Cognition b2b_marketingblogs_ebook (RAGHU)

B2B Marketing Blogs
The secret of killer
L
B O SG

By Lisa Wheeler
Lisa Wheeler is a B2B marketing
communications specialist
and leader of the social media
team at Cognition Coaching &
Development.
She is responsible for creating
various content for all marketing
channels, including eBooks and
social media campaigns. Lisa is
also a prolific marketing blogger at
Cognition Coaching & Development
and has written for intouchcrm
and Oxford Professional
Consulting among many others.
B2B Marketing Blogs
The secret of killer
01Killer B2B Marketing Blogs
Follow Cognition

Cognition is an inbound marketing agency that
gives you all the tools you need to develop a
marketing approach for your business.
What is inbound marketing?
Search marketing
Targeted keywords,
web optimisation,
keyword rich content.
CRM
Integrate your CRM for
opportunity management
and closed loop marketing.
Content marketing
eBooks, whitepapers,
mindmaps, infographics,
share your expertise.
Inbound marketing relies on earning people’s interest, instead of buying it,
making yourself easy to be found and drawing customers to you.
Some of our most effective inbound marketing strategies include:
Business blogging
55% more leads for
companies that blog,
434% more webpages to
be found.
Lead nurturing
List segmentation,
educational content,
lead scoring.
Social media
Build a following, share
your blog posts and
engage your audience.
To see how inbound marketing can change your business marketing,
book a free Marketing Assessment today:
Book your Marketing AssessmentBook your Marketing Assessment

Introduction 04
Chapter 1: 9 big benefits of B2B blogging 05
Chapter 2: How to build the perfect blog post 09
Chapter 3: How to place a guest blog post 13
Chapter 4: Promoting your blog 16
Chapter 5: How blogging ultimately leads to sales 18
Chapter 6: How to measure your blog 20
Chapter 7: B2B blogging best practice standards 22
Conclusion 26
Contents
IntroductionChapter1Chapter2Chapter3Chapter4Chapter5Chapter6Chapter7

Did you know that business
blogs are a top-ranked source
of information in the B2B world?
They allow you to capture the
attention of your stakeholders and
provide an incredible opportunity
for them to interact with you and
your brand in a very unique way
and more towards ‘soft’ selling.
If you’re more of a numbers
person, then check this out. It’s a
fact that 55% of B2B buyers turn
to blogs for information and 75%
of executives want businesses to
ease off the hard sell.
So if you’re still wondering why
your business should care about
B2B business blogging, then here
are some additional reasons.
Blogging is a critical piece of the
inbound marketing methodology,
which directly correlates to your
company’s sales and marketing
efforts. This translates into
building better business results.
So it only makes sense to produce
and share compelling content
through B2B blogging to keep
buyers engaged over the course of
a lengthy sales cycle and focus on
long-term ROI.
This eBook will guide you step-
by-step through the blogging
fundamentals showing you top
tips and tricks and do’s and
don’t so you can start reaping
the benefits of B2B blogging to
maximise ROI results.
55%
of B2B buyers turn
to blogs for
information
Introduction

9 big benefits
of B2B blogging

Improve search results. Search
engines such as Google, Bing and
Yahoo reward sites that contain
fresh, relevant content. By adding
captivating content like a blog to
your website, you are increasing
your SEO results and ability to be
‘found’ online.
Differentiate your brand. Standing
out from the rest is key! Blogging
provides a wonderful opportunity
to stand out in your niche and your
company as an industry expert.
Understanding the larger picture of why you
should care about blogging is the first step in
realising why it should be incorporated into
your inbound marketing strategy and treated
as a long-term marketing asset. The following
highlights the big benefits of B2B blogging:
Extend customer relationships. In a world that’s constantly
on-the-go, you might not be able to visit customers as
frequently as you’d like. A blog is an excellent way to
provide a constant means of communication to remind your
subscribers and customers of your products and services
and the value you have to them. For those that don’t
read your blog, re-purpose the blog content in customer
newsletters and sales materials.
1 2
3

