by Elizabeth Hines | Feb 12, 2015 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Strategy
7 steps to a blogging strategy for your business.
Blogging has proved to be a successful marketing strategy for many companies. In fact, a full 82 percent of companies who blog daily day have acquired a customer from their blog. Freight logistics company Cerasis acquired 98 new customers by leveraging their blog and digital strategy.
What does it take to attract prospects and acquire customers? Strategy. A 2014 study of B2B marketers found that companies who have a documented content strategy in place are more likely to consider their efforts to be effective than companies who do not have a documented strategy in place (60 percent vs. 11 percent).
Here are 7 steps to follow to develop a blogging strategy for your business.
1. Understand the ‘Why’.
The first step in the development of your blogging strategy will serve as the foundation for all remaining elements. Defining the purpose of your blogging activities and communicating them to your team will create a clear path to successful implementation. Understanding the purpose of your blogging activities means being able to answer two important questions: Why has your company decided to blog? What is it hoping to gain? Setting the strategy for your blog starts with understanding the reasons and motivations for prioritizing blogging as a marketing strategy.
2. Let your ideal customers define content.
Content will be the backbone of your blogging operation. Since you are likely targeting ideal customers with this content in order to convert them to leads, it stands to reason that you should look to them for content inspiration. Building out hypothetical profiles of your ideal customers will allow you to answer important questions such as their pain points, challenges, demographics, and job duties. Use what you know about the buying and researching behaviors of your ideal customers to craft relevant and interesting content they’d likely be searching for. Above all, publish nothing less than your most quality content. Part of building your reputation as a trusted industry thought leader is setting – and continuing – to meet expectations. You’re better off missing one day of a blog post than phoning in something that has the potential to undermine the credibility of your company.
Keywords signal to search engines when there’s a match between your content and the search term of a user. Similar to crafting content with your ideal customer in mind, keywords should be tailored to phrases your ideal customers use to research and buy. Determine which keywords you’ll be targeting and then draft a list of 5-10 keywords and associated long-tail keywords you will include in blog content.
4. Identify content distribution activities and platforms for promotion.
Once you’ve determined strategy for content creation and optimization, it’s time to make a plan to get your quality content in front of potential customers. It’s not enough to just post and pray that you’ll be found – you should actively distribute and promote blog content. Fortunately, the proliferation of social media has made it easier for companies to reach their target audiences, but not without competition. Reusing blog posts and repackaging content in different forms – such as infographics, summary tweets, & photos – will help break through the noise of competitors.
5. Assign responsibility.
Decide what your day-to-day blogging operations will look like. Who will be accountable for each function of your blogging strategy? The size and resource availability of your organization is likely to determine how centralized blogging responsibilities will be. When thinking about responsibilities, consider tasks beyond just writing posts; responsibility for tasks such as publishing and promoting content, drafting an editorial calendar, and analyzing data will all need to be assigned.
6. Maintain an editorial calendar.
Analogous to a roadmap, an editorial calendar will guide your blogging activities and give you a big picture look at where you’re headed and how you’re getting there. It also serves to hold those with blog-related responsibilities accountable to a publishing schedule. And while it’s true that the frequency of blog posts can be linked to an increase in website traffic, stepping outside of what you can reasonably commit to is a recipe for disaster.
Use your editorial calendar to set the number of blog posts you’ll publish each week to ensure posts are published with consistency and regularity. That not only establishes routine for your team, but also for your readers. Get started now with this template for creating your own editorial calendar.
7. Measure, analyze, adapt, and repeat.
Determine what your blogging success will look like and use relevant tools to regularly track and monitor metrics. Include metrics from all platforms of distribution, not just website page views or traffic. Think in terms of retweets, follows, likes, and subscribers. Set, review, and revisit goals consistently. Modify approaches that aren’t working. This on-going analysis keeps blogging efforts nimble, which is particularly helpful when outside factors make changes in blogging objectives necessary.
Develop and implement a well-thought-out blogging strategy. Using quality blog content to find, connect, and engage potential customers online can quickly become your powerhouse marketing activity.
Interested in learning more about how your business can develop a winning blogging strategy? We can help. We are a consulting firm focused on inbound marketing and strategy.
by Elizabeth Hines | Feb 11, 2015 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Strategy
Most businesses don’t optimize blog posts. Here are 7 things you can do to optimize a blog post so you can improve your ranking and attract more visitors.
