rock your business blog

Rock My Business Blog

Karen Rubin

HubSpot Product Owner

Slides: SlideShare.net/HubSpot

Twitter: @KarenRubin

AgendaI. About HubSpot & Inbound Marketing

II. Five Keys to a Successful Blog1. Identify Target Personas

2. Create a Mix of Posts

3. Write Great Posts

4. Sustain It

5. Spread It

III. How to Measure Your Blog

3

What’s HubSpot?

• Founded in July 2006 from research at MIT• Cambridge, MA• 2,500 customers, 100+ employees

Outbound Marketing

800-555-1234AnnoyingSalesperson

Inbound Marketing

Content SEO Social Media

Rethinking MarketingOutbound Marketing• Telemarketing• Trade shows• Direct mail• Email blasts• Print ads• TV/radio ads

Inbound Marketing• SEO / SEM• Blogging• Social Media• RSS• Free tools/trials• Viral videos

Interruption Permission

Exponential Effects

Blog

SEO• More Traffic• More Links

Social Media• Even More Traffic• Even More Links• More Content

AgendaI. About HubSpot & Inbound Marketing

II. Five Keys to a Successful Blog1. Identify Target Personas

2. Create a Mix of Posts

3. Write Great Posts

4. Sustain It

5. Spread It

III. How to Measure Your Blog

Key #1: Identify Target Personas

Kadient photo by: David Meerman Scott

Your Content Pulls in Your Personas

“Create the kind of online content that your buyers naturally gravitate to.”

- David Meerman Scott

Author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR

www.webinknow.com

What Keywords Will Attract Your Personas?

• Fill posts with them• Build an archive of content full of them

How We Pick Keywords: Keyword Grader

A Word of Caution• Writing for your personas

DOES NOT mean writing about the products and services you sell them

• Write about the things they want to learn about

Key #2: Create a Mix of Posts

Flickr Photo: jek-a-go-go

Plan a Mix of Posts

News

Feature

Video

Photos

Opinion

Many Types of Posts Get Traffic

Post Page Views

Did You Graduate From Link Building High School Yet 11,270

State of the Twittersphere - Q4 2008 Report 8,768

You Oughta Know Inbound Marketing 7,498

6 Tips for Making a Business Marketing Video 4,211

Twitter in Real Life: The Follow Back [cartoon] 4,137

Raisin Bran – Basic, Everyday Posts

• How to posts• Rich in keywords• Get good at

whipping them out

• Make sure they’re useful

Flickr Photo: greeneyesmilw

Spinach – Healthy, Thoughtful Posts

• Should establish your site as a thought leader in the industry

• Put time into them

• Don’t do too many

Flickr Photo: ulteriorepicture

Roasts – Big Blog Projects

• Lots of work• Lots of links,

discussion and attention

• Pick them well

Tabasco – Posts That Start Fires

• Make a bold statement

• Be prepared to defend yourself

• Lots of comments and links

• Too many of these posts could lose trust

Flickr Photo: ANOXLOU

Chocolate Cake – The Sweet Stuff

• These posts make your blog fun

• A chance to poke fun at yourself

• Lots of traffic/links • Often video, images

Flickr Photo: scubadive67

Key #3: Write Great Posts

Flickr Photo: Olivander

No Need to Be Hemingway

Just follow a few simple rules.

Photo: Wikipedia

Tips for Post Structure• Use Headings• 500-800 words (or

shorter!)• Lists are OK (just

not too many)• 1 idea per post

Blog Topic Ideas• List of 5 ideas, trends or thoughts• Publish a list of links• Take a recent experience and share it• Answer questions you received recently• Comment on other blog articles• Turn a press release into a blog article• Check your email outbox

Always Add a Photo

• Flickr• iStockphoto• Shoot your own

How to Search for a Flickr Photo

Go to Advanced Search

Then search for CC licensed photos

Where Do You Get Ideas?• Everywhere• Keep a list• When you learn something,

flesh it out• Ask your readers

Write Great Headlines

How to Write Great Headlines• Write the headline before the article• Imagine the reader won’t see the article• Surprise people• No spelling errors!• Use your keywords

Blog Article Titles

• Funny: “GoDaddy's 16-Step Checkout: Brainless Marketing At Its Finest?”

• Enticing: “12 Quick Tips To Search Google Like An Expert”

• SEO: “Free Advertising on Google”6th Most Popular HubSpot

Blog Article

Key #4: Sustain It

Flickr Photo: michalo

Pick a Publishing Schedule• Once a week? Every Monday

and Wednesday?• Stick to it• The goal is to build up a body

of keyword-rich content (create an asset)

Different Ways of Doing Posts• Email interviews• Video interviews (conferences, office visitors,

clients)• Guest posts from people with similar blogs• “Best of” lists• “How we do it” posts

Should I Hire People?

It depends.

Pros:• You don’t have to do the work• You hire a “professional writer”

Cons:• Nobody knows your business like you do• You don’t build your personal reputation• You don’t participate in the conversation

Key #5: Spread It

Flickr Photo: felipearte

Think of Blogging Like a Job Search

Would you sit at home and wait for a call?

Take Comments Seriously• Make sure you comment back• Find out who the people are

• Follow their links• Subscribe to their blog, follow them on Twitter

Use these links

Why Leave Comments?

• Karma

• Get noticed by other bloggers

• Get noticed by other blog readers

• Get links back to your blog

• Thought leadership

Tips on Comments

Increase the value of the article:

• Share an example• Add a point• Add a useful link• Disagree• Ask a question• Use your real name (not company)

Publish on Social Media

• Post directly• Post via twitterfeed.com automatically

• Post to your status• Post automatically via a feed to your fan or

profile page

Also consider LinkedIn, other sites.

Where Do You Link to Your Blog?

• Your homepage• Press releases• Business cards• Email signatures

AgendaI. About HubSpot & Inbound Marketing

II. Five Keys to a Successful Blog1. Identify Target Personas

2. Create a Mix of Posts

3. Write Great Posts

4. Sustain It

5. Spread It

III. How to Measure Your Blog

Metric #1: Subscriptions

• A measure of you blog’s total reach• A “sticky” number

Metric #2: Pageviews

• Great for media sites selling display advertising• Potential problems for your business:

• Doesn’t measure RSS• Weak measure of engagement• What’s the business value of a “view”?

Metric #3: Comments

• Quantitatively, a good indicator of engagement• Qualitatively, a great way to listen to market

Metric #4: Inbound Links

• Measure the SEO impact of your blog• An indicator of your blog’s role in outside conversations

Metric #5: Conversions

Thank You! Any Questions?

Karen Rubin

Product Owner

HubSpot

Learn more about HubSpot:

http://www.HubSpot.com/Demo

Free tools:

http://Grader.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/karenrubin

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/karenrubin