Bridget Gibbons, Director of Digital, InspiriaMedia

Business Blogging October 2016

Topics❖ What is a blog❖ Why blogging is important❖ Target markets for blogging❖ What to write – content strategies❖ How long should your blog posts be?❖ Make a schedule❖ Tips for increasing blog SEO❖ Ideas for blog posts❖ Great headlines❖ Cross promoting your blog with Social Media❖ ROI to measure blog success

What is a blog?❖ Blog = ‘web log’

❖ A website or part of a website updated with new content periodic basis.

❖ Usually maintained by an individual or individuals with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

❖ Can be setup within minutes online using WordPress or other blogging software.

Why blogging is important

❖ Blogging should be an integral part of your online content marketing

❖ Drive traffic to your website❖ Increase your SEO/SERP❖ Positing your brand as an industry leader❖ Develop better customer relations

Drive traffic to your website

❖ Post links to your blog articles (with great images) on all your social sites – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.❖ LinkedIn Long Form Published Posts

❖ Give your followers a reason to click through to your website.

❖ Include links in your blog articles to other pages on your website.

Long-Form Published Posts

Long-Form Published Posts❖ LinkedIn members can publish long-form blog posts

❖ Publishing allows you to further establish your professional identity.

❖ When you publish a long-form post on LinkedIn:❖ Your original content becomes part of your

professional profile. It is displayed on the Posts section of your LinkedIn profile.

❖ It's shared with your connections and followers.

Increase your SEO/SERP

❖ Blogs provide you the opportunity to add fresh content to your website. This makes Google happy and you will be rewarded.

❖ Identify the keywords that you want to be found for. Use these keywords and related expressions in your posts.

❖ Blogging regularly about your business, industry, product or customer lifestyle will help increase your search results.

Position your brand as an industry leader

❖ Well written articles demonstrate your company as an industry leader

❖ Post on topics that resonate with your target market and show your knowledge.

❖ You’ll build trust.

Develop better customer relations

❖ Blogs provide another way to deepen your connections with your customers.

❖ Clients will be able to get to know your business / products from your website.

❖ Be sure to respond to comments and interact with your customers.

Target market for blogging❖ You need to know your target market.

❖ This gives you insight about what your customers want to read.

❖ Ways to determine your target:❖ Review your customer base❖ Check out your competition❖ Analyze your products / services❖ List out demographics of your target❖ Define market segments

Review your current customers

❖ Who is currently buying your product or service? Why do they buy from you? Do they have similar interests or characteristics? Are there other potential customers like them?

❖ Analyze who your best customers are – what do they want to know about?

Facebook Insights

LinkedIn Business Page

LinkedIn Follower Demographics

Twitter Analytics

Twitter Analytics

Check out your competition

❖ Look at who your competition is marketing to and what is their approach.

Analyze your products / services

❖ Know your product! How is it used? Who would want and need it?

❖ You can target some of your blog posts to new markets by explaining the value of your product.

List out demographics❖ Age

❖ Location

❖ Gender

❖ Income level

❖ Education

❖ Marital status

❖ Etc.

Define market segments

❖ Different products/services may have different segments

❖ Segment out by geography, types of businesses

What to write?❖ Determine themes that will support your goals

❖ Show industry leadership? Drive traffic to your website? Develop better customer relations?

❖ General content themes:❖ Solutions for common problems❖ News updates ❖ Ways to make life better❖ Points of view❖ Relevant Videos

❖ Integrate these general themes with relevant topics

How long should blogs be?

❖ Typical blog posts are 300 – 800 words.

❖ Depends on how much you have to say.

❖ Typically businesses should blog 1 or 2 times per month.

❖ It’s ok to keep them short but make sure to add value.

❖ Include eye catching images – pixabay.com

Make a schedule

❖ Consistency is key.

❖ Having a schedule increases readership and also keeps you on task.

❖ Establish a routine – reinforces your trustworthiness.

❖ How you schedule will depend on who is doing your writing. Many companies write themselves or outsource.

Increasing blog SEO❖ Blogging strategically – use your keywords naturally in

your writing.

❖ Boost your blog SEO:❖ Target your content❖ Google Keyword Planner❖ Link to other sites❖ Link to internal pages on your website❖ Use alt text

Target your content

❖ Using your content themes and knowledge of your target market, you’ll be using the keywords your customers are searching on.