Most businesses don’t optimize blog posts and therefore miss out on ranking and, by extension, organic traffic opportunities. The good news is that there are 7 simple steps you can take to optimize a blog post so that you can improve your ranking and attract more visitors.
Step 1: Identify your keywords
Identify the keywords you are going to use in the blog post. Once you have identified the keywords you want to use, write your blog post around these keywords.
Something to remember: while it is important to write the post around the keywords you have identified, you don’t want to stuff the post with the keywords. You want to make sure your post is easy (and enjoyable) to read and doesn’t sound spammy.
Step 2: Optimize your title
Keep the title of your blog post under 60 characters. Include your keywords in the title.
Step 3: Optimize your meta description
Your meta description doesn’t impact search results. However, your meta description can improve click through rates (that is, it can increase the number of people who actually click on your link versus someone else’s).
When you write your meta description write it in a conversional (not spammy) manner and be sure to include your keywords. In short, think about what would attract your target reader to your blog post, and write it here. Try to keep your meta description to between 150 and 160 words.
Step 4: Optimize your heading
Using your keywords in the heading provides an SEO benefit and informs your visitor what your blog post is about. Be sure to not just use a keyword phrase, instead use additional content around the keyword.
Step 5: Optimize the body of the post
Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing use the keywords in the body of your post as a ranking signal. That being said, don’t go overboard with using your keywords in the body of your content because too many occurrences of your keywords can be viewed as keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing can lead to search engines giving you a penalty and drop your organic rankings. Additionally, no one wants to read a blog post that reads like spam.
The short and sweet: use your keywords, but don’t go overboard, and always remember to write first to your audience and then search engines.
Step 6: Optimize images
Image search is becoming more popular. Write a SEO friendly title for your images. It doesn’t hurt to also write a description that explains the blog post itself.
Step 7: Optimize the URL
When you use your blog title as the URL extension you can improve your click through rate.
If you haven’t optimized your blog posts in the past, the good news is that you can go back and optimize them.
by Elizabeth Hines | Feb 10, 2015 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Strategy
You’ve likely heard it before – your business should be blogging. It’s understandable if it isn’t. Given the finite nature of a single workday, we all face daily pressure to prioritize projects and streamline strategies. But isn’t it true that our priorities should align with activities that have the most significant impact on performance? When data becomes the guide to choosing where to focus marketing efforts, it becomes clear that blogging is the powerhouse of digital marketing activity.
Blogging positively impacts a number of typical objectives for businesses. It makes it more likely for companies to be found in search engine results, produces higher quality leads, establishes industry expertise, and shortens sales cycles. To understand exactly to what degree blogging is affecting these outcomes, let’s take a look at the data.
Blogging generates high-quality leads and increases sales.
Practically all marketing activities ultimately seek to drive one objective – to increase sales. Many businesses are tying big sales wins to their blogging efforts. In a 2013 publication of Marketing Benchmarks, HubSpot reported companies that blog once or twice per month generate 70 percent more leads than those who don’t blog at all. Further, companies nearly double their sales leads by increasing blogging frequency from 3-5 times per month to 6-8 times per month.
Blogging drives increased website traffic.
Increased website traffic can almost always be linked to an increase in leads and sales. Companies with 51-100 pages on their website generate 48 percent more traffic than those with 1-50 pages according to the same HubSpot report. Consistent blogging activity builds the number of website pages and consequently the number of opportunities for your company to connect with customers, leads, and industry peers. Publishing frequency matters, too. Companies that blog at least 15 times per month get five times more traffic than those that don’t blog. Small businesses with 1-10 employees see the largest gains by posting more often.
Blogging links businesses and customers.
Business websites with blogs have 434 percent more indexed pages and 97 percent more indexed links based on the findings of a 2013 Social Media Today report. If search engines can easily find your business, prospective customers will find you easier, too. Building links ensures existing and potential customers can connect and engage meaningfully with your company.
Blogging seeks to educate and establish expertise.
Crafting and publishing quality blog content builds credibility and trust. Social Media Today reports a full 70 percent of consumers learn about companies through articles rather than ads and that 61 percent of consumers have made a purchase based on a blog post.
Data makes it clear that relevant and engaging blog content is a valuable marketing asset and sales driver for many businesses. In fact, marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13 times more likely to enjoy positive ROI. Is your company taking full advantage of this powerhouse marketing activity or is it missing opportunities to attract leads and delight customers?
