to them.

And, as I’ve just said… you want to engage with them.

But you also want them to do something.

You want your readers to take action to implement and start doing something.

Ask them to click on the link to see a service that you offer.

Maybe you want them to buy an affiliate product that you have referenced inside of your article.

Encourage them to take that action.

In this article, I’m talking specifically about list building.

So the calls to action that we’re talking about are those that ask people to join your email list.

Let’s see the best ways to do that.

How To Build An Email List With Your Blog Posts

Notice that I didn’t say build an email list with your blog.

I said to build an email list with your blog post.

The difference is this.

People try to build an email list with their blog by setting up sidebar opt-in boxes or banners.

They use these to prompt their readers to subscribe to their email list, usually in exchange for some great free offer.

In their zeal to push the envelop with their list building,  they often hit site visitors with a barrage of pop-up ads.

The Pop-Up Ad

I know you’ve seen pop-up ads.

You’ve probably been annoyed by them.

I know I have been.

Yet, the conventional knowledge among blogging pros, is that the pop-up ads work very well.

That means that they get people onto your email list.

I still take issue with the success of this method, though.

Building Engagement

You see, building an email list requires that you get subscribers who really want to follow you.

You must have subscribers who are really interested in what you’re doing.

They must trust you.

Just because pop-up ads increase your rate of list building, it doesn’t mean that the people added to your list are engaged.

It doesn’t follow that they will be opening your emails and engaging with you inside of your newsletter.

Avoid cheap techniques designed to trick people into joining your email list.

Offering cheesy ebooks that circulate everywhere just to get a bigger number of followers is sorta self-defeating.

If you can’t give great value with your free offer, then just simply promise people a great newsletter… in other words, your emails.

List building is not about numbers.

People think it is but let me tell you from experience… it’s not.

So forget about it.

Here’s the real deal…

• List building is all about engagement.
• It’s about an engaged following.
• And more specifically, it’s about having a loyal following.

I don’t believe that standing on your head and popping up ads and opt-in offers all over your blog post is the right way to get people to join join your email list.

So let me share with you the things that I do believe work well.

Awesome List Building Techniques For Bloggers

If you’ve written your blog post according to the guidelines that I gave you earlier in this article, then you should have attracted readers who are honestly interested in your topic.

They should be ready to engage with you on some level.

Let’s suppose that you’re discussing a major niche topic or problem and offering solutions.

That is the perfect time to ask people to join your email list to get even more information and solutions via your newsletter.

So if you’ve written a long post about how to knit hats, then that’s the time to say…

Join my email list if you would like to have great tips delivered right to your inbox.

There are several ways to do this within the text of your article.

You can you do this with a simple inline anchor text.

Just link any text in your article, to any page you want people to be redirected to when they click.

They will be redirected to that page.

You can use a “lead box” to funnel people into a 2-step opt-in.

It is even better to make your offer visual, which obviously catches more eyeballs.

With ThriveLeads, you can embed a content box, containing whatever content you want people to see.

When people click on that lead box subscription form pops-up , which always converts much better.

That’s a classic example of the 2-step opt-in.

If people are interested in the offer (like “Get Your Free Blog Setup”)… they will click the lead box.

When they do, they get your light-box opt-in form and can then join your email list.

Now, I created the above lead box and 2-step opt-in form with the ThriveLeads.

ThriveLeads is a premium WordPress plugin designed to capture leads and build your email list.

It is a one-time only cost, with no monthly subscription fees, unlike most similar lead generation plugins and software.

Click the image below to sign up with my affiliate link (If you make a purchase from this link, I may make a commission which in no way effects your cost).

It’s really simple to do, so you can always test new lead magnet offers easily and quickly.

See what works best and run with that one.

Ditch the rest, my friends 🙂

Here’s the thing…

People want solutions (i.e., not just more information, information and more information that they don’t know what to do with, you know?)

Even more, people want to connect with you.

More about the 2-step opt-in

The best way to do that is with a 2-step opt-in.

With the2-step opt-in, you tell people to “click here” if they would like to get your “XYZ.”

They don’t see a subscription form, like a form asking for their name and email etc.

Subscription or opt-in forms that show up right away make your readers run the other way.

They instantly see that you want them to take some action such as putting in their email list and name and so they resist.

Help People Take Action

You know what… people resist taking action.

It’s just hard-wired, I think.

They like passive.

It’s a subconscious comfort zone for them.

