How to Launch & Grow a Business Blog

HOW TO
LAUNCH & GROW
A BUSINESS BLOG
@gnucreations

@gnucreations
THERE ARE OVER 152
MILLION BLOGS ON
THE INTERNET.
Source: WPVirtuoso

Which means we need a new way to stand out.
@gnucreations

LAUNCH YOUR
BUSINESS BLOG
STRATEGICALLY.
@gnucreations


Before starting a blog, research your
target persona.
@gnucreations
Contact at least 10 people in your target audience.
Schedule 1-hour interviews in exchange for free
coffee or lunch.

@gnucreations
Ask them five sets
of questions:
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.
Company name? Age?
How long have they been in their
current role?
How large is their team?
Why do they do what they do?

@gnucreations
Ask them five sets
of questions:
themselves.
their day.
What motivates them?
What is the end game for them?
What are their aspirations?
Why did they change from company A
to company B?

@gnucreations
Ask them five sets
of questions:
themselves.
their day.
What are their hopes and dreams?
What content are they attracted to or
read now?
What do they think about all day
long?

@gnucreations
Ask them five sets
of questions:
themselves.
their day.
How do they compare themselves to their
co-workers?
Do they think there’s more to learn
about their profession?
Do they hang out with their co-workers
outside of work?

@gnucreations
Ask them five sets
of questions:
themselves.
5. Find out how they
spend their day.
What do they read? What do they
share on social media?
How do they learn about new stuff?
New tools? New articles?
What do they hate about their day?
What do they love?

During the interview, look for...
@gnucreations
Vocabulary, puns, references, tone, gestures, etc.
What makes them light up, what they hate
discussing.
Their outfits, style, accessories, personality.

Aggregate your results
to build an initial
illustration of your
target blog audience.
@gnucreations

Use these persona
findings when
planning your content
strategy and structure.
@gnucreations

Content takes time.
Dedicate at least one
full-time employee to
tackle it.
@gnucreations

@gnucreations
Marketers who have prioritized
blogging are 13x more likely to
enjoy positive ROI.
Source: HubSpot
13x

We now have a strategy.
But what are our desired
readers reading?
@gnucreations

@gnucreations

PRODUCE POSTS
THAT ATTRACT &
SCALE TRAFFIC

The best part of a
blog is how it serves
as a home for all
your content assets.
@gnucreations

@gnucreations
of the top lead generating posts on
the HubSpot Blog were promoting
other pieces of content.
Source: HubSpot
57%

With that in mind,
focus on three blog
post types.
@gnucreations

POSTS
FOCUSED ON
QUALITY
CONTENT.
POSTS WITH A
SLIDESHARE
PRESENTATION
EMBEDDED.
POSTS
PROMOTING
A MARKETING
OFFER.
@gnucreations

First, let’s review
general / SEO-focused
tips for publishing any
post on your blog.
@gnucreations
QUALITY
BLOG POST.

Optimize the URL to speak with search engines.
@gnucreations
Be sure to separate your target
keywords with a dash (-) so search
engines can read them.

But don’t make it so long
that it seems keyword-
stuffed. Google’s algorithm
is smarter than that.
@gnucreations

Start with a clear, catchy headline.
@gnucreations
Top 5 Sales Skills that
are Essential Today

But don’t write a catchy
title if it doesn’t accurately
reflect the content within
the post.
@gnucreations

Captivate with your first sentence / meta text.
@gnucreations
As your customers become more and more empowered, your
company must focus on producing content that is specific
to their needs.
Buyer personas—which include your ideal customers’
behavior patterns, pain points, and goals—can help you
discern what content to create as well as when, where, and
how to deliver it.
Unfortunately, while many companies have buyer personas,
many of them continue to struggle with how to use this
information for content creation. The result is that they’re
producing content that is neither relevant nor timely to their
ideal customers.
Read More

