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Never Too Late: Your Roadmap To Small Business Blogging Success

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

If you’ve been following along, we kicked off the New Year with a 30-day blogging challenge. Each day, for 30 days, bloggers and entrepreneurs who accepted the challenge, write and post a blog. The purpose? Drive more traffic to the website in order to generate more leads and acquire more clients. (Click to Tweet)

Sounds simple, right? Wrong!

Blogging every day for 30 days is not without its challenges of finding topics, time, and a few brain cells to rub together to make the blog of interest and value to your reader.

We’re more than half of the way into our challenge, and have covered topics such as:

Stop Wasting Time

Content creation, along with an inbound marketing strategy, can be challenging for those who routinely do business face-to-face and belly-to-belly. Having launched our business in 1997 using an outbound marketing strategy (i.e. attending networking events, etc.), we understand fully how to get results from offline networking. Over the years, however, we’ve questioned the real ROI on face-to-face networking. It’s the dirty little secret no one wants to admit. (Click to Tweet)

Given the amount of time required to drive to and from an event, plus the cost of the event, parking, and meal and/or refreshments, networking events have to produce a better ROI. This is especially true if you live in LA, like we do, or another large metropolitan area, where a 10-mile jaunt across town can eat three hours out of your day.

I don’t know about you, but I’m just not willing to give up that much of my time sitting in a car.
 
Get On The Blog Train

Can you tell we’re hot for blogging? Blogging, or creating content as the pros call it, is an integral piece of an inbound marketing strategy.

When we first read about content marketing in 2008, it sounded right. Perfect for the way consumers wanted to buy – and ideal for the way we wanted to work. Since that time, inbound marketing has gained in popularity.  (Read Why We Love Small Business Blogging…And You Should, Too!)

Once you look at the numbers, it just makes sense to get on the blog train and ride it all the way into the sunset. With blog 19 out of 30 under our belt, website visits are up 40% and leads have increased 144%. Now that’s what I call a lead-generation website!

It’s never too late to accept the task. Challenge yourself to the 30-day blogging challenge and see for yourself the difference it makes in your enterprise growth.

Linkedin Behavior: What It Says About You and Your Business

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

Only those stranded on a desert island during the last 12+ years have yet to hear about Linkedin. Launched in May of 2003, Linkedin is a disruptor of traditional networking. Used by job seekers and entrepreneurs alike, Linkedin is the networking tool of choice for business professionals. And, it’s an extremely effective business development tool…if used appropriately.

“It’s not what you know but whom you know,” is an age-old adage more relevant today than every before. Combined with, “Your actions speak so loud, I can’t hear what you’re saying,” and you have a match ready to ignite your future.

The Connection Conundrum

A request on Linkedin signals that you want to establish a relationship with the other person. You want to connect for whatever purpose you intend.  Being you seldom have a second chance to make a first impression, don’t leave your manners at your keyboard. (Click to Tweet)

1. Craft a personal invitation. Who doesn’t love that Linkedin “thinks” for us when fashioning a one-liner to connect?  Nonetheless, what does the generic message really communicate to your recipient?

It might convey that you’re too lazy to craft a personalized message, or you’re in too much of a hurry to care. Either message won’t keep doors open for long.

Take the time to read the recipients profile. Craft a personalized message. Let your actions demonstrate your intention to connect.

2. Send a personal thank you note. Once your invitation is accepted, nurture the relationship.  Send a personal “thank you for accepting my invitation” note to foster trust.

3. Complete your profile. Upon receiving your invitation, the astute Linkedin user visits your profile to gain an understanding of who you are and what you do.

Make sure you make the best impression with a complete profile, including a professional photo.

4. Enroll in a paid subscription. Linkedin has done an amazing job of allowing us to connect through our regular email. It’s a godsend! Going through the Linkedin system is cumbersome, at best.

When the perceptive Linkedin user discovers they are required to go through the Linkedin system to respond to your request, you risk “brand damage”.  Too many clicks to connect say you’re cheap. Invest in a paid subscription.

5. Do the work. When making requests request of other Linkedin users beyond the initial invitation, make sure you do the lion’s share of the work. Whether it is a request for a meeting to sell your wares, professional input on a business idea, or an invitation to join your group, don’t make your connection do your work.

Remember, when you make a request of a Linkedin connection, they are doing you a favor. Return the favor by making it easy for them to follow through on your request.  The time a connection spends communicating with you is a gift they are giving to you. Don’t be rude. (Click to Tweet)
 
I must admit – it’s a bit disconcerting to write “how to” tips for human contact. Yet, it seems as though many feel that the guidelines for human interaction don’t apply to social media. I disagree.

Don’t leave your etiquette at your browser. It’s bound to hurt your ability to make the strides you hoped for on Linkedin. Put “social” back in social media. (Click to Tweet)

What’s your biggest pet peeve when it comes to connecting on Linkedin? (Click to Tweet)

Can a Process Solve Your Small Business’s Biggest Blogging Challenge?

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

A blog is an outstanding tool to grow your business. It expands your market reach, builds your credibility, presents your expertise, and shapes your brand awareness. Plus, it’s a cost-effective tactic for driving more traffic to your website…once the common blogging challenges are unscrambled.

