Author: Franz Malten Buemann

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.

It takes a village to grow a successful business. And that village includes not just the people who build and sustain your brand, but the people who benefit from it as well — your customers. Getting customer feedback via email outreach can be integral to helping your company improve customer experience in several key areas,…
The post 10 Tips for Better User Feedback appeared first on Benchmarkemail.

You can eliminate the stress of launching new product landing pages by using landing page templates. They are an easy way to build effective, single product landing pages that boost lead generation.