But don’t make your meta
description too long.
Google only displays 150
characters on SERPs.
@gnucreations

Let readers scan content with section headers.
@gnucreations
SNAP Selling
SNAP Selling is a sales method that aims to help salespeople
understand the modern buyer. There are four components:
• Keep It Simple: Today’s modern buyer is too busy to dissect
complexity. Sales needs to make it incredibly easy for
prospects to change their current habits and adopt what
you’re selling.
• Be iNvaluable: Modern buyers are overwhelmed. Salespeople
need to be unique experts who stand out and showcase value.
• Always Align: Selling today includes aligning business
objections with core beliefs. It’s about making people want to
work with you.
• Raise Priorities: Frazzled buyers have a priority list. Sellers
need to focus on what the prospect is focused on to win deals.

But avoid keyword-stuffing
headers—Google’s algorithm
penalizes “repeating the
same words or phrases so
often it sounds unnatural.”
@gnucreations

Use easy-to-read visuals to enhance experience.
@gnucreations

But don’t forget to include
keywords in the image
alt-text. Search engines
read them to better identify
what the post is about.
@gnucreations

Integrate internal links where relevant.
@gnucreations
Internal link to an
earlier blog post on
the same subject.
In order for your content to get found, you’ll need to know at
least the basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Begin by choosing the search keywords you want to rank for.
But be careful about the keywords you choose. You want
keywords that have decent search volume. However, don’t pick
keywords that are so competitive that you’ll never rank for them.

But make the first internal
link in the post the most
important—that’s what
search engines rely on most.
@gnucreations

Generate click-to-tweet links for easy sharing.
@gnucreations
Clicking this auto-
generates a tweet readers
can publish right away.
In his book To Sell Is Human, Dan Pink indicates that more than
40% of our professional time is spent selling—not only selling
the company’s products or services, but selling ideas and
customer experiences. (Tweet this!)
Whether you are in customer service or IT, you are selling in
some capacity by resolving some problem a customer has or
identifying some opportunity for improvement.
So we might as well get good at it. In a previous article, I wrote
about the top five sales skills that are essential today. Read
it and decide what skill you will start putting into practice
today.
Don’t dislike sales. Update your thinking to the 21st century.
View sales as the catalyst to helping people and solving some
of their most critical needs.

But don’t forget to include
a link back to your post in
the tweet copy. You want to
benefit from the sharing.
@gnucreations

Next, let’s review some
additional tips for a post
that promotes a
SlideShare presentation.
@gnucreations
EMBEDDED
SLIDESHARE.

@gnucreations
of all SlideShare views come from
Google.
Source: Alexa
20%

Indicate the post contains a SlideShare in the title.
@gnucreations
Grow Your Startup with
Inbound Marketing [SlideShare]
July 14, 2014
One of the reasons so many startups fail is because of
ineffective marketing. Instead of seeing marketing as a key to
their success, they see marketing as a necessary–or even
unnecessary–evil.
But the fact is, they’re wrong.
Read More

Embed the SlideShare into the post.
@gnucreations

Keep visitors on your blog, not on SlideShare.
@gnucreations
Remove these links to the
original SlideShare upload
when embedding to keep
traffic on your blog site.
The Guide to Growing a Startup with Inbound Marketing
from GnuCreations

Let’s finish with tips
specific to a post aimed
at driving downloads of
a new marketing offer
@gnucreations
SUMMARIZED
OFFER.

97%
@gnucreations
more leads are generated for
companies with an active blog.
Source: ContentPlus

TO GENERATE LEADS
FROM YOUR BLOG,
YOU NEED OFFERS TO
DRAW THEM IN.
@gnucreations

Include a text CTA towards the top of the post.
@gnucreations
1. Identify the mobile moments and context. In this step,
you focus on your customers’ journey to find their mobile
moments. Ted Schadler, author of Mobile Mind Shift, writes,
“What matters most in a mobile moment is giving someone
exactly what they want in the simplest way possible,
sometimes before they even know they need it.”
To do this analyze who is reaching for a mobile device and
why. Begin by developing your buyer’s persona. What
problems or opportunities do they experience throughout the
day? How can you help solve these problems? What sources of
information do your customers turn to and how can you
become a reliable source for them?
The first URL
hyperlinked in the post
get the most weight
from Google.

