A presentation on why and how to create amazing business blogs that generate ROI for your business. Explains how to use blogs for SEO, how to leverage social media channels to spread them and how to fill them with remarkable content.

1. How Blogging Can Transform Your Marketing Rick Burnes Twitter: @rickburnes Community Manager, HubSpot October 14, 2010 Oklahoma City American Marketing Association

2. Agenda About Inbound Marketing Why Blog? Six Keys to a Successful Blog Pick Your Target Personas Create a Mix of Posts Write Great Posts Sustain It Spread It Convert It How to Measure Your Blog

3. Traditional Marketing (Outbound)

4. Marketing Today (Inbound)

5. Declining Traffic for Trade Publications

6. But We’re Now a Trade Publication

7. Best Young Companies? Inbound. 1950 - 2000 2000 - 2050 7

8. Marketing With Budget? Or Brain? Flickr: Refracted Moments Flickr: Gaetoan Lee

9. www.HubSpot.com/ROI More:

10. Why Inbound Is Cheaper

12. Blogging

13. Social Media

14. SEO

16. Promote

18. Target

20. Landing Pages

21. Email

22. Lead Intelligence

23. Lead Mgmt

24. AnalyticsCustomers

25. Agenda About Inbound Marketing Why Blog? Six Keys to a Successful Blog Pick Your Target Personas Create a Mix of Posts Write Great Posts Sustain It Spread It Convert It How to Measure Your Blog

26. Blogging doesn’t make sense for my industry. Lazy Excuse! 13

27. Blogging About Soldering Materials 14

28. And Fencing Supplies 15

29. And Golf 16

30. And Pools 17

31. OK, but what’s the business impact? 18

32. 1,941 Leads – in the Last Month 19

33. Where did all those people come from? 20

34. A Nice-Looking Restaurant Site

35. Another Nice-Looking Restaurant Site What’s the difference?

36. Blog = Better SEO, More Traffic Data from website.grader.com and compete.com

37. How Many Tickets Do You Have?

38. Blogging Means More Inbound Links 25

39. More Indexed Pages 26

40. More Visitors 27

41. It’s simple: If you want to rank in search engines, you have to blog. 28

43. Social Media Optimization

44. Lead Generation

45. Education

46. Thought Leadership

47. Nurturing

48. PR

49. Brand Building

50. Recruiting

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

53. Every time you publish an article, ask: “Will this attract my target personas?”

54. Content Attracts the Right People Neil Diamond Flick Photo: Marciela

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

56. How We Pick Keywords: Keyword Grader

57. A Word of Caution DO NOT focus on the things you sell your target personas DO write about the things they want to learn about

58. Key #2 Create a Mix of Posts Jek-a-go-go on flickr

59. Media Companies Thrive on Their Mix News Opinion Feature Photos Video

60. Many Types of Posts Get Traffic

61. Raisin Bran – Basic, Everyday Posts How-to posts Rich in keywords Get good at whipping them out Make sure they’re useful Greeneyesmilw on flickr

62. Spinach – Healthy, Thoughtful Posts Should establish your site a thought leader in the industry Put time into them Don’t do too many ulteriorepicture on flickr

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

64. Chocolate Cake – The Sweet Stuff These posts make your blog fun A chance to poke fun at yourself Lots of traffic/links Often video, images Scubadive on flickr

65. Tabasco – Posts That Start Fires Make a bold statement Be prepared to defend yourself Lots of comments and links Too many of these post could lose trust ANOXLOU on flickr

66. Key #3 Write Great Posts Olivander on flickr

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

68. Get Into the Content Mindset Make emails into blog posts Turn forum posts into blog posts Shoot videos at events Interview customers for your blog Repurpose company data for public reports Share lessons you learn Flick Photo: Cindiann

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

70. Always Add a Photo Flickr iStockphoto Shoot your own

71. How to Search for a Flickr Photo Go to Advanced Search Then search for CC licensed photos

72. Write Great Headlines

73. Top Six Tips for Great Headlines Write the headline before the article Imagine the reader won’t see the article Surprise people No spelling errors! Use your keywords Ask a question (that’s how people search!)

74. Key #4: Sustain It Michalo on flickr

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

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

77. Should I Hire People? It depends. Pros: 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

78. Key #5: Spread It Felipearte on flickr

79. Think of Blogging Like a Job Search

80. Network for a Blog as You Would for a Job 59

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

82. Put Your Blog on Bigger Bloggers’ Radar Write posts that link to and/or respond to their posts Mention their names; most people do Google or Technorati searches for their name, so they’ll see your post Reach out to them on social media

83. Build Your Networks, Distribute Your Posts 62

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

85. Key #6: Convert It

86. How Does HubSpot Convert Visitors? 65

87. Quality Content Behind Forms 66

88. TEST! TEST! TEST! 67

89. Agenda About HubSpot & Inbound Marketing Why Blog? Six Keys to a Successful Blog Pick Your Target Keywords Create a Mix of Posts Write Great Posts Sustain It Spread It Convert It How to measure your blog

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

91. Metric #2: Pageviews 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”?

92. Metric #3: Comments Quantitatively, a good indicator of engagement Qualitatively, a great way to listen to market

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

94. Conversion Is King Website Visitors Leads Customers

95. Compare Blog Conversions to Other Channels

96. Final Thoughts … 75

97. A Blog Gives You Leverage 76

98. Who Knows How to Put All the Pieces Together? 77 d.j.k. on flickr

99. HubSpot Puts the Pieces Together 78

100. Thank You! Sign up for a free trial of HubSpot: www.hubspot.com/free-trial/ Connect with me: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rickburnes Twitter: www.twitter.com/rickburnes