Ace your next B2B blog article

Ace Your Next
B2B Blog Article
We hope you enjoy this presentation!
WestebbeMarketing.com

Contents
This presentation discusses the following topics:
Homework is the Foundation •
Define Your Blog Article’s Goal •
Using the SMART Framework •
Understanding Your Reader •
Narrow Your Target Audience •
How Audience Personas are Helpful •
Article Topics and Questions •
Blog Frequency Matters •
Setting Your Article’s Guidelines •
Ace Your Next B2B Blog Article

While there are many articles about pre-
planning your overall blog website, there
are almost none about pre-planning
for individual articles—which is the writer’s
primary concern.
Introduction This Presentation Is For:
This presentation is for
writers, bloggers and
marketers who wants
concrete guidance on
writing engaging, effective
blog articles.
Are you ready to start writing your next blog article?
Before you even put pen to paper, or open up a new computer
file, do you have a process that will get you optimal results?
This presentation shares all the things you need to create
articles that engage the right readers and convert leads.

Homework Is The Foundation.
You may hate homework, but it’s the foundation of an
effective B2B article. Scoring an A+ on your post will deliver:
• Higher Quality Content
• Better Engagement
• More Targeted Leads
• Higher Conversion Rates
The quality of an article drives readership,
subscriptions, and click through rates--not SEO,
not links, not guest writers.
Your job as a writer is to
produce high-quality content
that is valuable to your reader.
Period.

What Is Your Article’s Purpose?
If you can answer four questions prior
to writing each article, you’ll be able to
produce high-quality, meaningful
content for your readers.
You’ll not only get a passing grade, but
the highest grade in the class.
Answer these 4 Homework Questions:
1. What are your goals?
2. Who is your audience?
3. How will you develop your topic?
4. What are your guidelines?

What is Your Article’s Goal?
Setting clear goals is a priority.
Without vision and tactics, you’ll just be taking a
shot in the dark.
Your goals will help you determine:
• The appropriate writing style
• Relevant topics and subtopics
• The best type and source of Information and data
• Other important details
Get Buy-in
Whether you are writing for a client or
team member, you’ll need to discuss
exactly what they want the blog to
accomplish and then keep these goals
top-of-mind.

The SMART Framework
Why is the SMART framework effective?
SMART can help businesses plan, execute,
analyze, and follow-up on projects and
larger programs.
For Blog Writers: Ongoing usage can help
you refine your blog program and articles
over time. For example, you can determine
which topics got the most traffic or
converted the most leads.
Many B2B, as well as B2C companies, use
the SMART framework to create definitive
goals and can be executed effectively.
The well-known SMART framework
can help you write and deliver high-
quality articles.

• ASSIGNED/AGREED UPON:
All stakeholders (managers, clients, designers) should agree on
the blogging goals, including deadlines and responsibilities.
• SPECIFIC: Attract high-quality leads by
setting specific, well-defined article
parameters. Use “who, what, where,
when, and why” factors as guides.
• MEASURABLE/METRICS: Define the metrics
and key indicators you will use to track the
progress of your blog articles, such as:
• How many blogs will you do a month?
• How many subscribers do you need?
• How successful are your calls-to-action?
SMART Goals Are:

SMART Goals (Continued)
• REALISTIC: Set realistic goals that
take into account your time and
resources.
• Do you have writers available?
• Do you have the budget?
• Are there competing projects?
• TIMELINE: Set a specific end-date for
achieving the goals. Include deadlines and
assignments for planning, publishing, analysis,
and reporting. Again, take into consideration
your other responsibilities, available
resources, and competing priorities.

Turn Dumb Goals into SMART Goals:
Turning undefined (DUMB) goals for your blog into
SMART goals might look like this:
Goals Dumb Blogging Goals SMART Blogging Goals
Subscriptions Increase subscriptions to the blog. Increase subscriptions 5% by Aug. 1.
Leads Get more leads for the sales force. Get 20 highly qualified leads each month.
Likes Increase sharing on social media. Get 100 shares each month.
Clicks Improve click-through rates. Increase click-through rates by 20% by Oct. 30.

Who Are You Writing For?
Digital marketing is all about creating a positive
user experience and building relationships with
customers.
But what does that mean to a blog writer?
In an attempt to reach a large audience,
bloggers often write for a broad audience
(actually, several segments that are combined).
However, customers are not monolithic—so
this approach backfires.
Trying to appeal to everyone reduces the
article’s power and focus. This decreases the
user experience and inhibits engagement.
Broad Targets:
Targeting an article to an overly broad
group may get more leads… But they
will not convert well.

