We all know we live in a world where visuals reign king, but do you know exactly how important your business’s visuals are? According to Kathie of Bluchic, there are ten graphics you need to increase your traffic.

Social media graphics are often added in as an afterthought, but business owners should not be thinking that way. Your visuals can be the first touch a potential customer sees of your brand and if it doesn’t resonate with them they will quickly move on.

You can create a killer impression with the graphics you use on your social platforms, but you have to make sure you’re including all of the graphics for each of your blog posts to get maximum exposure.

In this post, we share the 10 graphics you need to be using for every blog to increase traffic, generate more leads, and make more sales for your business. Sound like a good idea to you? Great, let’s get started!

The 10 Graphics You Need For Every Blog Post To Increase Your Traffic

Pinterest

Let’s start with the most visual platform of them all: Pinterest.

There are two primary graphics you’ll need for Pinterest…

Graphic to promote your blog post, like this one:

Graphic to promote your blog post that features a content upgrade, like this one:

You can also include “hidden” Pinterest graphics within your post that only show up for people if they click the “pin it” button while reading your post.

You can hide a graphic by inputting the following code in the HTML of your blog post:

<div style=”display: none;”><img src=”YOUR LINK HERE” /></div>

What makes a great Pinterest graphic?

• Ideal sizing: 800 x 1200 is the recommended size for Pinterest pins. Vertical pins attract more clicks and traffic than horizontal pins.
• Easy to read text: People are scrolling through Pinterest at lightening speed, so you want to stand out and use easy to read text so your ideal audience will stop and click through your pins.
• Congruent with your brand: Utilize your brand colors and logo within your Pinterest graphic. This will help people scrolling to recognize your brand immediately.

P.S. Give us a follow on Pinterest!

Instagram

Now let’s focus on Instagram.

Instagram has been getting a lot of flack lately (we’ve even scaled back on how often we post because it became all too much) but it’s still an important visual platform that can be a game changer for a lot of businesses.

There are several options for Instagram graphics:

Instagram square:

Instagram post with content upgrade:

Instagram story:

Instagram story with content upgrade:

What makes a great Instagram graphic?

• Ideal sizing: 1080 x 1080 is what you’ll want to use for photos used in your feed. Stories you will want to use 750 x 1334.
• Call to action: Give your followers a reason to take action and click through to read your blog post.
• Congruent with your brand: Another place you should be using your branding colors, logo, etc. If you’re consistent across all social networks, people will start to take notice!

P.S. Give us a follow on Instagram!

Related post: How We Use Instagram As A Business (And How You Can Too!)

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Your visuals can be the first touch a potential customer sees of your brand and if it doesn’t resonate with them they will quickly move on.” quote=”Your visuals can be the first touch a potential customer sees of your brand and if it doesn’t resonate with them they will quickly move on.”]

Facebook

While some business owners have given up on Facebook, the fact of the matter is Facebook is by far the most popular social platform out there. People spend a lot of time on Facebook, so if you want to reach a wide demographic, Facebook is the place to be.

But again, your visuals have to be on point to get noticed. Being one of the biggest platforms means you’re also competing with a lot of other people in the news feed.

Here are the graphics you’ll need for Facebook:

Facebook regular post:

Facebook content upgrade post:

What makes a great Facebook graphic?

• Ideal sizing: There are multiple sizes you can use for your Facebook page. We recommend 1200 x 900 or 1200 x 628.
• Highlight what makes you different: You’re competing with a lot of other brands and people on the Facebook news feed. How can you use your graphics to stand out?
• A picture is worth 1,000 words: Often you can share a lot about your blog post without having to say a lot in the caption. Tell more of your story in the graphic than in the caption.

P.S. Give us a follow on Facebook!

Twitter

You only have 140 characters to share your blog post on Twitter, so graphics are a great way to tell more of the story without dipping into the character limit. You know the saying a picture is worth a thousand words? It’s totally true, especially with Twitter!

Did you know that tweets with an image averages a 35% boost in retweets?

Here’s what you’ll need for Twitter graphics:

Graphic to promote blog post:

Graphic to promote blog post with content upgrade:

What makes a great Twitter graphic?

