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.
Gail Gardner
Great post! Excellent advice. I try to do that as much as possible in my blog posts and write as if it’s a conversation and less like an English essay. Hopefully that comes across well
Alex Taylor would love you to read ..Lenovo Surging On Weak Samsung Earnings
blog with more traffic has
images
videos
good back ground theme and of course the content!
nice chat!
Meghan would love you to read ..Sears: Potential Business Transformation
I just love the way you have decribed it. Thank you so much. You are write about focusing on the right and niche audience
Lynnea David would love you to read ..Sears: Potential Business Transformation
I like this site, but I’m not sure how to get my tweets to appear on the site with the #blogchat
No worries tho, I really appreciate the content and tips.
Mike McHrl would love you to read ..Sales Simulation – The Missing Tool From the Hiring Process
Hi Mike,
#BlogChat is a Twitter chat held on twitter.com once a week for an hour. To join any Twitter chat you send a tweet that includes the hashtag (in this case the hashtag is #BlogChat) during the appointed hour and your tweet appears on Twitter where anyone watching that chat will see it.
Gail Gardner would love you to read ..How to Edit Your Resume to Increase the Odds of Getting Hired #jobs
Sounds like this was a great chat, sorry I missed it – but I did enjoy the transcript. Loads of great pointers!
Kostas would love you to read ..The Ultimate Guest Blogging Guide For Small Business Owners
Hi Kostas,
Although being on a chat and being able to ask questions is great, there is much to be learned from the transcripts and highlights as well.
Gail Gardner would love you to read ..Marketing Strategy for Small Businesses with Gail Gardner @Growmap #VCBuzz