This is the presentation I gave at the Construction Marketing event on the 3rd February 2010

1. Making your
mark on the
blogosphere

2. ?
What is
blogging

3. Blogging is a platform that allows
you to engage with your audience

4. Where Twitter is shorter bursts of
conversation, blogging allows
lengthier debate

5. It allows you to publish thought
pieces, opinion and advice ...

6. ... but it’s still about conversation,
so all posts should encourage
comments from readers

7. The benefits of
blogging

8. Establish
yourself as
a thought
leader

9. Grow your community

10. Raise awareness
and establish
credibility

11. New business generation

12. Connect with people
previously out of reach

13. Strengthen your press
and online pr activity

14. Greatly improve search
engine optimisation

15. Who’s
?
doing it

22. Getting started:
strategy development
and setup

23. As with all activities,
you need a strategy
that details:

24. Objectives
Measurement
Audience
Content

25. Objectives

26. ! What are your goals? What
do you want to achieve from
the blog?
! Thought leadership?
! Better brand awareness?
! Improved SEO?
! New business generation?

27. Measurement

28. ! Once you have your objectives, think about how you will
measure them. What does success look like for each?
Put a target on it:

29. ! Once you have your objectives, think about how you will
measure them. What does success look like for each?
Put a target on it:
! Thought leadership?
! 3 thought pieces published in traditional media by
July 2010

30. ! Once you have your objectives, think about how you will
measure them. What does success look like for each?
Put a target on it:
! Better brand awareness?
! Increase in online and offline mentions by 50% by
June 2010

31. ! Once you have your objectives, think about how you will
measure them. What does success look like for each?
Put a target on it:
! Improved SEO?
! Reach page 1 for 2 major keywords by August
2010

32. ! Once you have your objectives, think about how you will
measure them. What does success look like for each?
Put a target on it:
! New business generation?
! 4 business leads generated directly from the blog
within 4 months of launch

33. ! Once you’ve agreed the objectives and metrics, create a
system to measure this regularly
! A simple spreadsheet works well
! Metrics should be recorded and reported monthly,
alongside other marketing and pr measurement reports
(because you’re doing this already right?)

34. Audience

35. ! Who do you want to connect with?
! Segment these as much as possible
! Then think about what they need to hear. Remember,
you’re writing for them, not yourselves or your peers

36. ! What are the common questions you are asked by
clients?
! What are industry bloggers and journalists interested in
right now?
! This gives you an idea of what your audience will
genuinely be interested in

37. Content

38. ! Once you know your goals and who you want
to target, you can think about your content
strategy
! Think about what your audience wants to hear
and use this insight
! If you already have a SEO strategy, list your
target keywords and ensure these are
included in your blog posts ... naturally "
though, nobody wants to read an "
obviously optimised blog post

39. ! Hold a mind mapping brainstorm with your
team
! Suggest the key topic areas you should write
about
! Then come up with a range of blog post ideas
for each topic
! Ask people to volunteer to write the
posts - but these should always be
posts they feel comfortable writing

40. ! Posts can be short or long, anything from
around 500 to 1500 words
! Ensure all posts are proofed before they go
live, however don’t get hung up on this. Posts
should be written and published quickly. Hang
around too long and it will soon be out of date
! Three rules of thumb:
! Be real
! Write how you speak
! Give credit where it’s due

41. Set Up

42. ! Thankfully you only need a few tools to start your
blog
! If you don’t want to invest in full website integration,
there are plenty of other free platforms you can use
! Wordpress
! Blogger
! Type pad

43. ! My favourite is Wordpress
! They provide a range of templates that you can brand
to keep within your identity
! They provide a range of plugins to improve
performance and add features to the blog
! They also provide
great stats to check
traffic, links etc.
These are the
metrics should be
added to your
measurement
system

44. Integrating with other
activities

45. Blog

46. PR Website
Speaking
Twitter
Events
Newsletters
Blog Facebook
Emailers Linked In
You Tube Flickr

47. ! By integrating your blog with other activities, you
PR Website
strengthen the message and enhance the results
Speaking
Twitter
Events
! Naturally the blog should be linked with all online
activities to ensure traffic is driven there
Newsletters
Blog Facebook
! However, you can also use it to promote and support
other activities such as press pr, speaking events,
Emailers Linked In
emailers, newsletters, eg:
You Tube Flickr

48. ! Run an email campaign that drives recipients to the
PR Website
blog to either sign up or download something
Speaking
Twitter
Events
! Promote event attendance through a blog post
Newsletters
Blog Facebook
! Use the most popular blog content for newsletters
Emailers Linked In
! Increase reach of a press campaign by including the
story on the blog
You Tube Flickr

49. Internal organisation

50. Many hands make light work

51. Some really enjoy blogging, so
make the most of your internal
talent and let them get involved

52. Share the strategy and content
requirement and ask for
volunteers

53. Better still, get them involved in a
mind mapping/content
brainstorming session

54. The writing stars will soon shine
through

55. Once you’ve identified a team of
capable bloggers and agreed who
will write, set deadlines ...

56. ... and appoint one person to proof,
edit and publish if you’re not
comfortable with self publishing

57. Results

58. Rather than tell you
what results I ‘think’
you’ll get from
blogging

59. I made the most of
social media and
crowdsourced
through my blog,
twitter and linked in

61. ! I asked:
! When did you launch your blog?
! Why did you launch it?
! What has the blog achieved for you?
! Why do you run the blog now?
! How often do you publish and who contributes?
! What advice would you give to new bloggers?

