A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business wishpond.com
Table of Contents Chapter 1 Why Blogging is Important for your Business 5 Chapter 6 5 Tips to Increase Blog SEO 24 Chapter 2 Target Markets for Blogging 9 Chapter 7 12 Ideas for Blog Posts 29 Chapter 3 What to Write: Content Strategies for Blogging 13 Chapter 8 5 Awesome Tips: How to Make Killer Headlines 34 Chapter 4 How Long Should Your Blog Post Be? 19 Chapter 9 7 Tips: Cross-promoting your Blog with Social Media 37 Chapter 5 Make a Schedule for your Blog Posts 21 Chapter 10 5 ROI s to measure Blog success 40
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Why Blogging is chapter 1 Important for your Business
There is some debate out there as to whether blogging is still relevant in today s social media marketing environment. Regardless if you are a small business, or a multinational company, blogging is integral to your online content marketing strategy. Here are 4 reasons you need to blog: Drive traffic to your website Increase your SEO/ SERP Position your brand as an industry leader Develop better customer relationships Drive traffic to your website: Your blog gives you the opportunity to create relevant content for your customers. Use this as a marketing tactic to drive traffic back to your website. Make the blog on your website the foundation for all of your social media platforms. A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 5
Your business might be on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or anywhere else. Post links - with relevant visuals - of your blog articles to your social sites. Give your social followers a reason to click through to your website. Additionally, post inbound links directly in your blog articles, to drive traffic to specific landing pages of your website. Increase your SEO/ SERP: Blogs increase your SEO. Fresh content is still a key to beating out your competitors in the search engine results page. Use keywords in your articles. List out the keywords, topics, and categories you want your business to be found with. Use these words, and related expressions when writing your posts. Of course, whether you actively seek these out or not, blogging regularly about your business, industry, product or customer lifestyle will naturally increase your search keywords. Being intent about your words will only increase results. Keywords and topics on your website are a significant way in which Google (and other search engines) find your site for these searched words. Position your brand as an industry leader: Well written articles demonstrate your company as an industry leader. By posting topics which resonate with your market and show your knowledge, you are marketing your skills for your business, service or product too. If you are a retailer, for example, write blog posts about your products. Your customers will get to know you as the knowledge source for the products they want. A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 6
If you are in B2B, post articulate, well researched articles about your service. Become the hub, or the place to be, for your industry. You are building trust, too. The more you can show that you are well-versed in your field, the more likely your consumer will trust you to supply what they need. Your customers additionally benefit from the learning you provide them. Develop better customer relationships: Blogs provide another source to deepen the connection with your customer. By connecting directly on your website, your clients are able to get to know your business or product from the comfort of your online home base. Use this. Again, build trust by being a source of information. Consumers like to be informed, and appreciate that you are the one teaching them. Additionally, just as on your other social sites, respond to comments and interact with your consumer. If they have questions about a product you are writing about, respond to them directly on your website. Unlike many social sites, a blog is generally searchable on your site for some time. Your website comments last longer than on a Twitter response or Facebook post. Other customers will see your interactions too. Your social media marketing plan will benefit by including blogging for your business. This ebook will give you tips to make blogging for business a little easier. A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 7
chapter 2 Target Markets for Blogging
Like any good online marketing plan, when blogging for your business, you need to know your target market. Knowing your marketing personas will give you insight about what your customers want to read. It will also prove insights about how you need to strategically manage your blogging, including topics and frequency. If you have been in business for a while, this should be a simple process. For newer businesses, here is a short checklist to get to know who you are writing for. 5 ways to determine your target market: Review your current customer base Check out your competition Analyze your product(s) or service List out demographics and psychographics of your target market Define your market segments 1. Review your current customer base Look at who is currently buying your product or service. Why do they buy from you? Do they have similar interests or characteristics? If so, are there other potential customers like them? Do a quick analysis to determine who your best customers are. How can you best market to them using written blog posts? What do they want to know about? A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 9
