Experiences, insights, and recommendations in marketing an online blog.

1. Healthy @ College
http://healthyatcollege.blogspot.com
Presented by Sarah Ali
July 25, 2012

2. Why market online?

3. 70% of Canada is online and leading in engagement

4. Canada’s population well-represented across all:
• Ages
• Genders
• Income categories

5. Canadians online: social networks, entertainment, portals

6. What is the blog all about?

8. • Health tips for college
students
• Balance school, work,
family, social life - busy
• Lots of health
information on Internet –
but none aimed at
student lifestyle
• Tailor health tips to be
simple + convenient

9.  21 year old student
 Works part-time at Tim Hortons
 Babysits nephew two nights a
week
 Social & outgoing – loves going
out shopping, to the movies, etc.
 On-the-go and busy
 Wants to be healthier but has
little time
 Uses Internet for entertainment,
info, connecting with friends &
Sarah the college brands
student

10.  Vitamin D Deficiency?
 African Mango
Complete
 Top 5 Foods to Avoid at
Tim Hortons
 5 Healthiest Foods to
Eat at Tim Hortons
 Favourite Ways to Eat
Vegetables

11.  3 Best Potato Chip
Replacements
 Simple Tips for Eating Out
 Healthy Snacks: How to
Choose a Nutritious
Granola Bar
 The Best (And Easiest)
Superfoods for Weight
Loss
 Top 5 Reasons Why
Chocolate is Good for You

18. How did the blog perform?
What actions are recommended?

19. Blog metrics: Blog metrics:
Traffic & Stickiness
Key Metrics -
May 28 – June 11, 2012 June 12 – June 25, 2012

20. Blog metrics: Blog metrics:
Traffic & Stickiness
Key Metrics -
June 25 – July 9, 2012 July 10 – July 22, 2012

21.  Todrive visits, update
social media
• Update social media
frequently
 New content =
increased stickiness,
lowered bounce rate
• Post new blog content
frequently

22.  Make connections to
get traffic
• Be active in
communities and other
blogs
• Find affiliates
 Focus on avenues
that get best results
• Twitter, communities

23. Monthly 3-Month

24. Monthly 3-Month

25.  The more tweets, the
better
• Tweet a few times
every few hours
 To gain followers,
follow others
• Continuously find new
users to follow

26.  Shocking headlines
grab attention
• Phrase every tweet to
grab attention
 Tweeting others’
content is a must
• Retweet interesting
tweets & aggregate
content from around
the web

27.  Activityneeded by
company and
followers
• Encourage posting &
sharing on page
 Ask questions
 Ask for ideas
 Hold contests
 Trivia

28.  Facebook page
requires dedicated
following
• Increase number of
followers
 Easierto develop for
those active on
Facebook
• Develop a personal
Facebook network

29.  Bestused by video
creators
• Create and post videos
relevant to blog posts
 Videoscan make blog
posts more interesting
• Share videos related to
blog topics in posts

30.  Aggregation useful
when hard to find
quality videos
• For my topic, lots of
easily searchable info
on reputable channels
• If not, make playlists
for user as an
aggregator

32.  Comments, likes,
repins are highly
visible
• Like, repin & comment
to be seen
 Extremelyactive – a
sea of content
• Be active every few
hours to be seen

33.  To gain followers,
follow others
• Follow relevant pinners
& boards
 When a pin is
repinned, original
pinner is shown
• Post original pins to
increase visibility

34. How can I market online successfully?

35.  Blogcan stand alone  Research needs of
– posts are archived & target market more
searchable
 Get more personal
 Createmore
exclusive, original
content
 Promote more heavily
online

36.  Title  Images
• Keywords • Adds them to Google
• 70 – 120 characters Images
 Labels
• Relate to keywords
• Index  Links
• Create links within site • Outbound, inbound,
internal

37.  Body • Keywords in body
• 250-1000 words
• Keywords 2-4 times,
max 5% density
• Keywords in first
sentence
• Keywords in last
paragraph

39.  Top 10 sites:
• Yahoo! Health
• SELF Magazine
• Everyday Health
• Women’s Health
• Cosmopolitan
• Allure
• Elle
• Jezebel
• Perez Hilton
• Rate My Professors

40.  Monthlyblog themes  Twitter
on broad topics • Focus on tweeting
• ie. superfoods, theme-related content
snacking
• Tie in with newsletter  Youtube
• Make a playlist of
 Facebook relevant videos
• Post content on theme
• Ask questions  Pinterest
• Encourage sharing • Create board for theme

41. Useful updates, exclusive info, calls to action – provide reasons to subscribe

42. Use pitchengine.com to release press releases to spread around web

43. Use keywords & tags, integrate content, make it concise, fun to read

44.  Applies to blog for any
convenient, healthy
packaged foods,
snacks, restaurants,
etc.
• Niche market
 Requires building a
large readership
 Join affiliate networks
 Sponsored
reviews/contests

45. Create a widget to make blog easy to follow –
on-the-go & busy target market

46. Create a mobile version of blog for
accessibility anywhere

47. • Online marketing extremely powerful
• Know & cater to your target market
• Become an expert – content is king
• Drive traffic – social media, SEO, ads, affiliates, PR
• Measure metrics & statistics and learn from them

48. “If the web is indeed a place, it is starting to
look less like a library, and more like a river.”
- Peter Da Vanzo
(SEO expert & creator of searchengineblog.com)