Even the most well-written blog post needs a little help getting over the finish line, and more importantly, in front of the right audience. Fortunately, HubSpot makes it easy for you to format, optimize, and eventually publish your blog post.

If you’re an advanced HubSpot user, you likely feel like you could publish a blog post in your sleep, and that’s what’s so awesome about how easy it is to use HubSpot blogging. However, there are four blogging hacks in HubSpot you may not already know, which could make your life even easier.

HubSpot Blogging Hack #1: The Power of CTAs

One of the great benefits of hosting your blog in HubSpot is the ability to add your calls to action (CTAs) directly to your blog post, which allows you to track which blogs have the highest number of clicks to other pages on your website, which blogs may need a new CTA, and perhaps inspire new content offers.

For example, if you have a blog post that’s getting a lot of traffic and the time spent on the page is significant, but the click-rate on the CTA is low, it might be time to offer a new piece of content around that blog topic. It shows your audience is engaged with what your blog post has to say, but isn’t sure where to go next on your site.

You should include both an inline and image CTA in your blog post. The inline CTA should appear somewhere near the top of your post, while the image CTA should appear as the final CTA—but be sure to test different options and find out what works best for your audience. The most important thing to remember is to make sure the CTA is related to the content of the blog post.

Lastly, make sure to utilize HubSpot’s multivariate CTAs when it makes sense. These CTAs have the ability to change based on the type of user who is viewing it and the unique interests we may already know about them. Ultimately, this helps to improve conversion through context.

HubSpot Blogging Hack #2: Images Can Make All the Difference

When you’re working on a new blog post, the image should be part of the overall process, because a compelling image could be the sole reason someone clicks on your post to begin with—or worse, doesn’t click! When you’re going through the review process with your creative team, make sure the image makes sense and encourages the viewer to click.

With HubSpot, you can optimize your images for SEO best practices, too. Be sure to include alt-text to your image that both describes the image and uses a keyword. Not only is this helpful for search engines, but it also improves your page’s accessibility. Additionally, you’ll want to compress your images by using a site like Tiny PNG, which will also help improve your search rankings..

Plus, if you are aiming to be seen in organic search as a Google featured snippet, you’ll want to make sure the image is optimized and makes sense for your post.

Utilizing internal and external links in your posts helps your blog appear as a credible and authoritative source. With HubSpot, you can ensure internal links open within the same page and external links open in a new tab. This helps viewers stay on your website and not get lost in a bunch of different tabs.

Additionally, by using internal links in HubSpot, you can link to your website pages or pillar pages and easily see what pages are getting traffic from your blog post.

HubSpot Blogging Hack #4: Utilize HubSpot Reporting to Improve Your Content

Hosting your blog in HubSpot allows you to easily track performance. We recommend tracking performance monthly and reviewing which new and old blog posts are driving sessions to your site, increasing new contacts, or leading to additional page views on your site. At the very least, this is something you should be doing quarterly.

Over time, you should start to see a trend. This allows you to learn what topics you need more information about and what topics you shouldn’t be spending too much time focusing on. Analyzing your blog performance allows you to better implement a content marketing strategy that fits your audience’s interests.

It’s important to remember that every industry or persona may vary in regards to how they prefer to view content or what encourages them to stay on your website and learn more. It’s best to find what works best for your audience, and there are plenty of ways to use HubSpot blogging to meet your audience’s needs.