62. ! 39 people filled in the survey
! 44% architecture
! 23% construction
! 28% design
! 5% other

63. ! What has the blog achieved for you?

64. ! What has the blog achieved for you?
It enables us to show the breadth of what
we do to customers who may pigeon-hole
us, in an approachable way

65. ! What has the blog achieved for you?
Improved visitors to the site, people often
have a better understanding of the
company, engaged with new people,
improved online presence

66. ! What has the blog achieved for you?
It has generated some interesting feedback
privately and strangely generated a fair
number of unsolicited job applicants

67. ! What has the blog achieved for you?
Helped to raise our profile, increase traffic
to our website, increase SEO, and share
insight into our personality. It's also
helping to raise the profile and improve
understanding of Architecture in the
region and beyond

68. ! What has the blog achieved for you?
More exposure in media, higher Google
ranking. More calls.

69. ! What has the blog achieved for you?
We get phone calls every week and many
of them turn into real projects

70. ! What has the blog achieved for you?
Publicity, wide readership, work leads and
contracts, speaking and facilitation
engagements in the UK and overseas.
Community of blogging friends

71. ! What has the blog achieved for you?
Increased site traffic and No 1 position on
search engines for selected keywords

72. ! What has the blog achieved for you?
Some clients read it and I am
complimented on it. I have also received
some writing assignments for articles

73. ! What has the blog achieved for you?
Credibility with my target market ... a
deciding in factor in many of clients
deciding to work with me

74. ! What has the blog achieved for you?
Increased web traffic and exposure. A
more engaging website. Stronger
connection to the architecture,
construction and real state community

75. ! If you could give advice to companies about to launch a
blog, what would it be?

76. ! If you could give advice to companies about to launch a
blog, what would it be?
Having a blog for a business is crucial
nowadays. It's more exposure for the
business, but also integrity, response from
the market, easy communication with
clients

77. ! If you could give advice to companies about to launch a
blog, what would it be?
make it a mix of stuff & keep it up!

78. ! If you could give advice to companies about to launch a
blog, what would it be?
1. Find out who would like to write first, don't
force people if they don't want to do it.
2. Set it up and run it internally first so it launches
with interesting content to the general public
3. Decide on the focus, i.e 'the blog is where X
happens'

79. ! If you could give advice to companies about to launch a
blog, what would it be?
Have a plan about what you want your
"voice" to be, stay on message and build
up a pipeline of articles for routine
publishing

80. ! If you could give advice to companies about to launch a
blog, what would it be?
Appoint one person interested in writing
and has a modicum of technical
knowledge to act as the editor and take
responsibility for the blog, but ensure that
posts are written by others as well (and
not ghost-written)

81. ! If you could give advice to companies about to launch a
blog, what would it be?
Don't feel under pressure to write lots,
even a paragraph and a couple of links will
suffice as a post, so long as it makes its
point clearly. Don't be afraid to share
information, people will thank you for it

82. ! If you could give advice to companies about to launch a
blog, what would it be?
Have a clear idea of what you want to
achieve from the blog, tailor your posts
toward that end. Don't be demoralised by
low visitors, keep promoting the blog

83. ! If you could give advice to companies about to launch a
blog, what would it be?
Make sure you understand why you are
doing it - not just to be trendy. It needs to
be intentional, purposeful and distinctive. I
might say that with staff changes we have
struggled to maintain the impetus, but it's
still worth keeping in motion.

84. ! If you could give advice to companies about to launch a
blog, what would it be?
Go on ... you might even enjoy it!

85. The full results of the survey and list of blogs
will be published on my blog soon
Subscribe by email or rss here:
www.redcubemarketing-blog.com

86. To sum up then ...
Blogging is a great way to engage
with your community, raise awareness
and create opportunities

87. To sum up then ...
Be sure you’re equipped. Do you have
the time and resources to keep it
going?

88. To sum up then ...
Develop a blogging strategy with
clear, measurable goals, audience
segmentation and content plan

89. To sum up then ...
Develop a blogging team of people
who are genuinely interested in it

90. To sum up then ...
Keep at it. It’s a marathon not a sprint
so it may be a little while before you
see the results you want

91. This presentation ...
! If you would like a pdf copy of this presentation, drop
me an email to gemma@redcubemarketing.com

92. Resources …
Here are a few resources that will help you with your blog set up/strategy
How to Brainstorm Brilliant Ideas for Your Blog
52 Blog Tips to Kick Start Your Blog in 2010
13 Ideas to Inspire Your Blog Content
How Outposts Improve Your Ecosystem
10 Places To Get Great Wordpress Themes
12 Things To Consider Before Launching Your Blog
How I Use Mindmapping to Write
How To Ease the Pressure of Blogging
Building a successful business blog

93. Gemma Went
Red Cube Marketing
+44 (0)20 7993 4998
gemma@redcubemarketing.com
redcubemarketing.com
redcubemarketing-blog.com
twitter.com/gemmawent
linkedin.com/in/gemmawent