Drive sales. As people are
becoming more resistant to the
traditional means of the “hard”
sell approach, think of your blog as
prime real estate for “soft” selling.
For instance you can advertise
products or services in your blog’s
side bar. You can also blog about
how to use your product in new
or different ways, or even feature
customer success stories.
Generate leads. Featuring opt-in
content on your blog is a fantastic
way to turn readers into prospects.
From there, you can nurture your
leads down a path towards a
purchase.
Test ideas and get feedback. Blogs provide a great
opportunity to receive inexpensive and honest business
advice from your subscribers to help solve problems and
create new ideas leading to new products or service lines.
It’s a win-win situation.
Get media coverage. Because blogging positions you
as a thought leader, it offers the potential for reporters
and media outlets to turn to you as a source for
articles and stories. This rich content can generate
massive reach for your brand.
4
6
5
7

Communicate during a crisis.
Blogging acts as a wonderful
tool for crisis management to
your employees, subscribers, key
stakeholders and even the press
as company responses on blogs
are often quoted by mainstream
news sources.
Build community. Although building
an engaged community through
a business blog can be extremely
difficult, it is possible. If done
correctly, your blog can become a
conversation hub for your industry.
8
9

How to build the
perfect blog post

Do we have the right culture?
Blogging is an engaging, content-
rich effort that requires the
willingness to share valuable
information and respond to
feedback and criticism. If it isn’t
fostered and nurtured in the right
environment, it will probably fail.
Here are some warning signs that
you don’t have the right culture
in place to support a sustainable
blogging strategy:
1. Unsupportive executive
management
2. Ongoing approval hurdles
3. Lobbying efforts against
blogging from the outset
Now that you have a
better understanding in
the business value of
blogging, what do you write
about? Creating that perfect
post involves exploring the
following key areas.
First off, there are several questions you
need to ask yourself first, like:
Do we have the resources
we need? Blogging can take a
considerable amount of time,
so you need to take a close look
at the resources you’ll need to
get the job done. Here are some
things to keep in mind.
1. Know who will be responsible
for content, planning, handing
comments and community
2. Establish how frequently you
will be posting fresh content
3. Understand the approval
process
4. Know how you will promote
your blog (i.e. via email, social
sites or search)

And most importantly, what do we want to achieve? Like any marketing
initiative, you need to have goals in place to drive the success of
your efforts. For example, are you looking to build brand awareness,
generating leads, improving conversions or increasing sales?
It’s critical to answer these questions before
you get started so you know how blogging will
fit into your overall marketing strategy and how
to measure the success of your efforts.
The next thing to explore is what
should you write about. Staying
on top, requires a good mix
of different types of post and
content, such as customer how-
to’s, industry trends and events,
commentary on the market,
customer success stories and
company news.
Where to look for fresh content is
also key. Looking towards existing
content, questions from your
customers, forums, comments
or internal communications are
great sources of blog inspiration.
Additionally some excellent
blogging resources include
WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr and
Google Blog Search.

3. Keep it short. Most readers
skim and scan content fairly
quickly because they’re
constantly pressed for time.
Keep your posts short and to
the point. 600 words or less is
a good measure. Bullet points
and subheadings help organise
the post in a business-friendly
manner.
4. Make it shareable. Spreading
the word is key! Amplify your
content by including social
sharing and email buttons.
This is a sure way for readers
to share your stuff and expand
the reach of your content. Plus,
widgets like tweet counts and
Facebooks “likes”
provide social
validation.
1. Create an eye-catching
headline. First impressions are
key! This is the first thing your
readers see when it pops up
in search results, their email
inbox, on social and their RSS
feeds. It needs to be something
that speaks to them like an
offer for example.
2. Include illustrative photos
and video. What’s that
expression: “A picture is worth
a thousand words.” The same
applies to blog campaigns. To
grab and keep your readers
engaged, provide visual
elements like video or photos
that tie in and really enhance
your message. Sometimes
you need to spend a little to
get more. So set aside a small
budget for stock photography
and explore popular sites
like istock or veer for your
images or add some fun
Instagram flair.
The final piece to building the perfect blog is the
layout of the blog itself. Here’s the anatomy of a
perfect blog post.

