webinar: should a blog be a part of your marketing plan?
DESCRIPTION
Sonnhalter drew from its blogging experiences and developed a list of questions to help manufacturers decide if a blog is the right choice for their organization and gives them advice on how to get started in the world of blogging. John Sonnhalter and Rachel Kerstetter present the questions that need answered before starting a blog and give advice for integrating a blog into your marketing plan.TRANSCRIPT
Should a Blog Be a Part of Your Marketing Plan?
The webinar will begin shortly
To call in, dial: 415-655-0057
Access code: 239-801-819
What Is a Blog?
• While websites provide information about your organization and
act as a “display window,” blogs draw in potential customers who
are looking for information that they care about
• Blogs are:
– A form of social media
– Websites that allow individuals, groups and companies to share opinions and
information in long form on a regular basis
– Considered “owned” media
• Blogs are content
“Blog” is an internet term that is short for “web log.”
1. Who is your audience?
2. Who is competing for your audience’s attention?
3. What do you want your blog’s focus to be?
4. What goals are you trying to achieve?
5. How are you going to measure those goals?
Key Questions
1. Catch attention
2. Grow engagement
3. Create conversations
4. Shorten buying cycles
5. Produce visible opportunities
5 Goals of Content Marketing
Why Start a Blog?
Pros of Starting a Blog
• Establish your brand as a thought leader in the industry
• Share your professional knowledge with personality
• Creates a central hub for social media efforts
• Build relationships
• Can be used to support other marketing initiatives
• The size of your organization doesn’t affect the quality of your blog
Cons of Starting a Blog
• Blogs are time consuming – research
– writing
– promoting
– responding to comments
• Blogs require a consistent presence and regular schedule
Is Blogging the Right Choice for You?
Ask the right questions
What to Ask?
• Who will be responsible for oversight of the blog?
• Do you have the time to blog?
• Can you repurpose existing content into blog posts?
• How many posts can you commit to writing per week?
• Do you have something interesting to write about?
• What resources do you have available?
• Will you be able to get involved in other social media (LinkedIn,
Facebook, Forums, etc.)?
What’s Involved?
How many posts per week can you commit to writing?
Establish the number of consistent posts per week
Even if you can only write one post a week,
it’s important to post the same number of times per week
What’s Involved?
Have a queue of 30-50 posts already written before launching
Establish your credibility
What’s Involved?
• Select topic areas where you or your organization have expertise
• Use key words and links in posts
Select category silos and posting topic
Tradesmen Insights Speaking of Precision
What’s Involved?
• Create a loose schedule of what topics to write about and when to
post them
– Company events and milestones, industry events, holidays and seasons can help
guide content timing
– Calendars can be flexible
Establish an editorial calendar
What’s Involved?
The goal of your blog should be to create “Holy Smokes!” type content
• Adopt a storytelling style for blog posts
• Avoid “salesy” language and overwhelming jargon
• Use internal and external links
• Make posts easy to read
• Make posts easy to share
Write conversational posts
What’s Involved?
• Find people to write guest posts or to interview
– Other departments
– Specialists
– Industry experts outside the company
– Commenters who added value to previous posts
• Enlist a proofreader
• Gather sources of content and inspiration
• Use social tools to help manage and repurpose content
Recruiting help
Source
Audio
Conversational
Tone
Easy
Sharing
Picture
Link
Video
What’s Involved?
Free options: Wordpress.com, Blogger, Tumblr
• Offer simple templates, themes and widgets
• Hosting sites can place advertisements on your blog
• Some free platforms allow you to use an owned domain
(domain ownership is inexpensive but not free)
Paid options: Wordpress.org, Blogger, TypePad
• Increased flexibility for design and plug-ins
• You gain advertisement control
• You find blog host
Choose a blogging platform
What’s Involved?
• Name your blog something easily recognizable and industry-
related
• Register a vanity domain, even with free hosting, if you do not want
your URL to be YourBlogName.wordpress.com
• Identify that your desired URL is available
– whois.com, checkdomain.com or another service can quickly identify available
URLs
Select a blog name and URL
What’s Involved?
Select a blog name and URL
pmpaspeakingofprecision.com
TradesmenInsights.com
Connector.com
What’s Involved?
• Metric information from your blog shows you:
Keep track of your metrics
How people get to your blog
(including search engine terms)
Which posts and topics are most popular
Where your readers are located
Which links your readers click
What’s Involved?
• Metric information from your blog shows you:
Keep track of your metrics
What’s Involved?
• Promote your blog on other social media outlets
• LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter
• Social sharing tools: SocialOomph, Hootsuite
Promote your blog
Recommended Reading
Managing Content Marketing
by Robert Rose & Joe Pulizzi
www.managingcontentmarketing.com
Content Rules
by Ann Handley & C.C. Chapman
www.contentrulesbook.com
Questions?
Contact us:
John: [email protected]
Rachel: [email protected]
Read our blog: www.TradesmenInsights.com