HOW TO ACCELERATE THE GROWTH
OF YOUR B2B BLOG Anum Hussain Growth Marketer, Content, Hubspot @anum Hana Abaza VP Marketing, Uberflip @hanaabaza

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HOW TO LAUNCH & GROW
A BUSINESS BLOG

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Anum Hussain
Growth marketer, @sidekick Co-author, Twitter for @dummies #cookiecakelover

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Once upon
a time, content took the throne as king of marketing.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM And as
his highness grew in power,

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM And as
his highness grew in power, a playbook for success was dictated.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM
PUBLISH.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM PUBLISH. ALL
THE TIME.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM BUT NOW
THERE ARE OVER 152 MILLION BLOGS ON THE INTERNET. Source: WPVirtuoso

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Which means
it’s time to handle things a bit more strategically.

1. Deeply understand your target audience.
2. Produce posts that attract & scale traffic. 3. Fuel growth of blog subscribers. HERE’S HOW:

1. Deeply understand your target audience.
2. Produce posts that attract & scale traffic. 3. Fuel growth of blog subscribers.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Before starting
a blog, research your target persona.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Before starting
a blog, research your target persona. Contact at least 10 people in your target audience.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Before starting
a blog, research your target persona. Contact at least 10 people in your target audience. Schedule 1-hour interviews in exchange for free coffee or lunch. If virtual interviews, send a gift card.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM 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-to-day. Ask them five sets of questions:

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM 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-to-day. Ask them five sets of questions: Company name? Age? How long have they been in their current role? How large is their team? Why do they do what they do?

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

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

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

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM 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-to-day. Ask them five sets of questions: What do they read? What do they share? How do they learn about new stuff? New tools? New articles? What do they hate about their day? What do they love?

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM During the
interview, look for ...

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM During the
interview, look for ... Vocabulary, puns, references, tone, gestures, etc.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM During the
interview, look for ... Vocabulary, puns, references, tone, gestures, etc. What makes them light up, what they hate discussing.

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

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Aggregate your
results to build an initial illustration of your target blog audience.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM We interviewed
almost 100 people in different industries and roles – each a member of the audience we were trying to reach. We learned that: x Their days are too packed to focus attention on reading a lengthy article. x They want to see more content discussing ideas they can take immediate action on. x They just want to own at their job – many had a strong desire to control their own destiny. Case Study: SIDEKICK BLOG STRATEGY

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM So we
took that qualitative insight and launched a blog with three key focuses: ü Publish concise content that puts high emphasis on direct tactics over fluffy explanations. ü Publish content from individual contributors, not managers. ü Publish the secrets to success from top performers. Case Study: SIDEKICK BLOG STRATEGY

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Use these
persona findings when planning your content strategy and structure.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Content takes
time. Dedicate at least one full-time employee to tackle it.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM 13X Marketers
who have prioritized blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI. Source: State of Inbound

We now have a strategy.
@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM

We now have a strategy.
But what are our target readers ... reading? @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM

1. Deeply understand your target audience.
2. Produce posts that attract & scale traffic. 3. Fuel growth of blog subscribers.

Attract & scale traffic to
content with these 20 optimization tips. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM

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

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

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Start with
a clear, catchy headline.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM But don’t
write a catchy title if it doesn’t accurately represent the content within the post.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Captivate with
your first sentence / meta text.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM But don’t
make your meta description too long. Google only displaces 150 characters on SERPs.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Let readers
scan content with section headers. Header Header

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM But avoid
keyword-stuffing headers – Google’s algorithm penalizes “repeating the same words or phrases so often it sounds unnatural.”

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Use easy-to-read
visuals to enhance experience. This is simply email copy in a compose window to help visually enhance reading experience.

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

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Integrate internal
links where relevant. Internal link to an earlier blog post on same subject.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM But make
the first internal link in the post the most important – that’s what search engines rely on most.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Generate click-to-tweet
links for easy sharing. Clicking this auto-generates a tweet readers can publish right away.

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

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM 20% of
all SlideShare views come from Google. Source: Alexa

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM This Google
juice helps drive traffic from SERPs. Link to blog post with SlideShare embedded. Link to presentation on SlideShare’s site.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM SLIDESHARE IS
THE HIGHEST CONVERTING SOCIAL CHANNEL FOR HUBSPOT & SIDEKICK.

The following optimization tips hone
in on SlideShare specifically. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Let the
title show the post contains a SlideShare.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Embed the
SlideShare into the post.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Keep visitors
on your blog, not on SlideShare. Remove these links to the original SlideShare upload when embedding to keep traffic on your blog site.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM 97% more
leads are generated for companies with an active blog. Source: ContentPlus

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM TO GENERATE
LEADS FROM YOUR BLOG, YOU NEED OFFERS TO COLLECT THEM.

These final optimization tips focus
on offers specifically. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Include a
text-CTA towards the top of the post. The first URL hyperlinked in the post gets the most weight from Google.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Build a
form right into the ending CTA. I love this. There’s no need to drive the reader to a landing page when this article and the value proposition of the CTA clearly explains the value of the offer. So simple, yet so brilliant.” @BobRuffolo

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Or test
smart CTAs to show relevant-offers. CTA for general blog visitors to offer. CTA for leads to move further down funnel.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM THE ONLY
WAY TO KNOW WHAT WILL WORK BEST IS TO TEST IT.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Some web
forms require more fields. We found that longer lead generation forms generated roughly 16% fewer leads than simply using a CTA image that navigates readers to a landing page. Case Study: HUBSPOT BLOG STRATEGY

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM But that
wasn’t the case for our shorter blog subscription forms. These one-field forms converted 4X more subscribers than the CTA image linked to a separate landing page. Case Study: HUBSPOT BLOG STRATEGY

But now we wonder: @ANUM
| ANUMHUSSAIN.COM

But now we wonder: Do
we focus on optimizing for leads or subscribers? @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM THE GOAL
OF A NEW BLOG IS GROWING SUBSCRIBERS FIRST, NOT LEADS.

