This document discusses the significance of blogging within the content marketing landscape, emphasizing the need for effective strategies to create engaging content that aligns with business goals and builds brand awareness. It highlights the importance of understanding the target audience, crafting compelling content, and optimizing for SEO to drive traffic and generate leads. Overall, it positions blogging as a crucial element for establishing authority, trust, and long-term relationships with customers.

2. Why Blog ?
Intro
Two Peas in a Pod:
Blogging and Content Marketing
Identifying Your Target Audience(s)
Getting Down to Business:
The Blogging Process
Don’t leave them Hanging:
the Importance of CTAs
Building your Audience
Guest Blogging
Conclusion
05
04
09
08
14
20
22
24
27

3. TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Editing
Hana Abaza
Writing & Research
Aaliyah Madadi
Graphic Design
Quentin Zancanaro
<

4. Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing4
BLOGGING
IN THE AGE
OF
CONTENT
MARKETING
Where do you find the time to write?
Whatresourcesdoyouneed?Howdo
you manage and measure your con-
tent?
Whether you are new to blogging or
have been doing it for years, over the
course of the following chapters you
will find insight regarding best prac-
tices for executing a comprehensive
blogging strategy.
Even though blogs have been around
foralmosttwodecades(weblogs any-
one?),they’veonlyrecentlybeenseen
as an important tool for brands. Pre-
viously considered a “nice-to-have”
rather than a “must-have”, blogs are
now a proven, cost-effective market-
ing channel for driving leads and gen-
erating customers - if done well.
To become an effective blogger, you
must create strong content that’s
alignedwithyourbusinessgoals,pub-
lish it regularly and promote it effec-
tively. But what do you write about?

5. 5Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing
WHY BLOG?
Perhaps you’re thinking about
starting your own business blog or
maybe you already have one and are
looking to take it to the next level.
Regardless of your reasons for
reading this eBook right now, it’s
important that we take a minute to
understand and define the value and
significance of effective ­business
blogging in today’s digital world.
1

6. Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing6
Brand Awareness
Assuming that you’ve got the ­pieces
aligned to write great content for
a targeted audience (don’t worry,
we’ll walk through this), blogs are
a phenomenal avenue for building
brand awareness. Interesting and
relevant blog content can have a
wide reach and although your
contentwon’texplicitlydiscussyour
brand and products/services, your
brand’snameandlogowillbe­apparent
and associated with the content you
produce. Producing high quality con-
tentandsharingitwithyour­audience
and influencers means that your
brand’snamewillbesharedacrossthe
web for more people to see, thereby
increasing your brand awareness.
SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
is a big beast to tackle and would
make for an entire eBook on its own;
however, what’s important to know
about SEO is that a blog is one of the
easiest low-hanging fruits for build-
ing your SEO strategy. Since your
blog lives on your website, you can
and should be writing content which
­incorporates strategic keywords
thatare­importanttoyourcompany’s
SEO and Search Engine Results Page
(SERP)­rankings.Asyourcontentdrives
more and more traffic to your site,
searchengineswillbegintorankyour
site with higher authority which will
increase your SEO and SERP results.
Furthermore, search engines crawl
andindexeverypageandkeywordon
your website – and that includes any
new blog pieces you publish. Using
targeted keywords within your con-
tentmeansthatyourpiecewillappear
higher in SERP results when people
are searching for a particular topic.
Check out this piece for a
step-by-step guide to creating an
effective SEO keyword strategy.
Shareable content
via blog impacts
SEO as current
digital landscape changing –
social SEO helps from that
perspective.
2.
1.

