My #1 rule in content marketing is that blog posts aren’t for selling.
So imagine my surprise when I wrote a blog post and realized it was over-the-top salesy.
What happened? I didn’t intend to write a sales page. But that’s what I ended up with. Did I accidentally slip into copywriter mode?
Unlikely as that may seem (to me at least), that’s what the evidence suggested.
You may find yourself in a similar position. All you want to do is tell your readers about the new project you have in the works, and you end up selling instead of telling.
Here’s what you need to do…
Understand the difference between landing pages and content pages
This seems so fundamental, you may be saying, “Yeah, yeah, I already know that.” But even a pro can accidentally cross the line, so it bears repeating.
There’s a fine line separating sales copy from blog content—even content that sells. And here it is:
Sales pages tell you what to do now.
Blog posts tell you what you should do, and why or how to do it.
See how slight the difference is?
Both may address a problem or offer a solution. Both need to be informational. So the difference comes down to your tone.
When I wrote my blog post turned sales page, I wanted to encourage my readers to take action quickly. That’s where I went wrong.
Any time you tell people to act now, you slide into the imperative (in layman’s terms, you get bossy), which is what you do in a sales page…
“Do this. Do it now.”
In a blog post, you tend to talk about a problem. You can tell people how to solve it, give them information about it, and even ask them to take action. But your point isn’t to drive action. It’s mostly to inform.
So in a blog post, you’re focusing on what people ought to do, not what you want them to do right now.
How to save a salesy blog post
I hate to break it to you, but if you accidentally wrote a sales page instead of a blog post, you need to rewrite your post.
You can’t tweak it. Trust me. I tried. 😉
Copy and paste your salesy blog post into your favorite word processor or notepad. Save it to use as the foundation of your landing page. You may only need to tweak it to make it work.
Then back up. Create some distance between you and the action you’re encouraging your audience to take.
- Talk about why you chose to build the product.
- Give its back story.
- Or talk about the conditions in the industry and what the solution ought to look like.
Since blog posts need a call to action, you can make a soft pitch at the end. Avoid hard selling. Instead, link to your sales page and do your selling there.
How do you know you’ve crossed the line?
To be honest, if you’re excited about your message, you may not realize you’re crossing the line.
If there’s any doubt at all, ask someone to read your post when you’re done. If they say it feels like a landing page, take their word for it. You need to do a rewrite.
For me, the biggest difference was my intent. When I started my first blog post, my intent was to tell people about my new project. That seemed innocent enough, but underneath, I wanted to tell people to join so they wouldn’t miss out.
That was where I went wrong. A “join now” intent (even if it’s secondary) will result in a landing page.
When I started the rewrite, my intent was to talk about how I came up with my new idea and to talk about my observations in the industry. I was focused on telling stories, which kept me away from accidentally slipping into sales copy.
My advice
- Check your intent before you write.
- If it’s salesy at all, try to create some distance between you and the action you’d like to drive. Find a story you can tell instead.
- Get someone to review your work, so you can be sure you didn’t cross the line.
What about you? Have you ever written a sales page blog post? What did you do to fix it?