• Ideal sizing: 800 x 320 or 506 x 253
• Congruent with your brand: Again, incorporate your branding into your images.
• Eye catching images: Make your blog title stand out by using bold text.

P.S. Give us a follow on Twitter!

Struggle with creating graphics? We got you covered!

If you struggle with creating graphics for your brand but aren’t able to afford to outsource your graphic design, we’ve got just the product for you, our new Canva Social Media Templates!

This package includes professionally designed Canva Social Media Templates for 15 of the most popular types of graphics you need:

• Facebook Cover
• Twitter Header
• Instagram Webinar
• Instagram Quote
• Instagram Post
• Instagram Post w/ Content Upgrade
• Pinterest Post
• Pinterest Post w/ Content Upgrade
• Instagram Stories Post
• Instagram Stories Post w/ Content Upgrade
• Instagram Stories Webinar
• Instagram Stories Quote
• Facebook & Twitter Post
• Facebook & Twitter Post w/ Content Upgrade
• Content Upgrade Button

Each template includes 3 variations to give your social media a distinct, but consistent look.

We’re offering a discounted launch price of $39 for all of these templates until May 31. After that date, it will increase to $49.

Head on over to our shop to read more about our templates and to purchase!

I’m Kathie of Bluchic, and together with my husband I create stunning, feminine WordPress themes for female entrepreneurs and bloggers since 2012 when we noticed a gap in the market for WordPress themes that looked as good as they functioned.

Follow on Twitter l Instagram l Facebook l Pinterest

A guest post by Natalie Greagor of Strategist Cafe

The value of a blog is very important as it impacts the lives of others. As a new or seasoned blogger, it is important to consistently keep an updated blog and an engaged audience. Some days are harder than others when it's time to create new content. That's why it's important to have an effective content and blog strategy.

Over the past year, I’ve been able to blog a minimum of 100 blog posts due to this simple strategy: re-purposing my blog content.

Repurposing blog content means taking your most engaged posts and turning them into new pieces of useful content for your audience, plus new products and services that your audience wants and needs. Repurposing your blog content is the ultimate hack to creating more time and money for your business. There are 5 easy ways to transition your blog posts into viable resources that your audience can use today:

Turn them into paid products

Popular blog views help you understand what your audience likes to read and consume. The blog posts that get the highest page views should be repurposed into a product that will help you earn on autopilot.

You can either combine all of your popular blog posts into an e-book or an online course to help your audience apply your information more strategically. Or, you can convert each individual blog post into a practical priced product such as a workbook or guide.

Actionable step: Combine your top 5 to 10 blog posts. Elaborate on each topic, if there is more than one, to create a viable paid product to offer your audience. Or, create 3 to 5 paid products that you can create using the content from each post.

Turn them into opt-in incentives

Another way that you can repurpose your popular blog posts is to create an email opt-in incentive for each post. You can create a simple checklist or a small 10-page guide or workbook to give away for free in exchange for an email to build your email list. Simple opt-ins like these will attract leads so you can eventually turn them into paying customers.

Actionable step: If you have popular blog posts that gain a lot of comments, review all of your comments to find out what people had to say about your blog content for that particular blog post. Create a checklist or several checklists to complement your blog post for your audience to download in exchange for their email to build your email list.

Pro tip: You can promote the checklist(s) that you creates individually on social media by announcing their availability and collecting emails from your comments or inbox to also build your email list.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Repurposing blog content means taking your most engaged posts and turning them into new pieces of useful content for your audience, plus new products and services that your audience wants and needs.” quote=”Repurposing blog content means taking your most engaged posts and turning them into new pieces of useful content for your audience, plus new products and services that your audience wants and needs.”]

Turn them into fun quizzes

Use your most popular blog posts and turn it into a fun quiz with a tool like Qzzr. Ask your audience fun things related to your most popular blog posts and insert a quiz to collect leads. Or, create a quiz to send to your email to collect data from subscribers to understand more about their needs.

