Ready to improve blog performance in 2022?
In this post, you’ll discover what blogging tasks and tactics to devote time to so that you increase the effectiveness of your marketing, maximize your productivity, and identify which blogging tasks to keep and which to dump.
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Orbit Media’s Annual Blogging Survey
Daily Achiever’s Weekly Action Planner
Content Strategy from Scratch workbook
Episode #40
[Meghan] In my 25+ years of marketing, I’ve learned that lots of businesses do not measure their marketing. That goes for personal brands, successful entrepreneurs, small businesses, and even big corporations. So, if you don’t track your metrics, you’re not alone!
[Theresa] Tracking takes time and it can be an afterthought, especially for solopreneurs who don’t have a team or the time to do the analysis.
[Meghan] And the shame of it is that then you don’t really know what’s working or what to do less of. Thankfully, you can leverage research and other people’s experiences to guide your own business decisions.
Case in point is Orbit Media’s 2021 annual blogging survey, which tracks trends in blogging and content marketing. This year, they had over 1,000 responses from individual bloggers—not companies—who are typically LinkedIn users, B2B marketers, and people in the US.
It’s their eighth year doing the survey and gathering the insights. The results came out in September or October, so the info is really fresh! And, that’s why we thought it’d be a cool idea to talk about what they found.
[Theresa] So, whether you’re just starting out with blogging or you’ve been at it a while, there are some high level takeaways and action items that you can discover from the survey.
Our goal is to share what’s working with you so that you can modify your content strategy and improve the performance of your business blog.
Tip #1) Go Beyond the How-to Posts; Try Roundups
[Meghan] The first takeaway is to try blogging formats other than just how-to posts.
Why? Because although how-to posts are the most used, most popular content format, they are also reported as the least effective!
The survey showed an inverse correlation between the popularity of a blogging format and “strong results.” In other words, the less popular, less used blogging formats were the ones that were most effective!
[Theresa] The survey found that the top three, most popular blogging formats were:
1) how-to articles
2) list posts, and
3) guides and eBooks.
However, the formats that performed the best were roundups and gated content, which bloggers reported were the least popular formats to use!
[Meghan] I suspect that roundup posts performed best because they tend to highlight a lot of people or brands who then end up sharing the content with their audiences. Basically, roundup content probably gets promoted more—and therefore consumed more—which makes it more effective.
Gated content was the second best performer, which also makes sense. It requires people to take an action, such as providing contact information before they get access to your content. So, by design, gated content generates leads.
And if someone is willing to give something to gain access, they tend to be a warmer, more relevant lead. If you aren’t using gated content, consider it as well.
Whether it’s roundup posts, gated content, or another format, don’t be afraid to branch out into other blogging formats to improve your blog’s performance.
Example of Roundup Blog Post in the Marketing Industry
29 Experts Share Their Best Email Marketing Tips
Example of Gated Content in the Marketing Industry
A Snapshot of the Content Creator and Influencer Economy [Infographic]
Tip #2) Use 10 or More Visuals
[Theresa] Okay, the next takeaway from the survey is to use 10 or more visuals per blog post.
Almost half of the respondents reported using 2-3 images per post. But, the bloggers who used 10 or more visuals per post reported better results.
[Meghan] And it’s a noticeable difference in the results. Only 20% of the bloggers who used 2-3 images reported strong results. However, 42% of the bloggers who used more than 10 images reported strong results. That’s more than double.
And that’s not a surprise since people prefer visual content. It’s easier to consume. So, they’ll be drawn to blogs that use more images.
[Theresa] The point: include more visuals to improve blog performance.
Yes, creating images is time consuming. But recently we gave you lots of image creation shortcuts to make this task manageable and sustainable. So, no excuses!
These 7 data-backed tips will help increase the effectiveness of your business blog and maximize your productivity.Click To TweetTip #3) Incorporate Influencer Outreach for Promotion
[Meghan] Alright, moving on. You already know that creating amazing, unique content isn’t enough. You must promote your content to drive traffic to it so that people consume it.
So what promotion strategy works best? Well, the survey found that although influencer outreach is the least popular promotion strategy, it’s the most likely to drive results.
That’s why influencer outreach or collaboration is the third tip for better blog performance.
[Theresa] 90% of the respondents use social media to drive traffic to their content. But, they report that it’s the least effective strategy.
Only 10% use influencer outreach or collaboration even though both of those achieved the best outcomes by far.
Those numbers make sense, though. Content promotion on social media is easy. Reaching out to influencers or collaborating with them is much more work in comparison.
[Meghan] Take us for example. We know that we should reach out to the people and brands who we mention in the podcast. But do we? We haven’t. We’ve been bad about content promotion, and we’ve been totally transparent about that fact! It’s one of our top podcast lessons.
So, we’re paying attention to this advice as well. By the way, I feel like it’s a win if you simply promote your blog content more—no matter what the method!
“The best content doesn’t win. The best promoted content wins.” – Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media
[Theresa] I agree! If you’re not getting the word out about your blog, do that. If you already do that, then consider the influencer angle as a potential way to get more traffic.
Tip #4) Research Keywords
[Meghan] This next tip is no surprise, and that is to research keywords so that your blog content is optimized for getting found in search engines.
