Topic

A solid idea is what gets you off the ground. When it comes to choosing a topic, consider what your audience is looking for – what questions are they asking? Providing useful, relevant information, such as tips and advice on SEO, copywriting and content strategy for a digital marketing blog, is key to success.

Headline

An enticing title is one of the most important parts of a blog post! The first thing potential readers see, it must be engaging and click-worthy – boring headlines are much more likely to be passed over. A great headline lets readers know what’s in it for them.

Images

Every blog post needs a great image or three. Images should be eye-catching and relevant – they break up blocks of text and make them easier to read and more visually appealing. They add another dimension to the post and also work to keep the reader’s eye moving downwards.

Introduction

The introduction supports the title and connects it to the rest of the post and also provides an overview of the content to come. It lets readers know what to expect in more detail and, as such, should be captivating and inviting – just remember not to give too much away.

Body Content

Body content should be concise, grammatically correct and informative. Reflective both of your business and the topic at hand, breaking it up into short paragraphs makes it much easier to read. To ensure you offer the reader what you’re promising, proofread once and then proofread again. A second set of eyes is always good to have on hand.

Conclusion

A proper conclusion summarizes the content of the article and is short and concise. A handy way to wrap up, it provides a simple overview of the points of discussion as well as their benefit.

Social Networks and Sharing

Make it easy for readers to share your blog posts on Facebook, Twitter and other networks by including social sharing buttons on each page. This also encourages readers who don’t follow you to take the plunge, especially if they enjoy your posts and would like to stay up-to-date on what your company’s talking about.

Call To Action

One last thing that every great blog post has is a Call To Action. A main purpose of a business blog is to generate traffic and, ideally, leads for your company. Once a potential client has landed on your webpage and is reading your content, take it a step further by encouraging them to, for example, download a free eBook or white paper or sign up for an email newsletter. Another option is to offer the reader a next step, such as contacting your service team or visiting and “liking” your business Facebook page.

Representative of your business as a whole, blog posts provide useful, relevant information, promote your services and play a key role in initiating client relationships. A great way to build trust and rapport, taking the time to craft engaging and effective posts begins with these key elements. For help developing, launching and maintaining your company blog, contact Yabsta Digital today!

Differentiate yourself. Today, there are many bloggers trying to make it on the Web and standing out is critical to success. Great content is key to doing this. Look in a wide range of places for ideas, such as offline magazines, and remember that your audience is interested in much more than just one topic.

Optimize your posts. Blogging is great for SEO and optimized content makes it even better. Add relevant keywords to captions, descriptions and the post itself. Saving images under relevant titles also helps.

Publish for free what users would pay for. Original information that users find useful is what will bring them back to your blog.

Invest time in your headlines. An excellent title attracts attention, promises a specific benefit and, hopefully, entices the reader to click through.

A friendly tone goes a long way. Opting for a conversational instead of a corporate tone is much more engaging. Choose active over passive, use contractions and scrap the jargon and long paragraphs.

Show personality. Letting your personality shine through on your blog lets people know that there’s a person behind the posts and that’s a good thing.

Add an email list sign-up button. Email is a great way to develop a true connection with your readers and encourage the consumption of your content. Offer a benefit for signing up, such as a free downloadable eBook, and place your form in strategic locations such as on the homepage and in the sidebar.

Educate and inform. While the occasional self-promotional blog post is more than acceptable, the bulk of your content provide value for readers, answer their questions and encourage them to take action.

Invite guest bloggers. Built up your blog content by encouraging writing-inclined colleagues, industry experts and others to submit a post on an interesting topic. This offers a fresh perspective and can widen readership.

Organize your posts. Superior information architecture, which includes clear navigation, categories and tags, makes it easy for readers to quickly and easily find what they’re looking for. This is also key to a successful blog.

Have you tried any of these 10 tricks? Do you have a tip to add to our next instalment? Contact us on Facebook or Twitter!

1. Keep creating content! Producing regular content is key to blogging success. Fresh, interesting posts are a big reason why readers choose to check back regularly or subscribe.

2. Subscribe to, and read, top industry blogs. This is a great way to generate ideas and boost your inspiration.

3. Set a schedule. If you find that you’re falling behind, this might be just what you need. Decide to post daily or biweekly, for example. Stick to it and hold yourself accountable.

4. Increase your scope. Especially important for business blogs, it is necessary that the content reflects more than your products and services. For example, if your company offers social media management, include posts on the latest networks and how to use them.

