Author: Franz Malten Buemann

 

 

Developing your audience, unfortunately, is not like a yeast dough. You can’t just knead it, leave it in a warm place for a few hours and enjoy a risen, fluffy dough ready to bake. What I mean is that our efforts to attract potential customers to our business are often like talking to a wall. It is neither pleasant nor motivating. But don’t get discouraged, just because something can’t be done quickly doesn’t mean it can’t be done at all – here are some oldie but goldie strategies you can use to grow your audience in a reasonable amount of time, and most importantly, organically. It is confirmed that 53% of website traffic comes from organic search.

 

Who are you waiting for?

 

If you expect your customers to take their valuable time to get to know your business specifically, at first you need to take some of your time to get to know them. You can’t just throw content at some random people. You must dive quite deep into their interests, know what they are looking for, what content they respond to the most, and what ways of communication they use.  Understanding your potential client’s needs and behaviors is basically the key to any further actions.

 

Being original is never out of fashion

 

I am highly aware that being original when it feels like everything has already been created is difficult. But the truth is, your audience (or potential audience) loves original, especially when it comes to content. When you look around your competition bends over backwards to deliver high quality and original stuff, and so you must do the same to meet the audience’s expectations. Besides, creating content allows you to align your brand with how people feel when they interact with it. Let’s make it clear, Stock pictures are okay, but just imagine what would happen if you’d invest a bit of your time to provide recipients with your own photos?

 

SEO later

 

Ask yourself a question, are you using the full potential of SEO? I do realize that it is not the most ”organic” way of possessing a valuable audience, but definitely worth implementing. While it’s of course super important to optimize your content for readers, optimizing it for search engines is what can bring you real traffic and therefore, grow your audience for good. 92.96% of global traffic comes from Google search, Google Images, and Google Maps. Optimizing for on-page SEO doesn’t have to take forever, and it can help you increase organic traffic.

 

Sweet but psycho

 

Who doesn’t love psychology? Especially psychology applied to marketing. Some time ago I wrote a few articles about very important principles from the marketer’s point of view – Reciprocity, and Scarcity. In short, the first one says that if you do your customer a favor (e.g. give them a coupon card), they will return it, by making a purchase in your store. The second principle deals with the fear of missing out (FOMO), so when an offer is limited, the customer is more likely to buy it.  There are of course many more psychological games, used on often unaware consumers. These include:

 

authority principle – tendency to follow recommendations of experts or influencers, 
novelty principle – urge to buy something new on the market, 
the paradox of choice – limiting options as people get lost when they have to choose from many,
herd mentality – customers love to have, what everyone has,
confirmation bias – the tendency to lean toward information that supports your beliefs while rejecting information that contradicts them.

 

These are just a few examples of how to use psychology to attract and keep your audience, and while used well, can work wonders if not abused.

 

Wanna be my guest?

 

Each month, approximately 409 million people view more than 20 billion pages. By guest blogging, you increase your chances of being noticed by those who have not yet stumbled upon your website/social media page/profile. By becoming visible on other sites or collaborating with people with larger audiences, you simply increase your chances of being noticed.

 

Video killed the radio star

 

These days, simple text and pictures are not exactly what drives your potential audience to you. Video content has become more popular than you could imagine. Want proof? YouTube has over a billion users, that’s almost one-third of total internet users! Besides, statistics show that video content is blooming. I could go on and joke that it’s because movie theaters are mostly closed, so people are looking for video content elsewhere. That being said, 70% of marketers want to increase their investment in video. Referring to the title of this paragraph, radio isn’t entirely dead, since 75% of Americans are now familiar with podcasting.  By investing in video and podcast content you can get yourself a large group of observers.

 

Why does it take so long to load!?

 

I’ve already said a lot about the content tactics you should wrap your head around, but what about the technical issues that cause users to withdraw with distaste instead of attracting attention? 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take longer than 3 seconds to load. Furthermore, a very slow site can be a negative ranking factor for Google, causing people to simply not see your site in a search.

 

Be on the top of the world

 

These are of course not the ultimate recipe for attracting and growing an audience. I would go even further and advocate that there is no universal rule for success in this matter. But there are some hidden gems of how you can act to make the job easier and drive your brand from zero to hero, establish a voice to it, and drive traffic to your website.

If you’ve been on social media, marketing news sites, or the HubSpot Blog lately, you might have heard about Clubhouse.
The nearly one-year-old social media platform which allows users to drop into audio-only chat rooms has grown from 600,000 to 10 million active users in just a few short months.  Although the app is invite-only, more and more people are gaining access and tuning into discussions related to their industry, hobbies, and other interests each day.
Users also love Clubhouse for its entertainment factor. When surfing through Clubhouse, you might find celebrities, like Joe Rogan, chatting with fellow influencers; audio-only musical productions, comedy nights; or even standup comedy events.
But, when exploring Clubhouse’s vast and highly-creative audio rooms as a marketer, you might wonder if and how you can leverage it within your marketing strategy.
At this point, most Clubhouse content is still highly experimental. However, one major theme to note is that it’s users want to hear from people — not just brands.
Because Clubhouse’s users crave authentic human discussion, they’ll likely disengage from rooms that prioritize promotional content over a relatable conversation.
However, while building brand awareness on an ultra-personal app like Clubhouse takes time, energy, and lots of community management, we’re already starting to see brands begin to connect with the channel’s growing audience.
To help marketers who are just learning about Clubhouse, I spent the last few days surfing the app to learn how brands are reaching users. Below I’ll highlight four common brand awareness tactics and offer a few actual examples.

How Brands Leverage Clubhouse
1. Fireside Chats or Q&As
When I first heard about Clubhouse and explored the app, a lot of rooms I dropped into felt like audio-only video calls or webinars where only the hosts began with speaking privileges. To me, it’s not surprising that brand-affiliated room creators and moderators have begun to leverage Q&As, panels, and fireside-chat formats to create interactive — yet well-managed — discussions on the platform.
When watching a panel or interview affiliated with a brand, it’s often formatted in one of two ways:

The moderator — who works for the brand coordinating the room — asks thought leaders or influencers affiliated with their industry questions. This moderator might also permit audience members to ask questions or come to the stage to the speaker as well.
An employee or leader from a brand serves as an interviewee or panel member while an influencer that does not work for the brand asks questions or moderates questions from the audience.

Regardless of which role the brand member holds in the chat, these rooms have very similar formats. They usually begin with the moderator announcing who they are, who they’ll be talking to, and the topic of the room. From there, the moderator will either ask questions to the speakers or giving speaking privileges to other users who raise their hands.
Below I’ll highlight two examples of rooms I’ve seen. Because Clubhouse is still invite-only and positioned as a safe space for communities to discuss thoughts, topics, or ideas, I will only note key parts of the conversations and room formats. I also did not record these rooms.
Below are two recent fireside chat examples:
Coinbase
A recent Clubhouse room, shown below, featured an interview with Coinbase Co-Founder and CEO Brian Armstrong. During the room, Sriram Krishman, a moderator from the club Good Time, asked Armstrong questions about how he got started in bitcoin and grew his company. They also discussed the future of cyber currency. Krishman, also invited listeners to raise their hands and ask questions to Armstrong to create more discussion around the complex cyber topic.

In rooms like the one above, users can learn more about a brand like Coinbase and ask its leader questions about the company or its industry. Through this experience, Coinbase and other brands could boost both company awareness and credibility with audiences who tune in to hear their canned, unedited discussion.
HubSpot
Recently, HubSpot also launched a fireside chat-styled room where our Chief Marketing Officer Kipp Bodnar, CTO and Co-Founder Dharmesh Shah, and Sr. VP of Marketing Kieran Flanagan invited prominent Clubhouse influencers including Bomani X to discuss “The Future of Marketing and Clubhouse.”
During the panel, Bodnar asked the Clubhouse influencers a few questions related to how they’ve grown their audiences on the platform; what they’ve done to optimize their profile, rooms, or clubs; and brand awareness etiquette. He also took similar questions or comments from a vast group of listeners including a weight-loss business founder, a scientist, and a Rubix cube enthusiast looking to build Clubhouse communities.

