Write. Publish. Share. Repeat. If only growing a business blog was that simple.
Even with good content, smart distribution, and perseverance, developing a successful B2B blog is a slow and unsteady climb for many marketers. But with the right approach, you can start experiencing better results now.
In this presentation, Anum Hussain, Growth Marketer at HubSpot, explains how to grow your blog into the key business asset it was meant to be.
17. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
Before starting a blog, research your
target persona.
Contact at least 10 people in your target audience.
18. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
Before starting a blog, research your
target persona.
Contact at least 10 people in your target audience.
Schedule 1-hour interviews in exchange for free
coffee or lunch. If virtual interviews, send a gift card.
19. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
1. Find out who they are.
2. Find out what they do.
3. Find out what they want.
4. Find out how they see
themselves.
5. Find out how they spend
their day-to-day.
Ask them five sets
of questions:
20. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
1. Find out who they are.
2. Find out what they do.
3. Find out what they want.
4. Find out how they see
themselves.
5. Find out how they spend
their day-to-day.
Ask them five sets
of questions:
Company name? Age?
How long have they been in their
current role?
How large is their team?
Why do they do what they do?
21. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
1. Find out who they are.
2. Find out what they do.
3. Find out what they want.
4. Find out how they see
themselves.
5. Find out how they spend
their day-to-day.
Ask them five sets
of questions:
What motivates them?
What is the end game for them?
What are their aspirations?
Why did they change from company A
to company B?
22. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
1. Find out who they are.
2. Find out what they do.
3. Find out what they want.
4. Find out how they see
themselves.
5. Find out how they spend
their day-to-day.
Ask them five sets
of questions:
What are their hopes and
dreams?
What content are they attracted to or
read now?
What do they think about all day
long?
23. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
1. Find out who they are.
2. Find out what they do.
3. Find out what they want.
4. Find out how they see
themselves.
5. Find out how they spend
their day-to-day.
Ask them five sets
of questions:
How do they compare themselves to
co-workers?
Do they think there’s more to learn
about their profession?
Do they hangout with their co-
workers outside of work?
24. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
1. Find out who they are.
2. Find out what they do.
3. Find out what they want.
4. Find out how they see
themselves.
5. Find out how they spend
their day-to-day.
Ask them five sets
of questions:
What do they read? What
do they share?
How do they learn about new stuff?
New tools? New articles?
What do they hate about their day?
What do they love?
27. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
During the interview, look for ...
Vocabulary, puns, references, tone, gestures, etc.
What makes them light up, what they hate discussing.
28. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
During the interview, look for ...
Vocabulary, puns, references, tone, gestures, etc.
What makes them light up, what they hate discussing.
Their outfits, style, accessories, personality.
30. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
We interviewed almost 100 people in
different industries and roles – each a
member of the audience we were trying
to reach. We learned that:
x Their days are too packed to focus attention on
reading a lengthy article.
x They want to see more content discussing ideas
they can take immediate action on.
x They just want to own at their job – many had a
strong desire to control their own destiny.
Case Study:
SIDEKICK BLOG
STRATEGY
31. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
So we took that qualitative insight and
launched a blog with three key focuses:
ü Publish concise content that puts high emphasis
on direct tactics over fluffy explanations.
ü Publish content from individual contributors,
not managers.
ü Publish the secrets to success from top
performers.
Case Study:
SIDEKICK BLOG
STRATEGY
35. We now have a strategy.
@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
36. We now have a strategy.
But what are our target readers ...
reading?
@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
37. 1. Deeply understand your target audience.
2. Produce posts that attract & scale traffic.
3. Fuel growth of blog subscribers.
38. Attract & scale traffic
to content with these
20 optimization tips.
@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
39. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
Optimize the URL to speak with search engines.
Be sure to separate your target
keywords with a dash (-) so
search engines can read them.
40. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
But don’t make it so long
that it seems keyword-
stuffed. Google’s algorithm
is smarter than that.
46. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
But avoid keyword-stuffing
headers – Google’s algorithm
penalizes “repeating the
same words or phrases so
often it sounds unnatural.”
47. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
Use easy-to-read visuals to enhance experience.
This is simply email
copy in a compose
window to help
visually enhance
reading experience.
48. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
But don’t forget to include
keywords in the image
alt-text. Search engines
read them to better identify
what the post is about.
54. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
This Google juice helps drive traffic
from SERPs.
Link to blog post with
SlideShare embedded.
Link to presentation
on SlideShare’s site.
59. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
Keep visitors on your blog, not on SlideShare.
Remove these links to the
original SlideShare upload
when embedding to keep
traffic on your blog site.
63. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
Include a text-CTA towards the top of the post.
The first URL
hyperlinked in the
post gets the most
weight from Google.
64. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
Build a form right into the ending CTA.
