Blog Strategy for Business Associations

Blue Ash
New Year

A LOOK @
BUSINESS
ASSOCIATION
BLOGS

2014

Understanding How
They Can be Effective &
Drive Business Goals

Crafting Something
Tasty From Many
Voices

Presented to Blue Ash Business Association (Cincinnati Area) - Jan. 9, 2014
Leveraging Business Association Blogs| BABA| 1/9/2014

1

ITEMS TO DISCUSS

www.KirstenMeyer.com

01

Why Blog? The Role of Content

02

Similar Blogs: Inventory of Resources, Purpose & Opportunities

03

Writing a Blog Post: Technical Considerations

04

Being Seen: Visibility & Promotion

05

Hidden Dangers: Do’s and Don’ts

The presentation will be followed by a brief Q&A

Leveraging Business Association Blogs | BABA| 1/9/2014

2

ABOUT KM STRATEGIC


QUALITY CONTENT

GETS RESULTS

EMAIL
BLOGS
DOWNLOADABLE OFFERS
ONSITE TEXT
SOCIAL MEDIA
WHITEPAPERS

BRAND AWARENESS
CUSTOMER LOYALTY
HIGH QUALITY LEADS
WEBSITE TRAFFIC
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
LEAD NURTURING


3

BENEFITS OF BLOGGING


1. SERVE INFO ON-DEMAND

2. HELP BRAND VISIBILITY
3. THOUGHT LEADERSHIP, EXPERTISE &
TRUST
4. SEO BENEFIT

Visitors
Leads
MQL
SQL

5. FEEDS THE SALES FUNNEL
6. LOWER COST PER LEAD FOR INBOUND
VS. OUTBOUND MARKETING
($346 VS. $135) (HUBSPOT)

GOAL
4

BENEFITS OF BLOGGING


HOW DOES BLOGGING DO ALL THAT?
• EACH POST IS A NEW
PAGE OF CONTENT.
• EACH PAGE OF
CONTENT IS A NEW
OPPORTUNITY TO BE
FOUND.

THE GREATER YOUR REPERTOIRE OF ONLINE CONTENT,
THE GREATER YOUR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT.

5

DELIVERING GOOD CONTENT

Quality
content
increases the
likelihood of
occurrence
at each step
towards
ranking
in organic
search results


Being
Found
Being
Clicked

Social
Shares

More
Time on
Page

Good
Content

Return
Visits

Views
Other
Pages

More
Perceived
Value
Builds
Trust


6

DEFINING GOALS


In order to
deliver
quality
content,
you must
define your
target.

7

DEFINING QUALITY CONTENT


Quality content is:
-Created with your target audience in mind.
-Interesting enough to make someone want to read it.
-Well written and formatted enough to be read.
-Findable.
-Likeable.
-Useful.
-Relevant.

-Shareable.

8

What is the Purpose of Your Biz.
Association Blog?
For Example:
1)To drive membership
2)To boost membership participation
3)To gain exposure to members and member
businesses
4)To increase organic search ranking for the Biz.
Association
If you don’t identify goals, you will struggle to
get buy-in or consistency.



Why a Business Association Blog?
• A unique opportunity to extract benefit from an online
“marketing co-op,” where everyone contributes, and
everyone reaps a share of the rewards.
• To generate online exposure, leads, and business
opportunities (for members, member businesses, and
the organization).

• For smaller biz without resources to maintain their own
business blog, a biz association blog can potentially tap
into greater online exposure with less investment.

9



Why NOT a Business Association Blog?
• If there is not sufficient interest/ bandwidth/
resources to maintain.

• If there is no overall driving goal.
• If people are going to do it halfway and put forth a
poor image.
• If the only real audience is each other.
• In such cases, email or social media (such as a
LinkedIn group) may be a preferable platform (less
time required and allows more casual sharing).

10

EXAMINING SIMILAR BLOGS


WHAT DO
OTHER
BUSINESS
ASSOCIATION
BLOGS LOOK
LIKE?
LOOKING AT BLOGS OF TOP-RANKING BIZ. ASSOCIATIONS

11



Garbage vs. Art?
How is the array of different voices presented?


12



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

WRITTEN FOR OTHER MEMBERS.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES.
NO BLOG CONTINUITY.
UNCLEAR BLOG TITLES.
POSTS TOO BRIEF.
GRAPHICS = GOOD FREE MARKETING.
POSTING 1X/MO. DISCOURAGES VISITORS.
FAILURE TO SPOTLIGHT BIZ & PERSONALITY
QUESTIONABLE VALUE

13



EXAMPLE 1 (BLOG-LEVEL):
POST TITLES

• THE ART OF HEALTHY LIVING
• VOLUNTEERISM ALIVE & WELL IN
WESTERN CONNECTICUT
• SECRETS FOR HEALTHY LIVING

• OMG WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE
• HOW DO REPAIR SHOPS COME UP WITH
AN ESTIMATE?

