The document outlines the essential elements of successful business blogging, emphasizing the importance of identifying target personas, creating a diverse mix of post types, writing high-quality content, maintaining consistency, and promoting the blog effectively. It also discusses how to measure a blog's performance through various metrics such as subscriptions, page views, comments, inbound links, and conversions. The presentation advocates for using inbound marketing strategies to engage audiences and improve reach.

1. Slides: SlideShare.net/HubSpot
Twitter: @rickburnesTwitter: @rickburnes
Advanced Business Blogging
Rick Burnes
HubSpot InboundHubSpot Inbound
Marketing Manager

2. Agenda
I. Why Blog?
II. Five Keys to a Successful Blog
1. Pick Your Target Personas1. Pick Your Target Personas
2. Create a Mix of Posts
3 Write Great Posts3. Write Great Posts
4. Sustain It
5 Spread It5. Spread It
III. How to measure your blog

3. Outbound Marketing
800-555-1234
Annoying
Salesperson

4. Inbound Marketing
Content SEO Social Media

5. Rethinking Marketing
Outbound Marketing
• Telemarketing
Inbound Marketing
• SEO / SEM
• Trade shows
• Direct mail
• Email blasts
• Blogging
• Social Media
• RSS• Email blasts
• Print ads
• TV/radio ads
• RSS
• Free tools/trials
• Viral videos
Interruption Permission

6. Budget vs. Brains
Flickr: Refracted MomentsFlickr: Refracted Moments Flickr: Gaetoan LeeFlickr: Gaetoan Lee

7. Exponential Effects
S i l M di
SEO
Social Media
• Even More Traffic
Blog • More Traffic
• More Links
• Even More Traffic
• Even More Links
• More Contentg More Links

8. More Content Drives More Visitors & Power
10,000,000
Average Pages per Website by Page Rank
1,000,000
pages
100,000
# of Webp
10,000
Average
1,000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Page Rank (10 is best)

9. More Content Drives More Visitors & Power
1,000,000
Average Pages per Website by Alexa Traffic Rank
100,000
bpages
,
ge # of Web
10,000
Averag
1,000
> 10,000,000
(Extremely Low
Traffic)
5,000,001 to
10,000,000
(Very Low
1,000,001 to
5,000,000 (Low
Traffic)
500,001 to
1,000,000
(Medium
100,001 to
500,000 (High
Traffic)
< 100,000 (Very
High Traffic)
Traffic) Traffic)
Alexa Traffic Rank

10. Earlier Webinar Covered the Basics
This webinar will not cover:
• Why you should blog• Why you should blog
• How to setup a blog
• How to follow other bloggers• How to follow other bloggers
• How to join blogging conversations
Blogging software you can use• Blogging software you can use
All th t’ i “Bl i f B i ”All that’s in “Blogging for Business”
http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-webinars/blogging-for-business-webinar-archive/

11. Agenda
I. Why Blog?
II. Five Keys to a Successful Blog
1. Pick Your Target Personas1. Pick Your Target Personas
2. Create a Mix of Posts
3 Write Great Posts3. Write Great Posts
4. Sustain It
5 Spread It5. Spread It
III. How to measure your blog

12. Key #1: Identify Target Personas
Kadient photo by: David Meerman Scott

13. Your Content Pulls in Your Personas
“Create the kind of
online content that
your buyers
naturally gravitate
to.”
- David Meerman Scott
Author of The New Rules of
Marketing & PRMarketing & PR
www.webinknow.com

14. What Keywords Will Attract Your Personas?
• Fill posts with them• Fill posts with them
• Build an archive of content full of them

15. How We Pick Keywords: Keyword Grader

16. A Word of Caution
• Writing for your personas
DOES NOT mean writingDOES NOT mean writing
about the products and
services you sell themservices you sell them
• Write about the things they
want to learn aboutwant to learn about

17. Key #2: Create a Mix of Posts
Flickr Photo: jek-a-go-go

18. Plan a Mix of Posts
News
Opinion
Feature
hPhotos
Video

19. Many Types of Posts Get Traffic
Post
Page Views
Post
Did You Graduate From Link Building High School Yet
11,270
State of the Twittersphere ‐ Q4 2008 Report 8,768
You Oughta Know Inbound Marketing 7 498You Oughta Know Inbound Marketing 7,498
6 Tips for Making a Business Marketing Video 4,211
Twitter in Real Life: The Follow Back [cartoon] 4,137

20. Raisin Bran – Basic, Everyday Posts
• How to postsp
• Rich in keywords
• Get good at• Get good at
whipping them
outout
• Make sure they’re
sef luseful
Flickr Photo: greeneyesmilw

21. Spinach – Healthy, Thoughtful Posts
• Should establish
ityour site as a
thought leader in
th i d tthe industry
• Put time into
them
• Don’t do too
many
Flickr Photo: ulteriorepicture

