1. The Business of Blogging:
From Engagement to Leads
Jed Williams
VP, Strategic Consulting
Senior Analyst
BIA/Kelsey
The Business of Blogging:
From Engagement to Leads
March 3, 2014

2. Today’s Mission
 Examine the ROI gaps that exist for SMB bloggers
 Focus on lead-building and revenue-creating best practices:
 Drive clear calls to action
 Understand “conversion journeys “
 Keep SEO front & center
 Build focused social media distribution
 Create companywide buy-in

3. Source: BIA/Kelsey, LCM Wave 17, Q3/2013 (and prior waves, if relevant). Methodology: Online panels.
52.1%
39.4%
32.2% 31.7% 31.2%
28.0%
26.1%
24.6% 24.5%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
▪ 5 of the top 9 channels are Digital
▪ All 5 Digital channels are “Owned Media”
▪ Blogs are 16th (19%)
Media Used for Advertising & Promotion:
Strong Digital Migration
Media Used for Advertising & Promotion:
Strong Digital Migration

4. Source: BIA/Kelsey, LCM Wave 17, Q3/2013 (and prior waves, if relevant). Methodology: Online panels.
Frequency of Updating Online Properties
31.2%
41.7%
29.7% 28.0% 29.9%
22.4% 26.2% 30.3%
47.1% 29.6%
39.5% 40.6% 36.0%
32.8% 28.2% 23.0%
78.3%
71.3% 69.2% 68.6%
65.9%
55.2% 54.4% 53.3%
0.0%
20.0%
40.0%
60.0%
80.0%
100.0%
Top 2 Daily
Frequency of Updating Online Properties

5. Source: BIA/Kelsey, LCM Wave 17, Q3/2013 (and prior waves, if relevant). Methodology: Online panels.
ROI Assessment of Media Used For
Advertising & Promotion
30.4% 29.5%
21.9%
26.0% 26.1%
19.1%
21.5% 20.5%
16.1%
26.0%
20.7% 22.2%
16.7% 17.2% 17.6% 19.2% 18.3% 18.8%
15.7% 17.1%
13.6% 12.5%
21.7%
20.5%
26.6%
22.0%
19.3%
25.5% 22.8% 23.1%
26.8%
15.1%
19.0% 16.7%
21.2% 20.3% 19.4% 16.8% 16.5% 15.8%
17.6% 15.8%
18.6%
15.2%
52.1%
50.0%
48.5% 48.0%
45.4% 44.6% 44.3% 43.6% 42.9%
41.1%
39.7% 38.9% 37.9% 37.5% 37.0% 36.0%
34.8% 34.6%
33.3% 32.9% 32.2%
27.7%
0%
20%
40%
60%
Top 2 Extraordinary Over 20x Spend
▪ Blogging ranks 15th in ROI
ROI Assessment of Media Used For
Advertising & Promotion

6. Common Traits of Successful Bloggers

7. Clear Call to Action (and only 1)
 Never sacrifice quality, but have a clear business objective
 This often varies by target “buyer persona” or product/service
 Lots of possible Conversion Actions:
 Calls, Forms, Downloads, Subscriptions, Registrations, Purchases

8. Case Study: HubSpot - Clear Call to Action

9. Understand “Conversion Journeys”
 For target customer groups, build “buyer personas”
 Map personas to content paths that influence conversion
(ex. Visitors vs. Leads vs. Customers) (ex. specific product/service)
 Requires deeper analytics & cross-channel attribution

10. Always Think SEO
 Content quantity and quality BOTH matter
 Keywords: Primary & long tail
 More content pages = more keywords
 Tie blog content to Google Authorship (reputation & CTRs)

11. Case Study Example: Long Tail Keywords
 Built a network of blogs connected to the brand
 Each serves a dedicated audience and ranks for niche keywords

12. Focused Social Distribution Is Critical
 Connect Blog & Social for streamlined Content Marketing strategy
 Social = WOM & Traffic…but also tie to Conversions
 Social Focus:
 The channels that match your customers
 Content to support your strategy

13. Case Study: Social Referral
The average visit time is substantially higher for
referrals on Facebook than those from search
engines

14. Companywide Buy-In
 Blogging should be “cultural”…everyone should contribute
 Showcase diversity of voices & expertise
 This starts at the TOP

15. Thank You!
Jed Williams
jwilliams@biakelsey.com
@williamsjed
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