Highlights from Creating a Content Strategy for Your Blog @JoePulizzi

Highlights from  Joe Pulizzi co-hosting Mack Collier’s #BlogChat Twitter chat. Joe is the Founder of the Content Marketing Institute and authored the book Epic Content Marketing. Find out more about Joe at JoePulizzi.com.

To join future Twitter chats, use this #BlogChat TWChat link
or search for the hashtag #BlogChat.

Find out more about tonight’s topic and see the questions in advance at Learn About Creating a Content Strategy For Your Blog,

Before you do anything with a blog, we need to start simple: figure out WHY we are creating a blog in the first place. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

There are three reasons to create a blog: to generate sales, to save costs, or to create more loyal customers. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

I’m always surprised about the number of bloggers out there that don’t have a clear reason for why they have a blog. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

Once we know the why, we need clearly focus on who the audience is for our blog. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

When thinking about your audience, go smaller not bigger. It’s tempting to go wide…but we want to go deep and narrow. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

An average company has about six+ personas for their business. The blog should target just one as the main audience. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

I’m all for creating a community and readership…but there has to be a reason to do that in the first place. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

Wanting a blog to increase sales doesn’t mean that we constantly sell on the blog. #blogchat

— Christoph Trappe (@CTrappe) July 7, 2014

RT @robpetersen: @MackCollier always asked 1) Who do you want to attract 2) What do you want them to do when they get to your blog #blogchat

— Des Walsh (@deswalsh) July 7, 2014

Personal branding is highly related to clarifying the purpose of your blog. What do you want to be known for? #BlogChat

— Linda Sherman Gordon (@LindaSherman) July 7, 2014

I’m all for creating a community and readership…but there has to be a reason to do that in the first place. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

And remember, you are not the audience for your blog. So many bloggers forget that. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

So you have the why, and the audience, then you have to figure out what your content niche should be. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

Even if you’ve started without a goal, it’s not too late to define one or more now. #blogchat

— Christoph Trappe (@CTrappe) July 7, 2014

I know way too many people that could have successful businesses if they had created a real goal in the first place. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

Your blog needs to create an audience. We can’t do much good if we don’t have an audience. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

The blog can be the center of our entire content marketing strategy – think of it as our home base. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

The blog is the place where we should be creating passionate subscribers…subscribers are key. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

The most valuable part of your blog is the audience you have opt-in permission from to communicate with. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

Once we create subscribers…then we can roll out the rest of our content strategy. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

So first, blog…then enewsletter delivered to your opt-in subscribers…then other products can follow. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

My biggest regret with my blog is not focusing on driving subscribers early enough. Had a lot of missed opportunities. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

Remember, 80% of your web traffic will never come back again. We need to work very hard to get them to subscribe. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

.@dustbury We added one key CTA for every blog – Sign up to get the enewsletter. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

For subscription – show social proof (join x number of people) and give something really valuable away. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

.@MackCollier To me, subscribers to your blog and enewsletter are no different. Someone subscribes, they get the blog via email. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

Over 50% of our daily blog subscribers come from Pippity’s popover form. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

.@JoePulizzi I use Pippity’s popup form as well, saw a 500% increase in signups when I added it #blogchat

— Mack Collier (@MackCollier) July 7, 2014

90% of our revenue comes from subscribers that have been signed up for at least 6 months. Subscribers are key. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

.@GrowMap Yes, at first, people hate popovers. But if the content is good enough, they will sign up. No one complains after. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

Think like a media company. The value of a media company is in their list (the audience). Convert traffic to subscribers. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

Your blog should focus on six key content aspects. Here they are: #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

1) Your content must fill a need in the marketplace that is not being met. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

2) You must be consistent. Blog at the same time and frequency every week (just like a newspaper would) #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

3) You need to tell stories like a human being would. Get rid of corporate speak. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

4) You need to have a point of view. What is your take? Why are you the expert? Show it with your content. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

5) Remove the sale. Never sell anything directly in the content of your blog. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

6) Your goal should be best of breed. You need to strive to be the leading content creator for your content niche. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

The biggest reason why most blogs fail is because of a lack of consistency. It’s not even close. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

I tell first time bloggers to not expect real results for 18 months. If it happens earlier, great. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

Podcasts are going to really break out very shortly. They will be more easily available and there is a lack of content now. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

You may want to consider creating a blog and integrating one of your blog posts with the podcast. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

Everyone is talking video: Well, sure. But I see opportunity in audio, print and in-person events. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

All bloggers should ultimately think three legs of the stool – digital (your blog), print and in-person. Like a media company. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

Also, longer form content is making a comeback. We are seeing 1000+ word posts perform WAY better than shorter posts. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

Oh, almost forgot…remember with social, you do NOT own the audiences on social…so focus on your email subscribers. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

Oh, another prediction…media companies are going to start getting bought out by brands. FYI #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

Your blog post should be as long as it needs to be…but I’m a fan of editing. Your post should end up shorter, not longer. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

For all you bloggers with smaller blogs – think bigger. Become the leading resource for your niche. Don’t settle. #blogchat

— Joe Pulizzi (@JoePulizzi) July 7, 2014

The above are only selected tweets. The full transcript is on hashtracking.

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Gail Gardner

Small Business Marketing Strategist at GrowMap

Gail Gardner is the founder of GrowMap.com. She is a Small Business Marketing Strategist who mentors small businesses, bloggers, and freelancers. After 23 years in the field with IBM and 5.5 years managing AdWords accounts, her focus shifted to small business marketing strategy. GrowMap.com is listed by Cision as a Top 100 Site for Marketers and has received three Small Business Influencer Awards from Small Business Trends. Named by D&B a Top 50 SMB Influencer on Twitter, you can follow Gail @GrowMap and on LinkedIn.

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