It’s Great You’re Blogging—Are You Blogging Efficiently?

Many of you are now publishing blogs. That’s great because blogging—if done well—is one of the most impactful thought leadership tools that professionals and businesses can use. According to the 2016 Blogger Research Study from Orbit Media Studios, the typical blogger publishes several posts per week with a typical post averaging 800 words in length. Bloggers write both in the office and at home after work. According to researchers, a typical blog post takes about 2.5 hours to create, with 46 percent of bloggers spending more than two hours per post and only one in six (17.4%) getting their posts done in one hour or less.  

Our Take? 150 minutes is WAY too long to be spending on a short-form post and if you’re running 800 to 1,000 words, you might be spending too much time “clearing your throat” and struggling to get to the point. If you’re not getting your posts done in roughly 60 minutes and getting your thoughts together in 500-600 words, then maybe you should review your thought processes or your internal bench strength.

Three in five bloggers (61%) are writing posts averaging 500 to 1000 words, which according to researchers makes 800 words “seem like an unstated, but agreed-upon standard length for blog posts.” Again, we’ve found you are better off writing on the briefer end of that 500-1,000 word scale.

Length Of A Typical Blog Post
Length of Post	% of Respondents
Less than 500 words	20.8
500-1,000 words	61.3
1,000-1,500	13
1,500-2,000	3.5
2,000+ words	1.4
Source: Orbitmedia, November 2016

How long it takes to write a typical blog post?

Time to Write	% of Respondents
Less than 1 hour	17.4%
1-2 hours	36.7
2-3	19.7
3-4	13.2
4-6	7.4
6+ hours	5.5
Source: Orbitmedia, November 2016

Part of the reason that blogs are taking many so long to write is that three in four bloggers (73%) act as their own editors, according to the Orbitmedia survey. Only 15 percent of bloggers use a formal editorial process. Nine in ten (90.6%) survey respondents said they either edit their own work or use an informal process. What’s more, researchers found that most blog posts have never been seen by anyone but the author before they go live. Ouch!

Bloggers Use Of Editors
Use Of Editor	% of Respondents
Edit own work	72.9%
“Show it to a person or two”	29.8
Formal editor	11.8
More than one editor	2.8
Source: Orbitmedia, November 2016

Researchers also found that social media is by far the most common promotion tactic, typically used by 94 percent of bloggers since it’s fast and easy for most bloggers. The Orbit folks also note that best practices for SEO are so well known that most bloggers now produce search optimized content, adding that only 5 percent of bloggers are paying to drive traffic to their posts.

How Bloggers Are Driving Traffic To Their Posts
Traffic Acquisition	% of Respondents
Social media marketing	94%
Search engine optimization	50.8
Email marketing	34.5
Influencer outreach	15.1
Paid services	4.5
Source: Orbitmedia, November 2016

Our own blog has more as does the FREE Resources page of our website.

Conclusion

Credit: The New York Times

On a personal note, I wanted to mention the recent passing of John Glenn, American astronaut, U.S. senator and all-around hero who died on Thursday at the age of 95. I never met Glenn personally, flew or served in the military, but I have long since felt a special affinity for Glenn. Here is an iconic photo from the New York Times on the day after I was born, March 1, 1962. You see Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the earth 9 days earlier—basking in the glow of the first of his two Canyon of Heroes parades in New York City. I learned many years later that my parents almost gave me the first name of “John” or “Glenn” but that decision was later nixed for reasons to lengthy to discuss here. Now scroll down the page to the side by side photos of the front page of the Times on 3/2/62.

For most Americans, Glenn’s ticker tape parade overshadowed an unfolding tragedy just 16 miles away in what is now known as JFK International Airport. That same morning (March 1, 1962), American Airlines Flight 1 crashed in Jamaica Bay, killing all 87 passengers and eight crew members. It was the deadliest commercial airline crash in United States history at that point.

As so often happens in life, exhilarating highs are mixed with agonizing lows. Give The Times credit for devoting equal space to both stories in 1962—in today’s media environment by contrast, that ratio would probably have been 90 percent tragedy/10 percent celebration. I’m sure many miss those days.

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Tags: Blogging, thought leadership, John Glenn, Orbit Media Studios, blog length

Which marketing content delivers the best ROI?

