Blog Strategy for Business Associations

A LOOK @ BUSINESS ASSOCIATION BLOGS

Understanding How They Can be Effective & Drive Business Goals

Leveraging Business Association Blogs| BABA| 1/9/2014

Blue Ash

New Year

2014

1

Crafting Something Tasty From Many

Voices

Presented to Blue Ash Business Association (Cincinnati Area) - Jan. 9, 2014

Leveraging Business Association Blogs | BABA| 1/9/2014 2

ITEMS TO DISCUSS www.KirstenMeyer.com

The presentation will be followed by a brief Q&A

02

03

04

05

Similar Blogs: Inventory of Resources, Purpose & Opportunities

Writing a Blog Post: Technical Considerations

Being Seen: Visibility & Promotion

Hidden Dangers: Do’s and Don’ts

Why Blog? The Role of Content 01


ABOUT KM STRATEGIC www.KirstenMeyer.com

QUALITY CONTENT

EMAIL

BLOGS

DOWNLOADABLE OFFERS

ONSITE TEXT

SOCIAL MEDIA

WHITEPAPERS

GETS RESULTS

BRAND AWARENESS

CUSTOMER LOYALTY

HIGH QUALITY LEADS

WEBSITE TRAFFIC

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

LEAD NURTURING


BENEFITS OF BLOGGING www.KirstenMeyer.com

1. SERVE INFO ON-DEMAND

2. HELP BRAND VISIBILITY

3. THOUGHT LEADERSHIP, EXPERTISE & TRUST

4. SEO BENEFIT

Visitors

Leads

MQL

SQL

5. FEEDS THE SALES FUNNEL

6. LOWER COST PER LEAD FOR INBOUND VS. OUTBOUND MARKETING

($346 VS. $135) (HUBSPOT) GOAL


BENEFITS OF BLOGGING www.KirstenMeyer.com

THE GREATER YOUR REPERTOIRE OF ONLINE CONTENT, THE GREATER YOUR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT.

HOW DOES BLOGGING DO ALL THAT?

• EACH POST IS A NEW PAGE OF CONTENT.

• EACH PAGE OF

CONTENT IS A NEW OPPORTUNITY TO BE FOUND.

Good Content

Being Found

Being Clicked

More Perceived

Value

More Time on

Page

Builds Trust

Views Other Pages

Return Visits

Social Shares


DELIVERING GOOD CONTENT www.KirstenMeyer.com

Quality content increases the likelihood of occurrence at each step towards ranking in organic search results


DEFINING GOALS www.KirstenMeyer.com

In order to deliver quality content, you must define your target.


DEFINING QUALITY CONTENT www.KirstenMeyer.com

Quality content is:

-Created with your target audience in mind.

-Interesting enough to make someone want to read it.

-Well written and formatted enough to be read.

-Findable.

-Likeable.

-Useful.

-Relevant.

-Shareable.

What is the Purpose of Your Biz. Association Blog?

For Example: 1)To drive membership

2)To boost membership participation

3)To gain exposure to members and member businesses

4)To increase organic search ranking for the Biz. Association

If you don’t identify goals, you will struggle to get buy-in or consistency.

Leveraging Business Association Blogs | BABA| 1/9/2014



Why a Business Association Blog?

• A unique opportunity to extract benefit from an online “marketing co-op,” where everyone contributes, and everyone reaps a share of the rewards.

• To generate online exposure, leads, and business opportunities (for members, member businesses, and the organization).

• For smaller biz without resources to maintain their own business blog, a biz association blog can potentially tap into greater online exposure with less investment.



Why NOT a Business Association Blog?

• If there is not sufficient interest/ bandwidth/ resources to maintain.

• If there is no overall driving goal.

• If people are going to do it halfway and put forth a poor image.

• If the only real audience is each other.

• In such cases, email or social media (such as a LinkedIn group) may be a preferable platform (less time required and allows more casual sharing).


EXAMINING SIMILAR BLOGS www.KirstenMeyer.com

WHAT DO OTHER BUSINESS ASSOCIATION BLOGS LOOK LIKE? LOOKING AT BLOGS OF TOP-RANKING BIZ. ASSOCIATIONS



Garbage vs. Art? How is the array of different voices presented?



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS: 1. WRITTEN FOR OTHER MEMBERS.

2. MISSED OPPORTUNITIES.

3. NO BLOG CONTINUITY.

4. UNCLEAR BLOG TITLES.

5. POSTS TOO BRIEF.

6. GRAPHICS = GOOD FREE MARKETING.

7. POSTING 1X/MO. DISCOURAGES VISITORS.

8. FAILURE TO SPOTLIGHT BIZ & PERSONALITY

9. QUESTIONABLE VALUE



EXAMPLE 1 (BLOG-LEVEL): POST TITLES

• THE ART OF HEALTHY LIVING

• VOLUNTEERISM ALIVE & WELL IN

WESTERN CONNECTICUT

• SECRETS FOR HEALTHY LIVING

• OMG WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE

• HOW DO REPAIR SHOPS COME UP WITH AN ESTIMATE?