2. Check out your competition Look at your competition. This is getting easier to do with social media. Look at who they are marketing, and what their tactics and angles are. You might want to emulate them, or go a completely different route, to target a slightly different market. 3. Analyze your product(s) or service As any good marketer would tell you, know your product. How is it used? And who would want or need it? You can target some of your blog posts to new markets, by explaining the value of your product to them. A social media marketing app company, for example, may find new markets to reach such as real estate agents, or photography studios. 4. List out demographics and psychographics of your target market Take your current customer base, your competitors customer base, or potential customers, and list out the customers likes and dislikes, demographics and psychographics. List out demographics such as: Age Location Gender Income level Education level Marital or family status A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 10
Occupation Ethnic background List out psychographics such as: Personality Attitudes Values Interests/hobbies Lifestyles Behavior You can take this one step further, and really get to know you market by creating a persona or two for particular blog themes you are writing. This can create a much more intimate connection between your product blog and your consumer. 5. Define your market segments Once you have a comprehensive listing of your market, and who they are, define your market in segments. This will help when coming up with themes for your blog. For example, a business that sells art supplies to re-sellers might segment their market by geography, types of businesses or even how they sell to their consumers (online or offline). A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 11
What to Write: chapter 3 Content Strategies for Blogging
To increase your blog readership, create strategic themes based on your business, brand, and target markets. Determine themes that will support your goals to: show your industry leadership drive traffic to your website develop better customer relationships Defining your overall topics and keeping it consistent gives you a focus for your writing. As a fellow content marketer/ blogger, believe me, this will help you come up with ideas for what to blog. Some general content themes include: 1. Solutions for common problems 2. News updates about your company, product or industry 3. Ways to make life better 4. Points of interest Integrate these general themes with topics relevant to your overall business marketing strategy. Wishpond, for example, is a company that makes easy to use social marketing apps. Our blog is about Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing & Ecommerce. Combining our marketing strategy with the general themes, we create our blog post topics. Examples of our blog posts include: A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 13
1. Solutions for common problems. Example: case studies and tips of successful social media marketing companies A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 14
2. News updates about your company, product or industry. Example: breaking news about the industry A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 15
3. Ways to make life better. Example: how our product makes your online marketing life easier A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 16
4. Points of interest. Example: how to use various social media platforms A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 17
How Long chapter 4 Should Your Blog Post Be?
A common question about blogging is: how long should my blog posts be? While the answer to this question varies, a typical blog post these days is 300-800 words. That doesn t mean that your 200 word post is no good, or your 2,000 word post is unreadable. There have been blog posts with no words, and they ve been picked up by search engines. Prolific bloggers like Seth Godin typically write 200 words or less. Posts on the popular Social Media Examiner average 1,500 words. The length of your blog post will depend on what you have to say, and how long it takes to express. It will also depend on how much time in your busy day you have for writing blogs. Typically, a business needs to be blogging at least twice a week. This keeps your content fresh which keeps search engines happy. As a social media manager, small business marketer, or anyone with multiple responsibilities that include online marketing, keeping up with two blog posts a week requires strategic planning. It s okay to keep your posts short. But always be adding value to your customers to entice more traffic to your site, develop better customer relationships, and position yourself as an industry leader. Make your posts readable and relevant. Include visuals, if this makes your posts connect better with your readership. Here are a few other resources to read about how long my blog posts should be : How Long Should My Blog Posts Be? How Long Should Your Blog Post Be? 5 Reasons Why Long Content and Blog Posts Are Once Again the Future of Content Marketing A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 19
Make a chapter 5 Schedule for your Blog Posts
Consistency is key to blog postings. Not only does a schedule help to increase your readership, it also gives you, the content writer, set dates for when you need to post. If you are a small business, try to post two times a week. Start by posting on the same days week after week. For example, post something new every Tuesday and Thursday. By keeping a familiar schedule, your subscribers will get used to hearing from you on a regular basis. Establish a routine for your blog posts, and continue it regularly for your customers. This reinforces your dependability and trustworthiness. It also supports the goal of better customer relationships. As previously mentioned, creating fresh content regularly also supports the goal of increasing your organic SEO. How you schedule your blogs will vary based on who is writing the posts. You may have a content marketing team, you may outsource your writing, or it may be just you. Personally, I like using a good old spreadsheet to implement an editorial calendar. Make it simple, particularly if you have a team. The easier it is to follow, the better. A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 21
Here is an sample of a simple blog schedule: A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 22
chapter 6 5 Tips to Increase Blog SEO