5. Market it. Increase reach and readership by promoting your blog posts via avenues like social media. Just finished a new article? Post a link to it on your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.

6. Think outside the box. Why not turn that series you just finished into something new and exciting with video?

7. Utilize buttons. Prompt readers to subscribe via RSS or email or share posts they enjoy on Facebook and Twitter.

8. Get visual! Great images are eye catching, provide much-needed visual stimulation and also break up the text, making it simpler for readers to consume.

9. Keep a list of topics handy. Excellent for preventing burn-out, brainstorm ideas with your coworkers or friends and record them by hand or in a Word document. When the time comes to write, pull it out and pick one.

10. Write in short paragraphs and use bullet points. This is much easier to read, and less intimidating, than a page full of long paragraphs of text.

Do you have any tried-and-true blogging tips? Share them in the comments below!

Image Credit: Blogging Research Wordle by Kristina B, via Flickr, CC License, no changes made

1. Optimize Your Post

If you’ve been here before, you will already know the importance of using keywords in your blog posts. A recent study by blogger.com from August 2014, shows that although 60% of businesses have blogs, 65% of those spaces haven’t been updated in the past year. So whether you’re old or new to us, we suggest that there’s nothing wrong with giving all of your posts an SEO review.

It’s important to keep your content fresh and modestly packed with keywords that are relevant to what people are searching for today. Not to mention, adding SEO to your images which are just another opportunity to be found on the web.

2. Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest

If you don’t have time for anything else, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are your main channels through which to send your posts out to the sphere. If you didn’t catch it, our latest piece taught you how you can create Social Media Posts on the Fly using our Professional Online Marketing Toolkit. Sending your post through these channels will be the first place to go and will continue to get you the same amount of attention—so far this is probably getting you likes, but we can do better.

3. StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon was founded in 2002 and is a discovery engine that finds and recommends web content to its users—being you. After you sign up for an account you are able to “stumble” and rate different blogs and webpages, and others will be doing the same for you. This means that you will be getting more views that can translate to more likes and shares of your content.

4. Google +

Many people have created an account, but aren’t really sure how to maximize its use. In their Complete Guide, Mashable asks users why someone should use Google+. They received over 500 positive responses advocating for the platform including: “a cleaner way to selectively share data with others,” “a lack of distracting elements,” the ability to “share based on mutual interests and get exposure to interesting people and ideas”. Google+, at the end of 2013, was receiving 1.2 million page views per month.

5. Delicious

Similar to StumbleUpon, Delicious is a social bookmarking web service for discovering new web pages according to interests. They make it very simple to add web pages.

6. Friends and Colleagues

Don’t be shy about asking friends and colleagues to share your content. As long as it’s quality (which we already know that it is), your associates won’t mind giving it a little push. The more people in your circles you get to pass it on means more exposure to their circles and so on.

 7. Link to Your Own Past Blog Posts

Wherever possible, link to your past blog posts. Just because it was written last month, doesn’t mean that it isn’t still relevant to your reader. Presenting them with a link lets them know that it’s there. By doing this, you’re still adding to the virality of your past posts while simultaneously enhancing the information on your most recent—creating more reason for people to share.

 8. Reference Other People’s Blog Posts

Referencing content from other people or businesses with the same interests helps you to get noticed. Directing people to other experts in your field shows that you are familiar with the leaders in your industry, the literature that they write and you aren’t afraid to share the wealth. These people will come to you for their next question.

9. Add it to Your Newsletter

If you are writing for a business blog, they may send out a monthly newsletter to keep your potential customers updated on the latest news in your company. You’ll want to secure a spot to include a summary of your posts for the month—these readers are actually interested in receiving your content.

10. Add it to Your Signature

Adding your URL to the bottom of your email signature is simple, but effective. Add the name of your blog plus a path to click and you’ve instantly increased the potential eyes on your space. You’ll be promoting your content without even thinking about it.

Optimizing your post, shameless social media posting, subscribing to social bookmarking sites, sharing within your own circles, back-linking, using your company newsletter and adding to your email signature are all ways to make your blog posts go viral. Add these steps to your marketing mix when promoting your blogs and watch your numbers immediately increase.

Let us know the results with any comments or questions on Facebook.

Since different platforms require different ways of thinking—Facebook posts are longer than those for Twitter, which have a different voice than LinkedIn status updates —there’s no real cut and paste. We have, however, put together this toolkit to help you create better content, faster. Bookmark this Online Marketing Toolkit for templates, tips and tools that you can use over and over again to enrich your social media accounts, your business blog and even your company website.