Before we can consider growing blog traffic and encouraging reader interaction, most of us need to conquer the most common blogging challenges of topics, time, and talent.
 
A Blogging State of Mind is Messy
 
Those who blog – whether labeled a blogger or not – face the same issues as any writer.  Finding the time to blog is stressful. Waiting for the inspiration to blog is excruciating. Awaiting the confidence to blog is nerve-racking. Pinpointing topics is painful.

In January of 2013, I was challenged to a 30-day blogging challenge. It felt more like a dual than a challenge. It was agonizing for all the same reasons most entrepreneurs don’t blog often enough. Drudging the self-assurance and focus to meet the challenge took determination and guts.

I won’t lie! There were many days I wanted to wind up my commitment. Growing a small business is stressful enough without this, I thought. Luckily, it’s difficult to pull the plug on a promise made when held accountable by others. Ack! So I toiled.

I don’t consider myself a gifted writer, like Carolynn Aristone, who can sit at the keyboard and effortlessly pound out pearls of wisdom.  My blogging was one of spits, sputters, stops, and starts…until I discovered a method.

It was a process that eliminated the ambiguity, calmed the nerves, and nudged me into action. It was an approach to blogging that ensured that blogging was a delight rather than annoyance.

Download the Step-by-Step Blogging Process here to thwart “blog jams” and “bloggers block”.

More importantly, I learned that blogging is a form of discovery. It helps you understand what you know…and what you don’t.

As with any skill, blogging takes practice. The more you blog, the better you get and the easier it becomes.

What has been most helpful to your blogging process?

A Small Business Bloggers Loyal Blogging Companions

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

There’s much more to blogging than selecting a few topics and banging some words out on your keyboard. In addition to the process used to produce top-notch posts on a regular basis, there are also tools that make it easier to blog. For us non-journalist, professional-writer types wanting to share our thoughts, a collection of tools creates a better blog.

A Bloggers Arsenal of Tools

Feedly is a news aggregator app.  It’s the simplest, least distracting way to gather blog content ideas. Feedly is the one-stop location for your routine sources of information and research.

Evernote, a digital filing system, collects and organizes topics of information and inspiration for your blog content. The Premium version has a robust automated search and discover feature within the app that we highly recommended to aid your research and drafting efforts.

Don’t forget to download Evernote Web Clipper. Clipping, saving, and storing articles of interest from the web to the notebook of your choice has never been easier.

At a loss for compelling blog titles? No worries. Tap into Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator to stimulate your inner journalist. Amazon is also a powerful title generator to kindle blog title ideas – not plagiarize book titles.

Not sure what title will grab your audience? You’ll love this nifty free tool from the Advanced Marketing Institute. The Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer evaluates your headline to determine the EMV (Emotional Marketing Value) of the title. The higher the EMV, the better it grabs your audience’s attention and draws them in.

Need a blogging platform? Oy! That’s a conversation to have with your web developer/designer! We’re fortunate to be on the Hubspot marketing software – and highly recommend it for small business owners. The marketing software from Hubspot provides a plethora of marketing tools that make your blog sing.

WordPress is a common platform used by most bloggers. With an abundance of plugins at your fingertips, WordPress is a powerful blogging tool.

“A picture is worth a thousands words,” so the saying goes. Visuals are gaining popularity in attracting and enticing your reader. Death to the Stock Photo, Fotolia, BigStockPhoto, and iStock are a few of our favorite hangouts for jpegs.

A timer – who can ink a blog without the use of a timer? You’ve heard the saying, “work expands to fill the time it has to complete,” right?  So goes the blog. A timer keeps you focused and on track to avoid your entire day being decimated by blogging.

A content or editorial calendar is a must-have planning tool when scheduling topics for your blog. Organized in advance, an editorial calendar enhances lead generation through strategically designed marketing campaigns. (Stay tuned. A sample content calendar is available for download soon!)

Although we don’t take advantage of this tool nearly enough, Click to Tweet is a fun and easy way for your readers to share key points within your blog on twitter. (Click to Tweet)

Bloggers needs to channel their inner graphic designer to compete in the visually rich world of online content. For those of us with two left brains, Canva makes designing simple for everyone with a simple drag-and-drop functionality.

As it is with all things online, it’s loaded with tools to make the process of blogging less painful and, if you’re lucky, more fun!

What tools make your small business blogging a treat?

How to Create 50 Blog Topics For Your Small Business Blog in 5 Days

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

One of the challenges expressed by most new small business bloggers is coming up with enough content to satisfy the content calendar and rally around timelines. Content ideas are everywhere. Once you tune into the circumstances that frame your day, the number of ideas that bubble up for your blog is astounding.  Sourcing content of value to your reader is easier than you think.

5 Sources + 5 Days = 50 Blog Topics

1. Start with your buyer persona. “Dress up” your buyer persona with a better understanding of their wants, desires, and challenges. Content deemed valuable to your audience will spill from your brain!