Narrow Your Audience.
Ditch the broad audience. Instead, establish
several narrow, well-defined profiles of key
groups that are important to your
organization.
Narrowing your target group will:
• Make it easier to develop the right topics
• Write in a relatable, appropriate way
• Attract and engage the right people
• Increase conversion
And most important: You’ll provide a positive
user experience.
Narrow Targets:
Targeting an article to a narrower group,
may result in fewer leads…
But they will be higher quality leads.
A Better Approach

Narrow Your Audience -- Example
Example Company: Caring Diagnostics
A mid-sized manufacturer with 2 lines of medical equipment, one
for labs (LabCare) and one for bedside care (PointCare).
Product Stakeholders Sales Lead Time
LabCare: A 60-pound table-top
machine used by hospitals and
independent labs
Lab supervisors, technicians,
higher-level managers,
purchasing department
6 mos. – 1 year
PointCare: A lightweight, point-
of-care device used by at
bedside by nurses and other
medical staff
Nurse managers, nursing
staff at hospitals and clinics
Less than 6 months
Caring
Diagnostics

Focus Your Audience
Question: Can you talk to the stakeholders for
LabCare and PointCare the same way?
Answer: No, you can’t! It goes beyond the
different products they use. It gets personal:
• They have different demographics
• Their job concerns and pain points vary
• Purchases have different influencers and
decision-makers
• Their professional interests vary
• Their sources of information will be different
LabCare PointCare
The Challenge
If you try to appeal to stakeholders for both
LabCare and PointCare—and the various
stakeholders within each product—using
the same topics and writing styles--you’ll
end up with watered down articles.
You’re articles won’t really be interesting,
suitable, or valuable to anyone.
Caring
Diagnostics

How to Focus Your Audience
SMBs can’t please everyone.
Fact:
Successful blogging requires that articles be
published to specific target groups on a fairly
frequent basis—at least weekly or bi-weekly.
Some say daily.
Problem:
However, creating ongoing blog articles requires
a certain amount of time, expertise, and budget.
There’s no way a typical SMB company such as
Caring Diagnostics could keep up with that kind of
schedule for all stakeholders for both products.
The Solution?
The best option: Focus on up to
several key audiences and closely
defining them with “Buyer Personas.”

The Purpose of Buyer Personas
What is a buyer persona?
Each persona is a semi-fictional representation
of an ideal customer based on market research
and data about your existing customers.
A Combined Portrait:
Personas are not based on one specific
customer. They are a combined portrait that
reflects your desired target population.
Addressing a specific persona, helps you relate
to your audience’s thoughts and behaviors—
and write accordingly.

• Relatability: Personas help you relate to
your ideal customer’s thoughts, interests,
and behaviors—so you can write copy that
is more relevant and valuable to them.
• Style: You can communicate to each
segment using their own professional
language and style, making them
comfortable and receptive to your articles.
• Trust: By writing well-written articles that
address the persona’s concerns and answer
their questions, you build trust and
thought-leadership.
• Messaging: By knowing each customer
segment’s pain points, you can correctly adjust
messaging and content.
• Alignment: An in-depth understanding of your
audience helps you to determine high-
performing that align with marketing goals.
Benefits of Writing Using Personas:

Example 1: Buyer Personas for Caring Diagnostics
Caring Diagnostics Buyer Persona 1—Matthew, Medical
Laboratory Manager at an independent laboratory:
• Product: LabCare
• Demographics: Matthew is 55 years old with a degree in
medical technology.
• Relevant responsibilities: Matthew coordinates the day-to-day activities in the lab; ensures the
quality of data; purchases lab supplies; recommends capital (and automated) equipment to
higher-level decision-makers.
• Professional Values: Matthew values attention to detail and the department’s capacity to
function smoothly in a stressful, high-paced environment.
• Frustrations: Inefficient processes; dealing with equipment that isn’t reliable or requires a high
degree of maintenance.
• Priorities: Quality of data; consistent results; data reporting capabilities. Quick answers to
technical questions about equipment and rapid response to maintenance issues.