When you are blogging for business, be proactive in getting the most from your blogging efforts. If you blog strategically, your keywords will be a natural part of your writing. Adding a few of these SEO tactics will boost your search engine results - getting you more successes in your social media marketing strategy. Here are 5 tactics to boost your blog SEO: Target your content Google Adwords Link to other sites Link to internal pages on your site Use alt text 1. Target your content Use content themes, and know your target market. By writing about your business, product, industry and customer lifestyles you will be using the keywords your customers are searching for. This increases your search ranking without much additional thought. 2. Google AdWords Use a keyword finder, such as the keyword tool in Google AdWords, to broaden your keyword scope. This can expand your vocabulary and vernacular. A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 24
Be careful to integrate these words naturally. If your sentences seem too contrived, your customers will stop reading your posts. Additionally, don t overuse keywords. Keyword stuffing is frowned upon by most search engines, and will produce negative results. A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 25
3. Link to other sites Referencing other blog posts is great for SEO. Google seem to like this. It can also help to create networking opportunities for your business. Linking to industry related blog posts can be developed into guest blogging opportunities, news leads or even new business partnerships. Additionally, your readers will appreciate you sharing extra information with them. 4. Link to internal pages on your site Use your blog posts to link to other landing pages on your site. If your readers are sparked by your posts, they ll likely be interested in your products. Make it easy for them to navigate through. Here is an example of internal linking from the Wishpond blog: A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 26
Tip: When you are linking, use appropriate anchor text. Use anchor text as a keyword about the page you are linking to. (not click here) 5. Use alt text Alt texts are frequently underused. In a nutshell, alt texts allow search engines to read your images. They are an easy way to get an additional boost to your SEO. Make sure you save your images with appropriate words. When uploading, add these to each image in your blog. Here s how to do it using wordpress: Additional reading on SEO for blogging: SEOmoz: 21 tactics to increase blog traffic 2012 Matt Cutts: Whitehat seo tips for bloggers Hongkiat: Bloggers: 10 SEO Mistakes You Should Avoid A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 27
chapter 7 12 Ideas for Blog Posts
A frequent question from fellow blogger and content marketers is: What can I blog about? When you are blogging regularly for your business, keeping your posts fresh and varied can be a fun challenge. Here are 12 types of posts for your blog: 1. product tips and how-to s 2. case studies 3. contests 4. news about industry 5. lifestyles 6. news about company 7. lists of great, relevant articles 8. customer success stories 9. interviews with industry leaders 10. interviews with CEO and with staff in your company 11. sweepstakes 12. videos and multimedia 1. Product tips and how-to s Write tips about your products, and how to use them. For example, if you sell fishing gear - write about how to make lures, how to take care of your lines, or even when and where to fish. A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 29
2. Case studies Write a brief case study of successes in your industry. Show your clients how these companies did well, and what your clients can learn from this. 3. Contests Contests are a great way to add interactivity to your blog. Set up a simple vote contest, to get your customers to tell you their views. For example, if you are a retailer deciding on your next shipment of goods - set up a vote contest with three of your options. Let your customers tell you what they want from you. (Here s where I disclose my bias. Wishpond makes easy to use contest apps, with in-depth analytics and easy to export emails.) 4. News about industry Write about breaking news in your industry, if it is relevant to your customers. This shows you as an industry leader, and as someone in the know. 5. Lifestyles Blog about issues related to consumer lifestyles. For example, if you are in the kids clothing business - write about common concerns related to raising children. Make your blog into a hub for tips and conversations about the realities of motherhood. A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 30
6. News about company If you are launching a new product, blog about it. If you have achieved a milestone that is relevant to your customers, write about it to let them know. 7. Lists of great, relevant articles You could write a blog post of the top 10 articles about a particular topic. Or list out the top 10 Facebook pages for your products. Lists are a great way to provide information for your customers. 8. Customer success stories Value your customers by showcasing them on your blog. If they have used your product or service and have achieved their goals and more, write about them. They will appreciate your praise and generosity in mentioning them. 9. Interview with industry leaders Seek out industry leaders, and interview them. Similar to a magazine, make your blog into a source for industry tips and personal stories by publishing interviews with success stories. 10. Interviews with CEO and staff in your company You could set up a monthly interview schedule to showcase the talent within your own company. This can boost company morale, by interviewing everyone from the intern up to the CEO. It also puts a personal face to your brand for your customers. A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 31