For example, one of my most popular blog posts is about earning passive income using Canva. I could repurpose the content in this blog post and create a quiz that asks my audience questions to determine which products are the best fit for them to create or earn from according to their lifestyle and business structure. Of course the title wouldn’t be that long, but the purpose of my quiz will be clear. As an added bonus, creating quizzes will help with research for your business.

Please note: This is an triple re-purpose strategy! It allows you to turn one blog post into a quiz and use that quiz to collect information, plus build your email list!

Actionable step: Use Qzzr to create a quiz for your audience to help you maintain high engagement while learning more about them at the same time.

FREE DOWNLOAD: 10 MORE WAYS TO RE-PURPOSE YOUR BLOG POSTS

Turn them into live stories

Video marketing works well for high engagement and conversion rates for online businesses. You can create 3 tips to help your audience accomplish or complete a task based off of your blog posts. You can also create Instagram story templates to describe the same 3 tips if you aren't a camera person. Remember, people who know nothing about you or your brand will find you online, so sharing tips from your blog posts will help you convert new audience members into new blog subscribers, new fans of your brand, and more!

Actionable step: Take 3 tips from one of your most popular blogs and present them to your social media audience on Instagram or Facebook to build the like-know-trust factor.

Turn them into new blog posts

Turn your most popular blog posts into a new blog posts by scanning your blogs and choosing profound statements and key concepts to create new topics that teach, inform, entertain, or entice your audience.

Actionable step: Revisit your top 5 popular blog posts and choose key points from each post. Create a blog list archive so that you have ideas of new blog post topics to write in the future. It's the perfect way to repurpose old blog content and create new content to serve your audience.

Never let old blog content go to waste. You can even repurpose old blog posts that don't get any traction. Simply re-purpose and/or revamp your old blog posts by following these steps. There are a ton of re-purpose strategies for your blogs. It truly is the best strategy for consistency online. Before you go, here’s 10 more ways you can re-purpose your blog content to not only get the most out of your blog content, but to get your brand in front of new audiences.

FREE DOWNLOAD: 10 MORE WAYS TO RE-PURPOSE YOUR BLOG POSTS

Do you repurpose your blog posts? If so, how have you repurposed your blogs in the past?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Natalie Greagor, creator at strategistcafe.com,  is a personal brand and online business strategist who teaches creative entrepreneurs how to build influence in their niche, grow their brand online, and get paid on autopilot.

Follow Natalie: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest

You worked hard to make your blog beautiful and put together a blog post PACKED with value… so why aren't more people reading it? The blog world is so saturated that sometimes even getting your blog in front of the right people (or any people) can be a challenge – but once, you do, there are still a number of reasons that prevent people from actually reading your blog posts or scrolling all the way down to see that content upgrade you spent so much time putting together. So here are 5 reasons I didn't read your blog post and (+ how you can fix them), because if you're taking the time to create valuable content, you want people to actually read it, right?!

5 Reasons I Didn't Read Your Blog Post

Your Blog Post Title Didn't Sound Interesting

If your headline doesn't immediately catch my attention, I have no reason to click through to read your blog post. According to Copyblogger, on average 8 out of 10 people will read your headline, but only 2 out of 10 will go on to read your blog post.  When you craft your blog post titles, are you keeping your target audience in mind? Your blog post titles should tell them what they are going to get out of reading your post. Are they going to learn something? Be inspired?

Solution: You have the opportunity to be better than average by taking the time to craft blog post titles that are 1) Urgent 2) Unique 3) Useful and 4) Ultra-Specific. For example, the title for this blog post, “5 Reasons I Didn't Read Your Blog Post (And How To Fix Them Right Now)!” can be broken down into: 5 reasons [number is ultra-specific] that I didn't read your blog post [post is uniquely targeted to bloggers] And How To Fix Them [how this post is useful] Right Now [creates sense of urgency]. #practicewhatyoupreach

Your Pop-Up Got In The Way

If I click through to your blog post and something pops up right away, it better be an offer for something really irresistible. Many people are anti-pop-up all together, but I don't mind them when used appropriately. Give people some time to actually READ your content before you assault them with a pop-up asking them to subscribe. And please don't just ask them to subscribe to your newsletter – no one needs another newsletter in their inbox – make sure you're clear on what they're really getting out of that newsletter (tips? promotions? pictures of cute puppies?) or even better, use your pop-up to offer a freebie (checklist, ebook, email course, etc.) that's actually super helpful.