Caring Diagnostics Buyer Persona 2 —Joan, Nurse
Manager at a mid-sized hospital:
• Product: PointCare
• Demographics: Joan is a 40 year old with a Master’s of
Science in Nursing.
• Relevant responsibilities: Joan supervises nursing staff and oversees patient care; makes
management and budgetary decisions; evaluates and recommends point-of-care equipment.
• Professional Values: Nursing expertise, patient management and ability to communicate with
physicians and other medical professionals.
• Frustrations: Outdated equipment that hampers patient care and is de-motivational for nursing
staff; inability to get diagnostic results quickly.
• Priorities: Quality of patient care; speed, ease-of-use, and reliability of point-of-care
equipment; the ability to easily restock one-time-use items as needed.
Example 2: Buyer Personas for Caring Diagnostics

Personas Focus Our Writing For A Narrow Audience
• Differences: Matthew and Joan have different responsibilities, values, frustrations and priorities.
• Broad vs. Narrow: You can try to write a broad article that speaks to the needs of both Joan and
Matthew, but it’s probably more effective to write one for Joan and a separate one for Matthew.
• Effective Writing: Now that you have a picture in your mind of your two personas, you have more
clues for effectively choosing topics, data, tone, presentation, and calls-to-action that will be
relevant to each of them.
What Writers Learn from Buyer Personas for Matthew and Joan:

Frequency Matters
Each persona should from hear from you consistently.
Staying with the example of Care Diagnostics, they may decide that
they can realistically do two blogs per week, one “LabCare Blog” for
Matthew’s persona, and one “PointCare Blog” for Joan’s persona.
If Care Diagnostics can realistically do just one article a week, other options might include:
• 2 blogs, 2 personas, bi-weekly: Alternate writing articles for two separate blogs, a LabCare
Blog and PointCare Blog, writing for each audience every other week.
• 1 blog, 1 persona, weekly: Select just one persona and do either a weekly LabCare Blog or a
weekly PointCare Blog.
• 1 blog, 2 personas: Create a single “Care Diagnostics Blog” that alternates between publishing
articles for Matt and for Joan. This might be less focused but more flexible.

What Question Should You Address?
Each topic should answer a specific question.
The process of selecting an article topic dovetails nicely
with the items we’ve already discussed.
1. SMART: It should support the SMART goals identified
by you and your marketing team or client.
2. Narrow Focus: It should address a specific, narrowly
defined issue that is relevant to your reader, as
represented by a buyer persona.
3. Frequency: Timeliness is important, too; any data you
present should be current and from a reliable source.

How to Select a Focus for Your Topic
Here are some quick ideas for identifying topics:
• Industry Blogs: Get inspired by scanning your
favorite industry blogs and reader comments.
• Customers: Interview a sales person to find out the
questions customers are asking.
• Past Successes: Find out what topics have been
successful for you in the past.
• Google: Enter a topic in Google and check the
“People also ask” box in the search results.
• Subscriber: Survey your existing blog subscribers.
• Social Media: Check out social media conversation,
especially LinkedIn groups.
Remember a Writer’s # 1
Priority: Provide high-quality
information and insights that
will improve your readers’
lives and solve a key problem.

Article Guidelines
Don’t Start Writing Until…Whether you are writing the article for
your own business or writing a blog for a client, certain details must
established right from the start.
Why have Guidelines? Certain items must be understood and agreed
upon by everyone involved. If not, you will be editing copy over and
over again, possibly missing deadlines, getting frustrated, and
generally wasting your most precious commodity—time.
1. Due date
2. Approval Process
3. Keywords or phrases
4. Word count
5. Specific “must have” data
6. Points to cover / Outline
7. Tone or “voice”
8. Relevant sources
Important Guideline Areas

Do Your Homework for an A+ Article
Homework Summary
Here are the steps that will take you from start to finish, with
results that will take you to the top of the class.
1. Set clear goals for each article.
2. Use the SMART framework to set goals, define responsibilities
and timeframe, analyze the results, and refine your process.
3. Narrowly focus your target audience
4. Create your buyer personas
5. Set a blogging schedule to reach each persona
6. Determine your topics and specific questions your article will answer
7. Develop a set of guidelines you will use for each artile

Contact Westebbe Marketing
For Expert Copywriting & Content Marketing:
• Websites
• Blogs
• Inbound Campaigns
• White Papers & Presentations
• Marketing & Sales Collateral
Creative Content for Strategic Marketers
Amy Westebbe, Principal
Publishing frequent, high-quality blog articles requires planning,
thought, and your most precious resource: time. Consider
outsourcing your blog articles and other content to Westebbe
Marketing for supercharged results.
Amy@WestebbeMarketing.com
(617) 699-4462
We Hope You Found This Useful!
What’s Your Next Step?

Your opinion matters to us.
We welcome your feedback and questions!
Email: Amy@WestebbeMarketing.com
Call: (617) 699-4462
Visit: www.westebbemarketing.com
Thank You!
Be a Better B2B Marketing with Audience Personas
Creative Content for Strategic Marketers
Amy Westebbe, Principal
Westebbe Marketing

Ace your next B2B blog article

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