Google Keyword Planner

❖ https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

❖ Enter a list of keywords and Google will give you the number of local searches per month on that term. Google can also make suggestions of related keywords.

Link to other sites

❖ Referencing other blog posts is great for SEO.

❖ Can also help create networking opportunities and can develop into guest blogging opportunities.

Guest Blogging

Link to internal pages on your site

❖ Link to other landing pages on your site. If you readers are interested in your posts they’ll likely be interested in your products.

❖ Makes it easy to navigate through.

Use alt text

❖ Alt text allows the search engines to read your images.

❖ This can be added in your blog’s media library.

Themes for posts❖ Be Useful

❖ Be Human

❖ Be Generous

❖ Be Promotional

❖ Be Controversial

❖ Be Entertaining

❖ Be Timely

❖ Be Engaging

Be Useful❖ List Post ❖ How-To Post ❖ Case Study ❖ Problem / Solution Post ❖ SAQ Post – Questions customers don’t ask but should● Checklist Post ● Ultimate Guide Post ● Definition Post ● Series Post ● Definition Posts ● FAQ Post

Be Human

❖ Inspirational Post

❖ Holiday Post

❖ Personal Experience Post

❖ Behind the Scenes Post

❖ Off-Topic Post

❖ Rant Post – not for everyone

Be Generous❖ Profile Post

❖ Interview Post

❖ Link Round Up Post – gather links your customers will find useful

❖ Quote Post – gather quotes from influencers across a specific topic

● Best of the Web Post – links to content, tools, and other resources

● Pick of the Week - single piece of content, tool or other resource that you link to and describe

● People to Follow Post

Be Promotional

❖ Comparison Post – you to your competitor

❖ Project Showcase Post

❖ Company Update Post

❖ Presentation Post

❖ Product Update Post

❖ Product Tip Post

Be Controversial – make sure it works for your brand

❖ What If Post – what would happen if…

❖ Debate Post – write about your opinion on an issue, or write with someone to show both sides of an issue

❖ Attack Post – be careful

❖ Prediction Post

❖ Reaction Post – react to content created by someone else

❖ Embed Reactor – embed video, presentation or other content that is already popular and add your reaction

Be Entertaining

❖ Story Post – create content that tells a story

❖ Satire Post – be humorous through irony or extreme exaggeration

❖ Cartoon Post – create weekly or monthly cartoons

❖ Meme Post - create your own meme or pull together a curated set

Be Timely

❖ Review Post – review product, event or anything as long as it’s newsworthy

❖ Survey Post – survey your audience about a trending topic

❖ News Post – create content on events as they are happening

❖ Trends Post – predict a trend

❖ Issue Post – create content about issues that affect your audience

Be Engaging❖ Question Post – answer questions your audience asks

❖ Answer Post – ask a question and allow your audience to answer

❖ Challenge Post – pose a challenge to your audience

❖ Customer Showcase Post

❖ Feebie Post – allow your audience to get access to a relevant giveaway

❖ Contest Post

How to make successful headlines

❖ Writing a catchy headline is key❖ Write a headline and then rewrite it a few times –

practice makes perfect❖ Use numbers – people love headlines with number❖ Keep it short – under 75 characters, easy to skim❖ Ask a question – pique readers interest❖ Make it a how-to – readers like to learn

Cross-promote your blog❖ Leverage your blog posts by promoting them on your social media

sites

❖ Facebook – post a link to your blog on your FB page.

❖ Twitter – tweet about you blog post. Keep the title interesting, be sure to use haashtags

❖ LinkedIn – write a short up to your contacts and post your blog, post to groups you belong to also

❖ Email – weekly or monthly e-newsletters consisting of your best posts

❖ Share buttons – make sure to have social sharing buttons

ROI of Blogging❖ You need to measure your ROI

❖ Numbers of subscribers – easy to track

❖ Number of shares – helps you know what’s of interest to your readers

❖ Number of comments – encourage readers to comment. More comments the better.

❖ Increase traffic to blog or website – set-up google analytics – Referrals, etc.

❖ Increased leads through email

Thank you!

bgibbons@inspiriamedia.com

Inspiriamedia.com

914-318-0348