22. Roasts – Big Blog Projects
• Lots of work
• Lots of links,
discussion and
attention
• Pick them well

23. Tabasco – Posts That Start Fires
• Make a bold
statementstatement
• Be prepared to
defend yourselfdefend yourself
• Lots of comments
and links
• Too many of these
posts could lose
trust
Flickr Photo: ANOXLOU

24. Chocolate Cake – The Sweet Stuff
• These posts make
your blog funyour blog fun
• A chance to poke
fun at yourselffun at yourself
• Lots of traffic/links
• Often video, images
Flickr Photo: scubadive67

25. Key #3: Write Great Posts
Flickr Photo: Olivander

26. No Need to Be Hemingway
Just follow a few simple rules.
Photo: Wikipedia

27. Tips for Post Structure
• Use Headings
500 800 ords (or• 500-800 words (or
shorter!)
• Lists are OK (just
not too many)
• 1 idea per post

28. Always Add a Photo
• Flickr
• iStockphoto
• Shoot your owny

29. How to Search for a Flickr Photo
Go to Advanced SearchGo to Advanced Search
Then search for CC licensed photosThen search for CC licensed photos

30. Where Do You Get Ideas?
• Everywhere
Keep a list• Keep a list
• When you learn something,
flesh it out
• Check your email outbox!
• Ask your readers

31. Write Great Headlines

32. How to Write Great Headlines
• Write the headline before the article
Imagine the reader on’t see the article• Imagine the reader won’t see the article
• Surprise people
• No spelling errors!
• Use your keywordsUse your keywords

33. Key #4: Sustain It
Flickr Photo: michalo

34. Pick a Publishing Schedule
• Once a week? Every Monday
and Wednesday?and Wednesday?
• Stick to it
• The goal is to build up a body
of keyword-rich content
(create an asset)

35. Different Ways of Doing Posts
• Email interviews
Video inter ie s (conferences office isitors• Video interviews (conferences, office visitors,
clients)
• Guest posts from people with similar blogs
• “Best of” lists
• “How we do it” posts

36. Should I Hire People?
It depends.
ProsPros:
• You don’t have to do the work
• You hire a “professional writer”
Cons:
• Nobody knows your business like you do
• You don’t build your personal reputation
• You don’t participate in the conversation

37. Key #5: Spread It
Flickr Photo: felipearte

38. Think of Blogging Like a Job Search
Would you sit at home and wait for a call?

39. Take Comments Seriously
• Make sure you comment back
Find o t ho the people are• Find out who the people are
• Follow their links
• Subscribe to their blog follow them on Twitter• Subscribe to their blog, follow them on Twitter
Use these links

40. Publish on Social Media
• Post directly• Post directly
• Post via twitterfeed.com automatically
• Post to your status
• Post automatically via a feed to your fan or
profile page
Also consider LinkedIn, other sites.so co s de ed , o e s es

41. Where Do You Link to Your Blog?
• Your homepage
• Press releases
• Business cards
• Email signatures• Email signatures

42. Engage People; Stay on Their Radar
• Write posts that link to or
follow up on biggerfollow up on bigger
bloggers’ radar screens
• Most people do Google or
Technorati searches for
their name, so they’ll see
your post

43. Agenda
I. Why Blog?
II. Five Keys to a Successful Blog
1. Pick Your Target Personas1. Pick Your Target Personas
2. Create a Mix of Posts
3 Write Great Posts3. Write Great Posts
4. Sustain It
5 Spread It5. Spread It
III. How to measure your blog

44. Metric #1: Subscriptions
• A measure of you blog’s total reach
• A “sticky” number

45. Metric #2: Pageviews
Great for media sites selling display advertising• Great for media sites selling display advertising
• Potential problems for your business:
• Doesn’t measure RSS
• Weak measure of engagement
• What’s the business value of a “view”?

46. Metric #3: Comments
Q tit ti l d i di t f t• Quantitatively, a good indicator of engagement
• Qualitatively, a great way to listen to market

47. Metric #4: Inbound Links
• Measure the SEO impact of your blog
• An indicator of your blog’s role in outside conversations

48. Metric #5: Conversions

49. What Does HubSpot Do?
It’s a software system that helps you get found by
more visitors, generate more leads online, and, g ,
measure all your inbound marketing efforts.
Search Marketing
Tools
Social Media Tools
Tools
Blogging & CMS Tools

50. Thank You!
Learn more about HubSpot:
htt // H bS t /Dhttp://www.HubSpot.com/Demo
Free tools:
htt //G d
Rick Burnes
http://Grader.com
Inbound Marketing Manger
HubSpot
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Rick-Burnes/512433884
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickburnesed p // ed co / / c bu es
Twitter: http://twitter.com/rickburnes