If you’ve been blogging for a while, you know that awesome content can lead to better SEO rankings, a bigger audience and money in your pockets.
But, at the same time, producing all of that great content takes a lot of effort, so you want to get every bit of value out of your posts.
Fortunately, there’s a simple way to do just that: Live Chat.
Live Chat for Blogging?
Now, at first glance, you might be thinking, I’m a blogger, Jake, not a business…why would I want to put one of those little chat boxes on my blog?
Well, I’ve got news for you, a blog is a business—at least if the goal of your blog is to make money.
Sure, many blogs aren’t your typical brick-and-mortar establishments, but they operate on the same principles as a regular business. You have something of value to offer (exclusive content, affiliate offers, etc) and you want people to pay for it.
In other words, you need customers.
However, if you want customers, you need to connect with people. Most bloggers don’t make money off of people who simply come to their site, read their content and leave.
You need people to engage with you, create a bond of trust and become a customer.
That’s where live chat comes into play. If you use it right, live chat is a quick, easily automatable way to connect with your audience and turn pass-through traffic into paying customers.
Content is a Great Ice Breaker
Have you ever noticed how people like to talk about things that interest them?
Well, guess what? People click on your content because they are interested in something.
And, if they were interested enough to click, there’s a good chance that they might be interested enough to talk to someone about it.
People also feel a lot more comfortable doing business with someone they know. It’s why we still have salespeople in today’s online world—people trust people more than they trust computers.
So, a good chunk of your audience is on your site because they are interested in a topic you know a lot about and want to learn more about it from you. You want your audience to pay you, but your audience wants to pay someone they have a relationship with.
Do you see the opportunity here?
For example, I run a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising business. To get people to my site, I blog on a regular basis about how to improve PPC performance.
So, if someone who is interested in PPC advertising is scrolling through their Twitter feed and sees this tweet, they might click on it:
PPC for Real Estate: A Three Step Guide https://t.co/7fA8p6Nvz3 via @DisruptiveAds
— Disruptive (@DisruptiveAds) July 4, 2016
If they’re looking for cat videos, they probably won’t click on the link in this tweet…but, if they’re currently working in the real estate industry and have been researching different ways to do online advertising…they just might click to find out more.
And, if they click, I know that I’ve got someone who is interested in what I have to offer on my site. Now I just have to get them to talk to me.
Using Live Chat
Simply striking up a chat conversation with people on your blog (who are already interested in what you have to say) can be enough to make them feel comfortable buying what you have to offer.
Now, if you’ve got a decent-sized audience, you can’t afford to stalk every site visitor and send them messages about the content they’re looking at—you have a blog to run, after all.
However, with a little extra thought and effort, you can automate this process by setting up some targeted chat rules. If you’re using a live chat platform like Olark, this is really easy.
For example, remember that “PPC for Real Estate” tweet I just showed you? Well, here’s how I set up a targeted chat message for people who clicked on the tweet and visited my post:
So, anyone who visits my “PPC for Real Estate” post will get a question from “me” about how they are planning to grow their PPC campaigns this year.
And, just like that, I’ve connected the reason why they are reading my content with an easy conversation starter.
Now, you might worry that if you set up these sorts of chat prompts on your blog that you’ll get dozens or hundreds of responses.
Don’t worry, as slick as this technique is, most people on your site will ignore the chat prompt. In fact, for every 1,000 people that visit your site, you’ll probably get about 2-5 chats.
However, if they do respond, you have a very good chance of winning their business.
For example, here is a chat transcript from a client that I recently sold using the previously mentioned chat prompt:
Even if your chats don’t immediately turn into sales, putting a Live Chat box on your blog can help you build great relationships with your audience that will keep them coming back for more.
And, as you get to know your audience better, you’ll produce better content, which will lead to more traffic to your site, chats and cash in your bank account.
Some Quick Advice
Now, if you’ve got a lot of posts on your blog, adding content prompts for every article might seem a little unrealistic.
In this situation, there are 3 ways you can implement live chat:
- Buckle down and build prompts for all of your articles. This approach will deliver the very best results, but expect to spend some serious time putting everything in place.
- Focus on your top posts. This method is a lot easier. Simply check out your analytics, target your top traffic pages and focus your chat prompts on your best content.
- Create category-based prompts. Odds are that your articles fall into a few broad categories. If this is the case, you can create prompts that are specific to your categories, but still general enough that they apply to all the posts in that category.
The more content you have, the more I recommend a combination of #2 and #3.
Conclusion
Live chat isn’t just a good idea for businesses with a customer service department.
If you’re blogging in the hopes of making money, your site visitors are your customers—be there for them!
Remember, one of the best ways to build a customer base is by building relationships with your audience. The more they connect with you, the more value you’ll get from your blog.
And what better way to connect with your audience than by chatting with them?
You’ve heard my two cents, now it’s your turn.
How do you feel about this approach? What do you do to get more value out of your content?
You might also want to read “Does Your Blog Need a Disclaimer?“
This post was written by Jacob, a passionate entrepreneur on a mission to help businesses achieve online marketing success. As the Founder & CEO of Disruptive Advertising, Jacob has created an award-winning, world-class organization that has helped over 2,000 businesses grow using pay-per-click advertising and website optimization.
