Hubspot is a source of excellent material on most digital marketing topics and this guide is no different – it is available from: http://www.hubspot.com/15-business-blogging-mistakes-and-easy-fixes/ – although there were a couple of the 15 points which appeared to duplicate information.

One of the most valuable elements of the ebook is the statistics:

  • Hubspot research indicates that companies that blog generate 55% more web site visitors, 97% more inbound links and have 434% more indexed pages than companies that don’t blog.
  • Businesses that blog at least 20 times a month generate over five times more traffic than those that blog fewer than four times a month and nearly four times more leads than those that don’t blog
  • 57% of companies that publish a blog have acquired a customer from a blog-generated lead

I produced the “at a glance” table below to save you time and help you decide whether to download the full document for closer inspection:

Issue Problems Fixes
1. Blog not integrated with web site
  • Missed SEO opportunity
  • Potential for brand/design dilution
  • Send visitors away from your site
  • Sub domain
  • Web site folder
  • Separate domain
2. Too much product centric information
  • Users expect educational content
  • Users unlikely to value/return
  • More time on educational, data driven and thought provoking content relevant to your sector
  • Make it a thought leadership resource
3. Infrequent or inconsistent posts
  • Clients lose interest and/or go elsewhere for regular information
  • Creates negative impression
  • Try to blog each week
  • Encourage all employees to blog
  • Develop an editorial calendar
  • Plan topics to be covered
  • (My idea here is to “spark” posts by scanning for topics)
4. Off-topic content published
  • Blog lacks a theme – so unclear for the audience
  • Community not built

 
  • Decide on a focus for the blog – set goals
  • Generate a list of key words
  • Adopt a specific industry related issue
  • Consider your target clients
5. No content variety
  • Boring
  • Fails to attract attention
  •  Consider charts, audio content, cartoons, infographics, guest blogs, curated lists, industry related book reviews, Q&As and videos
6. Failing to encourage engagement
  • One way interaction only (broadcasting stuff without interacting)
  • Not very social
  • Keep comments open
  • Monitor and reply to comments
  • Don’t moderate comments
  • Ask questions
  • Listen (and respond to) feedback
7. Failing to optimise for search
  • Missing opportunities to increase search performance and increase web traffic
  • Develop an SEO strategy
  • Identify key words
  • Optimise blog content for those key words (page title, URL, H1 (header tag) and blog title
8. Implementing poor blog design
  • Missing graphic elements
  • Diluting branding
  • Include a Call to Action (CTA) in every post
  • Subscription facilities
  • Clear connection to the web site
  • Social media follow and sharing buttons
  • Post previews
  • Sort content
  • Headline formatting
  • Images
  • Fast page load times
  • Clean sidebar
  • Search box
9. Rushing blog titles
  • Missed readership
  • Reduced SEO performance
  • Actionable
  • Keyword conscious
  • Brief and clear
  • Definitive
  • Intrigue
10. Not sourcing content
  • Lacks fresh content
  • Uninteresting blog
  • Select and curate quality content
  • Welcome guest bloggers
  • Encourage employee contributions
11. Not optimising for lead generation
  • Not enough Calls to Action (CTAs)
  • Revise old blog posts and add CTAs
  • Ensure all new posts have CTAs – content focused offers, product focused offers, free trials, downloads, demos, top and side bar ads, anchor text links
12. Failing to promote content in social media
  • Failing to get blog out to wider audience

 
  • Create a social media presence
  • Share links to blog content in social media
  • (Integrated marketing, PR, social media and selling strategy)
  • Make social sharing easy
13. Ignoring blog analytics
  • Fail to learn what works and what doesn’t
  • Risk of continuing to invest in unproductive blogs
  • Monthly visitors
  • Traffic driving key words
  • Blog subscribers
  • Comments generated
  • Page views
  • Leads and conversion rate
  • Inbound links
  • Social media shares
14. Not testing blog elements
  • Lack of confidence in what works and what doesn’t
  • Test alternative blog titles, calls to action and design/layout
15. Expecting overnight success
  • Risk of abandoning blog before giving it a proper chance
  • Invest the necessary time, effort and commitment
  • Resource it properly