Building an Editorial Calendar

Where are you in your business blogging journey? Whether you’ve just started or have been blogging for years, it’s helpful to create and refer to a well-thought out editorial calendar. However, there’s no need to re-invent the wheel – check out the Blog Content Planning Guides and Editorial Calendar Templates by B2BInbound to get you started.

Creating the Title for Your Blog

Need help filling that calendar with ideas? While the content is up to you, there are many scientifically proven ways in which to effectively present your ideas. Are you going to be doing a case study this week or just covering the basics? This list, brought to you by Freelance Writing Solutions gives you great templates for possible blog titles that will catch a reader’s eye. No muss, no fuss.

Writing a Blog Post

As important as your business blog is, the more time you can save while still creating quality content, the better. B2Binbound suggests using their blog template that takes you through a checklist for creating valuable but concise articles, consistently. Creating your own template can be a great way to maintain your voice when inviting informed colleagues or guest bloggers to write a piece.

Downloading Images Quickly and Legally

We’ve talked in the past about the importance of images in breaking up wordy text and visually representing ideas. There are tons of places online such as Free Images and Google Image Search that allow you to search a single keyword and receive great quality images for free. Google Image Search now has the option to search images by usage rights and is a leading site to find free stock photos for your blog.

Resizing Images Without Photoshop

In order to maximize space, it’s important to be familiar with the image sizing guidelines pertaining to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and other platforms. Socially Stacked’s The Ultimate Social Media Template Guide offers interesting tips and tricks and lays out the recommended dimensions for a wide range of social networks.

Now that you know the right sizes, upload your image into iPiccy and either resize or crop the photo. You can also apply beautiful photo effects and filters, all within seconds and completely free.

Sending Your Content to Different Channels

Now that your blog post is done, marketing it through your different channels will be a breeze with these helpful social media templates that offer effective options for building your statuses faster.

The Next Web’s templates will help grow your Facebook Page, while HubSpot is ever helpful on Twitter and all other social media sites.

Recycling Old Content

You don’t need a skilled graphic designer to recycle existing content into something exciting and new. When the time comes, Simple Booklet lets you turn your existing marketing collateral into web-based booklets that you can then post across social networks, email and embed on your website.

Checking for Spelling and Grammar

Even the work of the best copywriters and content creators requires a second look. Save time by slipping your content—whether it be a lengthy blog post or a short Facebook status—into Online-Spellcheck.com to ensure it is polished and typo-free.

Voilà!

Instead of re-inventing the wheel, visit these resources for help creating an editorial calendar outline, writing blog and social media posts, downloading and resizing images, breathing new life into old content and proofreading. Save time and enrich your content with this Professional Online Marketing Toolkit and send it to your friends!

What are your favourite tools to use? Let us know in the comments or on Facebook.

Not developing a digital marketing plan for growing your business on the web is a rookie mistake that, unfortunately, is seen quite often. Great search engine optimization, which includes keyword research, optimization, valuable content and more, requires a solid plan. Getting your ideas in line is key to launching a successful campaign, and building credibility and brand authority.

Not Blogging

Blogging boasts many great benefits, including improving your website’s SEO! In addition to offering fresh, interesting content to site visitors, optimizing blog posts with relevant keywords adds pages for Google to index, increasing your chances of ranking in the search engine results pages. Not blogging is an SEO, and a business, don’t.

Not Considering Local Search Trends

Many of the searches conducted by large search engines like Google and Bing focus on a specific area, such as Toronto or the Cayman Islands. If your business is targeting a narrow market, this knowledge is key to attracting customers and clients located in your area. Instead of focusing on national, or even global, search trends, narrow it down. You won’t be sorry.

Not Maintaining It

Good SEO requires maintenance. Google consistently releases new updates, meaning results are always shifting, algorithms are being updated regularly and ranking factors are changing. Keeping tabs on which step in your plan is next is a great way to analyze your progress and stay on top of the competition and emerging websites. Set it and forget it? I think not.

Forgetting Your Users

As important as ranking in the search engines is, it’s important to remember who your website is for: the users. Current and potential business, your website must adhere to SEO best practices and offer unique, valuable content, provide information in a clear, concise and trustworthy manner, be easy to navigate and engage the audience visually.

Not planning ahead, not blogging, not considering local search trends, not maintaining and forgetting the user experience are 5 more SEO don’ts that must be avoided. Interested in learning more? Check out our posts covering the important aspects of on-page SEO and the importance of SEO to small businesses for more information.

