Content marketing is the ongoing creation of valuable material that stimulates interest in your brand by educating your prospects, rather than explicitly promoting your business. It builds relationships with prospects over the long term. Your blog is the ultimate platform for these marketing efforts. Read more
Chapters
Determining Your Blog’s Ideal Reader
For your blog to be an asset to your business, you must prioritize consistent, high-quality content that educates readers and adds value to their lives. This means being clear about your blog's goal and your reader persona, and keeping the buyer's journey in mind in your posts. Read more
Optimizing Your Blog for SEO
Search engine optimization is something well worth considering in the planning stages of your blog... and then again with every post you write. This means thinking about keywords and keyword placement, long-tail keywords, strategic links, and more. Read more
Writing Killer Blog Posts
When a visitor lands on any of your posts, they should be on the threshold of a treasure trove of content written with their best interests in mind: compelling titles, immaculate copy written in your unique voice, about topics that respond to what your readers really want to know. Read more
Coming up with Good Ideas for Your Blog Posts
"Blog once a week?! I'll run out of things to write about!" We've heard it... and we haven't seen it happen yet with bloggers who pay attention to their customers and their industry at large. Strategies for creating new blog content include everything from crowdsourcing to reader surveys. Read more
Types of Business Blog Posts
You've got your blog topics mapped out for the next few months. Now, how do you write post after post while offering your reader variety (and not boring yourself)? There are many blog post types you can choose from to get your creativity flowing and to help your content marketing efforts thrive. Read more
Using Compelling Featured Images on Your Blog Posts
While your blog titles should be compelling enough to draw readers in, your featured images will likely be the first thing a reader sees. These images should be unambiguous and relevant to your post, SEO friendly, reflective of your brand... and used legally. Read more
Choosing the Right Design and Functionality for Your Blog
By "good design and functionality," we mean that your blog content is intuitively categorized and easily navigable, your most valuable posts are readily available, your conversion paths are evident, your readers can interact with your posts, and the page is an aesthetic delight. Read more
Building Your Blog’s Audience
Once your blog content starts growing, you'll want to consider a deliberate promotional strategy to build your audience and reach prospects more quickly than your SEO efforts will. Methods include everything from guest blogging, to outbound links, to syndication. Read more
How to Hire a Freelance Blogger
If you're running a small business on your own or don't have in-house writers, you may need to hire a freelance blogger for your business. Where to search, how to write an effective job description, and what are the steps in the hiring process? Don't worry; we've got you covered. Read more