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How To Blog Better For

Your Business

With Jane Woodyer of We Love 2 Blog 4 You

+An Introduction To Blogging

1980s – 1990s – newsgroups and digital forums

Mid to late 1990s – online diaries and weblogs, first blog

hosting tools and blogging communities

2000s – blogging seen as distinct from journalism

2002 – Microsoft and Macromedia start a corporate blog

mid 2000s – blogging goes mainstream

2005 – corporate blogging takes off!

Where It All Started

+ What Company Blogs Can Take From

Bloggers

Politics & Opinion

Hobbies & Crafts

Fashion, Music, Culture

“Life”

What Bloggers Blog About

+ What Company Blogs Can Take From

Bloggers

Reach likeminded people

Establish reputation & authority

Build loyal followers

Convert readers

Blogging Objectives

+ What Company Blogs Can Take From

Bloggers

Reach likeminded people

Establish reputation & authority

Build loyal followers

Convert readers

How Can We Apply This To A Business Blog?

+Social Media Vs. Blogs

A Tweet lives for only a few hours

A blog post remains on your website indefinitely

Social media updates have to compete with other content

Your blog posts are on your own website

Social media encourages interaction through likes, retweets,

shares and comments

Blogs can use all these tools and provide a platform to build

customer relations

Why Blog? Can’t I Just Post On Social Media?

+ Should You Have A Company Blog On Your

Website?

Blogging platforms – Blogger, Tumblr, Wordpress.com etc.

LinkedIn – Long form posts

Self-hosted blog on business website

Where Should I Blog?

+Content Marketing And SEO

Blog posts

Video clips

Infographics

Slideshares

Social media updates

It’s not advertising…

What Is Content Marketing?

+Content Marketing And SEO

SEO needs words

Content marketing provides the words

SEO wants backlinks

Great content gets linked to

SEO demands fresh content

Content marketing provides it

SEO wants lots of webpages

Companies with 51 to 100 pages generate 48% more traffic than companies with 1 to 50 pages. Hubspot Marketing Benchmarks

Content marketing (specifically blog posts) generates this

SEO – Search Engine Optimisation

+Reasons To Have A Company Blog

High quality content, demonstrates you’re the expert

Drives traffic to your website

Establish reputation & authority:

From social media

From SERPs

From links

+Reasons To Have A Company Blog

Generates sales

Visitors make the link between your blog content and your

product

If they value your advice and trust you, they will buy from you

Builds loyalty

Value adding content = visitors return for more

Personalising your content = your business stands out from

your competitors

+Blog Strategy

Define your objectives for your blog

Want to be found for in search results?

What do you want to be known for?

What are your company values and ethos?

What is your brand proposition?

How does your product or service ‘help’ your customers?

What Do You Want To Achieve?

+Blog Strategy

What will make the ideal customer visit your blog?

Build a customer avatar to help you understand them better.

Research: Long tail keyword research,

Competitor’s blogs,

Social media & online forums,

Surveys.

What Does Your Customer Want?

+Blog Strategy

Blogging Jobs:

Decide on titles and subjects?

Write posts?

Proofreading & editing?

SEO & publishing?

Promote blog posts?

Manage blog calendar?

Measure its success?

Who Will Run Your Blog?

+Blog Strategy

Can you repurpose existing content to create blog posts?

Video

Presentations

Survey results

White papers

Do you have people who can contribute to your blog?

Employees

Loyal customers

Industry contacts

What Assets Do You Already Have?

+Blog Content Calendar

If your website was a magazine what sections would you have?

Core areas of business

Main issues that customers search for

How tos

News, events, insights

Inspiration…

Popular keywords make great tags is used sparingly and

consistently

Identifying Categories & Tags

+Blog Content Calendar

What is most important?

To your business

To your customers

Prioritise Your Content

+Blog Content Calendar

Realistically how often can you blog?

Companies that blog 15 times or more per

month get 5x more traffic than companies that

don't blog - Hubspot Marketing Benchmarks

Decide On The Frequency Of Your Blog

+Blog Content Calendar

What’s coming up?

Relevant seasonal and calendar based events

Industry events and dates

Significant dates for your company

Set A Date In Your Diary

+Blog Content Calendar

Combine keyword and customer research to create a list of

blog titles, including:

Top questions you can address

Tools for your customers to be successful

Frequent problems and concerns

Knowledge that adds value

Attribute Categories To Blog Publish Dates

+Blog Content Calendar

Complete your blog content calendar:

Add agreed titles

Assign authors

Distribute Your Blog Titles

+Writing Blog Posts

Consider how blogging has evolved and where it has come from:

Sharing what we’re passionate about

Creates compelling blog posts

Finding Your Voice

+Writing Blog Posts

Blog posts are written by people not companies:

Write in the first person

Use a conversational yet authoritative tone

Refer to personal experience and your opinion / beliefs

Share your team’s expertise and diversity through blog posts

Make It Personal

+Writing Blog Posts

Blogging is a form of social media:

Pose questions

Ask readers for their opinion

Invite visitors to continue the conversation

Invite Interaction

+Writing Blog Posts

What do you want visitors to do with the information in your

post?

No sales pitches - “even signing off an otherwise objective blog

post or newsletter with a product pitch will bring the content’s

credibility level down by 29%” Kentico Software Digital

Experience Survey

Call To Action

+Publishing Blog Posts

Keywords:

Primary keywords

Secondary keywords

Long tail keywords

Adwords / Keyword planner – discover what your customers

are searching for

Basic SEO Skills

+Publishing Blog Posts

Categories

Tags

Titles

Slugs

Headers

Bullet Points

Images

Basic SEO Skills

+Promoting Your Blog Posts

Blogging is not an overnight fix for your SEO, give your blog a

boost:

Promote on social media

Email campaigns

Post in social media groups and online forums

Target influencers

Repurpose your post on other platforms

"'I hit 'publish' for the first time, and everyone just

showed up' – said no blogger ever." - Rand Fishkin,

SEO Expert from Moz

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www.ilove2blog4.youFor further help please get in touch