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3 Key Lessons For New Business Bloggers

 

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I attended and spoke at the Online Marketing Summit in Phoenix Arizona last week. OMS runs a series of 25+shows with about 10,000+ attendees per year throughout the US and Europe. There were three tracks B2B, B2C, and social media. I met dozens of business and marketing folks from the Phoenix area, along with several from Canada and had a great chance to take the pulse of online marketing. In his keynote speech Aaron Kahlow, CEO of Online Marketing Connect, asked the audience why they attended the event?

Based on a showing of hands, the main reasons broke out into three areas and were pretty evenly matched.

1. What do we do first?

2. Generate knowledge and ideas to help drive more online business

3. Save time and mone
y

Attendees were all about prioritization and doing more with less. There were some great ideas about creating a search and social media center of excellence  to get everyone in larger companies on the same page.  I was surprised at the number of attendees who’s marketing departments segmented online marketing activities and social media. I was also surprised at the number of attendees who had hired marketing folks who’s primary responsibility was manage or drive social media awareness.

My presentation was on blogging and social media and stressed three main points that are important to all new bloggers.

3 Key Lessons For New Business Bloggers

1. Listen First - Even if you can’t commit to contributing to a blog regularly, listening to the conversation and commenting on other people’s blogs can help you get a sense for what people are saying in your industry. If you can listen a couple of hours a week, and occasionally add your opinion by commenting, you can get a feel for what is valuable to your target demographic. Listening to the conversation will help you protect and grow your brand.

2. Blogging is More Than Text - Blogging in 2010 is very powerful for both creating fresh, remarkable content but it isn’t only about writing articles. It is also pictures, video’s, top 10 lists and answering your customers/prospects most frequently asked questions. I gave quite a few examples of HubSpot customers who have created tremendous blog leverage by writing about the things they discuss every day with their customers.

3. Measurement is Key - Online marketing moves so quickly that you need to measure the critical information automatically so that you can respond quickly. The web moves in minutes and hours and your ability to monitor visitors, readership, comments, links and leads is critical. By measuring these key metrics business bloggers can develop a content strategy that increases reach and drives business results.

It was surprising that driving leads from a blog was a new concept to many attendees. Lead generation is one of the most important reasons to start and maintain a business blog.

I am Looking forward to attending a few other OMS events and trying to determine if Phoenix is representative of the North American online market.If you are interested in attending an Online Marketing Summit event check their schedule and use the discount code: HUB20 

What important lessons did you learn when you began blogging for your business?

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Posted by Dan Tyre on Thu, May 27, 2010 @ 01:00 PM

COMMENTS

Dan,  
 
Great insights and even better tips. Since our company started using Hubspot to host our blog, we have had awesome growth in traffic leading to our site (nearly a 200% increase in 7 weeks). The challenge, though, is the conversion of this traffic into leads, thus channeling the traffic down the conversion funnel and into customers. It is my belief that we are experiencing challenges in this regard due to the fact that our sales territory is extremely limited, therefore hamstringing us, if you will, from truly gaining the kind of ROI we are hoping to see. This is our current state right now, but it is also very important to note that it all starts with the production of content, via your blog, that will increase your authority on your product and industry (I try and average 3 blog posts a week).  
 
 
 
The implementation of landing pages into the blog is just as important as producing the content that is flowing into your site. Without providing that incentive that aids in helping build new leads, a company, in essence, is just treading water. After all, the goal here is to generate new business in a medium that is not only growing, but showing no signs of slowing down whatsoever. Any company, no matter what your sales area or parameters may be, is completely remiss by not devoting as much effort as possible into generating as large of an e-footprint as possible. As for our company, producing content is our focus, as well as tweaking our current landing pages by tailoring them to the feedback we receive generated by our blog posts. We remain confident that we are on to something good here, and with our continued diligence and a little patience, we will see the ROI we’re capable of achieving. Thanks again for the insights!  
 

posted on Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 2:24 PM by Ken Mears


Great post and tips. I do think, however, that there is a fine line between providing tons of content and providing too much. We are new to Hubspot and I love it so far. I have found, however, that after subscribing to the Hubspot blog, that I get TOO much sent my way. I end up deleting it without reading it, when there is too much. This is counterproductive, of course, for Hubspot.

posted on Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 3:27 PM by Lisa Hjorten


Hi Dan, 
 
Great informative post. Only just starting out myself. One of the best things I've done is going to other peoples blogs, great way to pick up loads of tips. 
 
Regards 
 
Simon

posted on Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 7:47 PM by Simon Croft


I think a common mistake that is made with newer bloggers (and experienced ones as well) is too much of a focus on content and not enough on interaction and responsiveness to their community. 
 
I think it has the potential of sending a bad message to their community. One where they are so busy rushing off to crank out the next post, that they fail to acknowledge, respond and connect with their audience. 
 
That responsiveness married with great content is what keeps people engaged. 
 
My humble 2 cents :) 
 
Respectfully, 
Paul Castain 

posted on Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 8:58 PM by Paul Castain


Agree with Paul, interaction is improtant and something I'm really keen to work on.  
 
But for me, it's surprisingly harder than you'd imagine to find out what people want and what they like.

posted on Friday, May 28, 2010 at 3:07 AM by Data Quality


Great advice, however I am a bit confused when it comes to the retail industry and blogging. I have taken advice from Hubspot, and blog at least once a day. On top of that we were giving out incentives to follow our blog, yet nobody is following! I feel we have creative content, and I don't understand! Please feel free to email me, if anybody has some suggestions. Thanks!

posted on Friday, May 28, 2010 at 8:53 AM by Jenny Yurechko


@Lisa - Great question. Our results have shown that increasing content has worked well for us, so i don't think a limit exists. I think though it is important to give readers multiple ways to subscribe and consumer content and that is something we are working to improve at HubSpot.

posted on Friday, May 28, 2010 at 9:00 AM by Kipp Bodnar


Great 3 tips over there. However, very often I find business owners taking time for a business blog. Answering consumers from a blog is one big advantage of having business blog.

posted on Monday, May 31, 2010 at 9:47 AM by wongpk


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