1. Deeply understand your target audience.
2. Produce posts that attract & scale traffic. 3. Fuel growth of blog subscribers.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM 76.9% OF
VIEWS ON SIDEKICK BLOG POSTS COME FROM EMAIL. Source: Sidekick by HubSpot

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM A typical
new post on the HubSpot Marketing Blog generates ~70% of its initial traffic from email subscribers. Traffic from email. Case Study: HUBSPOT BLOG STRATEGY

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM But over
time, that initial traffic leads to views / social sharing that translates into long-term organic search traffic growth. Traffic from organic search. Case Study: HUBSPOT BLOG STRATEGY

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM THAT MEANS
YOUR SUBSCRIBERS ARE CRITICAL FOR INITIAL TRAFFIC GROWTH.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM WITHOUT THEM,
YOUR ORGANIC GROWTH WILL PROVE DIFFICULT.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM When first
launching (or re-launching) a blog, invite people to read it.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM When first
launching (or re-launching) a blog, invite people to read it. Before sending out email invitations, ensure you have a crisp message for why your blog is different than others.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM When first
launching (or re-launching) a blog, invite people to read it. Before sending out email invitations, ensure you have a crisp message for why your blog is different than others. ü Can you describe your blog in one sentence?

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM When first
launching (or re-launching) a blog, invite people to read it. Before sending out email invitations, ensure you have a crisp message for why your blog is different than others. ü Can you describe your blog in one sentence? ü Would your researched persona read it?

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM We sent
email invitations to three cohorts of people: 1. Content Contacts: Anyone who discovered our other content through forms on landing pages. 2. Churned Users: People who may no longer care about our product but may still care about our industry / best practices. 3. Email to Non-Users: Leads who may one day use our product, but haven’t yet. Case Study: SIDEKICK BLOG STRATEGY

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM We sent
invitations to our current database. The copy reflected a well-thought out message that our audience research indicated would resonate with who we ultimately want reading our blog. Case Study: SIDEKICK BLOG STRATEGY We shared titles of the types of blog posts they’d find on our blog.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM And we
didn’t send them to a different page or form to subscribe – we already have their email, why ask for it again? Instead, we tracked who clicked on the CTA to subscribe and automatically added them to our subscriber list. Case Study: SIDEKICK BLOG STRATEGY We automatically collected any email that clicked on the CTA.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM OUR READERS
SHOULDN’T HAVE TO DO ANY EXTRA WORK TO DISCOVER OUR CONTENT. WE SHOULD.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Keep growing
your subscriber base with two core methods.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Keep growing
your subscriber base with two core methods. Calls-to-action on the blog’s native real estate.

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

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Experiment with
a prominent CTA at the top of your blog homepage. OKDork’s above-the-fold homepage CTA converts at 8%.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Test a
CTA to subscribe at the end or side of each post. DIYTheme’s subscriber opt-in converts at an impressive 2%.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Try a
slide-in CTA appearing as readers scroll down a post. HubSpot’s slide-in CTAs generate 27% moresubmissions than end-of-the-post CTAs.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Popups on
Dan Zarrella’s blog didn’t reducebounce rates and increased conversion by more than 100%. Try pop-up CTA that hovers over the blog post.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM This sweeps
in free subscribers from peoplealready interested enough to share a comment. Provide an option to subscribe when readers leave comments.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM HubSpot’s landing
page forms increased blogsubscribers by 128%. Allow visitors who shower interest elsewhere on your site to subscribe.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Surfacing the
blog to every new user helped theSidekick blog increase subscribers above 50% M/M. Try sending invitations with your best posts during customer onboarding.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Sidekick achieved
an average 4% CTR onemail invites from people who previously stopped showing interest. Or test a one-time send to re-engage churned users with content, not product.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM We tested
each CTA type and quickly generated nearly 10K blog subscribers within six weeks. Case Study: SIDEKICK BLOG STRATEGY

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM WARNING: Watch
your engagement rates. You don’t want to send content to people who don’t want it.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Eventually we
reached 60K subscribers. But only 22K of them were actively reading our content. So we removed the others from our subscriber list. Case Study: SIDEKICK BLOG STRATEGY

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM We sacrificed
subscribers for success. We believe having a healthy list of engaged readers is far more important than having a large list of inactive readers. This also ensures our strategy is directed by those who care about us most. Case Study: SIDEKICK BLOG STRATEGY

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

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM THE PEOPLE
WHO CARE ABOUT YOUR CONTENT CONVERT. FOCUS ON MARKETING TO THEM.

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM That’s our
playbook for growing the Sidekick Blog.

Don’t just start writing. @ANUM
| ANUMHUSSAIN.COM

Don’t just start writing. Start
thinking critically about your actual blog strategy. @ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM

@ANUM | ANUMHUSSAIN.COM Questions? (After
this event, feel free to ask more at anumhussain.com/presentations/how-to- launch-blog.)

THANK YOU!

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