7. 7Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing
Thought
Leadership
Greatcontentproducesauthorityand
trust with your audience. Over time,
your readers will associate your in-
teresting, relevant, and informative
contentwithyourbrand.Buildingthis
rapportandrelationshipwithyourau-
dienceisinvaluableasyouworktodrive
thesepeoplefurtherdownthefunnel.
Qualified Leads
Assumingthatyourbloglivesonyour
company’swebsite(whichitdefinitely
should), your content will ultimately
pull a targeted audience of ­potential
buyers directly to your website!
Soundsprettyawesome,right?­Forget
foramomentthesignificantSEOben-
efitsthatthistrafficwillbring–you’ve
ultimately got a group of people on
your website that you’ve identified
as being your target audience (as
determinedbyyourstrategiccontent
creation), who now trust your brand
asathought-­leader,andhaveagaping
problem/pain point in their lives that
your product/service can solve. Yes –
donecorrectly,yourblogcanbeasignif-
icantdriverofleadsforyourcompany!
Another way to think of blogging
(and content marketing as a whole),
is as a relationship. Through your
content, you’re taking the time
to build a relationship with your
audience, showing them that you
understand who they are, what
they’re interested in, what they’re
struggling with, and why they can
trust you. Unlike the old school
hard-salesapproach(doesaused-car
salesman come to mind?), content
marketing and blogging is all about
building a genuine relationship with
your audience – one that’s built on
a strong foundation of trust and
reliability.
Instead of trying to hit a home run
on the first date, content marketing
is a long term approach that is built
off layers of conversation and trust.
When a connection is built and a
relationship secured (i.e. a lead is
generated), you can bet it’s been
built out of love, not infatuation...
or coercion.
3.
4.

8. Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing8
TWO PEAS
IN A POD:
BLOGGING
AND
CONTENT
MARKETING
Now that we have a strong
understanding of the im-
portance and power of blogs in the
realm of content marketing, let’s
dive in and learn how we can create
a blog and a killer blogging strategy!
2
Bloggingandcontentmarketingtruly
gohand-in-hand.Yourblogshouldbe
the central nervous system of your
entire content marketing strategy: it
is the home for all your content and
the portal for your target audience
to learn and engage with your brand.
Regardless of the type of content
you’re producing (blog posts, vid-
eos, infographics, eBooks, white-
papers), your blog is the home and
Hub of all your content. You want
to keep your audience engaged and
interested in all the different types
of content you produce (you know,
to keep nurturing the relationships
you’ve worked so hard to build), and
agoodblogisexactlytheplacewhere
this relationship building happens.

9. 9Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing
IDENTIFYING
YOUR
TARGET
AUDIENCE(S)
Before you actually begin the con-
tent brainstorming and creation pro-
cess, it’s absolutely imperative that
you have a strong understanding of
who you’re speaking to: who’s your
audience, what type of people are
they, what do they like/dislike, what
pain points do they experience...the
ability to answer detailed questions
such as these allows you to create
content that speaks directly to your
target consumer. Since the goal is to
engage with people that are most
inclinedtobecomecustomers,thefirst
step is to understand who they are
and then to effectively communicate
with them through awesome content.
3

10. Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing10
Creating Your
Audience Personas
To write compelling content for your audience, you need to know every-
thing about them. According to HubSpot, your audience personas should be
“semi-fictional characters that represent your dream ­customers.” The key
thing to remember is that they are characters – an identity that you ­create
rather than one that’s based off real ­people. You want to be detailed in your
description and include facts about both their personal and professional
lives such that you paint a clear ­picture of the person(s) you’re speaking to.
Consider including facts such as:
1.
Personal and
professional
goals
Demographics
Personal and
professional
pain points Behaviour
characteristics++
+ +

11. 11Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing
Make sure to include a picture
along with your ­character ­personas;
you want to make the ­profile as
­detailed and realistic as possible so every
person in your company can ­visualize
and empathize with the character.
IDENTIFIERS
- Busy managing marketing activities
- Approachable
- May have a small team, buys into
corporate culture
HOW WE HELP
- Make it easy to create a central
destination for customers
- Provide metrics to see what
content is effective
DEMOGRAPHICS
- Skews female
- Age 25 to 35
GOALS
- Keep her boss happy (metrics)
- Keep customers happy
- Wants to learn
BACKGROUND
- Marketing Manager at Targetly
- Works for Jimmy, she’s the doer
- Experience in marketing; still
learning digital marketing
landscape
CHALLENGES
- She doesn’t know what’s working
- Doesn’t know where to invest her
time and budget
- No time to create content, several
approval steps
- Planning and communication
isn’t great
NIKKI

12. Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing12
If you’ve ever had the ­opportunity
to watch a keynote ­presentation
by Joe Pulizzi, he most likely spoke
of the importance of ­creating
a ­content marketing mission
statement. Joe explains that
Especially if you’re just starting out
in content marketing, building a
mission statement is a great way to
narrow the scope of your ­strategy;
it will help you understand who your
target audience is, what you should
deliver to that audience, and how it
affectsthem.Ultimately,this­mission
statement will guide you to ­create
and deliver the right content to your
audience, and to eliminate ones
that don’t advance your end goals.
In simple terms, the mission
statement must answer the
question, “Why do we exist?”
Example :
“The Uberflip Hub is a place where
­marketerscanfind­useful­information,
advice, resources and inspiration to
becomea­top-notchmarketersthatget
results - ­whether that means increas-
ing leads, brand awareness or your
­bottom line, we’ve got you covered.”
With your buyer personas
and content marketing mis-
sion statement defined, you now
have a strong understanding of
the exact audience you’re writing
for and the value you will provide
them with your content. For every
piece of content you create, always
keep your buyer personas in mind
and vet the content against your
mission statement; the goal is to
ensure that every piece of con-
tent communicates well with
your target audience and that it’s
aligned with their needs and wants.
Joe explains that a strong content
marketing mission statement
­consists of 3 key components:
Your core target audience
(as defined by your audience
personas)
Content Marketing
Mission Statement
2.
What will be ­delivered to
your audience through your
content
The outcome for your
­audience

13. LEARN MORE ABOUT
TOSUPERCHARGEYOURCONTENTMARKETING
Uberflip lets you organize and
centralize all of your content
into one beautiful, responsive
and social site – attaching strong
Call-to-Actions that convert
leads into customers directly
from your content experience.
Mobile in minutes - instantly make your content mobile
Sprinkle relevant CTAs throughout your content to generate leads
Measure which content turns leads into customers
Create targeted content streams for specific topics or personas
Try it FREE

14. Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing14
One of the biggest pain points for
content marketers is coming up with
blog topics to write. An easy way to
circumventthisissueistothestayon
top of what’s buzzing in your indus-
try. Set aside 30 minutes every day
to read popular blogs, news sources,
and social media for trends and con-
versationstakingplace.Makenoteof
articlesyouenjoyedreadingorpieces
that received a high volume of social
shares.You’llquicklyfindthatstaying
currentwithindustrynewswillallow
youtohaveyourfingeronthepulseof
what your audience is talking about.
Use these topics as a starting point
for your own blog content and think
about unique angles or ­perspectives
you can provide. Your audience isn’t
interestedinrepeatedly­readingabout
the same topic, so this is where cre-
ativity is important. Think about how
youcanprovideadditionalviewpoints
or how you can elaborate on exist-
ing perspectives in a compelling way.
GETTING
DOWN
TO BUSINESS:
THE
BLOGGING
PROCESS
4
Topic Inspiration1.

15. 15Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing
Another good strategy is to keep a document handy where you
can record blog ideas as they come. It’s handy to have a bank
of ideas readily available when you need them. Once you have
your topic selected, give yourself some time to simply think
about it – let it soak in your
mind and allow yourself to explore
different ­angles of the topic. You’ll
be surprised how much this process
of actively thinking about your piece
will flesh out your ­arguments and let
you quickly nail the important aspects.
Need Inspiration?
Herearesome(free)toolstogetitgoing.
Portent Idea generator
Thinkoutsideoftheboxbeforecreat-
inganytypeofcontent.Portentoffersa
keyboard-basedgeneratoroftitlesfor
potentialcontentpieces.Price:Free.
Pocket
Save articles, videos or pretty much
anything into Pocket. Save direct-
ly from your desktop browser or
from any mobile device. Price: Free.
Feedly
An RSS reader that lets you easi-
ly track, organize and read content
from different sources. Price: Free.
Google Trends
Google Trends shows you what’s
popular with Google searchers in
real time and in the past - great
for making content decisions
based on actual data. Price: Free.
MindNode
Keep track of your brainstorming
sessions on any device, including
iPad, iPhone, and Mac. Price: $9.99.

16. Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing16
Blog titles are the first thing your
audienceseesandthe­effectivenessof
your title will make or break whether
they continue reading or move on to
another piece. ­Especially with social
media, a good title is the key for
getting people to click on your link
and read your content. However,
despite knowing the impact that
blog titles have on engagement,
they are often the most difficult part
of your piece to develop. Here are
some tips for writing effective blog
headlines to engage your audience
and get them to read your piece.
Instructional Titles:
People love reading articles that
teach them how to improve and
learn more about a topic. If your
blog post offers ­instructional
­insight about a particular topic,
­consider the following types of titles:
- How To Create Engaging Titles
- Tips for Creating Engaging Titles
- Top 10 Ways to Create Engaging
Titles
Titles that begin
with “How-To”,
“Tips for” and “Top
10” (or any other number), are
effective ways of indicating that
the reader is going to learn useful
information from your piece.
Ask Questions:
Questions are a great way to catch
your audience’s attention and entice
them to read beyond your title. The
best questions are ones that your
audience is already thinking about
as it will encourage them to ­discover
answers by reading your piece.
Pulling Them In:
Headline Pointers
2.

17. 17Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing
Short Titles:
To optimize your audience’s engage-
ment,makesureblogtitlesaren’ttoo
lengthy.Ageneralruleistokeepyour
titles at 8 words or less…more than
thisandyourisklosingyouraudience
before they even get to your piece.
Transparency:
Make sure your audience can
­quickly extract the main point of
your piece from the title. ­Sometimes
­writers get carried away with crafty
and creative titles that ultimately
leave readers confused. Especially
with pieces that are shared across
­social media, you need a headline
that readers can quickly digest.
Test them Out:
Tryoutdifferentvariationsoftitlesand
test their success. Depending on the
typeofcontentyou’rewritingandthe
preferences of your ­audience, you’ll
start to notice trends in ­engagement.
Assuming that the quality of your
pieces are comparable, you can
partly attribute engagement to the
different types of titles you’re using.
Check your analytics and
analyze the historic page
viewandclick-throughratesofyour
blogs.Whatareyourtopblogposts
andaretheresimilaritiesinthetypes
oftitlesyouused?Isaparticulartitle
format driving more engagement
thanothers?Bylookinghistorically
through your posts, you can start
to track trends in engagement and
optimize future posts accordingly.

18. Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing18
Set a timer for 45 minutes and close
all unnecessary windows on your
­computer, including chats and email.
If you want to get the piece done
quickly, it’s important to minimize
distractions that can lead you astray.
Thesenext45minutesaren’tthetime
to ­multitask between different proj-
ects – not only will
it take more time
towriteyourpiece,
the content could
alsoappearfragmentedsinceyouaren’t
writing with the same frame of mind.
Choose to write your pieces during
a time of day where you’re most
­productive.Perhapsyou’reamorning
person and prefer to write pieces
at the beginning of the day before
Don’t allow yourself to get bogged
downbywritingtheperfectsentence
orusingglamorouswords–justfocus
on writing the piece and getting all
your ideas down first. Then you can
always go back to edit and revise if
necessary.Writersgenerallyfeelstuck
whenthey’rethinkingtoohardabout
Finding
the Time to Write
3.
you get busy with other priorities.
Some people might like to write at
the end of the day, just before they
head out. Find the time that works
best for you and try to stick to it.
Now comes the easy part…writing!

