Blog Strategy

Generating Leads With

Free Blog Platforms

Blog Tech Benefits

More Pages More Text Timely More Keywords Viral Build Vendor Relationships Fresh Content Link Bait

More Pages

The more pages you have on the web, the more likely you will be found by a buyer

Blog tech makes it easy to produce content

More Text

Search engines can’t “read” images yet – and so a site that is mostly graphics will not be indexed effectively.

Blog tech lets you add text pages that can drive traffic to your “pretty pages”

Timely

Comment on news and events that may impact your potential clients.

Example Post on new party venues – become the source in

your area. Post about travel issues – like a volcano.

More Keywords

The more text you put up the greater the chances of discovering new keywords.

Use Google Analytics to find the words people use – not just the ones you can think of.

Viral

Post a picture or video of a client and they will share it with friends and family … spreading your brand.

Build Relationships

Post a review of a business partner Rave reviews of a party venue = big brownie

points They’ll link to it too, boosting your SEO

Fresh Content

Updated sites are preferred to static sites. A site with fresh content will outperform a

static site in the search engines.

Link Bait

Put good content up and it will passively get links to your site.

Downside of Blog

You may not want to expose your client list and resources to the world. Doing so may help your competition, so think before you post.

Blogging is a waste of time … if you are doing it incorrectly, which many people are.

Typical Small Biz Blog

Generic Looking No Branding Poor Navigation Back to Site Not tracked No “hooks” in titles Self-serving crap content No LEAD CAPTURE area WHY?

Why Blogs FAIL

Poor GoalsLack of strategy

What Is The Goal?

Thought Leadership Establish authority

Branding “I don’t know, I just kept reading that I needed

a blog so I started one. I’m not really sure what it’s supposed to do.”

Leads

Blog Goal - LEADS

Requires Keywords Optimized settings Frequent updates Proper LAYOUT Tracking

Keywords

Service Description in Your Client’s Words Don’t say “culinary visionary,” say “catering.”

PLUS GEO Keywords: Long Island Catering Garden City Catering Eisenhower Park Wedding Catering

Keywords

Use in Title Sub-title Early Not too often In Your Images

Alt Image Tag Categories Tags

Optimized

Your blog software should “ping” the indexes every time you post an article

You should post a link to any website page you’ve recently added or updated so that the spiders will index it quickly

Occasionally use social bookmarks like Diigo, StumbleUpon, Redditt and others to give your blog some inbound links – but don’t over do it

Structure

Good Header Graphic Brand Phone Number

Sidebars … post your own banner ads on the side columns so that every page sells your service without having to sell in the post.

What to blog?

Don’t get hung up on perfect posts Goal is to get eyeballs on the page and let

the sidebars do the selling Get local buyers by blogging about local

relevant things

Examples

BAD “Catering Trends for 2010” “Mary and Tommy’s Wedding” “My Favorite Dance Songs”

Examples

Better Catering Your Wedding Choosing a Videographer

Examples

BETTER STILL! “Catering Outdoor Weddings on Long Island.” “Planning A Wedding at Eisenhower Park on

Long Island, NY. “Garden City Wedding Venues: Where to Get

Married on Long Island.” “10 Best Event Spaces in The Hamptons” “Bar Mitzvahs: 7 Top Party Locations in Nassau

County, NY”

Steps

Decide on hosted or self-hosted blog Hosted

Free Easy to get started But you don’t own the property and it could go away.

You don’t control it. Self-Hosted

Requires a domain Some time to set-up and maintain Customizable

Platforms – Which One?

Blogger Wordpress.com (hosted) Wordpress.org (self-hosted) Tumblr Typepad Multiply ShoutPost.com Weebly Xanga.com

Why Not All of Them?

Example Weddings – Blogger.com Sweet-16’s – Wordpress.com New York City – Tumblr New Jersey – Xanga

More domains pointing back to your site! Each blog has a theme – elegant to one

market, fun to another.

Post Often

400 words Keyword rich Use “post by email” feature and when you get

a minute, post!

Customize

Add header Add sidebars that link to your main site

Use Adobe or other image editor to create simple banner ads … or outsource to eLance for $20

Add contact us to side bar when possible, or create a sidebar that takes them to your own site’s contact fields.

Tips

Post and link to your landing pages with a variety of anchor text;

Wedding catering in St. Louis has never been easier.

Thank You Blog

Post positive but honest reviews of businesses that can support you via referrals.

Include photo of the owner Print it, laminate it, frame it and send it. It will attract the right customers to your blog The vendors and venues you support will go

out of their way to reciprocate!

Today

Start a new blog! Plan it by theme Think about sidebars and headers … but don’t

wait until they’re done .. Start now!

Analytics

Install Google Analytics so that it is on every post of your blog.

Post like crazy! Read your keyword reports and you’ll

discover keywords worth promoting. The more published words you have

describing your services, the greater your traffic.