![Why you need to understand what B2B buyers think about content [Infographic]](https://fronetics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/content-B2B-buyers-643x675.png)
by Elizabeth Hines | Jan 27, 2015 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing
If you want to attract B2B buyers with content, you need to understand what B2B buyers think about content.
93% of B2B companies use content marketing. If you want your content marketing efforts to be effective you need to understand why B2B buyers consume and value content. When you understand what B2B buyers think about content you can create and distribute the right content – content that will help you grow your business by driving profitable customer action.
The CMO Council, Content ROI Center, and Netline conducted a survey of 352 senior-level B2B buyers, influencers, and decision makers with the objective of determining content’s role in influencing B2B buyers in the purchase process.
Why do B2B buyers consume content?
B2B buyers turn to content for a number of reasons including to:
- Learn about new market developments and industry practices;
- Discover new solutions to address a specific problem;
- Address a project or a program being undertaken by their company.
Why do B2B buyers value content?
B2B buyers value content because it:
- Keeps them current on new techniques;
- Provides strategic insights and shapes their purchase specifications;
- Educates them about industry issues, problems, and challenges.
Source: CMO Council
Understanding what B2B buyers think about content and why they use content will enable you to create, curate, and distribute content that speaks to B2B buyers and attracts new customers and engages current customers.
If you consistently create, curate, and distribute content that B2B buyers find valuable, you will realize results.
by Elizabeth Hines | Jan 20, 2015 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
Content and social media are integral to business growth
Editor’s Note: This is a guest blog written by Kecia Gray, Vice President, Corporate Marketing & Communications, Transplace. Transplace is a premier provider of transportation management services, intermodal, truck brokerage, and SaaS TMS solutions. Transplace successfully leverages social media and content to expand the company’s brand awareness and thought leadership. The company’s LinkedIn page, Facebook page, and blog were named as “favorites” in a survey conducted by Fronetics.
At Transplace, social media has become an integral part of our marketing and communications strategy and key to expanding our brand awareness and thought leadership in the logistics and transportation space. Our marketing and communication team has had the opportunity to utilize multiple social channels, including:
While we consistently post content to all of these channels, what has been and continues to be important to our social strategy is creating our own original content and utilizing it within a more aggressive approach on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Sharing content on these channels has allowed our newest blog to achieve fast success in under a year’s time.
Content Is King…
Within any industry, there is always significant opportunity to create original thought leadership content that is informative and insightful. When developing a social media strategy, our foremost goal was to establish a thought leadership blog resource for the market, in addition to providing engaging and personalized content across social channels that was easily sharable. Our main objectives focus on connecting with customers, and creating content that resonates with the members of our industry and provides value to their businesses. By distributing this content across our social channels to foster sharing, conversation and engagement, we’ve continued to gain influence with our targeted audiences.
…And Metrics Are Key
Because of the rapid pace of developing content, it’s important to track and report on levels of engagement to optimize and repurpose information. We created a social plan that included a comprehensive calendar to capture the topics and content items we’d be working on throughout the year. For maximum integration, we purposely aligned new pieces to marketing campaigns and corporate objectives such as events, transportation services and current industry issues. In addition, we established benchmarks and metrics that were important for us to track, such as followers and level of engagement. Analyzing the data allowed us to regularly monitor and evaluate our program, maximize what worked and adjust areas that did not meet expectations.
Incorporating Talent for Quality Thought Leadership
We have also taken advantage of the significant opportunity for Transplace employees at all levels to contribute quality thought-leadership posts across a number of channels. We’ve learned that the best place to utilize this content is on the company’s logisticallyspeakingblog.com. Some of the posts we’re most proud of turned out to be the most popular of 2014, including:
- A motivating guest blog post highlighting our dedication to our customers – from George Abernathy, our president and CCO.
- An insightful commentary on the growth of Transplace in light of a recent acquisition – from Frank McGuigan, president of transportation management at Transplace.
- An informative infographic recap of our signature event, the annual Transplace Shipper Symposium, highlighting some amazing speakers.
To ensure we always stay up-to-date and focused, our team holds quarterly meetings in which we share key highlights, metrics and snapshots of the program quarter by quarter. The time is used to plan for what’s coming up in the future, brainstorm new ideas and make changes as needed. We always make the utmost effort to continually update our program and assess our short and long term goals – an important aspect to any social program!