EXAMPLE 2 (BLOG-LEVEL): POST TITLES

• 101 REASONS TO LOVE BALTIMORE RIGHT NOW

• HELP FEED LOCAL FAMILIES IN NEED

• BEST OF BALTIMORE- BALTIMORE CITY PAPER BENEFIT FOR THE ROOSEVELT RECREATION CENTER

• SCHOOL OF ROCK BALTIMORE’S “ULTIMATE SUMMER” SHOW


EXAMINING BLOG POSTS www.KirstenMeyer.com

EXAMPLE:

This is a blog

post that wants to

be a social media

post!

| Idea is the key ...| My presentation Title will goes here| 15/08/2012 17


EXAMPLE:



EXAMPLE:

The point of this post

is hidden in the third

paragraph; you’d never

know!



EXAMPLE:

Kenton: Please

let us know

when you figure

out what else is

great about your

town. You left

us hanging!


BLOG LEVEL STRATEGY www.KirstenMeyer.com

TO DO:

BLOG “GAME PLAN” DEDICATE EDITOR & LEAD PROMOTION CREATE A SCHEDULE



TO DO:

• LOOK AT OTHER BLOGS- WHAT DO YOU LIKE?

• WHO DO YOU WANT TO ATTRACT?

• WHAT ACTION DO YOU WANT THEM TO TAKE?

• WHAT CONTENT WILL THEY BE LOOKING FOR?

• HOW CAN YOU CREATE A COHESIVE PICTURE FROM YOUR ARRAY OF VOICES?

• WILL ONE PERSON POST, EDIT, FORMAT?

• HOW OFTEN WILL BLOGS BE POSTED?

• HOW WILL THEY BE DISSEMINATED?



SAMPLE BLOG “GAME PLAN” FOR JANUARY: • “BILL” WILL BE EDITOR • “KARY” WILL LEAD PROMOTION

JAN TOPICS (2X/WEEK): 1. RENTING BUSINESS SPACE IN CINCINNATI: 5 TIPS 2. CINCY SMALL BIZ CORNER: HR FAQS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES 3. BEST BUSINESS SIGNAGE IN BLUE ASH (PHOTO COLLAGE) 4. BUSINESS EVENT PLANNING RESOURCES IN CINCINNATI 5. 5 MINUTES WITH AN URBAN FARMER IN CINCINNATI (VIDEO) 6. CINCY SMALL BIZ CORNER: BANKING TIPS FOR STARTUPS 7. BLUE ASH BUSINESSES TOP CINCINNATI'S “BEST OF” 2013 LIST 8. CINCY SMALL BIZ CORNER: MARKETING TIPS FOR LAWYERS 9. STARTING A BUSINESS IN OHIO? DON’T OVERLOOK THESE 6 TIPS

FOR EACH POST, ATTACH A DATE, A WRITER, AN INTERVIEWEE(S) IF APPLICABLE, & A TARGET AUDIENCE


SECTION 3: TECHNICAL www.KirstenMeyer.com

TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS

WRITING A BLOG POST:


BLOG TITLE CONSTRUCTION www.KirstenMeyer.com

A GOOD TITLE:

• IS COMPELLING

• USES A KEYWORD

• HAS A SINGLE TOPIC

• CLEARLY EXPRESSES THE TOPIC

• 8 WORDS / 70 CHARACTERS


BLOG FORMAT www.KirstenMeyer.com

FORMAT FOR CONSUMPTION

• Bullets

• Length 400-1000 words

• Images

• Headline

• Font types

• Whitespace

• Subheaders

• Numbers

• Signature blurb



NOT AN ESSAY

FOR SCHOOL

A+ paper, wrong

format for blog


www.KirstenMeyer.com

Essentially

same content;

re-formated

for a blog

post



Note page

components:

• shareability

• digestability

• scanability

•whitespace

• offers

• graphics

• subheaders

• links

• citations




SECTION 4: BEING SEEN www.KirstenMeyer.com

VISIBILITY & PROMOTION

1. KEYWORDS & META DATA 2. LINKS 3. SOCIAL MEDIA 4. EMAIL 5. PROMOTE SUBSCRIPTIONS 6. PROMOTE ON MEMBER WEBSITES

GET YOUR BLOG SEEN:

Using a Blog to Serve Business Goals| BABA| 1/9/2014 31

BLOG PROMOTION www.KirstenMeyer.com

WHAT DO YOU MEAN, ‘META DATA’?


BLOG DO’S & DON’TS www.KirstenMeyer.com

COOKING UP THE WRONG KIND OF FIRE:

HIDDEN DANGERS

• Subscribe/Unsubscribes • Duplicate Content • Regrettable Content or Tone • Attribution • FTC Guideline Disclosure • Trolling in Comments • XML Code in Formatting


RECAP: KEY POINTS www.KirstenMeyer.com

Use Blog-level

and Post-level strategy.

Create quality content

with your user in mind,

and create it as often as possible.

Constantly promote and share. Read others’ blogs &

participate in the conversation.


Blue Ash

2014

THANK YOU ! FOR COMING Get in touch by phone, email, or online at:

(+1) 714.454.6647


[email protected]

New Year

Date post:	17-May-2015
Category:	Marketing
Upload:	kirsten-meyer
View:	369 times
Download:	2 times

Blog Strategy for Business Associations

Marketing