Instead of heeding to your “call to action”, they are more likely to just turn a blind eye to your opt-in form.

But with the 2-step opt-in technique, you merely ask them to click if they’re interested in a certain topic.

When they do, then they get to the next step in the process… the opt-in form.

But by then, they’ve already give you permission to get to that stage.

Get it?

I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal when you break it down rationally, but believe me, it is.

All the testing proves that when people have given you permission to proceed, they are far more likely to respond.

So you might say “to learn more about XYZ click here.”

When the reader clicks (that’s their permission to proceed), they then get your opt-in form.

So you see, in stop 1 they said they want XYZ… “please give it to me.”

Then in step 2, they see that they only need to subscribe to get it.

Require Mini-Commitments

People are much more likely to convert into subscribers when they commit one step at a time.

This is what we call mini-commitments.

The first commitment was… “yes I want XYZ.”

They committed to that when they clicked on the link.

They are already mentally prepared to do whatever it takes to get XYZ.

When they see that they need to put in their email address to get XYZ, they’re far more likely to do it than if they just were asked right up front to fill in a subscription form.

Banner Ads

You can also post banners inside of your blog post.

A banner can simply say “join my email list” to get XYZ.

You can even embed opt-in forms directly from your order responder.

Major services like GetResponse, Aweber and others usually have a plugin to help you do that easily.

I’m not crazy about that method because I don’t believe that people like to see opt-in boxes inside a blog post.

Why?

Because, again, they immediately see that you’re asking them to take action on something… resist 🙂

Pop-Up Ads

As for pop-up ads, I do believe that exit pop-ups are one of the better forms to use.

They’re not nearly as intrusive and disruptive as those that pop-up while someone is trying to read your content.

They’re already exiting your blog post.

The exit pop-up just gives them one final reminder before they leave to join your email list.

It reminds them what they have to do (i.e., subscribe to your email list) to get even more great content from you.

Offer Something Related To Your Article

Your blog post appeals to people on a certain topic because they’re interested in that topic.

So if you then ask them to join your email list to get information on another topic, well, it just doesn’t really work too well.

So if I’ve written a blog post all about cats, and in it, I asked you to join my email list to find out how to get some great juicing recipes…

forget about it.

Total disconnect.

My reader wants to know more about cats.

They probably don’t care a hoot about juicing recipes.

So while they’re reading my great blog post about cats, I want to ask them to join my email list to get on my email newsletter all about cats.

Make sense?

That should actually interest them.

The more relevant my “join my list” offer is to the topic that I’m writing about, then the more likely I am to convert my readers into a subscribers.

In the alternative

You could simply ask people to join your email list with no free offer at all.

That will work as long as you’re always writing on the same topic, pretty much.

They’ll simply want more on that topic.

But understand…

People are interested in getting a specific piece of information related specifically to the main topic of the blog post they are reading.

That’s just a much better marketing hook.

So try to find something highly relevant to the blog post you are writing.

This is one of the absolutely greatest ways to build your email list from your blog.

You can even offer a pdf version of the blog post they just read.

This works especially nicely if you’re writing a long form blog post with lots of information that people may want to refer to often.

By offering a pdf (an ebook version), your blog post can become a resource to your readers.

A downloadable pdf means that people don’t have to go searching for your blog post every time they want to access your informative article.

Simply convert your text into a pdf, and tell people “if you would like to get a pdf version of this blog post so that is always at your fingertips, then click here.”

When they do they should get a light-box version of your opt-in form.

Voila 🙂

Summary of Resources

Get ThriveLeads for a truly reasonable fee, unlike most similar lead generation plugins and software.

Click the image below to learn more about it.

Get ThriveLeads with my affiliate link (If you make a purchase from this link, I may make a commission which in no way effects your cost).

Awesome List Building With Your Perfect Blog Post

I hope you’ll apply some of these awesome list building ideas to leverage your next perfect blog post.

Do you have other ways to do some awesome list building on your blog?

I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments below, and yes… I’m always on the lookout for your social shares 🙂

-Donna

• Bio
• Blogging Magic

Donna Merrill

Donna is a well known blogger and creator of "Blogging Magic" - an intensive guide to blogging. "Blogging Magic" is for beginners who are trying to figure out how to bring their blogs to life with tons of visits, comments and social media interaction. It's even for advanced bloggers looking to reach new levels of authority and engagement with their audience.