blogging + marketing: making it work

Blogging + Marketing

making it work.

How can you bring excellent

writing to your blog, but still

create marketing copy that

leads to conversions.

How Web Content Is Different

• Visual

• Surrounded by distractions

• Snackable

What is good writing?

“No sentence can be effective if it contains

facts alone. It must also contain emotion,

image, logic, and promise.”

– Eugene Schwartz

Facts = Five “Ws”

• Who

• What

• When

• Where

• Why

Story

• Emotion

• Imagery

• Beginning –> Middle –> End

What’s Different About Marketing

Writing?

Marketing Writing Needs To Be:

• Urgent

• Relevant

• Real

• Clear

• Concise

Emotion Still Drives

Marketing Content

Emotions motivate people, and marketing copy

plays on these emotions:

- peer pressure

- self-improvement

- FOMO

Using Marketing Techniques

in Your Blog

• Goals

• Strategy

• Tracking

• Optimization

Establishing Your Blog

Setting Goals

Determine what a conversionis for your blog.

Strategy

• Create reader personas

• Editorial calendar

• Curate other sources to add value

Track

• set up goals in your analytics program

• collect and evaluate reader feedback

• Check goals monthly or quarterly

• measure conversions

Optimize

• USABILITY

• ease of social sharing

• Go organic

• SEO is no longer all that matters

SEO

• Title

• Description

• Internal linking

* Schema markup works for some sites

Authorship vs. Author Rank

Authorship was for display purposes.

Author Rank is for determining trustworthiness

of the author

Story vs. Content

Key elements to good stories include:

• powerful opening and closing paragraphs

• story/journey with beginning, middle, end

• specifics

Key elements to good content include:

• simple words

• short sentences/paragraphs

• active voice

• scannable (sigh)

Marketing + Blogging

Content needs to tell a story using short sentences and

paragraphs, an active voice, be scannable, and have a

beginning, a middle, and an end.

DO:

• simple words

• short sentences/paragraphs

• active voice

• scannable (sigh)

• EDIT

DON’T:

• Use fluffy words

• Ramble

• Use cliches

• Don’t repeat yourself

• Don’t defend yourself

• Don’t overwrite

Write for other sites? YES.

• To get bylines for author rank

• Inbound links

• To establish thought leadership

• To break out of a niche

Cecily Kellogg

cecily@doublegoodmedia.com

cecilyk.com Womenspeakgeek.com

(coming soon)

@CecilyK (I swear a LOT)