[Theresa] The survey found that most bloggers do some keyword research, although only 27% do it for every post.
But, the bloggers who perform keyword research 100% of the time report better results.
There was a direct correlation between keyword research and improved blog performance.
[Meghan] I’ve seen that in my own blog too. And, we’ve seen it with the podcast’s blog. When you create content for what people are searching for, you’re going to get more website traffic and brand visibility.
However, I will point out that there are times when you may write a post for reasons other than traffic or lead generation.
For example, let’s say you have a branded process or framework that you created or you have an idea to share. You may write for authority or thought leadership rather than for getting discovered in search engines.
“Some of the best content has nothing to do with search. Search is about meeting expectations. But some content is great because it is unexpected.” – Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media
[Theresa] Or, you may intentionally choose a topic that isn’t popular in search because you know your existing community would enjoy it. We do that for the podcast sometimes.
[Meghan] Exactly. Just know that when you’re blogging for SEO and traffic, you want to research keywords to improve blog performance.
Tip #5) Keep Up with SEO to Drive Traffic
And that leads me right into the fifth tip…
If you are blogging to attract more website visitors, be sure to optimize your content for search engines.
71% of the bloggers reported that search engines are the most important traffic source in 2021.
[Theresa] The next most important traffic source is social media at 56%, which declined from 2020. And, 42% say email marketing.
And almost half (49%) of the respondents report getting traffic and attracting visitors as the biggest challenge. So, if you have time for only one tactic for driving website traffic, you may want to focus on search engine optimization.
[Meghan] Just remember that optimizing your content for search goes beyond keyword research.
#6) Update Old Posts
[Theresa] I love this next suggestion since it’s something that I focused on in 2021! Update your old blog posts.
An increasing amount of content marketers are investing in updating old content instead of writing new articles only. And I’m one of them!
The survey found that bloggers who embrace this strategy are nearly 3x more likely to report strong results.
[Meghan] Updating your old posts means:
- making sure the sources you mentioned are current
- checking that the links still work
- adding more relevant information
- optimizing the content to get found in search engines
- making the content more robust
- including more visuals, and
- refreshing your coverage of the topic if necessary.
I’m re-branding my old Smart Bird Social website to TheMinimalMarketer.com, so I’ve spent a HUGE amount of time this year updating my old blog posts.
[Theresa] The revision process can be less time consuming than writing a new post. But, it really depends.
In Meghan’s case, it’s taking a long time since she’s overhauling the whole site with a new design as well as updating very old blog content.
Generally speaking, though, you’ll be updating only your old blog posts. So, to make updating manageable, plan for it.
For example, I’m updating old blog content every other week between new posts. There is a reposting schedule for that so I know what’s coming up and when it’s due.
Additionally, I have a simple checklist that I run each post through (new or old). It includes the items that Meghan outlined a bit ago, but it’s more defined with a few extra items that are specific to particular plugins I have.
Having a schedule and a checklist is super helpful because it helps me to:
- Stay consistent with editing and updating
- Avoid missing steps and
- Save time
So, to make updating old blog posts easier, plan. Yes, it takes time, but that’s time well spent.
[Meghan] True. It’s worth the work, though. In my case, some of my blog posts are on page one of Google or have dropped to page two. So, it’s a smart investment of my time since some of these older posts perform well. And they’ll perform even better after I update them.
Other old posts are hurting my metrics, though, and they need to be ditched or redirected. And how do I know that? Analysis!
#7) Analyze Your Results
Which brings me to the final tip, which is to analyze your results. No surprise there!
[Theresa] None whatsoever!
The survey found that the majority of bloggers checked their analytics at least some of the time. And that’s great news! Because you need to understand what’s working and what’s not working in order to blog more effectively.
“The more consistently the marketer measures success, the more likely they are to succeed.” – Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media
[Meghan] That said, only 29% always check their analytics. But, always checking is a worthwhile effort since measuring results correlates with more success, according to this group.
I’ll admit that I fall into the category of bloggers who “usually” check analytics. I don’t necessarily deep dive into the metrics of every single post. However, I do check overall analytics weekly for the most part. And that analysis is important since it guides my future marketing choices.
[Theresa] So, to improve your blog performance next year, be sure to add analysis into your daily, weekly, or monthly schedule. Out of all of the tips we’ve reviewed here, we both think this is a non-negotiable one.
[Meghan] You’ve gotta know how your blog content is performing. Blogging without the analysis won’t be nearly as effective. There’s no substitution for measuring your own results since your business is unique.
What isn’t inspected isn’t respected.
Need More Help to Improve Blog Performance?
We’d like to give a big shout out to Orbit Media for doing and sharing the annual blogging survey. We didn’t cover everything, and there’s plenty more good information to discover, including three tips to overcome the top blogging challenges.
Be sure to check out the full survey results yourself.
[Theresa] Don’t forget that if you need strategy and planning help for your blog, download the free Content Strategy from Scratch workbook and the Daily Achiever’s Weekly Action Planner.
[Meghan] Subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss an episode or click the FOLLOW US button below to get notified when a new episode and blog post launch each week.