How to place a
guest blog post

Become known in the community. Establishing a
relationship within the community is key for improving
guest blogging. This can be achieved by reading and
commenting on articles, sharing the blog’s content socially
and interacting with the blog community members before
ever approaching the topic of guest posting. So spend at least
a month reading and commenting on articles to start building
a foundation. Going in blind with no established relationship is
a sure way of getting your request ignored.
Think thought leadership, not SEO. Thinking that guest
blogging is a great strategy to accumulate SEO-friendly
links will surely backfire. Instead, learn what makes this
community unique and the types of articles that perform
well and model your approach after that. An inbound
link is not the reason to make your request, it’s simply a
secondary benefit.
Now that you’ve created your perfect post,
how do you get your brand’s message across?
Guest blogging gets your brand, thought
leaders and voice in front of new communities
and prospects.
From a B2B perspective, it provides one of the
most valuable outcomes of a blogging strategy.
Many people are unsure how to approach an
influential blogger though. To help make that a
much less daunting task, here are 6 helpful tactics
for improving guest blog article placement.
2
1

Do your homework. Every blog or
publication has a unique set of guidelines
for guest contributors. It’s your job to find
them, understand them and make your
pitch conform to them. And don’t forget
to be concise and thorough. Make the job
of approving your request a simple one
by providing a title and abstract for your
article, links to other guest blog posts at
reputable, known blogs and your social
profile and contact information.
Kill the form email. Once you become
known in the community, a form email is
not needed. In fact, it will likely be deleted
before the reader gets to the next sentence.
You’ll stand out because of your existing
relationship and previous contributions.
Create best effort, quality content. Devote the appropriate
amount of time to produce a quality piece and remember
the intent is to create a piece that benefits the community,
not your company.
Optimise your article for the community. Make sure
the article fits in terms of style, length and topic.
Remember, there is as much value in getting the
post shared by the community as there is in getting
the article published. Also, study the blog’s most
successful articles from a social sharing standpoint
and work those elements into your article to mimic
their success.
3
4
5
6

your blog
Promoting

blog. So whenever you send
an email, be sure to link it to
your blog.
Run a contest. Attract more
attention to your blog by running
a contest. For example, come up
with an entry system that requires
other bloggers to link back to you.
You can either have them publish
a post on their blog, retweet a
post from your blog, or “like” your
Facebook fan page in order to
be eligible.
Blog directories. These can help
you legally get more traffic
and help with ranking as well
because it creates inbound links
to your blog.
Create a video. Telling your
blog’s story is a great way to
gain viewership. After creating
your video, publish the video on
YouTube and allow a different
audience to find it. You can also
create a controversial or funny
video that links to the blog.
Social media sharing. As previously
mentioned, this is definitely an
essential part for the promotion
of your content. Just about every
blog now has social sharing
buttons to make it as easy as
possible for visitors to share
your content.
CTA’s. Incorporate well-crafted
call-to-action’s on different
pages of your website, such as
your home page and About Us
company page.
Events presentations. If you
are at an event and giving a
presentation on a specific topic,
you can refer the audience to
your blog for further information.
A QR code is a great means to
allow people to quickly and easily
subscribe to your blog.
Email signatures. More than just
an electronic business card, email
signatures can drive a surprisingly
high amount of traffic to a
destination of interest, including a
In addition to using guest blogging, there are
several ways in which you can gain exposure
for your blog.

How blogging
ultimately
leads to sales

Integrated social media strategy.
Consider your blog as just
one piece of an information
ecosystem constantly pointing
sales leads to your products and
services. Your blog posts can for
example feed Twitter, LinkedIn
and Facebook updates. YouTube
videos and SlideShare decks can
also be featured on your blog. All
should eventually point back to a
call-to-action on your website.
Create killer offers. Blogs create
a wonderful opportunity to build
and spread your brand identity.
You can develop eBooks, white
papers, case studies, webinars,
exclusive videos and other free
content that your audience can
receive by opting-in to your
email list can easily be promoted
on your blog with ads, calls-to-
action or links in your post. And,
once they opt-in, you now have a
warm lead that you can nurture
toward a sale.
Keyword search. These are the
words that your customers are
using to find you. Look at Google
Analytics to find common words
people are using to find your
company and products and make
sure these phrases match your
current content subject matter.
Remember to also hunt for
competitor keywords too. Be sure
to make this a continuous and
dynamic process for better results.
Buying cycle and keyword search.
Understanding the buying cycle and
the keywords used at various points
in that cycle helps customers find
useful content based on where they
are in that cycle.
Keywords and content. Be
methodical about creating
keyword-laden content and make
sure that your content writers
understand the basics of SEO and
how to leverage it throughout the
material. Remember to use the
keywords your customers use,
not internal buzzwords.
Now that you have a better understanding on
how to build and promote your blog, how does
it lead to sales? Marketing’s ultimate goal is to
turn visitors into leads and ultimately sales,
here’s how blogging helps achieve this objective.

