Getting creative with content - how to engage and inspire your audience through your company blog Content Marketing Summit Digital Enterprise

1. How to engage and inspire
your audience through your
company blog
Jonny Ross @jonnyross

2. Quick Polls

3. Jonny Ross
- Digital Marketing Strategist of an award-winning digital
agency Fleek Marketing
- Named in Business Insider’s ‘42 under 42’

4. Search Engine Optimisation
• Create great content
• Ensure this content is accessible to
search engines.
• Make pages unique and relevant
• Make the content popular
• Good PR (Traditional PR…online)

6. On Site
•Keywords
•Content
•Technical Aspect
•Usability

7. Off site
• Relevancy
• Links
• Reviews
• Reputation

8. Domain Authority

9. Thinking keywords

13. Longer tail keywords
• Answer the public
• Storybase
• Question Samurai
• Keyword.io
• Buzzsumo Question Analyzer
• SEMRush
• KWFinder
• Quora
• Google autocomplete
• People also ask box

15. Offsite SEO / Link building
• Directories
• Articles
• Guest Blogging
• Press Releases
• Social Bookmarking
• Social Sharing
• Local Engagement
• Suppliers
• Video
• Blog / Forum commenting
• Writing a column
• Mention people
• Petitions
• Link Out
• Image creation
• Webinars
• Interviews
• Awards
• Ask friends
• Create Link bait!
• Reviews
• Client Testimonials
• Broken Link Building
• Stalk Competitors for ideas
• Offers/coupons/deals
• Infographics
• Buyers Guides
• Calculators
• Trade Associations
• Local Media
• Local Charity
• National Charity
• Trade Events
• Sponsorship opportunities
• Quizzes

16. Why should I
Blog/Vlog/Podcast?

18. Because…
• Show Personality – increase engagement
• To communicate with existing clients
• Saves time, I use it as an archive to give the same answer again
• SEO
• It puts you ahead of your competitors
• Thought leadership/ Gains Trust
• Ensures you stay up to date
• Builds a community
• Forces creativity
• Adds value to your site
• It gives you content for your social media channels
• Supplies content for your email campaigns
• And more!!

20. How to come up with some ideas
• Subscribe to competitors
• Subscribe to industry related news
• Subscribe to professional bodies / services
• Create Google alerts on niche topics
• Thing about all the products/services you offer
• Keep notes of questions clients ask you
• What are your passions?
• Keep a journal/voice recorder
• Guest interviews

21. Types of content
• Blogs
• Interviews
• Case Studies
• Reviews
• Experiences
• Trends (Google trends/trendsmap)
• Vlogs
• Infographics
• Lists
• Content series
• White papers
• How to guides
• Surveys/ Polls
• Podcasts
• Top comments
• Quizzes
• Checklists
• History timelines
• Industry / events roundups
• Competitions
• FAQ’s
• eBooks
• Day in Life
• Seasonal Advice

23. Blog Commercial Case Studies

33. How to create an Editorial
Calendar?

34. Editorial Calendar sounds so complex…
• People think it needs to
be fancy and detailed
• Two advantages;
planning and
accountability
• There are lots of ways to
create an editorial
calendar, but let’s keep
it simple

35. Step 1: Make a list of key dates for the year
• Product launches
• Events / trade shows
• Marketing campaigns
• Promotions
• Holidays
• Sporting events
• Key milestones
• This date in history
• TV Programmes
• National Days / Weeks
• Charity Campaigns
• National Competitions
• Themed months?
• Patterns ( 4 blogs and 1
case study per month

36. Step 2: Add these to your Roadmap

37. Event Calendar Template https://goo.gl/fbYUx4

38. Step 3: Add these to your blog calendar

39. Blog Calendar Template https://goo.gl/eV8U0Y

40. Step 4: Measure success refine and keep to dates

41. Writing for your audience

42. Buyer Personas
• Alison, a Fund Manager in the South East
• More Details?
• Typical age range, Interests
• What media does she read
• how big are the companies she works for
• number of employees etc
• is it all sectors or focused on particular sectors/industries?

43. Personas & Target Audience:
• Company
○ Size (staff, turnover, profit)
○ Sector / Industry
○ Location
○ Values
○ Departments it will have

44. Person:
● Age
● Gender
● Location
● Education
● Job Title
● How is their job measured?
● Who do they report to?
● Their goals
● Their challenges
● Tools or they use or need for job
● How do they learn
● Kids? Car?
● Hobbies?
● What are their pain points
● Think keywords -what might they
search on google?

45. Exercise
Buyer Personas

46. What problems do they have?
• What are the industry hot debates
• What's in the news and in the media that they read most often
• What are your FAQs when you engage with clients?
• The questions your clients are asking are likely to be the same ones
they are also typing into Google

47. Exercise
What problems do
they have?

48. Blog Planning

49. Blog Planning
• How to plan
• Think about Target Audience
• Key Messages
• Types of content
• How and When to share
• What to link to (internal and external)

50. Creating Killer Blog Titles
Use the following tried and tested formulas
• Use a number (7 Secrets to success)
• Teach me (How To Do..)
• Ask a question (Are you king of twitter?)
• Talk to me (use you and your)
• Just say no (Don’t buy this)
• Use celebs/brands and popular trends (Pizza Express
is the winner – Email Marketing)
• Be controversial
• Make an unusual association (How Lemons help your
HR)

51. Exercise
Pick a persona, pick a
problem, decide on a
question they may ask
(that’s your blog
title!)

52. Blog Content Exercise
• What content needs to go into that blog post to
answer the question.
• It's about
• adding value
• benefitting customers
• giving them a reason to read - be constantly thinking "why
would they spend their valuable time reading this?" (as
opposed to getting their work done) Has to solve a problem
or help them!

53. Exercise
Content structure

54. Writing for purpose

55. What is the purpose?
• Is it to highlight a service?
• Is it to gather data?
• Is it to establish thought leadership in a particular
topic/area?
• Is it to add value for clients?
• Is it to show personality?

56. Exercise
What do you want the
customer to do once
they have read? What
are the CTA’s?

62. Distribution

63. Places to share
• Facebook Personal, Business
and Group
• Twitter Personal and Work
• LinkedIn Company page,
Personal Profile, Groups
• Email Campaigns
• YouTube
• Share buttons
• Guest Blogs
• Related Blog/Popular posts
• Annual Reports
• Mention individuals and
brands
• Internal comms, staff emails
etc
• Service/Product pages
• Events / Speaking
• Paid content distribution
(outbrain/onespot)
• Nurture relationships with
influencers
• Email Signatures

64. Have a plan
• Who is responsible for sharing?
• Do you have a sharing checklist?
• What time and what day do you want to share?
• Plan, plan and plan!

65. Check out my podcast
👇
The Jonny Ross Audio
Experience

66. Challenge me?
Does anyone want to challenge me, does anyone
think this is all a load of nonsense?
Let us know what you thought on our
Post Webinar Survey
Find me online
@jonnyross
LinkedIn/in/jonnyross