B2 bblogging cheatsheet2_10

B2B BloggingWhat is B2B Blogging? Glossary TermsB2B blogging is the use of a blog or online journal to promote a Blog – A contraction for “weblog,”; an online diary or journalcompany’s thought leadership, products or services with the goalof increasing conversions and driving revenue. In contrast to B2B Blogging – Also known as corporate or organizationalpersonal or individual blogging in which a single blogger may blog blogging; involves the use of a blog or online journal to promotefor personal fulfillment or journalistic commentary, B2B blogging a company’s products or services with the goal of increasingis a revenue-generating activity for a larger organization that drives conversions and driving revenueinbound marketing, engagement and new business through B2B Inbound Marketing – A type of marketing characterized bysales and interactions. prospects and customers seeking out and finding companiesAlthough B2B blogging or corporate blogging may be comprised rather than vice versaof many individual bloggers from the same organization, they arecreating content under a single messaging umbrella with the same Lead Scoring – The process of determining the sales readinessmarketing objectives in mind. The overarching goal of B2B blogging of leads using a pre-determined scoring methodology andas a demand generation tool is to convert blog visitors and readers ranking them accordinglyinto new leads and customers. Marketing Asset – A piece of marketing content (e.g. whitepapers, videos, newsletters, webinars, etc.) used to educate and generate interest for a company’s products or servicesWhat B2B Blogging is NOT Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – The process of employing different tactics to improve a business’s ranking in organic orB2B blogging is NOT the production of content without a specific, unpaid search results to ultimately increase conversionsrevenue-generating goal in mind. Whether a company wants to useB2B blogging to build thought leadership, drive more traffic to its Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – Also known as Pay-Per-Clickcorporate website or optimize search engine rankings, the goal of (PPC) advertising; the process of paying a search engine toany B2B blogging initiative should always be to convert qualified advertise a product or serviceleads into customers and ultimately increase revenue. Social Media – Any strategy, software system or media outlet thatWhile it is tempting to quickly adopt any component of social relies on social interaction and the participation of individuals ormedia marketing as the “next big thing”—including B2B blogging— communities to create and publish contentit is important to think of blogging as just one part of your overallB2B marketing mix. For example, before creating content for a Social Selling – Also referred to as Sales 2.0, the merging of Web 2.0 technologies with traditional sales strategies, enabling sales-corporate blog post, consider its role within the larger context of people to better prioritize their time and serve as experts—your lead generation and nurturing strategies, or how this content not just negotiators— in the product selection processcan help your sales team with its social selling initiatives. Web 2.0 – A term used to describe the second generation of web tools and software that encourage users to become more active participants, creating content and interacting with each other within web-based, social communitiesB2B Blogging - Analyst Facts“Business blogs can shorten sales cycles when they connect decision-makers to the designers and thought leaders who shape new productsand services.” – Laura Ramos,“Marketing’s Role in B2B Blogging,” Forrester Research, 2007 Top Resources“Among companies involved in one or more social media initiatives, the • Marketo Lead Management Blog: blog.marketo.comhighest percentage (70%) maintain company-related accounts or profiles • Compendium Blogware Blog - Blogging Best Practiceson social media sites. The second most popular activities are monitoring blogging.compendiumblog.com/blog.php/blogging-best-practicescompany-related mentions on social media sites and maintaining one ormore company blogs.” • Compendium Blogware Blog - Corporate Blogging 101– “2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study, ” Business.com, 2009 blogging.compendiumblog.com/blog/corporate-blogging-101“People have a choice…and nobody is going to read your blog, link to • Social Media B2B: socialmediab2b.comyour blog or quote your blog unless theres something in it for them.” • Groundswell Blog: blogs.forrester.com/groundswell– Seth Godin, Seth Godin’s Blog, 2004

B2B Blogging – Basic Techniques B2B Blogging – Advanced Techniques • Establish a corporate blogging strategy that includes overall • Respond to comments on your blogs in a timely manner (e.g. within goals and success metrics. Also consider the “do’s and don’ts” 24 hours) and make sure all of your bloggers abide by this rule. of the content (e.g. DO stick to corporate messaging; DON’T • Invite your best customers to blog and provide useful insight misspell words). on the ways they used your products or services (but avoid • Identify and recruit blog contributors in your organization. being too self-promotional). Having a reliable team of bloggers means you will benefit • Use “related posts” at the end of each blog posting to not from blog content that is plentiful and produced and updated only educate prospects and customers, but to also increase regularly—qualities that will positively impact your search page views and help SEO. engine rankings and improve your inbound marketing. • Consider whether you want your blog to be part of your • Blog with your keywords in mind—but don’t go overboard to the corporate site (which could increase traffic to the main site) or to point where your content becomes nonsensical or unreadable. reside as a sub-domain or separate URL (which could help search • Include relevant links within your blog content to external sites engine marketing results through the display of multiple links). that add value. • Use high-volume visits to specific blog postings as key indicators • Link to your blog from every page on your corporate website and of the topics that matter most to your target audiences and include it in your other marketing vehicles as much as possible. build up your marketing assets appropriately. Top Metrics to Measure ROI with B2B Blogging Blog Commenting • Increased number of unique visitors and page views of blog You can benefit from commenting whether you’re the blogger, the • Improved search engine rankings commenter on someone else’s blog or a participant in an online • Increased number of qualified leads from blog-related links forum—here’s how: • Increased positive mentions of your company, products, or • As a blogger, write interesting blog posts that engage readers services by the media, other bloggers, or in user-generated and encourage comments. All too often, corporate bloggers work content in a bubble, writing about topics that are only interesting to them • Increased number of comments on blog or, worse yet, use blogging as an opportunity to overtly sell their • Increased prospect and customer insight garnered from blog products or services. Use your blog to discuss things, not sell. comments Aim to start a two-way conversation by offering engaging • Increased sales insight for greater efficiency and improved commentary that is insightful and stimulates dialogue. social selling • As a reader, only comment when you have something valuable to say. There’s nothing worse than a person who only comments Common Metrics of B2B Blogging with self-promotion in mind. • When someone comments on something you’ve said, return the favor. Everyone wants to know that they’re being heard— so reply to them with something more engaging than just ‘thank you for commenting’. From “Calculating the ROI of Blogging: A Case Study,” Forrester Research, 2007Information for this B2B Marketing Cheat Sheet was taken from Marketoand Compendium Blogware thought leadership including:• What’s Wrong with Social Media for B2B Marketing? - blog.marketo.com/blog/2007/06/whats_wrong_wit.html• Considering Blogging? - compendiumblogware.com/landingpages/ considering_blogging_whitepaper_resources.html• Blogging’s Role in SEO and Social Media - compendiumblogware.com/landingpages/ blogging_seo_social_whitepaper_resources.html www.compendium.com www.marketo.com

B2 bblogging cheatsheet2_10

by Gianluigi Spagnoli on Jul 13, 2012

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