We’ve talked about the rapid adoption of content marketing lately, but not all thought leadership content has the same perceived value. When it comes to featured articles, new research finds that “who said it” is just as important as “what was said” if not more so. Let me explain.

According to the new Copy Press State of Content Marketing Study, two-thirds (65.6%) of the 329 surveyed marketing decision makers said that authorship played a key role in their strategies. They preferred articles that contained a byline as opposed to articles posted under a brand name only. In fact, 41 percent said they would pay at least TWICE as much more for content created by a popular author. And with all due respect to popular social networking platforms, the word “authorship” is far more likely to be associated with blogging (56% agree), than with Google (31%), Facebook (9%), Twitter (3%) or Tumblr (1%).

Thought leadership content with best ROI

In terms of ROI, bylined feature articles topped the list, cited by 62 percent of respondents. Video was next at 52 percent, followed by white papers (46%), photos (38%) and interactive media (36%).

·       
 -- Bylined articles 62%
--Video 52%
--White papers 46%
--Photos 38%
--Interactive media 36%

Note: While video and interactive media scored high on ROI scale, they also topped the list of content considered “Difficult and expensive to create, but we want to do more.” You don’t have to overpay to get great results. Our Free Resources page has examples of low-cost, high impact videos that we’ve created for clients.

Macro View

Markets quickly swung back into record territory yesterday, shrugging off a series of bogus Associated Press tweets alleging that there had been an explosion at the White House and that the President had been injured. All BS of course, but enough to spook traders temporarily.

More good economic news: The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said that existing home sales in March were 10.3 percent higher than a year earlier. Housing analysts said low supply, combined with rising demand for housing, could accelerate construction in the months ahead. According to NAR, buyer traffic was 25 percent higher than a year ago.

Meanwhile, the median home price rose 11.8 percent from February to March to $184,300, the biggest one-month gain since 2005. Things look even rosier at the high end of the market where many of your clients and prospects reside. For instance, sales of homes priced from $500,000 to $750,000 jumped 25.3 percent from a year earlier. By contrast, sales of homes priced from $100,000 to $250,000 rose just 7.1 percent.

What’s more, according to the American Affluence Research Center’s semi-annual tracking study of the nation’s wealthiest households, more than half said they do NOT plan to reduce their expenditures in major categories over the next year (including autos, homes, home improvements, vacations and travel) and 60 percent expect their incomes to be the same or higher over the next year.


Conclusion

Whether it’s an article, video, white paper, research report or tweet, putting your name behind what you say substantially increases your credibility and the potential for being shared by your clients, prospects and professional colleagues. If you decide to enlist the services of high profile authors or content production experts, don’t be cheap. Quality always wins out in the long run, but remember everything these days is negotiable. Get the best help you can possibly afford, but always cut yourself a good deal. You’ll be glad you did.

Tags: Fake tweets, White House Explosion, American Affluence Research Center, blogging, Copy Press State of Content Marketing Study 

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Think Blog, Not Slog

Think Blog, Not Slog
Still not sold on blogging? Think it’s too difficult, too old school or too “consumer-y” for your organization? Think again.

New research from marketing firm Hubspot found businesses and professional organizations that blog just once or twice a month garner 70 PERCENT more leads than those who don’t. If you can post more frequently—say several times per week—researchers found you’ll generate on average 5 TIMES more web traffic than competitors who don’t have blogs.

But wait, there’s more! Unlike many other online marketing tactics, blogging is scalable. For instance, researchers found that doubling you posting schedule to 21-plus times per month from 11 to 20 times per month resulted in a 45 percent boost in traffic.

As we mentioned last week, a new survey by the Custom Content Council and ContentWise, found that brand content (aka brand journalism, sponsored editorial or thought leadership content) is getting a bigger slice of the marketing pie: a 13 percent increase in spending for the last two years.

But, you have to be relevant

What’s hard for many organizations to understand is that blogging isn’t the same as email blasting. It’s not the same as aggregating, scraping, tweeting, pinning or Facebook posting, either. You don’t have to be a seasoned journalist. But, you do have to commit to your own point of view and you have to be relevant. Why else would your time-pressed clients and prospects take time out of their busy days to read/watch/view what you have to say?