How to measure
your blog

IntroductionChapter1Chapter2Chapter4Chapter5
You must conduct an ongoing
trend analysis of several key
metrics like traffic, leads and
customers. Here are some helpful
metrics to keep in mind of how
your business blogging is going
and if you should keep as a part of
your inbound marketing strategy.
As a marketer, one of the most important
things to ask yourself is: How did
your efforts do? Blogging marketing
performance is no exception.
• Measuring visitors
• Measuring leads
• Subscribers count
• Track inbound links
• Watch social media shares
Chapter3Chapter6Chapter7

B2B blogging
standards
best practice

Entertain. As important is it is
for a communication material
to be informative, it also needs
to be entertaining to stay atop
your reader’s mind. By mixing up
your content with videos, photos,
interviews or reviews it helps
cut out the noisy chaos which
continues to rise on social sites.
Be original. Put your own personal
touch and write posts that only
your company can write about.
Add value. Simply put, good blogs
know how to add value to their
readers. This is done through
personal and not promotional
content. Blogs that focus on
solving problems, answering
questions and offering useful
information that helps your
subscribers make money, save
money, make their jobs easier
or add something enhancing the
quality of their lives will establish
why you’re special to them.
Understanding the following “do’s” and
“don’ts” best practice standards for blogging
provides a wonderful check and balance
system for optimising results.

Oversell. By focusing on solving
your audience’s problems and not
promoting yourself via a sales
blog you will keep readers from
running in the other direction. If
you’re savvy with using this as a
“soft” selling channel the sales will
come.
Use corporate speak. People like
to read material by people. In
other words, your blog shouldn’t
sound like it came from the legal
department filled with jargon and
mumbo jumbo. Keep it simple.
Tell stories. Stories sell. Whether
you’re sharing stories about
your customers, employees or
advocates, it offers a great way for
people to connect with you and
your brand.
Write well. It goes without saying
but people will spend more time
with you if they enjoy your writing.
As a good rule of thumb, take the
time to read your post aloud-it’s
a great way to ensure it has a
natural, conversational tone.
Promote your posts. There are
very tactful and non-tacky sales
type ways to promote your
articles. Some of these ways
include emailing it to customers
or prospects, sharing it on social
networks and posting it on a
forum or group relevant to your
topic. By sharing your content,
you’ll increase its success.

Fail to plan. A calendar is key!
This helps your blog stay on track
by plotting out the topics and
dates you will post new articles.
Without planning, your blog may
quickly gather cobwebs.
Post infrequently. If you only blog
once or twice a quarter, it will
be hard to sustain your readers’
attention. At the very least, you
should post a new article every
month and, preferably, once a
week. This is why planning is so
important.
Ignore negative comments. What’s
that expression: “Turn lemons into
lemonade.” Negative feedback
presents an excellent opportunity
to turn a critic into an advocate.
By ignoring or even worse deleting
negative comments, you’re adding
fuel to the fire of a disgruntled
subscriber. People as a general
rule are more apt to tell everyone
they know if they have received
less than satisfactory service
with your company. A prompt and
thoughtful response to a critic is a
great way to avoid this and create
an advocate.
Forget to measure. You can
only manage what you measure.
In other words, track your efforts
and tie them back to your overall
goals. That’s the only way you
can determine if your blog is
successful.

Book your Marketing Assessment
Conclusion
After reading this eBook, you
should hopefully be able to
successfully map out a solid
strategy towards business
blogging and making it an effective
part of your permanent inbound
marketing strategy for long-term
results.
B2B blogging offers an excellent way to
demonstrate you as a thought leader, building
trust over time through smart content and
making a lasting impression on your audience.
For more on blogging for better business results please visit
http://bit.ly/biz-blogging to download our handy infographic
For more on blogging for better business results please visit
http://bit.ly/biz-blogging to download our handy infographic

Cognition
The Thatched Cottage
Eling, Berkshire RG18 9XR
01189 680812
info@cognition-coaching.co.uk
www.cognition-coaching.co.uk

Cognition b2b_marketingblogs_ebook (RAGHU)

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Cognition b2b_marketingblogs_ebook (RAGHU)