14



EXAMPLE 2 (BLOG-LEVEL):
POST TITLES

• 101 REASONS TO LOVE BALTIMORE RIGHT
NOW

• HELP FEED LOCAL FAMILIES IN NEED
• BEST OF BALTIMORE- BALTIMORE CITY
PAPER BENEFIT FOR THE ROOSEVELT
RECREATION CENTER
• SCHOOL OF ROCK BALTIMORE’S “ULTIMATE
SUMMER” SHOW

15

EXAMINING BLOG POSTS


EXAMPLE:

This is a blog
post that wants to
be a social media
post!

16



EXAMPLE:

| Idea is the key ...| My presentation Title will goes here| 15/08/2012

17



EXAMPLE:

The point of this post
is hidden in the third
paragraph; you’d never
know!


18



EXAMPLE:

Kenton: Please
let us know
when you figure
out what else is
great about your
town. You left
us hanging!


19

BLOG LEVEL STRATEGY


TO DO:
BLOG “GAME PLAN”
DEDICATE EDITOR & LEAD PROMOTION
CREATE A SCHEDULE


20

BLOG LEVEL STRATEGY


TO DO:
• LOOK AT OTHER BLOGS- WHAT DO YOU LIKE?
• WHO DO YOU WANT TO ATTRACT?
• WHAT ACTION DO YOU WANT THEM TO TAKE?
• WHAT CONTENT WILL THEY BE LOOKING FOR?
• HOW CAN YOU CREATE A COHESIVE PICTURE
FROM YOUR ARRAY OF VOICES?
• WILL ONE PERSON POST, EDIT, FORMAT?
• HOW OFTEN WILL BLOGS BE POSTED?
• HOW WILL THEY BE DISSEMINATED?

21

BLOG LEVEL STRATEGY
SAMPLE BLOG “GAME PLAN” FOR JANUARY:
• “BILL” WILL BE EDITOR
• “KARY” WILL LEAD PROMOTION

JAN TOPICS (2X/WEEK):
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

RENTING BUSINESS SPACE IN CINCINNATI: 5 TIPS
CINCY SMALL BIZ CORNER: HR FAQS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
BEST BUSINESS SIGNAGE IN BLUE ASH (PHOTO COLLAGE)
BUSINESS EVENT PLANNING RESOURCES IN CINCINNATI
5 MINUTES WITH AN URBAN FARMER IN CINCINNATI (VIDEO)
CINCY SMALL BIZ CORNER: BANKING TIPS FOR STARTUPS
BLUE ASH BUSINESSES TOP CINCINNATI'S “BEST OF” 2013 LIST
CINCY SMALL BIZ CORNER: MARKETING TIPS FOR LAWYERS
STARTING A BUSINESS IN OHIO? DON’T OVERLOOK THESE 6 TIPS

FOR EACH POST, ATTACH A DATE, A WRITER, AN
INTERVIEWEE(S) IF APPLICABLE, & A TARGET AUDIENCE

22

SECTION 3: TECHNICAL


WRITING A BLOG POST:

TECHNICAL
CONSIDERATIONS

23

BLOG TITLE CONSTRUCTION


A GOOD TITLE:
• IS COMPELLING
• USES A KEYWORD
• HAS A SINGLE TOPIC
• CLEARLY EXPRESSES THE TOPIC

• 8 WORDS / 70 CHARACTERS

24

BLOG FORMAT


FORMAT FOR CONSUMPTION
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Bullets
Length 400-1000 words
Images
Headline
Font types
Whitespace
Subheaders
Numbers
Signature blurb

25

BLOG FORMAT


NOT AN
ESSAY
FOR
SCHOOL

A+ paper, wrong
format for blog


26


Essentially
same content;
re-formated
for a blog
post


27


Note page
components:
• shareability
• digestability
• scanability
• whitespace
• offers
• graphics
• subheaders
• links
• citations


28

BLOG FORMAT



29

SECTION 4: BEING SEEN


GET YOUR BLOG SEEN:
VISIBILITY &
PROMOTION

1. KEYWORDS & META DATA
2. LINKS
3. SOCIAL MEDIA
4. EMAIL
5. PROMOTE SUBSCRIPTIONS
6. PROMOTE ON MEMBER WEBSITES

30

BLOG PROMOTION


WHAT DO YOU MEAN, ‘META DATA’?

Using a Blog to Serve Business Goals| BABA| 1/9/2014

31

BLOG DO’S & DON’TS


COOKING UP THE WRONG KIND OF FIRE:

HIDDEN DANGERS
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Subscribe/Unsubscribes
Duplicate Content
Regrettable Content or Tone
Attribution
FTC Guideline Disclosure
Trolling in Comments
XML Code in Formatting

32

RECAP: KEY POINTS


Use Blog-level
and Post-level strategy.
Create quality content
with your user in mind,
and create it as often as possible.
Constantly promote and share.
Read others’ blogs &
participate in the conversation.

33

Blue Ash
New Year

2014

THANK YOU !
FOR COMING
Get in touch
by phone, email, or online at:

(+1) 714.454.6647
Kirsten.Marie.Meyer@gmail.com


34

Blog Strategy for Business Associations

Recomendados

Recomendados

Mais conteúdo relacionado

Semelhante a Blog Strategy for Business Associations

Semelhante a Blog Strategy for Business Associations (20)

Último

Último (20)

Blog Strategy for Business Associations