While HubSpot’s leaders haven’t claimed to be Clubhouse experts yet, they created a room to highlight what they know so far and connect listeners with some of Clubhouse’s high-profile early-adopters of the app with millions of followers. This is a great example of how the brand positions itself as a marketing thought leader even when they’re experimenting with a new, unique platform.
2. Sponsoring Room Events
While people might not want to join a room that discusses a product or brand positively the entire time, they might enter an interesting conversation or Clubhouse event that is sponsored by a brand.
When you drop into a sponsored room, you might not hear speakers from the brand speak much — or at all. However, when reintroducing the room, a speaker might mention that the room or Clubhouse audio experience is paid for or sponsored by the brand. You might also see a sponsor listed in the room’s title or description.
Below is one interesting example:
Yummy
Below is an example of a scheduled event sponsored by Yummy, a California-based grocery delivery app. During the room-based event — scheduled for June 5 — contestants will compete for a $100 Yummy gift card by performing an audio talent, such as singing or playing music.

By sponsoring an experimental performance contest on Clubhouse, Yummy not only gets to see how creative Clubhouse content could benefit their brand, but they also promote their delivery service to a large pool of Clubhouse users who are interested in audio entertainment or music.
3. Having team members participate in rooms related to your industry.
Another way brands can grow awareness is by having chief officers, leaders, or even general employees raise their hands and actively participate by speaking in rooms with large audiences.
When speaking in a room, brand representatives don’t necessarily need to talk all about their company. However, by adding to a conversation, talking about tactics they’ve tried at their role, and showing off their expertise, audience members learn to trust them and their company. As company members gain a following and fanbase, their brand might also gain a new audience.
Below are two examples of brands that are embracing room participation.
Tax Nation LLC.
In a recent room titled “Marketing That Works in 2021 (so far)”, moderators asked listeners to raise their hands and offer their best marketing tips.

During the room, Cory Hughes, Vice President and Managing Partner of the tax preparation business, Tax Nation LLC, was chosen to speak. He mentioned his company by name and explained that they create marketing content based on “stories” and positive feedback from “happy customers.”
After Hughes made his point, a few other listeners chimed in to agree with how important his tip was.
Not only did Hughes offer valuable advice to participants, but he naturally mentioned his company and its happy customers without sounding like he was trying to plug his tax preparation product.
Start Scale Sail
In another room, titled “Scale Your Business With Digital Products,” entrepreneurs, marketers, and consultants shared tips for growing brands based on their experience,
For example, Natasha O’Banion, CEO of Start Scale Sail, a business automation and consulting firm, explained that she was a big fan of quiz content and added that her team’s successfully generated leads through interactive content.

Although O’Banion didn’t plug her company by name, her explanation of how she’s used quizzes in her own strategy led to questions and more discussion from other attendees. Because she gave valuable input, listeners with similar interests in digital lead generation might be interested in following her or even learning more about her brand.
4. Hosting informal chats
Because Clubhouse is all about discussion and authenticity, many brands have also tried to show their human side and seem more accessible to audiences by hosting informal chats with no obvious goal or topic. This method is more casual, and potentially less intimidating, for listeners who might not raise their hand to speak in a fireside chat with a full agenda.
Below is one example:
DRK Beauty
One brand that hosts inviting, casual rooms is DRK Beauty, a website and commerce platform for people of color, which regularly publishes content around mental health, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and culture.
At the end of each week, DRK’s team hosts “Weekly Wine Down” rooms aimed to feel like visiting a bar with colleagues or friends at the end of a long week.
While DRK rooms, often hosted by DRK Beauty CEO Wilma Mae Basta, don’t have a set topic or agenda, the team often introduces themselves as speakers, begins a casual conversation about whatever is on their minds, and allows other audience members to raise their hands and chime in at any time.

While DRK Beauty rooms aren’t usually aimed to promote the brand’s site, DRK still enables its audience and prospective web visitors to learn about the people behind the company in a casual, authentic setting. This makes the brand seem accessible, authentic, and trustworthy, three things social media users value when researching brands in 2021.
The key to Clubhouse? Be human.
It’s key to remember that Clubhouse is all about authentic human connection, not branding or self-promotion.
While Clubhouse began as a platform where users could only hear from industry “elites,” the app’s now open to a wide range of creatives and every-day people who want to communicate or interact with others. Because of this, learning about a brand is likely not the first thing a user wants to do when logging on to the app.
Regardless of which strategy you use on Clubhouse, remember to embrace the human side of the app. For example, rather than hosting a room where you explain your brand or products to audiences, consider hosting a fireside chat with a thought leader in your industry or participate in a room that allows you to discuss your industry with others in it.
While focusing on natural conversation and valuable room participation won’t enable you to outright market your product all the time, leaning into the platform’s conversational and personal nature could help you grow a following that trusts your expertise — and eventually — your brand.
Want to learn more about the latest social media marketing trends? Check out the free resource below.

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Instagram Tiktok Facebook
Tools main objective is to attract more customers to your product. If you are interested leave a comment or Dm me.
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Digital marketing is constantly evolving, with new media, tactics and tools constantly entering the market. But email, one of the digital world’s oldest marketing channels, continues to deliver results and remain relevant in the face of change and competition.
Just as other marketing platforms have evolved over time, email marketing tools are constantly changing to ensure that businesses have the ability to reach out to their customers with ease.
There’s no shortage of technology now available to help monitor, track and report on the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns. And sometimes, bringing these tools together can create especially powerful combinations to help you reach your audience at just the right place and time with just the right message. That’s why Campaign Monitor has partnered with Oviond to help you better understand, analyze, and store your data for bigger impact and better results.
Campaign Monitor and Oviond: The perfect pairing 
Together, Oviond and Campaign Monitor offer a powerful one-two punch of email marketing execution and data analytics. The two platforms work together for mutual benefit, allowing for richer marketing data and more relevant, more personal emails.
Lists and segments 
Let’s take a closer look on how to create a list on Campaign Monitor as well as how to utilize Oviond to report on the actions taken by the contacts in your list. 
Getting ready to integrate 
Before you even get started with creating email campaigns, you need contacts! An email list is a collection of email addresses that have given you permission to email them. 
Lists on Campaign Monitor can either be added manually or imported. Subscribers will automatically get added to a list or segment, if the actions they have taken or their data meets the rule of that specific segment.
Segments can also be created to further filter the contacts according to actions taken. For instance, if a number of contacts have opened a specific email, they can get put into a new segment for a follow up email. 
Making the most of data with Oviond 
Once you have connected your Campaign Monitor account to Oviond, you will be able to report on your campaign analytics. Under your reports, dashboards or funnels, select the icon named “Add Data Widget.”
Under your widget menu you will see a section called “Data View”, in order to report on your campaigns, the data view would need to be selected to “Lists”. 
How to get started
To get started tapping into the power of Oviond for your email marketing, you will first need to have data in your Campaign Monitor account. This means, if you haven’t already, that you will need to create your first campaign.
With Campaign Monitor you can use a campaign to send a single email to your contacts, either by scheduling a specific time and day of when you would like your email sent out, or by having it sent immediately. 
There are a few different ways you can create your email campaign:

Choose a design — Select one of our ready-to-go email builder designs and customize it to suit your brand. When you’re done, you can save the email as a template to use again next time.

Use a custom HTML template — You can import a custom coded template to use, however this has to be done before you create a campaign. When it’s uploaded you’ll be able to select it from My templates in the left sidebar. Learn more about our email template options.