How is your organization utilizing social media and thought leadership content?
by Elizabeth Hines | Jan 5, 2015 | Blog, Content Marketing, Internet of Things, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain, Talent
Here are the top supply chain and logistics blog posts of 2014
2014 is over and a new year has begun. We look back at the content we created and shared in 2014.
Looking at content focused on the supply chain and logistics industries, there are three topics which garnered the most interest:
- The use of social media and content marketing;
- Supply chain talent;
- Technology.
Here are the top ten supply chain and logistics blog posts of 2014 based on pageviews. #1 receiving the most pageviews.
The Internet of Things trend is quickly approaching and will impact the way we live and work through increased productivity and efficiency. Supply Chain Management will continue utilizing these advanced technologies to improve factory workflow, increase material tracking, and optimize distribution to maximize revenues. Read the full blog post.
Within the past five years companies within the logistics and supply chain industries have begun to see social media as a strategic tool and have begun to actively use and leverage social media. A survey conducted by Fronetics Strategic Advisors looks, broadly, at the use of social media within the logistics and supply chain industries. The report discusses use, motivations, preferences, benefits, and challenges. Read the full blog post.
Santa’s supply chain was the first to run “in the cloud.” Read the full blog post and check out the infographic.
Looking at the manufacturing, supply chain, logistics, transportation, distribution and freight industries there are a few companies that have emerged as leaders – companies that exemplify the business value of creating and executing digital, social media, and content marketing strategies. Cerasis, a freight logistics company, is one of these companies. Read the full blog post.
The supply chain industry has a talent crisis. The question is: how can we solve this crisis? To answer this question I turned to Rodney Apple, founder of the SCM Talent Group. Apple has worked as a supply chain recruiter for the majority of his 19+ year career within the staffing industry and he has filled more than 1,000 positions within the industry ranging from executive-level in Fortune 500 headquarters settings to leadership and staff-level roles across large networks of manufacturing and distribution facilities within North America. Apple’s role affords him the ability to witness the talent crisis from the perspective of the industry, the company, and the job seeker. Read the full blog post.
The purpose of this series of blog posts is to give others in our industry and especially those in the manufacturing industry, a guide to create an effective digital, social media, and content marketing strategy which will produce results for your company. If you have followed the Cerasis blog since its launch in March 2013, you have noticed that we work really hard at executing our strategy. The reason we work so hard is because we are passionate about educating the marketplace on information that matters to them. In that way, we want to be the de facto expert in the manufacturing and logistics industries. If we can help those who are our customers and potential customers (manufacturers and distributors) with best practices around logistics and freight, as well as manufacturing industry news, we are continuing our mission of driving long term value (even if we give the information away for free). The result (we hope and have seen) is that people view us as the expert and will want to engage us in a long term relationship as their logistics services provider. We hope this is helpful and you learn something from it! Read the full blog post.
3PL provider Coyote Logistics is one of the fastest growing companies in North America. The company’s incredible growth (five-year growth: 3,585 percent) and tenacious spirit has not gone unnoticed. Forbes included Coyote in its list of Most Promising American Companies; Supply & Demand Chain Executive listed Jeff Silver, Coyote CEO, as one of their “Pros to Know;” and the company was listed as one of the best places to work by the Chicago Tribune. There are undoubtedly many factors that have contributed to the success of the company. Coyote’s approach to social media is likely one of the company’s keys to success. Read the full blog post.
Here’s the thing – the supply chain industry is perceived by those outside the industry as having no “wow” factor whatsoever. If the supply chain industry is going to attract new and qualified talent, it needs a face lift. It is time for the supply chain industry to re-brand itself. Read the full blog post.
Without a comprehensive social media strategy, your message may be getting lost in the chatter. There are a number of tools that will help you monitor your online influence and, effectively, make the necessary adjustments to ensure your efforts are paying off. Here are 10 free tools to help you measure your social media ROI. The basic features of each of these tools are free. Read the full blog post.
Regularly tracking your relationship with your suppliers and their performance toward your expectations is critical to ensure the success of your business. One mechanism for tracking this is the supplier scorecard. A scorecard is in essence a report card for your supplier. Supplier scorecards when used effectively can help maintain a healthy supply chain and will benefit both parties. If not used effectively supplier scorecards can damage the supplier relationship and hurt both businesses. Read the full blog post.