I love this.
There’s no need to drive
the reader to a landing
page when this article and
the value proposition of the
CTA clearly explains the
value of the offer. So
simple, yet so brilliant.”
@BobRuffolo
65. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
Or test smart CTAs to show relevant-offers.
CTA for general blog
visitors to offer.
CTA for leads to move
further down funnel.
67. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
Some web forms
require more fields.
We found that longer lead
generation forms generated
roughly 16% fewer leads than
simply using a CTA image
that navigates readers to a
landing page.
Case Study:
HUBSPOT BLOG
STRATEGY
68. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
But that wasn’t the case for our shorter
blog subscription forms.
These one-field forms converted 4X more
subscribers than the CTA image linked to a
separate landing page.
Case Study:
HUBSPOT BLOG
STRATEGY
74. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
A typical new post on the HubSpot
Marketing Blog generates ~70% of its
initial traffic from email subscribers.
Traffic from
email.
Case Study:
HUBSPOT BLOG
STRATEGY
75. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
But over time, that initial traffic leads to
views / social sharing that translates into
long-term organic search traffic growth.
Traffic from organic search.
Case Study:
HUBSPOT BLOG
STRATEGY
79. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
When first launching (or re-launching) a
blog, invite people to read it.
Before sending out email invitations, ensure you have a
crisp message for why your blog is different than others.
80. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
When first launching (or re-launching) a
blog, invite people to read it.
Before sending out email invitations, ensure you have a
crisp message for why your blog is different than others.
ü Can you describe your blog in one sentence?
81. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
When first launching (or re-launching) a
blog, invite people to read it.
Before sending out email invitations, ensure you have a
crisp message for why your blog is different than others.
ü Can you describe your blog in one sentence?
ü Would your researched persona read it?
82. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
We sent email invitations to three
cohorts of people:
1. Content Contacts: Anyone who discovered our
other content through forms on landing pages.
2. Churned Users: People who may no longer
care about our product but may still care about
our industry / best practices.
3. Email to Non-Users: Leads who may one day
use our product, but haven’t yet.
Case Study:
SIDEKICK BLOG
STRATEGY
83. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
We sent invitations to our current database.
The copy reflected a well-thought out message that
our audience research indicated would resonate
with who we ultimately want reading our blog.
Case Study:
SIDEKICK BLOG
STRATEGY
We shared titles of the
types of blog posts they’d
find on our blog.
84. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
And we didn’t send them to a different
page or form to subscribe – we already
have their email, why ask for it again?
Instead, we tracked who clicked on the CTA to
subscribe and automatically added them to our
subscriber list.
Case Study:
SIDEKICK BLOG
STRATEGY
We automatically
collected any email that
clicked on the CTA.
87. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
Keep growing your subscriber base
with two core methods.
Calls-to-action on the blog’s native real estate.
88. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
Keep growing your subscriber base
with two core methods.
Calls-to-action on the blog’s native real estate.
Calls-to-action on your other content assets.
89. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
Experiment with
a prominent CTA
at the top of your
blog homepage.
OKDork’s above-the-fold homepage CTA
converts at 8%.
90. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
Test a CTA to
subscribe at the
end or side of
each post.
DIYTheme’s subscriber opt-in converts
at an impressive 2%.
91. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
Try a slide-in
CTA appearing
as readers scroll
down a post.
HubSpot’s slide-in CTAs generate 27% moresubmissions than end-of-the-post CTAs.
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Popups on Dan Zarrella’s blog didn’t reducebounce rates and increased conversion by
more than 100%.
Try pop-up CTA
that hovers over
the blog post.
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This sweeps in free subscribers from peoplealready interested enough to share a comment.
Provide an option
to subscribe
when readers
leave comments.
94. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
HubSpot’s landing page forms increased blogsubscribers by 128%.
Allow visitors who
shower interest
elsewhere on your
site to subscribe.
95. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
Surfacing the blog to every new user helped theSidekick blog increase subscribers above
50% M/M.
Try sending
invitations with
your best posts
during customer
onboarding.
96. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
Sidekick achieved an average 4% CTR onemail invites from people who previously stopped
showing interest.
Or test a one-time
send to re-engage
churned users
with content, not
product.
97. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
We tested each CTA type and quickly
generated nearly 10K blog subscribers
within six weeks.
Case Study:
SIDEKICK BLOG
STRATEGY
99. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
Eventually we reached 60K subscribers.
But only 22K of them were actively reading our
content. So we removed the others from our
subscriber list.
Case Study:
SIDEKICK BLOG
STRATEGY
100. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
We sacrificed subscribers for success.
We believe having a healthy list of engaged readers
is far more important than having a large list of
inactive readers. This also ensures our strategy is
directed by those who care about us most.
Case Study:
SIDEKICK BLOG
STRATEGY