Image Credit: How to SEO WordPress Site by SEOPlanter, CC License

Can that same success transfer to a business blog? The answer is ‘Yes’. 

A business blog lets potential customers familiarize themselves with your business in a way that 140-character twitter posts are unable to do. We’re not saying substitute one for the other, but certainly don’t shy away from adding it to the mix.

With a good strategy, you’ll find the return on investment will be an inexpensive and extremely effective tool that will reinforce the image of your brand. It will become a subtle way to let customers know that you understand their needs and are knowledgeable in your industry.

Not convinced? We’ve researched some ideas from other industry leaders to help you understand why you should commit to a business blog today:

1. A business blog establishes trust with current and potential customers

A blog can be a useful space to give away free but valuable information, such as useful tips, advice, and thought-provoking ideas. It is also a free ticket to be honest, which customers tend to appreciate and share. A business blog could be exactly what you need to add credibility to sales. Be sure to include a call to action (i.e. a free ebook or a follow-up question) in every post in order to encourage engagement from your readers. (technically marketing, 2013) 

2. A business blog establishes a stronger internet presence than your website alone

“One of the benefits of maintaining a blog is that it gives your business more online visibility. Being found on the Internet is an important part of helping businesses thrive today. A blog will help your business show up in search results when people are doing a search for products or services related to your business.” (The Blogger’s Bulletin, 2014)

3. A business blog gives your company a human voice and builds a community

A blog builds community by allowing people to engage with the content. When people can like, share, and comment, they inevitably feel that they are having more of a conversation with you and your colleagues, which let’s them know you value their opinion or are genuinely concerned about any difficulties they may be having. Consider posting at least once a week and invite guest bloggers to write for you to keep stimulating perspective. (Heidi Cohen, 2014)

4. A business blog can enrich your social media marketing interaction

Blogs, when complimented with other social media like Facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn, can be spread surprisingly quickly. Use Youtube videos within your blog posts and be sure to link to all of your accounts to further your reach.  (the Hub, 2013)

Creating a business blog means creating a voice for your business. It establishes you as an industry leader and adds value to your brand. Opening the conversation up for comment means that you care about your customers’ thoughts and opinions. See Best Practices for Blog Promotion in 2014 for more tips on bringing your blog up-to-date. The answer is ‘yes’, your business should definitely start blogging, today.

What do you need to get started on your blog?

Let us know on twitter @yabstadigital

Sources:

Heidi Cohen

Technically Marketing 

The Blogger’s Bulletin 

The hub 

Some of the most successful blogs on the web are akin to a cult of personality: People will keep coming back because the author writes in a way that connects with them personally through consistent use of ethos and/or pathos as literary devices. Depending on the blog topic at hand, different tones of voice may be called for, but the concept of personalization remains the same. For example, if you’re writing about something “light” in tone (eg. pop culture, food, comedy), it might behoove you to inject some humour into your posts to keep things interesting. On the other hand, if the topic in question is more sombre (eg. philanthropy, health, activism), you’d perhaps do better to write with genuine passion and call upon personal anecdotes that can provoke emotion if possible. Whichever route you choose, the point is that it’s important to stand out out from generically-written cookie-cutter blogs.

Genuinely Engage Your Audience

In 2014, think of each blog post as an interactive discussion forum as opposed to an article. Its no longer acceptable for up-and-coming bloggers to write a post, make it live, then simply leave it to the commenters to address and dissect: YOU, the author, should respond directly to peoples’ comments, queries and criticisms to show that you’re genuinely committed to your work. Not only does this help foster trust with your reading audience, but ultimately helps your blog’s search rankings by ensuring that the post in question is fresh and constantly updated for reindexing. Don’t feign interest just for the sake of engaging, either: People will know.

Promote & Engage With Fellow Bloggers

Traffic to the blogosphere thrives on the promotion of content between fellow bloggers, amongst other things (social shares, google searches etc.). Due to the sheer amount of new blogs that pop up daily, its more important than ever to prominently and consistently promote other blogs to show both readers and search crawlers that yours is already part of a strong, established online community. Such cross-promotion acts as an indicator of credibility to potential readers, thus giving them a pretty convincing reason to share it with their friends.