19. 19Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing
the topic or the writing process,
and that simply won’t work when
you have a short 45 minute dead-
line. You can always go back and
make the necessary ­grammatical,
structural, and design changes,
but first you need the content.
If you’ve hit a road
bump and simply
can’t find the words to get down
on the page, the best thing you can
do is to take a short break from
writing and come back to it later
with a renewed energy. It happens
to the best of us so don’t fret –
better that you revisit the piece
in a few hours then try to pump
out content that just doesn’t work.
of people read
blogs more than
once a day.
Check out :
Where is Your Content Hiding?
Content Marketing Hack: 5 Tips
for Dealing With Writer’s Block
How to Create Great Content
With Limited Resources
(HubSpot Science of Blogging 2010)

20. Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing20
You’ve done your research and
(efficiently) created a well-writ-
ten and informative blog piece for
your audience. Through your buyer
persona analysis, you know exactly
whoyou’rewritingforandhowtobest
engage them. Your content market-
ing mission statement has ensured
thatyourpieceaddsvaluetoyourau-
dience and delivers on the content
promise you’re making to them.
You’ve driven your target audience
to your blog and they’re reading
your content...but now what?
This is your chance to contin-
ue building a relationship with
your audience but before that
can happen, you’ve got to initiate
the next step. This is where a ‘Call
to Action’ (CTA) comes into play.
DON’T LEAVE
THEM
HANGING
THE
IMPORTANCE
OF CTAS
5
CTAs come in many forms – it could be
a button on the side of your blog pro-
voking readers to subscribe for updates:

21. 21Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing
Or perhaps it’s a banner at the end of your blog piece
­compelling readers towards a lead-generation content
piece, such as an eBook
Every CTA you create should always reflect one of
your content marketing goals. Perhaps you’d like to
increase eBook readership or blog subscriptions.
Maybe you want to drive signups to a product demo
or upcoming conference. Whatever the case may be,
make sure you’re creating CTAs for strategic reasons.
Second, your CTA must be actionable. It’s important
that you clearly tell your audience what you’d like them
to do. A good CTA should be no longer than two sen-
tences and should clearly state what action you want
your reader to take. Remember not to overwhelm
your audience with too many CTAs – depending on
the length of your piece and the design of your site,
aim to have between 1 to 3 CTAs on any given page.
But don’t forget...

22. Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing22
We’ve walked through the process
of creating effective, targeted
content – now we’ll learn how you
can use your content to build
your content marketing audience.
Frequency
Thetopicofbloggingfrequencyoften
sparksthe‘quantityvs.quality’debate:
does posting content frequently
­sacrifice content quality? Quality
contentshouldalwaysbeyourfirstand
foremost goal. Yes, there is ­definitely
anintricatebalancebetween­quantity
and quality, and if posting more
­frequentlybeginstocompromisethe
quality of your work, then definitely
scalebackonfrequencyandfocuson
writingmoredetailed,well-researched,
and thought-provoking pieces.
However, the ideal scenario is to
­frequentlypublishhigh-qualitypieces.
BUILDING
YOUR
AUDIENCE
6

23. 23Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing
Content Distribution
The more frequently you post, the
morecontentthereistodrivepeople
to your site. Try experimenting with
posting at different frequencies per
day. You’ll most likely find a correla-
tion between frequency and traffic
to your blog, but play around and try
to find that sweet spot. For example,
perhaps posting 7 pieces a week
drives double the amount of traffic
than posting 5 pieces, but posting 10
piecesaweekfailstodriveasubstan-
tial increase in traffic or leads. Keep
track of your metrics and don’t be
afraidtoplayaroundandgetcreative.
Content marketing is an ­iterative
process which means you should
always be experimenting and trying
new tactics, with a keen eye towards
analyzing and adjusting your tactics.
Without spending too much time
focusing on social media strategies
in this eBook, it’s important to note
that social media is a phenomenal
tool for content distribution.
Use your social channels
to engage in conversation
surroundingthecontentyou’ve
created and share it with your
audience.
When sharing content, mention the
author in your tweets so they also
share the piece with their audience.
Also share with people or companies
that are mentioned within a piece of
content as well as key influencers in
yourindustry.Youwanttobestrategic
aboutthis,however,asyoudon’twant
tobombardthesameinfluencerswith
content over and over again. Share
different pieces with different influ-
encers,basedontheirexpertiseand
interests;shareitwiththembecause
your content will add value to their
lifeand/orthelivesoftheir­audience.
By approaching content marketing
withagenuinedesiretoprovidevalue
for your audience, people will be
happytoreadandshareyourcontent.
Check out:
Hootsuite
ClickToTweet
TapInfuence
Buffer

24. Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing24
Guest blogging can be an effective
approach for building awareness
and credibility for your brand. Start
your guest blogging strategy by iden-
tifying the influential blogs that your
target audience reads. Most influen-
tial blogs accept guest submissions
and this is a fantastic way to get your
contentandbrandtoawideraudience.
Incorporate guest blogging into your
contentstrategyandsubmitexclusive,
well-­written, and strategic content
to these blogs. Content on sites like
thiscaneasilyyieldacouplehundred
socialsharesinasingleday;makesure
you strategically incorporate back
linksinyourcontentbodyandbio,and
include references to your brand if
appropriate (don’t do a sales pitch!).
Over time, guest blogging can raise
brand awareness with your target
audience and positions you as a
thought-leaderonkeyindustryoutlets
–nottomentiontheSEObenefitsofa
popularbloglinkingbacktoyoursite.
Also consider opening your blog up
to guest writers. Remember that
you likely won’t get much traction
with guest blogging until you’ve in-
creased your brand awareness and
audience. All of this takes time and
patience so don’t fret if people aren’t
rushingtosubmitpiecestoyourblog.
As you continue your content
marketing strategy and post
on larger blogs, guest blogger
­submissions will start to trickle in.
GUEST
BLOGGING
7

25. 25Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing
Forblogmanagementtobestress-free,
youneedtohaveanorganizedcontent
calendar. Uberflip’s content calendar
is planned for a few months ahead
and we schedule our writers based
on the frequency they’ve ­committed
to writing. Keep in mind that your
writers have different ­expertise,
styles of writing, and themes that
they cover. As a result, it’s important
to plan your calendar accordingly so
that the authors and topics in any
given week are varied and diverse.
Being organized doesn’t mean being
rigid – in reality, your calendar rarely
stays exactly as planned. ­Impromptu
content may be written based on
industry news or writers may fall
short of meeting their deadlines.
The important thing is to be flexible
to such changes in your schedule.
Managing
your Blog
1.

26. Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing26
Ifyouwanttohaveareallystellarblog,
never forget your audience. What
engagesthem?Whatcontentdothey
share? Which pieces do they spend
the most time on? Knowing these
facts is part of your role as content
manager and can be one of the most
interesting and rewarding parts. Yes,
blog content is important for SEO
andamillionotherreasons,butatthe
simple core of it, your blog is nothing
ifyoudon’thaveanengagedaudience.
GUEST BLOGGING
Know
your Audience
3.
Whatarethekeysforensuringthatall
your writers are engaged and writing
thequalitypiecesyourblogdeserves?
You need to be flexible and accommo-
dating.You’llquicklygettoknowyour
writers and their styles: some might
write 2 pieces when they only need
one,somemightsubmittheirpostthe
morning it’s due, while others might
simplymisstheirdeadline…thepointis
thatyoulearnhowyourteammembers
operate and that you’re strategic in
accommodating them. As mentioned
before,youneedtobeflexibleifthings
don’tworkoutthewayyouanticipated.
Managing
your Writers
2.

27. 27Blogging in the Age of Content Marketing
CONCLUSION
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Launch Flipbook
*Blogging is a long-term strategic
journey that can increase traffic,
establish a steady stream of leads
and customers, and increase
engagement with your brand.
While getting started can be daunt-
ing, take it step by step, consistently
investing time and energy into your
blog. By following these 7 steps, you
willcertainlybuildastrongfoundation
foryourbusiness,andcanrestassured
that the processes and tactics you
implemented will pay off over time.
So what are you waiting for? Happy
blogging!

28. CURIOUS
ABOUT
Check out how Uberflip can
supercharge your blog.
?
LEARN MORE