Import HTML — If you already have a complete HTML email, designed externally and ready to send, you can import it from your computer or the web by selecting Import HTML in the left sidebar.

Plain text — Text-only emails are another option. Select Plain text in the left sidebar to create one. Please note that only basic reporting is available for plain text emails.

Once you have finished the design of your email and your email content, you will need to select the contacts to which you want to send the email to. You can do this by selecting a specific list or even selecting specific segments within a list. 
Lastly, choose how you would like to send your email, immediate or schedules, and voila! Now all you have to do is wait for your data to start rolling in and connect your account to Oviond. 
Connecting to Oviond 
Once you have connected your Campaign Monitor account to Oviond, you will be able to report on your campaign analytics. Under your reports, dashboards or funnels in the Oviond platform select the “Add Data Widget” icon. 
Under your widget menu you will see a section called “Data View”, in order to report on your campaigns, the data view would need to be selected to “Campaigns.” 
With Oviond you can report on metrics related to a specific campaign performance. You can pull metrics such as bounces, unsubscribers, clicks, Spam complaints, opens and much more, and keep your data all in one place with the rest of your digital marketing data for easy cross-referencing and report pulling.
Use Oviond’s different data visualization capabilities monitor trends over time and identify opportunities and weaknesses in your strategy. so you are able to better evaluate and optimize your campaigns, in the time period selected. 
Wrapping up
When it comes to generating and using valuable data, nothing beats email. So it makes sense that combining a powerful and intuitive email platform with a leading marketing analytics and reporting tool gives you the best of both worlds.
Learn more about integrating Campaign Monitor with Oviond here and try a free trial to see if it’s helpful for your organization. Find out about our other integrations on the Campaign Monitor appstore.
The post Campaign Monitor and Oviond: The Perfect Fit appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

Webinars are a highly effective tool for moving prospects along the sales funnel.
After you’ve loaded them with product and industry knowledge, your prospects become warm leads who can then have fruitful conversations with your sales team. But here’s the thing: the content and execution of the webinar affect prospects’ experience and will impact the quality of the leads you generate.
If the information is misaligned with your prospects’ needs, you risk deterring them from doing further business with you. If the webinar is boring or too long, you may lose prospects before you deliver your final product pitch at the end.
If you don’t place the appropriate calls-to-action at the right time, you may not get enough attendees or fail to prove the ROI to your company’s leadership team.
When creating a webinar, the stakes are high. That’s why using a webinar planning list and following best practices is essential. Below, I go over the best practices for creating webinar invites and share top tips for hosting webcasts.

Webinar Invite Best Practices
In some ways, inviting people to come to your webinar is the toughest part.
Typically, you’ll send a formal invitation over email. You can promote the webinar via your company’s social media profiles, your LinkedIn, your website, and even your blog — but the webinar invite will be delivered over email.
With this email, you have one goal: to communicate your event’s value so that prospects have no choice but to sign up.
Let’s go over how you can do that.
1. Create a short sentence with your value proposition.
Before ever sitting down to write your webinar invitation email, you should sum up what your attendees will get out of your event in one short sentence. This will be your guidepost as you write the invitation.
2. Craft a subject line that shows the value of the event.
Next, it’s time to write a subject line that showcases the skills and tools attendees will walk away with. Don’t forget to include the word “webinar” in the subject line.
Here are some good examples:

[Webinar] Grow Your Brand 3X with This Proven Method by [Industry Leader]
[Webinar] Learn How to Close More Deals with [Industry Leader]
[Webinar] Want Your Company to Become the Next Apple?

Here are some so-so webinar subject lines you should avoid using:

You’re Invited to a Can’t-Miss Customer Service Webinar
Come to Our Marketing Webinar on February 15
Don’t Miss Our Next Webinar About Social Media Strategies

3. Include an engaging banner image.
Your banner image should include the title of the webinar and a clear call-to-action. You could also include the date and time, but that’s optional. Keep it light on text.
Here’s an excellent example from Elementor, a WordPress plugin.

This is a great example because it features high-contrast lettering and the word “webinar” in the upper right-hand corner. Most importantly, it has a call-to-action button that says “Save Your Seat.” Every webinar invite should include a CTA.
4. Include a header that makes your event’s value clear.
In an email, the header acts as a title that comes right after the banner. The header can be the title of your webinar or be the same as the subject line. Either way, it should communicate the value of the event. What will people learn? How will they grow?
Your invitees should immediately be able to tell based on the header alone.
Here are some great examples:

Webinar: Learn How to Boost Sales with 5 Simple Tricks
Want to Double Your Organic Traffic? Find Out How in This Webinar
These Proven Strategies Will Triple Your Conversion Rates

Here are some so-so examples:

Join Our SEO Webinar on May 15th
Sales Training Seminar by [Company]
Leadership Innovation Summit with [Industry Leader]

5. Include a brief description of the event.
Right after the header, include two to three sentences describing the event. The description should briefly outline a challenge and establish the insights and tips that will help attendees surmount those challenges. Alternatively, you can identify a goal, then tell attendees how the webinar will help them achieve those goals.
Remember: value is the name of the game here. People won’t spend an hour on just anything, so make it clear why your webinar is worth their while.
Here’s a great example from HubSpot:
“Creating an outstanding customer journey is a challenge felt by many marketing, sales, and customer service teams. A great experience is always the end goal, but the path to success isn’t always clear. On March 2nd, join CX Spotlight and learn how to better market, sell, and service your audience.”
This example is great because it tells attendees, in no uncertain terms, the insights they’ll walk away with.
Here’s a so-so example:
“Come to our exclusive webinar on February 5th, where we discuss everything in the industry, including email marketing, SEO, and social media. Your host, XYZ, is an industry veteran with 20 years of experience. The presentation will cover key topics and trends happening in marketing today. Don’t miss it.”
This is a poor example because of three reasons. First, it’s too general; second, it doesn’t identify a challenge or a goal (such as growing organic traffic or creating a great customer experience); and third, it doesn’t tell attendees the skills they’ll gain from the event.
6. Include a list of bullet points telling people what they’ll learn.
Now that you’ve provided an overview of the event, feel free to include more detail about what attendees will learn throughout the webinar.
Here’s a great example from HubSpot:
“In this webinar, we’re focusing on the data that really matters when it comes to business growth. Our panel will discuss:

What info you should be gathering across your web, chat, and email assets
How to stay organized with this new influx of data
Best practices for personalizing the buying experience”

Notice how the bullet points address the attendee directly, telling them what they’ll learn and how they can apply it in their role.

7. Seal the deal with a call-to-action button.
All throughout the email, you’ve constantly communicated the value of your event. Now, it’s time to invite your prospects to sign up with a clear, high-contrast call-to-action button.
Consider using the following phrases:

Save your seat
Register now
Register today
Claim your spot

Now that you know the best practices for webinar invites, let’s go over best practices for running your webinar. Use this webinar planning kit to make sure you’re following all the steps.
Featured Resource: Webinar Planning Kit

