rock your business blog

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Rock My Business Blog Karen Rubin HubSpot Product Owner Slides: SlideShare.net/HubSpot Twitter: @KarenRubin

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Creative yet inexpensive Internet marketing techniques such as blogging can build a company’s online presence, spawn brand loyalty, and generate leads/results. Through comprehensive SEO techniques and other inbound marketing methodologies, companies can increase website traffic and be top-of-mind for those discussing similar topics.Because a corporate blog is a place for customers, prospects and like-minded individuals to share ideas, it reinforces a company’s image and brand as a thought-leader. This session will discuss what kind of content you can create to attract your customers, how to bring people to your blog and how to keep the momentum going. We’ll also cover how you can measure your success so you know what works and what doesn’t.

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Rock Your Business Blog

Rock My Business Blog

Karen Rubin

HubSpot Product Owner

Slides: SlideShare.net/HubSpot

Twitter: @KarenRubin

Page 2: Rock Your Business Blog

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

Page 3: Rock Your Business Blog

3

What’s HubSpot?

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

Page 6: Rock Your Business Blog

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

Page 7: Rock Your Business Blog

Exponential Effects

Blog

SEO• More Traffic• More Links

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

Page 8: Rock Your Business Blog

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

Page 9: Rock Your Business Blog

Key #1: Identify Target Personas

Kadient photo by: David Meerman Scott

Page 10: Rock Your Business Blog

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

Page 11: Rock Your Business Blog

What Keywords Will Attract Your Personas?

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

Page 12: Rock Your Business Blog

How We Pick Keywords: Keyword Grader

Page 13: Rock Your Business Blog

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

Page 14: Rock Your Business Blog

Key #2: Create a Mix of Posts

Flickr Photo: jek-a-go-go

Page 15: Rock Your Business Blog

Plan a Mix of Posts

News

Feature

Video

Photos

Opinion

Page 17: Rock Your Business Blog

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

Page 18: Rock Your Business Blog

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

Page 19: Rock Your Business Blog

Roasts – Big Blog Projects

• Lots of work• Lots of links,

discussion and attention

• Pick them well

Page 20: Rock Your Business Blog

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

Page 21: Rock Your Business Blog

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

Page 22: Rock Your Business Blog

Key #3: Write Great Posts

Flickr Photo: Olivander

Page 23: Rock Your Business Blog

No Need to Be Hemingway

Just follow a few simple rules.

Photo: Wikipedia

Page 24: Rock Your Business Blog

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

shorter!)• Lists are OK (just

not too many)• 1 idea per post

Page 25: Rock Your Business Blog

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

Page 26: Rock Your Business Blog

Always Add a Photo

• Flickr• iStockphoto• Shoot your own

Page 27: Rock Your Business Blog

How to Search for a Flickr Photo

Go to Advanced Search

Then search for CC licensed photos

Page 28: Rock Your Business Blog

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

flesh it out• Ask your readers

Page 29: Rock Your Business Blog

Write Great Headlines

Page 30: Rock Your Business Blog

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

Page 31: Rock Your Business Blog

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

Page 32: Rock Your Business Blog

Key #4: Sustain It

Flickr Photo: michalo

Page 33: Rock Your Business Blog

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)

Page 34: Rock Your Business Blog

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

Page 35: Rock Your Business Blog

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

Page 36: Rock Your Business Blog

Key #5: Spread It

Flickr Photo: felipearte

Page 37: Rock Your Business Blog

Think of Blogging Like a Job Search

Would you sit at home and wait for a call?

Page 38: Rock Your Business Blog

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

Page 39: Rock Your Business Blog

Why Leave Comments?

• Karma

• Get noticed by other bloggers

• Get noticed by other blog readers

• Get links back to your blog

• Thought leadership

Page 40: Rock Your Business Blog

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)

Page 41: Rock Your Business Blog

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.

Page 42: Rock Your Business Blog

Where Do You Link to Your Blog?

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

Page 43: Rock Your Business Blog

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

Page 44: Rock Your Business Blog

Metric #1: Subscriptions

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

Page 45: Rock Your Business Blog

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”?

Page 46: Rock Your Business Blog

Metric #3: Comments

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

Page 47: Rock Your Business Blog

Metric #4: Inbound Links

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

Page 48: Rock Your Business Blog

Metric #5: Conversions

Page 49: Rock Your Business Blog

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