It's also important to take a look at what your popup looks like on mobile devices – often pop ups can seem unobtrusive on large screens but completely take over on mobile!

Solution: Plugins like SumoMe and Ninja Popups allow custom settings so you can activate popups only when a user has scrolled 3/4 down the page or when they are navigating to leave your site (exit intent popups). SumoMe also allows you to create forms that slide up from the corner that are much “friendlier” popups since they don't get in the way of people reading your content!

Your Posts Contain Long Paragraphs of Plain Text

Save the novels for Kindle. The best blog posts are easily digestible, and that means breaking up large chunks of text into smaller bites. If your posts are just large paragraphs of text, it's hard to quickly determine what's important. And there's SO much content out there, that if it's not easy for me to consume yours, I'm going to move on. #sorrynotsorry Research has shown that the average reader is only reading about 20% of your post anyway – so make sure that you're calling attention to the 20% that you really want them to see.

Solution: Break up longer paragraphs into shorter blocks of text. Utilize formatting options like headings, bold text, italics, quotes, etc. They're there for a reason!

[click_to_tweet tweet=”If you're not consistently sharing your content, it's kind of hard for people to find it when there's SO MUCH STUFF on the Internet.” quote=”If you're not consistently sharing your content, it's kind of hard for people to find it when there's SO MUCH STUFF on the Internet.”]

You Aren't Using Eye-Catching Graphics

Speaking of breaking things up – using eye-catching graphics is a great way to do this. It's 2016 y'all, there's no excuse for bad visuals – but I still see them all the time. According to LifeLearn, when people hear information, they're likely to remember only 10% of it 3 days later. But when a relevant image is paired with the same information, people retained 65% of the information 3 days later. Do you want people to remember you? Then always include visuals.

Solution: At a minimum you should include a branded post graphic that includes the title of the post + bonus points if it's a longer/taller “pinable” image. If your post calls for more visuals – make sure you're using them. For example, if you're sharing a tutorial, include step by step images (or a video). If you're sharing a lot of information, think about how you can translate it into an infographic. You don't have to be a Photoshop / Illustrator expert to create great visuals (though they can definitely come in handy) – free programs like Canva make it really easy for anyone to create eye-catching graphics!

If you struggle with taking photos for your blog, there are always stock photos – you can easily find them on Etsy or Creative Market, or join the Styled Stock Society for stock photos that are just $25/month (or less)!

I Didn't Know Your Blog Post Exists

Finally, it's obviously hard to read your blog post if I don't know it exists. If you're not consistently sharing your content, it's kind of hard for people to find it when there's SO MUCH STUFF on the Internet. Sure it's nice to have Bloglovin or Feedly subscribers, but do you know how many times I've clicked “mark all as read” this year? (I have no idea to be honest, but its more definitely more than 5) I've worked with some clients who've said they want more traffic from Instagram – yet they never tell their Instagram followers about their new blog posts. I've blown people's minds when I tell them that I pin and repin and repin and repin and repin and repin and repin and repin and repin and repin the same blog posts and continue to get new traffic to them over and over again. Remember, build it and they will come is not a thing. If you want people to find your blog posts, you need to share them. And keep sharing them.

Solution: Every time I publish a new blog post, it automatically gets shared to any blog subscribers on Bloglovin, feedly, or by email. It's automatically shared via Twitter + then added to my SmarterQueue library to be shared over and over again on Twitter and Facebook. It's pinned to my blog post Pinterest board, to any relevant topic boards, and to 10+ group boards. It's shared in relevant Facebook groups + on Instagram a couple of times. It's mentioned in my email newsletter + mentioned again anytime I'm talking about something relevant. And if you click any of those pink buttons on the left of your screen (or the bottom if you're on mobile), you can share this post with your audience too! The point = share, and keep sharing. 

WHAT MAKES YOU WANT TO READ A BLOG POST?