Be a thought leader

Blogging is about being a thought leader. You don’t have to be first with the news. You just have to put an authoritative spin on it so you can showcase your expertise. You want to be arrogant. You do want to give readers short nuggets of intelligence that can help them solve a problem, unlock a new opportunity or make their jobs easier.

There’s no ideal post length and no ideal frequency. Just commit to a schedule and volume that you and your colleagues can consistently maintain. But, if you take shortcuts and put out stale, over-used content your numbers will suffer and your reputation as well.

First impressions

According to the good folks at Gadzoog you have about 10 seconds to capture a potential customer’s attention before they click “back” and move on to your competitor. There has to be something of value offered to keep them not only interested, but coming back. Whether it’s an informational video, blog post, or a free consultation, there should be some element that helps you stand out from the crowd.

They want to find as much out about you as they can, before the commit to a phone call, demo or in person meeting.

Remember, your prospects go through a due diligence process before making a final decision about you. This time should be seen as an opportunity to inform, engage, and most importantly, offer value to your prospective audience. This poses a major advantage over the competition when considering that most businesses with a website usually lack a blog and the ones that do have a blog, rarely maintain it.

Conclusion

Blogging is not a magic silver bullet. But if done even reasonably well and consistently, it will elevate you above the clutter. It’s pretty simple to do, but just hard enough to separate the thought leaders from the pretenders. Just remember to be relevant and make sure you integrate blogging with your other marketing initiatives. You’ll be glad you did even if you don’t get the same boost in traffic (or leads) that researchers claim above.

Time after time, clients tell us the process of blogging gave them a great new idea for a presentation, video, brochure or new product that wouldn’t have occurred to them otherwise.

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TAGS: Gadzoog, blogging, Hubspot, Custom Content Council

Blogging Remains Top B2B Content Marketing Tactic

Whatever is old is new again. Timeliness and relevance still reigns in this instant message, zero-attention span environment.

What’s the top B2B content channel to support your primary marketing objectives? Facebook? Twitter? Youtube? Webinars? Actually it’s blogging, the good old fashioned workhorse of business thought leadership, according to a new Focus Research report on the challenges and priorities of B2B marketers.

According to researchers, nearly two in five (39%) B2B marketers cited Blog Posts as their No. 1 type of content to support their primary marketing objectives. Webinars and Virtual Events came in next, cited by 38 percent of respondents, followed by Industry Whitepapers (31%), Videos (23%) and Data-Driven Research Reports (20%).

OUR TAKE: This research shouldn’t surprise you. In today’s fragile “wait and see” business climate, sales cycles have gotten longer. That’s increased the need to keep your prospects engaged during the consideration phase of the sales cycle. To that end, smart marketers are providing valuable content to decision-makers and influencers at their target customers. Blogs have been particularly successful as they can be updated and delivered much faster than a webinar, video or white paper—but with a lot more “meaty content” than a banal twitter post or Facebook “like.”

Blogs drive traffic and search results

Hubspot’s latest study shows that the number of companies actively blogging has grown to 65 percent today from 48 percent in 2009. Here’s why. Researchers found that companies that blog have 55 percent more visitors, 97 percent more inbound links and 434 percent more indexed pages than companies that don’t blog.

But, I’m not a writer

You don’t have to be a journalist—or hire one on staff—to create a meaningful blog for customers. You just need to show customers you understand their pain points and can help them solve their problems. If you understand your market, you’ll never run out of material. You can alternate an opinion post one week with a customer testimonial the next week, with an employee (or product) spotlight the next week with a short how-to article the next. Still not enough? Then try linking out to articles or research in the trade publications your prospects follow and then comment on the article with your authoritative spin on whether you agree or disagree with the findings.

“Blogs are a great way to get your name out there as a thought leader—and search engines love them, Bill Sheridan told us over coffee the other day. Bill is the editor and electronic communications manager of the Maryland Association of CPAs a very progressive professional society when it comes to connecting with members in this electronic age.

So don’t worry about being a writer, or even a hotshot blogger. Just be the expert in your target niche and if nothing else, be the best friend of your customers, prospects and decision-influencers at your target companies. Give them some ammunition to convince their boss, CFO or board and they’ll be your advocate for life.

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