When starting a WordPress blog, your main concern is probably to share your ideas through the content you publish. However, as you learn more about the nature of blogging, you’ll realize that there’s more to just writing content that caters to your target audience.
Once you have generated lots of traffic and developed a readership with your blog, you can leverage these by making money from your readers who are in need of your professional services. Given that you are receiving lots of comments from your posts, you can turn commenters into something more valuable to your blog.
Using the information provided by blog commenters (normally their name and email), you can run a smart and measurable campaigns that enable you to build a relationship with them, which you can use to turn them into customers later on. Below are ideas on how you can do this.
Thank them for commenting
There’s nothing more gratifying than hearing from someone give thanks to you via email.
This simple message can bridge the gap that exists between you and the commenter, depending on how the message is crafted and what other things you include in the email. You can introduce them to your site by featuring links to the best posts or or existing landing pages published on the blog so they can engage further with your blog. Feel free to experiment and track which version of your Thank You email works the best.
To execute this, use the Thank Me Later plugin to automate the process of sending out the email to new commenters on your blog.
Funnel them down to your email lists
Since they did not commit to anything when commenting on your post, you can take the emails they used on their comment and send them an opt-in email to join your mailing list.
The email should explain how you got their email address first to clarify that the message is not spam. From here, convince them to sign up to your existing mailing list so they can receive updates about your blog straight to their email. You can also encourage them to sign up for your e-courses and other autoresponders to offer them choices to the types of newsletters they want to receive from you.
The email campaign can be launched using an email marketing platform that will also allow you to track down the performance of the email after being sent to the recipients.
Put a spotlight on users with insightful comments
Give commenters the rub they deserve by featuring their comments on the sidebar of your site. For those using the default comment system of WordPress, add the comments widget on the sidebar to show the latest comments made on all your posts.
To reward the effort of those who put in the time to compose a well thought-out comment, you can use theRating-Widget plugin so other visitors can rate not only the pages and posts on your blog, but also the comments.
Using the rating plugin again, write a blog post that feature the users whose comments have received the highest rating. Send an email to the users mentioned and ask them to drop by and share their thoughts about the post.
Run a contest rewarding the user with the best rated comment
Still using the Rating-Widget plugin, create a blog post that asks your visitors a question related to your niche. To encourage genuine comments, provide something in return (exclusive content, discount to your services, etc.) to the person who will receive the best rated comment. Promote the post on social media to drive more interest to your contest.
Running this contest will enable you to see people within your industry that you should make a deeper connection with and value as blog visitors.
Question: Do you know other ways on how to build relationships with the commenters from your WordPress blog?