Download Your Free Kit Now
1. Schedule your webinar for 60 minutes.
How long should your webinar be? The answer is one hour. It’s a well-known fact that 60 minutes is the optimal length of a webinar, with the average viewing time being 56 minutes (ON24).
2. Host it on Wednesday or Thursday at 10 AM or 11 AM.
Both ON24 and GoToWebinar report that Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to deliver your event. As far as time, 10 AM and 11 AM have long been established as top performers in both attendee engagement and attendance rates.
3. Send reminder emails.
Leading up to the webinar, send a reminder email twice — one day before the event and one hour before the event. Your webinar platform should also offer the option to automatically send these reminders to those who’ve signed up.
4. Practice accessing the webinar with a teammate.
Two days before the webinar, have someone on your team access the event link to make sure it’s working for participants. Have this person send you a question, raise their hand, show you what the presentation looks like on the other end, and interact with the webinar interface.
5. Establish proceedings for the Q&A section.
Let the audience know in the introduction how you’ll be answering their questions — whether you’ll respond to select questions at the end or answer them as you go. Our recommendation is to schedule 15 minutes at the end for questions.
6. Move slowly through product demonstrations.
When doing a demo or showing software, try not to move too quickly or scroll up and down a web page too quickly. It might take 2 to 5 seconds every time you change your screen for everyone to see the change.
7. Create a clear stop to the presentation.
Have a definitive “stop” to the core material at around 50 to 55 minutes. It’s okay to extend beyond the end time as long as the “officially scheduled program” has a clean end, and those who need to leave can leave.
8. Keep your desktop and digital workspace clean.
Close all unnecessary applications, especially your email clients, file browser, and web browser. If possible, carry out the webinar on a separate desktop (both macOS and Windows OS allow you to create another desktop). You do not want any personal or confidential info displayed, and you just don’t want to interrupt the webinar with any notifications that pop up.
9. Start 2 minutes after the hour.
This gives people time to call in, but does not make those on time wait too long. It is tempting as a presenter to wait for more people to join, but the max you should wait is 2 minutes.
10. Enter the webinar room early.
Enter the event at least 15 minutes early. That will give you time to prepare, troubleshoot any issues, and double-check that your microphone and camera are working.
11. Use pre-webinar slides and announcements.
Put up a slide that introduces you and your company. Show links to your website, social media, and other pertinent sites.
12. Send out a recording and the slides to attendees (with a call-to-action).
Do this within 24 hours, and tell them during the webinar you will do this. A fast follow-up encourages attendees to continue engaging with your company (or convert) while the webinar is still on their mind. This follow-up should contain a clear call-to-action button.
Use Webinar Best Practices to Host a Great Webinar
Hosting a webinar is proven to be a great return on investment. By following the best practices we’ve shared in this post, you can make sure your event drives lead generation, establishes your brand as an authority, and grows your revenue.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2007 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Since you’re on this page, you probably already know how integral the process of blogging is to the success of your marketing efforts. Which is why it goes without saying that it’s exceptionally important to learn how to effectively start and manage a blog in a way that supports your business.
Without a blog, you’ll find yourself experiencing a number of problems such as poor search engine optimization (SEO), lack of promotional content for social, little clout with your leads and customers, and fewer pages that you can use to share lead-generating calls-to-action (CTAs).
So why, oh why, do so many marketers still have a laundry list of excuses for why they can’t maintain a blog?

Maybe because, unless you enjoy writing, business blogging might seem uninteresting, time consuming, and difficult.
Well, the time for excuses is over and this guide is here to help you understand why. We’ll cover how to write and manage your business’s blog as well as provide helpful templates to simplify your blogging efforts.

Let’s get started with an important question.

Blog posts allow you and your business to publish insights, thoughts, and stories on your website about any topic. They can help you boost brand awareness, credibility, conversions, and revenue. Most importantly, they can help you drive traffic to your website.
Today, people and organizations of all walks of life manage blogs to share analyses, instruction, criticisms, product information, industry findings, and more. There are many popular blog formats, but here are six of the most common:

The “How-To” Post
The List-Based Post
The “What Is” Post
The Pillar Page Post (“Ultimate Guide”)
The Newsjacking Post
The Infographic Post

Save time and download six blog post templates for free.
So, how do you ensure your blog post catches the eyes of your target audience, buyer personas, and customers?

What makes a good blog post?
Before you write a blog, make sure you know the answers to questions like, “Why would someone keep reading this entire blog post?” and “What makes our audience come back for more?”
To start, a good blog post is interesting and educational. Blogs should answer questions and help readers resolve a challenge they’re experiencing — and you have to do so in an interesting way.
It’s not enough just to answer someone’s questions — you also have to provide actionable steps while being engaging. For instance, your introduction should hook the reader and make them want to continue reading your post. Then, use examples to keep your readers interested in what you have to say.
Remember, a good blog post is interesting to read and provides educational content to audience members.
(Want to learn how to apply blogging and other forms of content marketing to your business? Check out HubSpot Academy’s free content marketing course.)
So, how do you actually go about writing one of these engaging and informational pieces?
How to Write a Blog Post
Here are the steps you’ll want to follow while writing a blog post.
1. Understand your audience.
Before you start writing your blog post, make sure you have a clear understanding of your target audience.
Ask questions like: What do they want to know about? What will resonate with them?
This is where the process of creating buyer personas comes in handy. Consider what you know about your buyer personas and their interests while you’re coming up with a topic for your blog post.
For instance, if your readers are millennials looking to start a business, you probably don’t need to provide them with information about getting started in social media — most of them already have that down.
You might, however, want to give them information about how to adjust their social media approach (for example — from what may be a casual, personal approach to a more business-savvy, networking-focused approach). That kind of tweak is what helps you publish content about the topics your audience really wants and needs.
Don’t have buyer personas in place for your business? Here are a few resources to help you get started:

Create Buyer Personas for Your Business [Free Template]
Guide: How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business
[Free Tool] Make My Persona: Buyer Persona Generator

2. Create your blog domain.
Next, you’ll need a place to host this post and every other blog post you write. This requires choosing a content management system (CMS) and a website domain hosting service.
Choose a CMS.
A CMS helps you create a website domain where you’ll actually publish your blog. CMS platforms can manage domains (where you create your website) and subdomains (where you create a webpage that connects to an existing website).
HubSpot customers host web content via CMS Hub. Another popular option is a self-hosted WordPress website on a hosting site such as WP Engine. Whether you create a domain or a subdomain to start your blog, you’ll need to choose a web hosting service after you pick a CMS.
Register a domain or subdomain with a website host.
Your blog’s domain will look like this: www.yourblog.com. The name between the two periods is up to you, as long as this domain name doesn’t yet exist on the internet.
Want to create a subdomain for your blog? If you already own a cooking business at www.yourcompany.com, you might create a blog that looks like this: blog.yourcompany.com. In other words, your blog’s subdomain will live in its own section of yourcompany.com.
Some CMS platforms offer subdomains as a free service, where your blog lives on the CMS, rather than your business’s website. For example, it might look like this: yourblog.contentmanagementsystem.com. However, to create a subdomain that belongs to your company website, register the subdomain with a website host.
Most website hosting services charge very little to host an original domain — in fact, website costs can be as inexpensive as $3 per month when you commit to a 36-month term.
Here are five popular web hosting services to choose from:

GoDaddy
HostGator
DreamHost
Bluehost
iPage

3. Customize your blog’s theme.
Once you have your domain name set up, customize the appearance of your blog to reflect the theme of the content you plan on creating and your brand.
For example, if you’re writing about sustainability and the environment, green might be a color to keep in mind while designing your blog.
If you already manage a website and are writing the first post for that existing website, ensure the article is consistent with the website in appearance and subject matter. Two ways to do this are including your:

Logo: This can be your business’s name and logo — it will remind blog readers of who’s publishing the content. (How heavily you want to brand your blog, however, is up to you.)

“About” Page: You might already have an “About” blurb describing yourself or your business. Your blog’s “About” section is an extension of this higher-level statement. Think of it as your blog’s mission statement, which serves to support your company’s goals.