11. Sweepstakes Another great way to increase interaction on your blog is through sweepstakes. You can run them directly from your blog, and promote them through your other social media channels. Sweepstakes can get customers excited about your products, and your offers. By getting them to enter, you are creating interactivity. (Again, I disclose my bias. Wishpond makes easy to use sweepstakes apps for your website, facebook and twitter.) 12. Videos and multimedia Include other forms of communication such as videos, slideshares or infographics in your blog posts. They can be a great way to share information to your clients in a creative form. For example, video an interview with a client and post it to your business blog. A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 32
5 Awesome Tips: chapter 8 How to Make Killer Headlines
Writing a catchy headline is key to getting your blog post read, and spread. Most readers these days skim headlines, only stopping to open the ones that hook their attention. At the same time, a witty headline can have your post shared exponentially. Don t lose this opportunity. Here are 5 writing tips on how to write a killer headline. 5 tips to writing a headline for results: Write a headline, then rewrite it 5 times Use numbers Keep it short Ask a question Make it a how to 1. Write a headline, then rewrite it 5 times There s nothing like writing and rewriting, and then rewriting again in writing. Do that five times, and more than likely, you ll wind up with an amazingly better headline than the one you started with. 2. Use numbers People love to read headlines with short sweet numbers in them. It s a simple way to show your article has a lot to say about your topic of expertise. A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 34
3. Keep it short Headlines are best kept under 75 characters. It makes them easier to skim, and more appealing to open. Short headlines make it easier to share on sites like Twitter too. 4. Ask a question Curiosity killed the headline. Do you want to know why? Pique your readers interest by asking a question they want to know about. 5. Make it a how to Readers like to read to learn. Make how to posts in your business expertise, and label them as such. Your subscribers will appreciate this. A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 35
7 Tips: chapter 9 Cross-promoting your Blog with Social Media
Leverage your blog posts by cross-promoting them on your social media sites. This makes your writing efforts go further, creates more social interaction, and builds more inbound linking back to your website. 7 Ways to Cross-Promote your Blog: 1. Facebook 2. Twitter 3. Linkedin 4. Pinterest 5. E-mail 6. In-store 7. Share buttons 1. Facebook Post a link of your blog post on your Facebook page. When you do this, be sure to upload a full size picture to the post, not just the link photo. In terms of content, photos boost your Facebook interactions more than other types of posts. A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 37
2. Twitter Tweet about your blog post. Keep the title interesting, and be sure to use appropriate hashtags. Hashtags can spread your tweets to communities beyond your followers, and can add enormous awareness about your company. 3. Linkedin Write a short update to your contacts in Linkedin. Additionally, post your recent blog to any Linkedin groups you belong to. 4. Pinterest Create a board on your business Pinterest profile. Post picture from your blog posts, and link it back to your website post. 5. E-mail Use your blog posts for weekly or monthly e-newsletters. Compile your best posts, and send it in e-newsletter format to your customer contacts. In the email, be sure to ask your clients to subscribe to your blog s RSS feed. 6. In-Store If you have a physical store, promote your website and blog with an easily scannable QR code. Print the QR codes onto your receipts, or on a poster inviting customers to scan it with their mobile phones. 7. Share Buttons Always make your blog posts easy to share. Make sure you have share buttons for major social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+ and email. Make sure these buttons are easy to see and easy to click. A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 38
5 ROI s to chapter 10 measure Blog success
For any business marketing tactic, you need to measure your return on investment (ROI). Blogging is no different. Measuring how your posts bring value to your business is important to bringing continued success. Additionally, as a content marketer, you need to show how your posts are performing. Here are 5 KPI s to measure ROI s for blog success: number of subscribers number of shares number of comments increased traffic to blog and website increased leads through email contacts 1. Number of subscribers This is easy to track. Measure the number of subscribers you have for your business blog. As you become more established in blogging, keep track of this number. 2. Number of shares Keep track of the number of shares for each post. This will help you with future topics for posts too. If your subscribers tend to share a particular type of post more than others - create more of the types of posts that are shared. A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 40
3. Number of comments Encourage readers to comment on your posts. The more comments you get, generally, the better the post has been received. 4. Increased traffic to blog and website Set up your website analytics to keep track of landing page traffic. Pay attention to where traffic is coming from on your site, the time spent on site, and what pages they link to on your site. You can even install Google Analytics to do this, and it s free. 5. Increased leads through email contacts The ultimate goal of any business is to gain more sales. Keep track of the new email leads you obtain through your subscriber lists. Use these lists to continue to interact with your customers through direct e-newsletter emails, sales and events. A Simple Guide to Blogging for Business I 41
contact us Thanks for reading! We would love to give you the advantage of our learnings. Book a Personal Consultation Written by: Krista Bunskoek PR and Content Marketing Manager Wishpond
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