Image Credit: Sheknows

If you’re a business owner whose website has lost traffic as a result of these algorithm updates, you’re likely not concerned with the technicalities behind the drop, and more with how to fix it ASAP, however, understanding the basic inner workings of SEO is key to mapping out a recovery strategy. Here are some tips to help get you back on track:

Understand The Difference Between On-Page & Off-Page SEO

This may sound obvious to those already aware, but you’d be surprised at how many small business owners with websites don’t even know what SEO stands for (it’s Search Engine Optimization, by the way). The two main types of SEO are on-page and off-page. In a nutshell, on-page SEO refers to changes made physically on your site (eg. writing new copy, assigning meta tags), whereas off-page refers to how many other websites, social media platforms and blogs are linking back to your site as an indicator of quality content. To be clear, Penguin 1.0 and 2.0 affected peoples’ off-page SEO significantly more than their on-page (if at all) because the algorithms’ main purpose was to punish websites who engaged in black hat back linking techniques. By running an on-page SEO checklist for your own website, you can officially rule out the issue being an internal problem and focus on what’s really keeping you down.

Be Prepared To Write & Reach Out

With the Penguin updates, Google has essentially backed business owners into and corner and forced them to reevaluate their existing traffic-driving strategies. If you were buying links pre-penguin, that’s now a no-no, so you should be prepared to dedicate resources to things like blogging, social media and link exchanges with reputable websites. The new SEO revolves around content, content, content, and it’s your responsibility to produce and market the kind of content that is both interesting to your target audience and relevant to your business. Run a sports shop? Write a weekly blog about the latest equipment or industry trends and encourage your readership to comment on it. Own a restaurant and want more customers? Start a Facebook page, regularly update it with your daily/weekly specials and encouraging people to click through to your website for a deeper look at the menu. Want to expand your link portfolio in an honest, white-hat way? Reach out to other local businesses and encourage them to do a link exchange with you (it’s win-win). Always be thinking of new ways to write intriguing copy and reach out to your clients and/or potential customers.

Social Media

One of the most obvious ways to get noticed is to promote, promote, promote. Social networking sites, namely Facebook and Twitter, are essential to marketing your small business. Establish a consistent visual identity through profile, cover and background images that match your website, and provide prominent links to your site on your profiles – this may seem like a no brainer, but it’s easy to overlook. Foster genuine, personal discussion with users through a combination of self-promotional posts and links to industry-relevant, interesting articles. Positive Facebook and Twitter interactions lead to shares, likes and retweets, expanding your company’s reach and the likelihood of lead generation. If you’re offering a special sale or promotion, and you should be, create a Facebook event or hashtag campaign directing users to your website for more information. While spamming your followers comes across as self-absorbed, authenticity and honesty are highly valued.

Search Engine Optimization

Attracting Google’s attention via well-executed search engine optimization is another way to get your business recognized. On-page SEO involves researching a set of keywords that, ideally, have both global search volume and relatively low competition. Localization is great – for example, you have a much higher likelihood of ranking for the keyword “Toronto digital agency” than “Ontario digital agency.” Optimize each page of your website for a single relevant keyword, which should be placed in strategic places, such as within the body text and heading. When it comes to off-page SEO, aim for backlinks from authoritative, relevant websites and remember that quality trumps quantity. Appearing in the first few pages of Google’s search results means a higher likelihood of searchers choosing your website.

Google also monitors how Web users interact with your site – if you have a high bounce rate, they know (is there anything they don’t?). Your site will rank higher and gain more attention if it is optimized to provide visitors with a positive experience. User optimization involves simple, straightforward navigation – ensure that they can find the information they’re looking for quickly and easily. In turn, Internet-goers are more likely to spread the word about your small business, leading to increased exposure and more traffic.

Content

Creating and posting fresh, engaging content is a tried and true inbound marketing tactic for appealing to audiences. Genuinely valuable articles, blog posts and eBooks draw people in; if you’re posting useful stuff, they notice. Conveniently, content, SEO and social media all work together – everything’s connected! Remember how important promotion is? Promoting your content on Facebook, Twitter and other networks is a great way to get the word out about your business while still providing something of value (people love that). Content also boosts SEO and business blogging is a great example of this. Each blog post adds a brand new, indexable page to your website, and each of these pages can be optimized for a different keyword. The more indexable pages your website has, the more likely it is to rank in the search engines and get noticed.

Getting your business noticed online means utilizing some of the top digital marketing tools available. Social media, search engine optimization and content are a few of the best ways to bring your site to the attention of Web users, be it on your Facebook page, Twitter feed or as a search result on Google. Our digital experts are available to discuss devising and implementing a marketing strategy that meets your needs. Contact us here.

Image Credit: Level 343