What's one blogging question you have?

[Champion]

The most effective content marketers are ones who are curious and continuously look for opportunities to grow. Keeping this in mind, what's one question you have to either get started with blogging or to improve your current efforts?

If you see a question you can help answer, then please join the conversation!

**Is this your first time visiting the Content Marketing Study Group? If so, click here to get started. 

[Edzel]

Hi everyone! I'm loving the Content Marketing course of HubSpot Academy. I'm currently on Lesson #6 and I'm not sure if my question will be covered in a later lesson. I was wondering, once I have the topic for a blog post, where do I get the domain expertise about it? I have a high level understanding of the topic but it might not be sufficient to show credibility to readers. 

[Champion]

Great question @Edzel. A few suggestions:

• Perform research on the topics you want to learn more about. You can learn a lot from what Google offers on its first page. And from there, you can continue doing Google searches for more in-depth research. 
• Build an outline for content and find a way to connect with an expert. This could be through an email on a site that you want to collaborate with or making a connection on social media (like Twitter). 

[CJain]

It makes sense

[CJain]

yes

[Edzel]

That makes sense, thanks @Champion!

[CJain]

Yes

[chidu007]

I don't have a website to write blog, but is good writing in Google's Blog and in coming years i can change to website.?

[Champion]

Great idea @chidu007. You could also consider Medium or LinkedIn for blogging. You could experiment with blog content on either of these platforms. Then, for the content that performs well, you could expand it into a new blog on a future website. 

[Sam62]

How to evaluate the performance of the blogs?

Are metrics enough to tell you if a post is great or poor?

[Champion]

Great question @Sam62. Content without promotion will likely not produce results. When evaluating the performance of your blog posts, it's important to consider how it's distributed. For example, sharing via social media and email as well as building inbound links to the page. 

Once you do that, I'd look at:

• How many people are viewing the content during the promo period (1-2 weeks), and is it helping them through the buyer's journey (i.e. are they going anywhere on your site or converting as a result of visiting this page)?
• How many people are viewing the content after the active promo period (4-8 weeks), and is it helping them through the buyer's journey?

[LYewYong]

Understand why we need to Blog and understand the buyer personna stage 

[Anish1994]

Hi. My name is Anish and I am new here with a question. I do not have a business but want to start one. I want to start a blog. In HubSpot academy I found a course on blogging for business, but can I start a blog that will be my business and make a livelihood out of it? I see that there are bloggers who do not provide any service or sell any product of their own. At most they use affiliate links. If this is at all possible can you guys develop content for the same?

[Champion]

This is good feedback, @Anish1994. My suggestion would be to follow the same framework that's discussed in the Business Blogging Course to start and grow your blog. And to your point, you can use affiliate links (like with a program like Amazon) to monetize it. 

[ClaudiaU]

Not so much a question, but a comment: I handle blog writing and social media management in my current job. You recommend sharing blog links on social media and I've heard that suggestion elsewhere as well. I have zero success doing that. Posts with a quick, witty caption, an image and a link to a blog reach just a handful of people and rarely get a like, let alone comments or shares. Social media companies also don't like to direct users off their platforms because they can't advertise to them any longer. In contrast, a recent post about how one of our teams got together for the first time in over a year, along with lots of photos, was highly popular. I've observed that over many months. Viewers want to read about people (maybe pets), not get directed to blogs. Thoughts? 

[IJones]

How do you keep things fresh for your blog?

[Champion]

Great question @IJones. Think of your blog as a library of living content for the topics your business wants to be known for and build authority around. Sometimes new content may be created, but there's something to be said about updating current content as opposed to publishing something new all the time. Think quality of content, not the number of posts.

When it comes to creating something new, consider how the new content adds to the library of existing content. What story is it trying to tell? Is it told anywhere else on your site? How does it connect to your other posts as well as landing/website pages on your site. 

Keep up the good work!

[KBhatnagar]

While preparing the blog strategy, shall we consider one blog at a time, or shall have a calendar for a month, six months, or the entire year?

On a different note, which are your favorite tools to assist you with the writing?

[Champion]

@KBhatnagar I recommend having a strategy of several blogs. The more you plan, the more opportunities you can identify gaps to fill as well as use the content you create to repurpose into something else like a guide or ebook. 

As for tools, I recommend having the free Grammarly app. This will help you improve your writing. 

[BAmin]

How to engage readers to my blog post? And how can I valuable source to my content that increases readers' engagement? 

[kara_susvilla]

Hi there @BAmin , a great way to drive readers to your new blog post is by sharing the post through social media or including it in any relevant email newsletters (if you have one for your company). Getting your blog linked or featured in other company blogs can also help drive new and relevant readers to your blog. To increase reader's engagement in your blogs posts, try incorporating videos, images, or infographics that provide additional value to your content. Happy to chat more during our upcoming Content Marketing Office Hour event. 😊

[kara_susvilla]

Hi again @Johnson_Lim 👋. That's a great question. I actually used to work for a digital marketing agency before HubSpot, and have definitely faced this specific challenge before!

One of my favorite ways to really get into our buyer persona's minds was talking to our sales team. Because they were always speaking to prospects, they had a lot of great insights into questions and pain points that potential customers had, helping me better understand our buyer personas. I would ask the sales teams questions such as "What are common challenges you're hearing from prospects?" or "What's one of our marketing services that people don't quite understand?". This would usually give me a lot of ideas just from conversations with the sales team.

If possible, ask if you can join a sales call or a discovery call with prospects. This can give you insight into the actual language that prospects are using, and help inform how you're writing or speaking about certain topics. Happy to chat more during our upcoming Content Marketing Office Hour event. 😊