4. Identify your first blog post’s topic.
Before you write anything, pick a topic for your blog post. The topic can be pretty general to start. For example, if you’re a company that sells a CRM for small-to-enterprise businesses, your post might be about the importance of using a single software to keep your marketing, sales, and service teams aligned.
Pro tip: You may not want to jump into a “how-to” article for your first blog post.
Why?
Your credibility hasn’t been established yet. Before teaching others how to do something, you’ll first want to show that you’re a leader in your field and an authoritative source.
For instance, if you’re a plumber writing your first post, you won’t yet write a post titled “How to Replace the Piping System in your Bathroom.” First, you’d write about modern faucet setups, or tell a particular success story you had rescuing a faucet before it flooded a customer’s house. Here are four other types of blog posts you could start with:

List (“Listicle”): 5 ways to fix a leaky faucet

Curated Collection: 10 faucet and sink brands to consider today

SlideShare Presentation: 5 types of faucets to replace your old one (with pictures)

News Piece: New study shows X% of people don’t replace their faucet frequently enough

If you’re having trouble coming up with topic ideas, a good topic brainstorming session should help. In the post I’ve linked, my colleague walks you through a helpful process for turning one idea into many. Similar to the “leaky faucet” examples above, you would “iterate off old topics to come up with unique and compelling new topics.”
This can be done by:

Changing the topic scope
Adjusting your time frame
Choosing a new audience
Taking a positive/negative approach
Introducing a new format

5. Come up with a working title.
You might come up with a few different working titles — in other words, iterations of approaching that topic to help you focus your writing.
For example, you may decide to narrow your topic to “Tools for Fixing Leaky Faucets” or “Common Causes of Leaky Faucets.” A working title is specific and will guide your post so you can start writing.
Let’s take a real post as an example: “How to Choose a Solid Topic for Your Next Blog Post.”
Appropriate, right? The topic, in this case, was probably “blogging.” Then the working title may have been something like, “The Process for Selecting a Blog Post Topic.” And the final title ended up being “How to Choose a Solid Topic for Your Next Blog Post.”
See that evolution from topic, to working title, to final title? Even though the working title may not end up being the final title (more on that in a moment), it still provides enough information so you can focus your blog post on something more specific than a generic, overwhelming topic.
6. Write an intro (and make it captivating).
We’ve written more specifically about writing captivating introductions in the post “How to Write an Introduction,” but let’s review, shall we?
First, grab the reader’s attention. If you lose the reader in the first few paragraphs — or even sentences — of the introduction, they’ll stop reading (even before they’ve given your post a fair shake). You can do this in a number of ways: tell a story or a joke, be empathetic, or grip the reader with an interesting fact or statistic.
Then, describe the purpose of your post and explain how it will address a problem the reader may be experiencing. This will give the reader a reason to continue reading and show them how the post will help them improve their work or lives.
Here’s an example of an intro we think does a good job of attracting a reader’s attention right away:
“Blink. Blink. Blink. It’s the dreaded cursor-on-a-blank-screen experience that all writers — amateur or professional, aspiring or experienced — know and dread. And of all times for it to occur, it seems to plague us the most when trying to write an introduction.”
7. Organize your content in an outline.
Sometimes, blog posts can have an overwhelming amount of information — for the reader and the writer. The trick is to organize the info in a way so readers aren’t intimidated by length or amount of content. This organization can take multiple forms — sections, lists, tips — whatever’s most appropriate. But it must be organized!
Featured Resource: 6 Free Blog Post Templates

Download These Templates for Free
Let’s take a look at the post, “How to Use Snapchat: A Detailed Look Into HubSpot’s Snapchat Strategy.” There’s a lot of content in the piece, so it’s broken up into a few sections using descriptive headers. The major sections are separated into subsections that go into more detail, making the content easier to read.
To complete this step, all you really need to do is outline your post. This way, before you start writing, you’ll know which points you want to cover and the best order to do so in. And to make things even easier, you can download and use our free blog post templates, which are pre-organized for six of the most common blogs. Just fill in the blanks!
8. Write your blog post!
The next step — but not the last — is actually writing the content. We can’t forget about that, of course.
Now that you have your outline or template, you’re ready to fill in the blanks. Use your outline as a guide and expand on all points as needed. Write about what you already know, and if necessary, conduct additional research to gather more information, examples, and data to back up your points, while providing proper attribution when incorporating external sources. When you do, always try to find accurate and compelling data to use in your post.
If you’re having trouble stringing sentences together, you’re not alone. Finding your “flow” can be challenging for a lot of folks. Luckily, there are a ton of tools you can lean on to help you improve your writing. Here are a few to get you started:

Power Thesaurus: Stuck on a word? Power Thesaurus is a crowdsourced tool that provides users with a number of alternative word choices from a community of writers.

ZenPen: If you’re having trouble staying focused, check out this distraction-free writing tool. ZenPen creates a minimalist “writing zone” designed to help you get words down without having to fuss with formatting right away.

Cliché Finder: Feeling like your writing might be coming off a little cheesy? Identify instances where you can be more specific using this handy cliché tool.

You can also refer to our complete list of tools for improving your writing skills. And if you’re looking for more direction, the following resources are chock-full of valuable writing advice:

Copywriting 101: 6 Traits of Excellent Copy Readers Will Remember
How to Write Compelling Copy: 7 Tips for Writing Content That Converts
How to Write With Clarity: 9 Tips for Simplifying Your Message
The Kurt Vonnegut Guide to Great Copywriting: 8 Rules That Apply to Anyone
Your Blog Posts Are Boring: 9 Tips for Making Your Writing More Interesting

9. Proofread and edit your post.
You’re not quite done yet, but you’re close! The editing process is an important part of blogging — don’t overlook it.
Ask a grammar-conscious co-worker to copyedit and proofread your post. You may also consider enlisting the help of The Ultimate Editing Checklist or using a free grammar checker like Grammarly.
If you’re looking to brush up on your self-editing skills, turn to these helpful posts for some tips and tricks to get you started:

How to Become a (Better) Editor: 13 Editorial Tips
How to Become a More Efficient Editor: 12 Ways to Speed Up the Editorial Process
10 Simple Edits That’ll Instantly Improve Any Piece of Writing

When you’re ready to check your formatting, keep the blog elements in mind:
Featured Image
Choose a visually appealing and relevant image for your post. As social networks treat content with images more prominently, visuals are more responsible than ever for the success of your blog content.

For help selecting an image for your post, read “How to Select the Perfect Image for Your Next Blog Post” and pay close attention to the section about copyright law.
Visual Appearance
No one likes an unattractive blog post. And it’s not just pictures that make a post visually appealing — it’s the formatting and organization of the post, too.
In a well-formatted and visually-appealing blog post, you’ll notice that header and sub-headers are used to break up large blocks of text — and those headers are styled consistently.
Here’s an example of what that looks like:

Screenshots should always have a similar, defined border so they don’t appear as if they’re floating in space — that style should stay consistent from post to post.
Maintaining this consistency makes your content look more professional and easier on the eyes.
Topics and Tags
Tags are specific, public-facing keywords that describe a post. They also allow readers to browse for more content in the same category on your blog. Refrain from adding a laundry list of tags to each post. Instead, put some thought into a blog tagging strategy.
Think of tags as “topics” or “categories,” and choose 10-20 tags that represent all the main topics you want to cover on your blog. Then stick to those.
10. Insert a CTA.
At the end of every blog post, insert a CTA that indicates what you want the reader to do next — subscribe to your blog, download an ebook, register for a webinar or event, read a related article, etc.
After your visitors read your blog post, they click on the CTA, and eventually you generate a lead. But the CTA is also a valuable resource for the person reading your content — use your CTAs to offer more content similar to the subject of the post they just finished reading. If you’re not sure how to get started, take a look at some CTA examples.
In the blog post “What to Post on Instagram: 18 Photo & Video Ideas to Spark Inspiration,” readers are given actionable ideas for creating valuable Instagram content. At the end of the post is a CTA prompting readers to take a social media certification course:

