40 Ways to Take Your Ad Agency’s Blog to the Next Level

trajectory1

 

As important as it was for your ad agency to have a website, it is now equally important that your agency have a blog. A blog is the gateway to your agency.

Many agencies have a blog to be able to say, “yes, we have an agency blog.” But their blog’s content  is all over the place. No focus, no target, no purpose and therefore no traffic.

Here are 40 ways to help take your agency’s blog to the next level:

  1. Make your target audience crystal clear. 
  2. Build a community that keeps coming back for helpful, relevant content.
  3. Consistently deliver original content.
  4. Be personal and conversational in your tone. This isn’t an academic exercise.
  5. Post consistently but don’t post just to post. Make sure your material is worth the read.
  6. Asks questions, enlist feedback. You’ll build a loyal audience if they can contribute.
  7. Get your own unique URL. This is critical if you are on a site such as WordPress.com, Typepad or Blogger and you decided to change platforms.
  8. Have a clean layout that highlights your content, not a bunch of sidebar widgets.
  9. Highlight your best posts based upon your blog’s analytics, with a Best Of or Most Popular Posts page.
  10. Have a “cornerstone” post that is a summation of your blogs purpose, your point of differentiation, your stake in the sand.
  11. Start out with WordPress.com, an easy platform to upgrade from without dependency upon someone from your IT department and allows you to concentrate on the most important part of your blog, the writing.
  12. Dominate a few key words that your target audience will most likely use to find you. 
  13. Your blog’s design and layout should be configured for SEO.
  14. Get in the habit of checking your blogs analytics frequently. Keep it simple, but know at least daily the number of unique visitors, page views, top posts, how people got to your blog, search terms and incoming links. 
  15. Provide links to and from your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.
  16. Include your blog address on your business cards as well as your email signature. 
  17. Allow your blog to become the “gateway” to your agency.
  18. Become the face of your agency. We are in a relationship business. Your blog should be your central platform for online engagement with your prospective client audience. People want to work with people they know, like and trust.
  19. You don’t have to be naked but be transparent. 
  20. Repurpose your blogs content using Twitter and Twitter tools such as Tweetlater.
  21. At the bottom of a post provide “Additional articles that may be of interest” and have a bullet pointed list of relevant articles as a convenience to your audience.
  22. State the purpose of your blog in the header. Don’t force people to have to dig to find out what your blog is about because most often times they wont!
  23. Don’t sell! The moment you start to sell on your blog is when you will most likely lose your audience.
  24. Show that you have a genuine compassion for your audience and a willingness to help with their marketing challenges and obstacles by “giving away your thinking.” 
  25. Always lead with “the nugget, the takeaway” of the post. Use an inverted pyramid newspaper style of writing.
  26. Identify who your audience is in your post titles. This is especially helpful when you repurpose your content on Twitter and an important part of SEO for your blog.
  27. Always take the time to link when writing about another person, company post or website. 
  28. People reading differently online so write for “scan-ability.” 
  29. Have a disciplined, organized, strategic approach to your online reading by using an RSS Reader. I recommend using Google Reader. Stay committed to it until you get through the awkward stage.
  30. If you are using WordPress.com, in the Tool Section of your Dashboard add “PressThis” button to your browser bar. It will simplify adding new material to a draft that you can later turn into a posts.
  31. If you are referencing resource material that isn’t specific to your target audience, in your intro paragraph “bridge the gap” so that they understand how it is relevant to them.
  32. Take time to develop your post titles. Great titles will generate traffic.
  33. Mix up your blog with occasional videos, podcast interviews, write something more personal that your audience might not know about you.
  34. Include search tool at the top of your blogs side bar to make it easier for your audience to find content.
  35. Be sure and list your blog site on Google, Yahoo and Technorati.
  36. Include your blog feed in your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
  37. Make it easy for people to contact you. 
  38. Encourage dialogue, feedback and engage your with audience. Allow for differing points of view. Remember to, “do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”
  39. Comment on the well known blogs that your prospective audience are reading. This will help generate interests and traffic back to your blog.
  40. Make sure your blog’s URL is on all of your other social platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Provide your thoughts and additions to this initial list. Also, please feel free to asks questions.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

 

Share

About Michael Gass

Consultant | Trainer | Author | Speaker

Since 2007, he has been pioneering the use of social media, inbound and content marketing strategies specifically for agency new business.

He is the founder of Fuel Lines Business Development, LLC, a firm which provides business development training and consulting services to advertising, digital, media and PR agencies.

Comments

  1. Nice articles about online marketing..thanks lot..:)

  2. Our clients are currently being dragged (by us) kicking and screaming into this. It’s quite frustrating!

  3. I sympathize with you Steve, usually it’s been the clients dragging the agencies kicking and screaming into it. I’m glad your agency is in a position of leadership or maybe “pullership”

  4. Cheers – we’re not an agency though – we’re a new business agency. Our clients all want to join in blogging, but often don’t realise that you can’t go in half-cocked!

  5. Micahel,

    Great list! Thank you very much!

  6. You are most welcome Greg. Thanks for taking the time to comment.

  7. Very teaching article, eyeopener, the rules are very strik and well explained, I liked it, thanks for the interesting info.

  8. Michael, Thanks again for a terrific article!
    I was wondering if there are any help articles on google reader. Actually, I never checked the help section for google. What do you suggest?
    Rachael

  9. clivemaclean says

    Rachel,

    Sorry it took so long to reply. Google has a good video and other resources to help get the most out of it. Google Reader is a great tool and easy to use.

  10. Nice post Michael-been reading several pieces lately about the general demise of the blog by Twitter and the like, but, per your post, it’s a matter of how to incorporate these tools to make your blog even more valuable.

  11. Lee, I don’t believe those taunting the demise of blogging. What I do see is the evolution of it as new tools come online. Such as Google Wave, which may have a dramatic impact.

  12. wow you have opened my eyes. thanks so much

  13. Hi Michaelm,

    Do you believe Technorati is still relevant today?

  14. Technorati isn’t as important to search results as it used to be. But it still matters as a blog authority measurement tool for a site’s standing and influence in the blogosphere.

Trackbacks

  1. […] 50 Blog Post Ideas to Fuel Your Ad Agency’s Blog […]

  2. […] 50 Blog Post Ideas to Fuel Your Ad Agency’s Blog […]

  3. […] 50 Blog Post Ideas to Fuel Your Ad Agency’s Blog […]

%d bloggers like this: