How to Leverage Your Blog to Make More Sales
What You’re Missing About Long-Form Content
Let me guess, you’ve always thought long-form content was just a part of content marketing that you “had to have” because others have it, right?
You’ve been plugging away at this business thing for years. Maybe you’ve even published blog content regularly. You always thought that blog content was going to be a game-changer, but let me ask you something…
Did things change when you started your content? Did sales increase year over year as a result of your content marketing effort?
If yes, you’re on the right track.
But my guess is you’re still leaving sales in the ether.
How Blogs Should Fit Into Your Sales Funnel
Stop thinking that just focusing on SEO gives your long-form content the strategy it needs.
Just adding SEO isn’t thinking about blogs in 3D. You’re looking at it like a flat line. Blog content isn’t just for gaining traffic or “building authority” by nurturing your audience. I see this all the time: Founders checking the box on their content marketing without going further than using pain points or common questions as blog topics.
Stop checking the content box. Use your blog as a funnel support system instead.
As a content marketing strategist, there’s one thing I see happen all the time that tells me immediately they haven’t thought of their blog from a full funnel perspective:
A copy and paste CTA.
If you’re blatantly sending your readers to the same place (or the same two places) regardless of where they in your funnel, that’s a big bad content red flag.
Think of it this way. If you walked into a room of C-Suite executives ready to pitch yourself, would you shake their hand at the end and give them a business card? No. You’d ask for a sale.
If you went to a networking event and asked everyone you meet to sign a contract on the spot if they showed a twinge of interest, you’d get some very awkward (and very prompt) exits from the conversation.
That’s what you’re doing to your reader when your CTA doesn’t change.
(This is specific to long-form content, btw. With socials, a switch up is good but you can have a couple you bounce between depending on content.)
So how do you use your blog as a part of your funnel build?
Top of funnel gets educational or introductory content. Sell them on an idea.
Middle of funnel gets transformational and objection busting content. Things that will actually shift things for them in a way that feels real and handles objections.
Bottom of funnel gets content that pushes them into a decision.
Now you have content that feels like a funnel on its own, but supports all the pieces of your funnel that you’ve already built.
Fix Your Content, Fix Your Funnel
Once you support your existing funnel(s) with content, you will see more sales. Revenue follows intention.
Instead of readers falling off because your content was disconnected, readers follow the most helpful path to them and become warm leads. All because you used your content to bolster your funnel.
And warm leads become sales.
But remember — it’s a long-term game. You can’t throw up one piece of content and expect massive ROI. The ROI is compounded over time. This is the long game. But it will happen once your focus shifts.
Curious how to actually build out your funnel with content?
Next week I’ll be posting how to build out your funnel with content (including what content belongs where, and content ideas for every stage). Want notified when it’s published?
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