Laurie McCullaghWSI Digital Marketing Consultant

Why Blog?

5 Great Reasons…

• Increases traffic to your Website• Increases visibility and brand

awareness• Opportunity to promote new products

and services• Gives people a reason to visit Website• Strengthen customer relationships

Benefits of Blogging

Benefits to Your Organization:

• Increases trust & credibility• Positions you as the expert• Foundation for Social Media posts

• Lengthens the lifetime value of client

• Increase online touch points

Benefits for YOUR Website

Improve Your Google Rankings by:• Increasing the number of pages• Adding fresh content regularly• Integrating relevant keywords in both the title and content• Adding text links to your main site

Tip: You must own your own domain-based blog to draw any SEO benefitEx.: www.domainname.com/blog

Anatomy of a Blog

Standard Features - Recent posts- Categories of posts- Archives- Blogroll- RSS feed- Conversion CTAs in header or

sidebar- Social Media links- Sharing plugins for posts- Blogger bios

Digital Marketing Breakdown

Essentials for Blogging Success

Design & Format- Clean, simple with customized headers- Use bullet points for easy reading- Bold text and subheadings (mind the white space)- Remove clutter in sidebar, keep essential widgets

Titles & Headlines are Critical- Must be attention grabbing- Keep under 150 characters- Add to main sections for easier scanability

Links to Your Website- Add conversion links to Your Website- Use calls to action (CTA) for your top marketing offers- Add links to external resource sites and quality references

Essentials for Blogging Success…/2

Keywords- Use keywords in both the titles and content- Use keywords in link text

Comments- Start a conversation and build relationships with people who comment- Akismet – Anti-spam plugin to eliminate the amount of spammy comments.

Video and Images- Add (embed) a video as some people prefer watching a video - Add images to illustrate you topic but mind the placement.

Publish and Communicate

Share your Knowledge and Expertise

Email Marketing Social Media

Blog Topic Brainstorming

- Write about the commonly asked questions- Step-by-step guides- Top 10 lists- New product launches- How-to videos- Keyword research- Check your analytics (what are visitors

looking for?) - Upcoming events, conferences- New trends in your industry- Read your social media group’s questions- What is your competition writing about?

TIP: It should NOT be all about YOU!

What am I going to write about this month?

Blog Topic Blueprint

An outline of the upcoming year’s posts.

Create a spreadsheet that includes • the publishing date • title of each post (track the # of characters)• brief description• Blog responsibility

Allows you to plan the future posts around• Holidays and crunch times• busy times of the year • seasonal highs (and lows)

Consider inviting a guest blogger that would add value to your offering

What is blueprint?

Rivers of Information

Build Your River

• Google Reader• Feedburner• Evernote• Instapaper• Zite• Flipboard

Blog Resources

• www.copyblogger.com • www.hubspot.com • www.socialmediaexaminer.com • www.mashable.com

WSI Profile

• Internet Marketing Firm since 2000• Certified Digital Marketing Professional for 2013• WSI President Circle Member• WI Chamber of Commerce Accolades Winner

THANK YOU