Everyone needs it, but how do you get it? And, how can you become great at it?

We recently attended a presentation given by Jim Robinson of ClickSeed — a world class Internet Marketing & SEO company — where these questions were answered. Here is a summary of Jim’s presentation, which we found to be very informative and chock-full of great advice. It’s time to start paying attention to your blog, so others will, too!

 

40% of businesses have a blog, and 43% of those businesses don’t update their blog. So, only 20% have an active blog!

 

WHAT IS A BLOG?

A blog is basically a running digest of reverse chronological posts with a commenting area. Seems pretty simple, right?

 

WHY YOU NEED A BLOG

1. To build trust and brand affinity.
   81% of people trust blogs. 60% feel more positive about your business when they read your blog.
2. To generate more traffic to your website.
   97% more inbound links. 55% more traffic.
3. To generate more leads.
   88% more B2B (business to consumer) leads. 67% more B2B (business to business) leads.

 

BLOG STRATEGY — WITHOUT A PLAN, IT’S POINTLESS

1. Define the goals and measurable metrics.
2. Define audience personas.
3. Develop a keyword universe (10-15 keywords that you use throughout your content).
   TIP: having trouble developing your keyword universe? Type a root word into google, and check out the auto complete for ideas.
4. Create an editorial calendar.
   TIP: Learn how to create an editorial calendar here: Snap Creative

 

BLOGGING TACTICS – HOW TO CREATE GOOD CONTENT

1. Anticipate need states and interests of your audience.
   Take the questions that your customers ask you, then answer the questions in the form of a blog post. (You can create an editorial calendar based on FAQs.)
2. Frequency matters.
   Post high quality content, multiple times a day.
3. Formulate the perfect headline for increased click-through rates.
   Headlines should be: irresistibly clickable, clear and direct, and optimized for search.
4. Keep paragraphs short.
   Long paragraphs are hard to read, so use bullets, subheads and images to break-up the text.
5. ALWAYS USE IMAGES!
   Blog articles with images get 94% more views.
   TIP: capitalize on those images by using captions with keywords. (and…for the tech-savvy, use alt attributes to tag images)

 

MARKET YOUR MARKETING

Now that you have your blog up-and-running, and your editorial calendar in place…what’s next? There’s so much competition for attention; if you build it, they won’t just come!

 

Repackage your content into multiple channel-specific formats.

1. Facebook: use an image plus a great headline
2. Google+: it’s more about the conversation — explain why you’re sharing the link and what you like about it)
3. Pinterest: it’s completely visual — use a great image

 

TIP: create a 5 part blog series, then package it into a downloadable e-book, and promote it as a free download (I mean, you’ve already written the content for your blog, why not use it again?). Oh, and don’t forget to collect an email address for that free download! You’ll be able to use that later…

 

Jim says, custom content is the future of marketing. With only 20% of businesses actively using their blog, take this opportunity to build lifetime value and link equity.

 

Thanks for the wonderful information, Jim! We will certainly take your advice to heart and implement this into our own graphic design and branding blog.

 

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Full credit to Jim Robinson for the content in this post. For a look at the full presentation: Blogging for Business