See how that’s a win-win for everyone? Readers who want to learn more have the opportunity to do so, and the business receives a lead they can nurture … who may even become a customer!
11. Optimize for on-page SEO.
After you finish writing, go back and optimize the on-page elements of your post.
Don’t obsess over how many keywords to include. If there are opportunities to incorporate keywords you’re targeting, and it won’t impact reader experience, do it. If you can make your URL shorter and more keyword-friendly, go for it. But don’t cram keywords or shoot for some arbitrary keyword density — Google’s smarter than that!
Here’s a little blog SEO reminder about what you should review and optimize:
Meta Description
Meta descriptions are the descriptions below the post’s page title on Google’s search results pages. They provide searchers with a short summary of the post before clicking into it. They are ideally between 150-160 characters and start with a verb, such as “Learn,” “Read,” or “Discover.”
While meta descriptions no longer factor into Google’s keyword ranking algorithm, they give searchers a snapshot of what they’ll get from reading the post and help improve your clickthrough rate from search.
Page Title and Headers
Most blogging software uses your post title as your page title, which is the most important on-page SEO element at your disposal. But if you’ve followed our formula so far, you should already have a working title that will naturally include keywords or phrases your target audience is interested in.
Don’t over-complicate your title by trying to fit in keywords where they don’t naturally belong. With that said, if there are clear opportunities to add keywords you’re targeting to your post title and headers, feel free to take them. Also, try to keep your headlines short — ideally, under 65 characters — so they don’t get truncated in the search engine results.
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the word or words that link to another page — either on your website or on another website. Carefully select which keywords you want to link to other pages on your site because search engines take that into consideration when ranking your page for certain keywords.
It’s also important to consider which pages you link to. Consider linking pages that you want to rank for a specific keyword. You could end up getting it to rank on Google’s first page of results instead of its second page — and that isn’t small potatoes!
Mobile Optimization
More than 60% of organic visits are carried out on a mobile device. As such, having a website with a responsive design is critical. In addition to making sure your website’s visitors (including your blog’s visitors) have the best experience possible, optimizing for mobile will score your website some SEO points.
12. Pick a catchy title.
Last but not least, it’s time to spruce up that working title of yours. Luckily, we have a simple formula for writing catchy titles that will grab the attention of your reader. Here’s what to consider:

Start with your working title.
As you start to edit your title, keep in mind that it’s important to keep the title accurate and clear.
Then, work on making your title sexy — whether it’s through strong language, alliteration, or another literary tactic.
If you can, optimize for SEO by sneaking some keywords in there (only if it’s natural, though!).
Finally, see if you can shorten it at all. No one likes a long, overwhelming title — remember, Google prefers 65 characters or fewer before it truncates it on its search engine results pages.

Let’s summarize everything we’ve learned.
If you’ve mastered the steps above, learn about some ways to take your blog posts to the next level.
By now, you should know who you’re writing for, have a blog all set up, and understand the basics of writing a blog post. While it’s easy to understand the practicalities of writing a post, it’s difficult to get started on your very first article.
Let’s go through the process of writing your first blog post.
Your First Blog Post: Choosing a Topic, Writing the Post, and Actually Getting Hits
You’ve got the technical and practical tidbits down — now it’s time to write your very first blog post. And nope, this isn’t the space to introduce yourself and your new blog (i.e. “Welcome to my blog! This is the topic I’ll be covering. Here are my social media handles. Will you please follow?”).
We’ve briefly touched upon it in the previous section, but your first blog post shouldn’t be a how-to guide. Remember: you’ve yet to establish authority in the field. You should instead start with “low-hanging fruit,” writing about a highly specific topic that serves a small segment of your target audience.
That seems unintuitive, right? If more people are searching for a term or a topic, that should mean more readers for you.
But that’s not true. If you choose a general and highly searched topic that’s been covered by major competitors or more established brands, it’s unlikely that your post will rank on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs). Give your newly born blog a chance by choosing a topic that few bloggers have written about.
TLDR; Your first post should cover a niche, low-volume topic. As you write more and more on your blog and establish topical authority, you can begin to cover more highly-searched keywords.
Let’s walk through this process.
1. Find a low-volume topic.
The first step is to find a topic with low searches in Google (we recommend sticking to about 10 to 150 monthly searches). These topics offer less competition and should therefore allow your new blog post to rank more easily.
To choose a topic, you can either do a traditional brainstorming session or carry out keyword research. We suggest the latter because you can actually see how many people are looking for that topic.
Now, don’t be intimidated by the term “keyword research.” It’s not just for marketers, but for new bloggers, too. And it’s really easy to do.
To jumpstart your keyword research, first begin by identifying the general topic of your blog.
Say you’re a plumber. Your general, high-level topic might be “plumbing” (67K monthly searches).

Next, put this term into a keyword research tool such as:

Ahrefs
Moz
Ubersuggest
Wordtracker

When you run this term through the tool, a list of related keywords will appear. Scan the list and choose one with a lower search volume. For this example, we’ll use “under sink plumbing” (1.4K monthly searches).
Run that keyword in the keyword research tool again. Look at the related keywords. Find one with a lower search volume. Do that again.
For this example, we’ll settle on “plumbing problems under kitchen sink” (10 monthly searches). That’s the topic for our first post.
TLDR; Choose a low-volume, low-competition keyword that will ensure your first post ranks.
For more help on keyword research, here are more resources you can use:

How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: A Beginner’s Guide
How to Perform Keyword Research and Rank
Top Tools For Finding Long-Tail Keywords

2. Google the term to double-check search intent.
You’ve got your topic — now, double-check that the user’s search intent would be fulfilled by a blog post.
What does that mean?
If someone is looking for “plumbing problems under kitchen sink,” they might be looking for a tutorial, a diagram, an article, or a product that can fix the issue. If they’re looking for the first three, you’re good — that can be covered in a blog post. A product, however, is different, and your blog post won’t rank.
How do you double-check search intent?
Google the term and look at the results. If other articles and blog posts rank for that term, you’re good to go. If you only find product pages or listicles from major publications, then find a new topic to cover in your first post.
Consider the term “under sink plumbing bathroom” (30 monthly searches). It seemed like a perfect fit because it had low monthly searches.
Upon Googling the term, we found product carousels, product pages from Home Depot and Lowes, and guides written by major publications. (You’ll also want to avoid topics that have been covered by major publications, at least for now.)
TLDR; Before writing your first blog post about a low-volume topic, double-check the user intent by Googling the keyword. Also, don’t forget to take a look at who’s written about that topic so far. If you see a major brand, consider writing about another topic.
3. Find questions and terms related to that topic.
You’ve got a highly unique topic that’s been covered by just a few people so far. It’s time to flesh it out by covering related or adjacent topics.
Use the following tools:

Answer the Public: When you place your keyword into this tool, it will give you a list of questions related to that term.

Google: Google is your best friend. Search for the term and look under “People also ask” and “People also search for.” Be sure to touch upon those topics in the post.

You can also use these keyword research tools we mentioned above in step one. 
5. Outline and write the post.
Now, it’s time to outline and write your first post!
With your niche topic and related questions as guideposts, you can now write a post that’s highly relevant to your niche and doesn’t have as much competition.
Use the how-to guide we shared in the previous section to help you write a great first post.
Don’t forget to:

Hit at least 1,000 words. It’s been proven time and again that longer posts rank better.

Put your target keyword in the title. Remember that niche topic we chose in step one? Try to work it into your title naturally.

Include at least two H2s with related search terms. Remember those related topics we found in step three? Use them as H2s to build the topical authority of your piece.