Build a form right into the ending CTA.
@gnucreations
Download 10 Simple Rules for Content Marketing
Fill out the form below to read this informative ebook.
Download eBook
First name
Email address
Last name

Or test smart CTAs to show relevant offers.
@gnucreations
CTA for general
blog visitors.
CTA for leads further
down the funnel.
LEARN HOW TO USE YOUR BLOG TO
GENERATE MORE LEADS
We’ll take a look at your current blogging strategy &
offer tips for generating more leads from your blog
GET A FREE ASSESSMENT
FREE EBOOK
INBOUND VS. OUTBOUND
MARKETING EBOOK
DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE

@gnucreations
THE ONLY WAY TO
KNOW WHAT WILL
WORK BEST IS TO
TEST IT.

But now we wonder:
Do we focus on optimizing for
leads or subscribers?
@gnucreations

@gnucreations

FUEL BLOG EMAIL
SUBSCRIBER
GROWTH

@gnucreations
THE GOAL OF A NEW
BLOG IS GROWING
SUBSCRIBERS FIRST,
NOT LEADS.

When first launching a blog, invite
people to read it.
@gnucreations
Before sending out email invitations, ensure you have a
crisp message for why your blog is different than others.
 Can you describe your blog in one sentence?
 Would your persona want to read it?

@gnucreations
OUR READERS
SHOULDN’T HAVE TO DO
ANY EXTRA WORK TO
DISCOVER OUR CONTENT.
WE SHOULD.

Keep growing your subscriber base
with two core methods.
@gnucreations
Calls-to-action on the blog’s native real estate.
Calls-to-action on your other content assets.

Experiment with
a prominent CTA
at the top of your
blog homepage.
@gnucreations
www.gnucreations.com
Get a free sales insights in your inbox every week
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OKDork’s above-the-fold
homepage CTA converts
at 8%.
Inbound Marketing Agency Portland | GnuCreations

Test a CTA to
subscribe at the
end or side of
each post.
@gnucreations
DIY Theme’s subscriber
opt-in converts at an
impressive 2%.
Enter your email below to receive our latest blog posts.
Click to Subscribe Today!

Try a slide-in CTA
appearing as
readers scroll
down a post.
@gnucreations
HubSpot’s slide-in CTAs
generate 27% more
submissions than end-
of-the-post CTAs.
Enter your email below to
receive our latest blog posts.
Sign me up!
x

Try a pop-up CTA
that hovers over
each blog post.
@gnucreations
Popups on Dan Zarrella’s
blog increased
conversion by more
than 100%.
Join over 50,000 professionals who
get new posts by email.
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Enter your email and stay on top of what’s new.

Provide an
option to
subscribe when
readers leave
comments.
@gnucreations
This attracts people who
are already interested
in your blog post.
Submit Comment
Name
Email
Comment
Subscribe to Marketing Articles via Email

Allow visitors to
subscribe from
landing pages.
@gnucreations
HubSpot’s landing page
forms increased blog
subscribers by 128%.
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DOWNLOAD FOR FREE
First name
Last name
Email address
Subscribe to the Blog

WARNING:
Watch your engagement
rates. You don’t want to
send content to people
who don’t want it.
@gnucreations

REMEMBER:
Our goal isn’t to shove
content into inboxes, it’s
to provide something
worth reading.
@gnucreations

@gnucreations
THE PEOPLE WHO
CARE ABOUT YOUR
CONTENT CONVERT.
FOCUS ON MARKETING
TO THEM.

How to Launch & Grow a Business Blog

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