Encourage Your Speakers to Create a Blog
Given the importance of social media and online marketing, blogs have become essential for promoting products, including educational ones. A blog helps drive traffic to your website and strengthens your social media presence. Readers appreciate blogs because they simplify complex topics into easy-to-understand content. These benefits are valuable for any organization. However, if your goal is to sell a continuing education product, a blog offers even more. It can increase inbound links to your product and potentially boost sales.
Increase Website Traffic with a Blog
In a recent study, research found that having a blog increased website traffic by 58% and the use of inbound links by 98%. Creating a blog to promote a program, publication, or other educational product just makes sense and should be done by your subject matter expert. Whew, you were scared I was going to suggest you write the blog, weren’t you? The only add to your to-do list is to make writing a blog a speaker or author assignment.
Start Writing
Add writing a blog to the list of instructions you provide a newly committed speaker or newly committed author – and provide a hard deadline! The blog should be about his or her piece of the program or publication. Explain to your speaker or author that the blog will include an inbound link to your educational product and could increase registrations or sales. Ask every speaker on a program and every contributor to a publication to blog. Even if you get 75% response, you will have multiple blog posts, which will enhance your chances of success.
A Blog as a Teaser
Tell your SME not to give away the farm in writing the blog but the blog must provide value. Make sure the SME understands your business objective. The blog should provide relevant information and prompt the reader to take the next step—clicking on the inbound link and buying. The SME should still transfer knowledge in the blog. The SME should also give a peek into the additional topics that are to be addressed in the program or publication. It’s knowledge with a tease.
Target Audience
Providing blogs to your target audience provides value in that you create an audience that trusts you and the information you provide. But we all know that increased sales are the real payoff. To measure your blog success in sales conversions, use website analytics to monitor. Remember to give this approach some time, and don’t expect results overnight.
Resources:
“B2B Content Marketing 2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends–North America”