6. Promote your first post via outreach.
As a new blogger, you likely don’t have a social media following yet. The solution? Build a few backlinks to the post to get it off the ground.
Backlinks are a major ranking factor, but you don’t want to use black-hat methods such as spamming the comment sections in other blogs. Instead, reach out to people and let them know this new resource exists so they can link to your post.
If you’re a plumber, for example, you might reach out to your local plumber’s association. Here are more blog post promotion resources:

12 Tried-and-True Ways to Promote Your Blog Posts
10 Sites You Can Use for Free Blog Promotion
9 Link Building Email Outreach Templates That Actually Work
Inbound Link Building 101: 34 Ways to Build Backlinks for SEO
11 Creative (But 100% White Hat!) Ways to Earn Backlinks

First Blog Post Ideas
Stuck? Let’s take a look at some first blog post ideas.
The Difference Between [Niche Topic] and [Niche Topic], Explained by a [Niche Expert]

The Difference Between SEM and SEO, Explained by a Marketing Expert
The Difference Between Sedans and Coupes, Explained by a Car Mechanic
The Difference Between Baking and Broiling, Explained by a Professional Baker

The 10 Best and Worst [Niche Tool] for [Niche Activity]

The 10 Best and Worst Writing Software for Fiction Writing
The 10 Best and Worst CRMs for Nurturing Prospects
The 10 Best and Worst Family Cars for Cross-Country Roadtrips

8 [Niche Activity] Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)

8 Non-Fiction Writing Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)
8 Salmon Broiling Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)
8 Car Maintenance Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)

9 Proven Tips for [Niche Activity]

9 Proven Tips for Checking Plumbing Problems under Your Kitchen Sink
9 Proven Tips for Writing a Non-Fiction Bestseller
9 Proven Tips for Doing DIY Car Maintenance

Why We/I Switched from [Niche Tool] to [Niche Tool] (Comparison)

Why We Switched from Pipedrive to HubSpot (Comparison)
Why I Switched from Microsoft Word to Scrivener (Comparison)
Why We Switched from iMacs to Surface Studio (Comparison)

[Niche Tool] vs [Niche Tool]: Which [Tool] is Best for You?

Zendesk vs Freshcaller: Which Call Software is Best for You?
Air Fryer vs Convection Oven: Which One is Best for You?
Mazda Miata vs Toyota Supra: Which Sports Car is Best for You?

The Ultimate Roundup of [Niche Activity] Tips and Tricks

The Ultimate Roundup of Novel Writing Tips and Tricks
The Ultimate Roundup of Macaroon Baking Tips and Tricks
The Ultimate Roundup of Solo Traveling Tips and Tricks

Want some real examples of blog posts? See what your first blog post can look like based on the topic you choose and the audience you’re targeting.

1. List-Based Blog Post
List-Based Post Example: 17 Blogging Mistakes to Avoid in 2021, According to HubSpot Bloggers

List-based posts are sometimes called “listicles,” a mix of the words “list” and “article.” These are articles that deliver information in the form of a list. A listicle uses sub-headers to break down the blog post into individual pieces, helping readers skim and digest your content more easily.
As you can see in the example from our blog, listicles can offer various tips and methods for solving a problem.
2. Thought Leadership Post
Example: How HubSpot’s Customers Are Shaping the Next Normal

Thought leadership posts allow you to share your expertise on a particular subject matter and share firsthand knowledge with your readers.
These pieces — which can be written in the first person, like the post shown above — help you build trust with your audience so people take your blog seriously as you continue to write for it.
3. Curated Collection Post
Example: 8 Examples of Evolution in Action

Curated collections are a special type of listicle blog post. Rather than sharing tips or methods for doing something, this type of blog post shares a list of real examples that all have something in common in order to prove a larger point.
In the example post above, Listverse shares eight real examples of evolution in action among eight different animals — starting with the peppered moth.
4. SlideShare Presentation
Example: The HubSpot Culture Code

SlideShare is a presentation tool that helps publishers package a lot of information into easily shareable slides. Think of it like a PowerPoint, but for the web. With this in mind, SlideShare blog posts help you promote your SlideShare so that it can generate a steady stream of visitors.
Unlike blogs, SlideShare decks don’t often rank well on search engines, so they need a platform for getting their message out there to the people who are looking for it. By embedding and summarizing your SlideShare on a blog post, you can share a great deal of information and give it a chance to rank on Google at the same time.
Need some SlideShare ideas? In the example above, we turned our company’s “Culture Code” into a SlideShare presentation that anyone can look through and take lessons from, and then promoted it in a blog post.
5. Newsjacking Post
Example: Ivy Goes Mobile With New App for Designers

“Newsjacking” is a nickname for “hijacking” your blog to break important news related to your industry. Therefore, the newsjack post is a type of article whose sole purpose is to garner consumers’ attention and, while offering them timeless professional advice, prove your blog is a trusted resource for learning about the big things that happen in your industry.
The newsjack example above was published by Houzz, a home decor merchant and interior design resource, about a new mobile app that launched just for interior designers. Houzz didn’t launch the app, but the news of its launching is no less important to Houzz’s audience.
6. Infographic Post
Example: The Key Benefits of Studying Online [Infographic]

The infographic post serves a similar purpose as the SlideShare post — the fourth example, explained above — in that it conveys information for which plain blog copy might not be the best format.
For example, when you’re looking to share a lot of statistical information (without boring or confusing your readers), building this data into a well-designed, even engaging infographic can keep your readers engaged with your content. It also helps readers remember the information long after they leave your website.
7. How-to Post
Example: How to Write a Blog Post: A Step-by-Step Guide
For this example, you need not look any further than the blog post you’re reading right now! How-to guides like this one help solve a problem for your readers. They’re like a cookbook for your industry, walking your audience through a project step by step to improve their literacy on the subject.
The more posts like this you create, the more equipped your readers will be to work with you and invest in the services you offer.
8. Guest Post
Example: Your Bookmarkable Guide to Social Media Image Sizes in 2020 [Infographic]

Guest posts are a type of blog post that you can use to include other voices on your blog. For example, if you want to get an outside expert’s opinion on a topic, a guest post is perfect for that.
Additionally, these posts give your blog variety in topic and viewpoint. If your customer has a problem you can’t solve, a guest post is a great solution.
If you begin accepting guest posts, set up editorial guidelines to ensure they’re up to the same standards as your posts.
Ready to blog?
Blogging can help you build brand awareness, become a thought-leader and expert in your industry, attract qualified leads, and boost conversions. Follow the steps and tips we covered above to begin publishing and enhancing your blog today.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Since marketers are at the mercy of algorithms on nearly every publishing channel, knowing how each of these unique algorithms work is crucial to attracting and maintaining an audience.
Luckily, while some channels are rather reserved about the secrets of their algorithms, YouTube, which boasts over 2 billion users, has been remarkably transparent. It launched a course for creators about getting discovered, walking them through the nitty-gritty details of increasing their visibility on the platform.
Naturally, we took the course to help you understand exactly how to boost your rankings on the video platform. Read on to learn what we discovered and how you can grow your audience on YouTube.

How does the YouTube algorithm work?
YouTube’s algorithm serves the most relevant, personalized videos to their users on five different sections of their platform: Search, Home, Suggested Videos, Trending, Subscriptions, and Notifications.
By helping users find the videos they’re most likely to watch and enjoy, YouTube can keep viewers on the platform for as long as possible and get them to visit their site regularly.
To figure out which videos and channels users are most likely to enjoy watching, YouTube “follows” their audience, which means they track their users’ engagement with each video they watch. More specifically, they pay attention to which videos each user watches and doesn’t watch, how much time they spend watching each video, which videos they like and dislike, and which videos they’re not interested in based on the user’s feedback.
Since their algorithm rewards engagement instead of vanity metrics like views and clicks, YouTube incentivizes creators to produce videos that their audience actually enjoys watching, discouraging them from trying to game the system.
But YouTube’s algorithm also uses different signals and metrics to rank and recommend videos on each section of their platform. With this in mind, let’s go over how the algorithm serves content via YouTube’s six main user categories: Search, Home, Suggested Videos, Trending, Subscriptions, and Notifications.
Search
The two biggest factors that affect your videos’ search rankings are keyword relevance and engagement metrics. When ranking videos in search, YouTube will consider how well your titles, descriptions, and content match each user’s queries. They’ll also consider how many videos users have watched from your channel and the last time they watched other videos surrounding the same topic as your video.
Although the user’s history is important, YouTube also looks at “which videos have driven the most engagement for a query.” The Search section also offers sponsored ads related to the query.
Home
When users access the home page, they first see videos from their subscriptions, then suggested videos based on their previous watch history and the videos’ performance. While you may be tempted to try to snag a coveted spot on the page, YouTube encourages creators to simply create good content that people want to watch and click on.

