getting leads (and more!) from your blog: 10 tips for...
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Getting Leads (and More!) from Your Blog:
10 Tips for Higher Blog ROI
Howard J. Sewell, President
Spear Marketing Group
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#MarketoTour © 2012 Marketo, Inc. Marketo Proprietary and Confidential.
Navicure
► SaaS-based medical claims management (Atlanta)
► $30MM, 150+ employees
► Target audience: physicians and office managers at small- to mid-sized medical practices
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The Problem
► “CEO blog” was generating no measurable return: low traffic, few subscribers (RSS), no comments
► Irregular content with no editorial plan or defined set of contributors
► Standard Wordpress template with standard widgets: tags, archives, popular posts
► No stated objective, no internal champion
► Question: are blogging and social media worth the investment?
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The Process
► In order to be worthwhile, the blog needed to do to do more than just promote thought leadership
► Goals: ► 1. Generate new sales leads & measurable ROI
► 2. Create content that can be used for nurturing & customer marketing
► 3. Increase awareness of “next generation clearinghouses” but not be too Navicure-centric
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#MarketoTour © 2012 Marketo, Inc. Marketo Proprietary and Confidential.
The Process
► In order to be worthwhile, the blog needed to do to do more than just promote thought leadership
► Goals: ► 1. Generate new sales leads & measurable ROI
► 2. Create content that can be used for nurturing & customer marketing
► 3. Increase awareness of “next generation clearinghouses” but not be too Navicure-centric
► Steps: ► 1. Design the blog with demand generation in mind
► 2. Create an industry blog: make the Navicure brand secondary
► 3. Create an editorial strategy and gain firm commitment from contributors
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#MarketoTour © 2012 Marketo, Inc. Marketo Proprietary and Confidential.
Branded “Daily Practice”
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#MarketoTour © 2012 Marketo, Inc. Marketo Proprietary and Confidential.
Branded “Daily Practice”
Mix of Content: Practical Advice, Thought Leadership, Promotional
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#MarketoTour © 2012 Marketo, Inc. Marketo Proprietary and Confidential.
Branded “Daily Practice”
Mix of Content: Practical Advice, Thought Leadership, Promotional
Prominent subscription options: Email, Twitter, LinkedIn, RSS
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#MarketoTour © 2012 Marketo, Inc. Marketo Proprietary and Confidential.
Branded “Daily Practice”
Mix of Content: Practical Advice, Thought Leadership, Promotional
Prominent subscription options: Email, Twitter, LinkedIn, RSS
Links to Webinars, events, and gated content in the sidebar
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Monthly Email Newsletter
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The Results
► 60 net new leads in first 30 days
► 500 net new leads in first 9 months
► 22 percent of new prospects requested sales contact
► 778% ROI for 2011
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Customer Blog
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#MarketoTour © 2012 Marketo, Inc. Marketo Proprietary and Confidential.
10 tips for higher blog ROI
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Prominent subscription options
► Capturing new subscribers is one of the most efficient ways to convert visitors into readers that you can nurture over time
► Offer as many subscription options as possible
► At minimum: Email, RSS, Twitter
► Don’t rely on icons alone; include simple text instructions that “sell” the various options
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Promotional content
► Don’t be afraid of promotional content
► Consider the “4-1-1 Rule” (designed for Twitter) ► “For every one self-serving tweet, you should re-tweet
one relevant tweet and share four pieces of relevant content”
► Blog version: 1 promotional post, 1 post commenting on content written by others, 4 pieces of original content
► Include a call to action at the end of relevant posts ► “For further reading on this topic, download a
copy of our free white paper … (link)”
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Gated resources in sidebar
► Highly effective technique for converting casual blog visitors (people interested in the topics and issues addressed by your blog) into measurable sales leads
► Include text link + visual “icon” (shown to improve response by making offer seem more tangible)
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Use links for SEO, offer content
► 2 linking techniques to drive improve search rankings, boost Web traffic, and drive sales leads:
► Link keywords within blog posts to Web pages that you want to rank highly for that keyword
► Link names or descriptions of content (white papers, Webinars) to gated landing pages for that content
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Make every new offer a blog post
► Post excerpts, highlights, or reviews of every new white paper, case study, or Webinar
► Close the post with a link to the original or complete content (preferably gated) ► “View the complete Webinar on our Website: (link)”
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Social Sharing: Easy & Visible
► Include social sharing options at the end of every blog post, and in the blog sidebar (for sharing the blog as a whole)
► Popular sharing services: AddThis, ShareThis
► Tip: Use options that display individual options (Facebook, Twitter, +1) vs. one button
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Write post titles for Google
► When writing post titles, think about the reader seeing the post as a search result or a tweet, NOT the reader viewing your blog
► Use search-critical keywords, but don’t overdo it (keep the title engaging)
► Using numbers (“5 Ways to Improve …”) is a cliché but it WORKS
► Ask the question: does this title stand by itself?
“Wow, that looks interesting.”
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Make your blog a newsletter
► Leverage your blog investment by pushing blog content monthly to your prospect database
► Drives blog traffic, increases subscribers
► Less labor-intensive than the traditional “write it all at once” newsletter model
► Go the extra step and design an attractive newsletter template vs. using an “automated” email service like Feedburner
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Tags are your friend
► Tags are primarily a navigational tool for finding related posts, but they’re also a highly effective way to increase search rankings
► Don’t display tags in the sidebar (wasted space!)
► Use the same tags over and over again ► Increases the number of related posts (and traffic to
those posts)
► Increases the value (and search ranking) of “Tag Pages” (“Tag Archives”) that contain excerpts of all posts that use the same tag
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Start with a plan
► Choose a goal and stick to it (a blog can’t be everything to everyone)
► Choose your audience
► Brainstorm all possible topics and narrow them down to 5-6 categories (e.g. industry trends, best practices, offer content)
► Assign 1 or more contributors to each category (reduces the demand on any one individual)
► Create an editorial calendar with deadlines for each category and contributor
► Good luck!
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Resources
► Questions? [email protected]
► Copies of slides
► www.spearmarketing.com/blog
► dailypracticeblog.com