If you've been considering really cranking up your blog this article is for you. If you've been reading a lot about the benefits of blogging and content marketing but you're not sure how it will really help drive results then this article will help you put the puzzle together.
This is the short story of what we were able to accomplish with our own blog by really stepping up production and participation.
First, we have a very active blog and it's been a highly successful lead generation vehicle for our organization. As an inbound marketing company we certainly buy into the services we deliver for our clients. We publish at least 5 articles per week with every member of our marketing team responsible for a regular contribution. Prior to the data reported on in this article we had doubled our monthly website traffic via our blog, it's not like we are starting from square one.
In January HubSpot launched a 30 day blogging challenge and we decided to jump in feet first. We planned ahead, took proactive measures to ensure success, and wrote our butts off.
January 2014 Hubspot 30 Day Blogging Challenge Results
ACTIVITY DETAIL:
We greatly increased overal production, publishing 54 total articles in 30 days
- 54 vs. 20 (270% increase in production compared to December
- Articles by Revenue River Marketing resources: Adrian - 9 articles, Alex - 6 articles, Nathan - 9 articles, Marc - 12 articles, and Eric - 10 articles
- Introduced two new writers from the Revenue River team: Kurt - 3 articles, Mark - 3 articles
- Guest Authors: Kasie Hilburn & Barbara Donaldson each contributed an article
PRODUCTION DETAIL:
Our website traffic skyrocketed as a result of our efforts
- Site visits in January vs. site visits month prior (December): 3,228 vs. 1,187 (272% increase)
- Site visits in January vs. 3 month average: 3 mo. average - 1,482 (218% increase)
- Site visits from social vs. social visits during December - 930 vs. 140 (664% increase)
- Site visits from social vs 3 month average: 3 mo. average - 159 (585% increase)
- Direct traffic vs. direct traffic during December - 1,014 vs. 504 (202% increase)
- Direct traffic vs. 3 month average: 3 mo. average - 719 (141% increase)
- Organic traffic vs. organic traffic during December - 637 vs. 414 (154% increase)
- Organic traffic vs 3 month average: 3 mo. average - 441 (144% increase)
- Social media fan growth - Twitter (+137 followers)
Our search engine optimization results took an enourmous leap forward
- Targeted keyword movement:
- social media services Denver (+2 spots to position 2)
- Denver social media services (+4 spots to position 3)
- Denver social media marketing (+2 spots to position 9)
- Denver marketing firm (+4 spots to postion 9)
- Denver inbound marketing firms (+1 spot to position 9)
- marketing firms Denver (+3 spots to position 10)
- Denver web development (+8 spots to position 13)
- Denver marketing company (+3 spots to position 13)
- Denver branding agency (+3 spots to position 15)
- social media Denver (+27 spots to position 20)
We produced viral results beyond simple views
- Our most successful blog, written by Nathan Miller received gained major attention from the press, earning Nathan a radio interview with a major Seattle Talk Radio show to discuss the branding implications behind Richard Sherman and branding the villain persona.
So did increasing our blogging for a single month increase results?
I think the results speak for themselves. Blogging is a great way to raise awareness for your company, position your organization as an industry expert, drive new traffic to your website through multiple sources, and increase your rankings on search engines. If you're considering whether or not blogging can grow your business this article should help motivate you to put together a plan. If you need help, that's why we're here and this is the stuff we do every day. You don't have to be an inbound marketing company to get results from your blog, any industry can benefit with proper strategy and execution. Look us up, we'd love to talk about your goals and see if blogging can be part of the answer.
