Write Your First blog Posts
With just a week before launch, it’s finally time to start writing
your first posts and building a bank of content to publish during
the first few weeks your blog is live. If you focus your energy on
writing in advance, you’ll give yourself more time to get ahead
of schedule and deal with other items that may come up when
launch day arrives.
Remember back in Week 2 when you generated a list of
evergreen content ideas? Start with that list, and choose a
few of your top ideas to start writing. You can always continue
thinking of new ideas or timely posts to write about.
Make it skimmable
Use images, bullets, lists,
and short paragraphs to
make your blog posts easy
to read and easy to skim.
Your goal is to encourage
your audience to keep
reading, not scare them
away with large chunks
of text.
Plan a promotional
strategy for your first post
Once you’ve written
your posts, how are you
planning to promote your
blog launch? Go back to
last week’s tips on SEO
and social promotion,
and create a promotional
checklist for launch day.
Consider writing an
announcement blog post
to tell your visitors about
your blog and why they
should follow it. Plan out
your promotional strategy
across social
channels, email, and
paid promotions.
Images
Did you know that colored
images make readers
80% more willing to read
a piece of content? Use
images, graphics, or even
videos to make your blog
posts more appealing to
readers. Start with stock
photos, or use Canva to
make custom graphics.
Link to other resources
Don’t forget to use
hyperlinks in your post
to connect readers to
other resources. This is
important for two reasons;
First, people want to know
where information and
facts are coming from, so
due diligence and proper
citations are critical.
Second, you can use your
blog posts to link to other
resources and content
from your brand, which
also helps keep people on
your website. The goal of
blogging is to disseminate
information, so make sure
to use links that provide
additional helpful content
to your readers.
Determining the Success of Your Launch:
Metrics to Analyze
Your first blog posts have been written, everything has been
planned out, and you’ve spent that last 10 weeks setting your
blog up for success. Now, it’s time to determine how you’ll
measure that success.
When it comes to blogging, it’s important to set up and analyze
key metrics over time. First, identify your team’s goals for your
blog. What are you trying to accomplish? Likely, the goals will
be gaining subscribers, leads, and then customers by bringing
blog visitors through the buyer’s journey to your product or
service. Once you’ve answered those questions, set realistic
goals based on the following metrics:
Page views
The main way to measure how much traffic your blog
receives is tracking the number of page views each post
generates. In other words, how many visitors are coming
to and reading your posts?
Click-through rate (CTR)
One key component of building SEO juice is the click-through
rate that each of your posts see. Are people coming to your
blog, then clicking on hyperlinks within the post? The more
visitors click through and stay on your site, the better it is for
the overall authority of your blog.
Sources of traffic
One important measurement to consider is where you traffic
is coming from. Are your promotional efforts paying off?
What are the big levers that drive most of your traffic to your
blog? Whether it’s your social promotion, emails, or paid
campaigns, make sure you’re tracking which channels drive
the most traffic. This information will help you tailor your
content strategy over time.
Leads and customers gained from your blog over time
It’s up to you to decide how you track this number. Some
companies track leads from their blog on a monthly basis,
while others do so each quarter.
So, how do you track this data? Most content management systems
enable you to track these metrics easily, so make sure you know how
to analyze them within your CMS before launch.
Now that you know what and how to track the right metrics, it’s time
to set post-launch goals for your team, both short- and long-term.
Hold a planning meeting with your team to set goals for page views
and click-through rates within the first month, six months, and year
after launch. If you set realistic goals and hold your team accountable
accordingly, you’ll set yourself up for success at the outset of your
blogging adventure.
Congrats! Now, Some Things to Avoid
Congratulations! You’ve reached the end of guide
and have (hopefully!) successfully launched your blog. We’d
love to say your work here is done, but, blogging is a long-term
effort. Luckily, it’s one that pays off.
Now that you’ve launched your blog, keep this checklist
of dos and don’ts in mind:
DO
Test your content
strategy over time.
Find out what works for
your audience and what
doesn’t, then tailor your
content accordingly.
Keep blogging
even if
you don’t see immediate
high-traffic volume!
Blogging is beneficial for
your business, but only if
you keep at it!
Continue to research
tips and ideas for better
blogging.
The HubSpot
Marketing Blog has tons of
posts that can help you out.
DON’T
Keep using a CMS that
doesn’t work for you.
If your CMS is hard to use
or doesn’t easily track data
on your blog, it’s not doing
its job. Luckily, HubSpot
can recommend a great
CMS for you to try!
Forget to do your keyword
research, or optimize every
blog post for SEO.
Rely on organic traffic
alone. Don’t forget to
promote your blog posts
and drive traffic to your
posts as often as possible!
Try to rank for highly
competitive keywords
right off the bat.
SEO is a
long-term game. Trying to
rank for highly competitive,
high-volume keywords
won’t work for a brand-new
blog. Keep looking for
niche, long-tail keywords
that will build up your SEO
juice in the short term.
0 Comments