Suggested Videos
No two users will have the same experience on YouTube — they want to serve the most relevant, personalized recommendations to each of their viewers. To do this, they analyze users’ activity history and find hundreds of videos that could be relevant to them.
Then, they rank these videos based on 1) how well each video has engaged and satisfied similar users, 2) how often each viewer watches videos from each channel or other videos surrounding the same topic, and 3) how many times YouTube has already shown each video to users.
YouTube has also noticed users tend to watch more content when they receive recommendations from a variety of channels, so they like to diversify their suggested videos feed.
Trending
The trending page is a feed of new and popular videos in a user’s specific country. You’ll find it by heading to Explore on the sidebar, then clicking on Trending.
YouTube wants to balance popularity with novelty when they rank videos in this section, so they heavily consider view count and rate of view growth for each video they rank. They also split trending videos into four categories: “Now,” “Music,” “Gaming,” and “Movies.”

Subscriptions
YouTube has a subscriptions page where users can view all the recently uploaded videos from the channels they subscribe to. But this page isn’t the only benefit channels get when they acquire a ton of subscribers.
To determine rankings on their platform, YouTube uses a metric called view velocity, which measures the number of subscribers who watch your video right after it’s published. And the higher your video’s view velocity, the higher your videos will rank. YouTube also accounts for the number of active subscribers you have when they rank your videos.

Notifications
YouTube also delivers tailored videos to users through notifications. Users can opt to either receive no notifications from a channel, receive some notifications, or receive all notifications.
The only way to optimize for showing up in users’ notifications is to ask your subscribers to tap the bell button next to the subscribe button.

But how can you ask anyone to do that if you don’t yet have enough viewers and subscribers? By optimizing your videos for YouTube’s algorithm, you can grow your audience. Remember: it all comes down to creating good content that people want to watch.

How to Optimize Your Videos for YouTube’s Algorithm
YouTube ranks videos based on two qualities: keyword relevance and engagement metrics (which are used to measure a video’s performance).
Let’s take a look at both of these in more detail.
1. Keyword Relevance
To rank on YouTube, the first thing to consider is optimizing your videos and channel for popular search queries. To do this, place relevant keywords in your videos’ titles, tags, descriptions, SRT files (which are transcriptions), video files, and thumbnail files.
You should also check out the most popular queries guiding viewers to your videos, which you can find in YouTube’s Search Report. If these queries are slightly different from your video’s topic, consider updating your video to fill these content gaps and add the keywords to your metadata. If there’s a stark difference, consider making new videos about these popular queries.
2. Engagement Metrics
The next thing to consider when ranking on YouTube is optimizing your videos and channel for engagement. The key metric to consider here is watch time, or the aggregate amount of time users spend watching your videos.
To get people to watch in the first place, you need to attract users’ attention. And one of the best ways to instantly grab users’ attention is by creating vibrant thumbnails for each of your videos.
Thumbnails — the small, clickable snapshots that viewers see when they search for videos on YouTube — are just as important as a video’s title. They provide a preview of your video and entice viewers to click through. This can help you differentiate yourself on a platform clogged with standard thumbnails all screaming for attention.
To create a striking thumbnail, consider including a talking head because people are naturally drawn to human faces. Additionally, consider contrasting the colors of your thumbnail’s foreground and background to really make it pop.
Once you’ve attracted users’ attention, you can engage them by creating a bingeable series or show. You can also create playlists about a certain topic that start off with the videos that have the highest audience retention rate. This will increase the odds that users will watch most of the videos in your playlists, boosting your channel and videos’ watch time.
Another way to refine your overall video strategy is by measuring your videos’ performance against other engagement metrics, like average watch percentage, average view duration, audience retention, and average session duration. If you can figure out which topics and videos generate the most engagement, and you solely focus on creating those types of content, you’ll be able to shoot up in YouTube’s search results page and suggested videos feed.
Now that we’ve covered how the YouTube algorithm works and how you can optimize your videos for it, let’s take a look at how the algorithm has changed over the years.
YouTube Algorithm Change
Like the Google algorithm, the YouTube algorithm has changed over the years — albeit less frequently and without a dedicated name to each update. Knowing how the algorithm has changed is key to understanding the platform and optimizing your videos to rank.
2005 – 2012: Views
Before there was ever a “formal” YouTube algorithm, YouTube ranked videos by view count. If a video had been watched hundreds of thousands of times, it’d be suggested to everyone, regardless of their interest in the topic or genre of the video.
This was an easy system to cheat. Constantly refreshing the page was one method creators used to up the view count. Others used clickbait titles to get more clicks.
2012 – 2015: Watch Time
While watch time is still highly relevant to YouTube’s algorithm, it’s not the central piece. But it was from 2012 to 2015.
YouTube wants users to stay on the platform. As such, videos with long watch times were favored over others and placed on the home page. It signaled to YouTube that the video was worth watching and that it was providing a positive experience to users.
Creators tried to optimize for this change by creating extra long videos — or really short videos that users would watch from beginning to end. In response, YouTube began to focus on overall viewer satisfaction, including “measuring likes, dislikes, surveys, and time well spent” on each video.
2016: “Deep Learning” for Recommendations
Since there are millions of videos on the platform, YouTube found it challenging to recommend the most relevant and watch-worthy videos to individual users. Using a practice called “deep learning,” YouTube started to take a close look at the user’s history to generate candidates and rank those videos based on the user’s activity.
The “video corpus” goes through two funnels: a “candidate generation” and “ranking” funnel. First, YouTube examines the user’s history to create a pool of candidates, which are then sent through the “ranking” funnel.

Image Source
Once the videos reach the ranking funnel, they’re assigned a score and presented to the user from highest to lowest score. This is still a prominent part of the algorithm and likely the way we still get recommendations.
2017 – 2020: Removal of “Borderline Content”
On the How YouTube Works website, YouTube advertises the four Rs of the platform:
“We Remove content that violates our policies, Reduce the spread of harmful misinformation and borderline material, Raise up authoritative sources for news and information, and Reward trusted Creators.”
While the four Rs have been in place since 2015, they were only used to deprioritize junk comments and launch a dedicated platform for the news industry. The four Rs became a more prominent part of the algorithm in 2017 when the platform redirected users seeking extremist propaganda, then in 2019 when the platform started to systematically remove content that “borderline” violates its Community Guidelines.
YouTube launched over 30 changes to diminish the promotion of videos spreading false and harmful misinformation. It also uses external evaluators to gauge whether a video qualifies as “borderline content” by using Google’s public guidelines.
Present: More Deep Learning and Tighter Control on Misinformation
YouTube has yet to announce any new changes to its algorithm, but we can assume that it continues using deep learning to personalize the user experience and continues upholding the four Rs to control the spread of misinformation.
Keep Track of the YouTube Algorithm to Succeed on the Platform
As the YouTube algorithm evolves, it’s important to keep track of its changes so that you know what does and doesn’t get promoted on the platform. If you’re a business or individual creator trying to grow an audience on YouTube, be sure to optimize your videos for the algorithm so that your channel wins a loyal list of subscribers.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.