Number of blog topics = 10

2. Subscribe to an industry blog. Andria Taylor of Talent Agent Group did just that.  Andria’s specialty is growing talent for the wine industry. She understands the challenges – and the opportunities – that exist for her clients. By following industry trends, Andria creates content that provides real solutions for developing talent so her readers – those in the wine industry – can retain their competitive edge in the marketplace.

Number of topics = 10

3. Keep a log of client situations. Every client conversation presents an opportunity to solve a problem, or an opening to advance their goals…and lots of themes for your blog! Keep Evernote handy to record these flashes of insight for subjects your reader values.

Number of topics = 10

4. Draw topics from social media. Comments, questions, and responses on social media platforms are excellent resources of subjects for your blog. In fact, Can Finding Your Market Tier Spark Your Small Business Growth? is the sequel to a Linkedin conversation.

A recent comment about the market’s inability to afford his/her product triggered an avalanche of topics that, if known by small business entrepreneurs, would save them from the struggle.

Number of topics = 10

5. Gather subjects from your learning channels. Whether it’s reading after the kids are in bed or listening to the latest podcast during your morning jog, thought leaders are a catalyst for areas of interest to your readers.

Number of topics = 10

Ta Dah! 5 sources + 5 days = 50 blog topics. Give yourself a round of applause!

The best part?  These sourcing channels are a routine part of your day. There’s nothing more to add to your already eventful calendar. We like that! You?

As my Dad would say, “you’ll have more blog posts than you can shake a stick at.”

What other channels do you use to spark topics for your blog?

Why We Love Small Business Blogging…And You Should Too!

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

Which entrepreneur has never had a question that immediately required a trip to Google for an answer? Thanks to the popularity and growth in content marketing, we no longer have to wade through newspapers, magazines, and books to find what we’re looking for. Not only has content marketing changed the entrepreneur’s behavior; it’s changing the buyer’s behavior.

Today’s consumer makes decisions about their purchases in a very different way.  Our friends at Business2Community outlined some very intriguing stats on your buyers that deserve attention:

  • 80% of business decision makers prefer to get information in a series of articles versus an advertisement. (Exact Target)
  • 61% of consumers say they feel better about a company that delivers custom content and are also more likely to buy from that company. (Custom Content Council)
  • 90% of consumers find custom content useful. (McMurry/TMG)
  • 78% of consumers believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships with them. (McMurry/TMG)
  • 50% of consumer time online is spent engaging with custom content. (HubSpot)

At the core of content marketing is your small business blog.

Blogging As a Small Business Asset

While living at the intersection of Microsoft and Amazon at the turn of the century, I first heard of this thing called a “blog”.  Fun! I’m going to get one of those, I mused.

Even though it sounded like fun to have a blog for the business, we weren’t convinced of its value to our lead generation strategy. Then Hubspot shed light on what small businesses were achieving with a blog.

Take a gander at these numbers…

  • Businesses with 51 – 100 pages generate 48% more traffic to their website than those with 1 – 50 pages
  • Businesses with 101 – 200 pages generate 2.5 times more leads than those with 50 or fewer pages
  • Businesses that blog 15 times or more per month get 5 times more website traffic than companies that don’t blog
  • Small businesses with 1-10 employees tend to see biggest gains in website traffic when posting more articles
  • Businesses that increase blogging from 3-5 times per month to 6-8 times per month double the number of leads generated from their website
  • Business sees a 45% growth in traffic to their website when increasing TOTAL blog articles from 11 – 20 to 21 – 50 articles. B2B organizations see a 59% increase in traffic after growing the total number of blogs from 100 to 200
  • Businesses with over 200 blog articles have 5 times the leads than those with 10 or fewer blog articles

My first blog article, 13 Tips to Make Time Work for You and Your Small Business, was published March 2010.

It hasn’t been smooth sailing. But, over time, blogging has evolved from nice to have to practice makes perfect; from habit formation to a strategic initiative for lead generation.

Through it all, we never gave up! We persisted through the doubts, creative bankruptcy, and writer’s block – killing off a few brain cells and racking up time with our coach – and we prevailed.

Is it worth it? You bet! You can read all about it in A Funny Thing Happened during the 30-Day Blogging Challenge…And Other Delightful Results.

However, if I had a dollar for every time I wanted to throw in the blogging towel, I could retire! Despite it all, we love blogging – and what it does for business – and we think you should, too.

Do you have a blogging story to share? We’re all ears!

Can Finding Your Market Tier Spark Your Small Business Growth?

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

Every entrepreneur wants to work with the ideal client. You recognize them immediately! They appreciate your work, believe in your value, and are willing to pay for you’re worth. Most entrepreneurs know how to reach them. The opportunity for entrepreneurs is to be crystal clear on which tier of the market they want to operate for ultimate small business growth.

Say more, you say? Thank you…I shall.  Let me tell you about one of our clients. We’ll call him “Bob”.

What’s Up With Bob

After years of working for the ‘man’, Bob enthusiastically launched his own firm.  He was excited!  Not only was he going to be the boss – he was going to be able to determine his own paycheck.

For 15 years, Bob provided excellent service and a superior product for his clients yet, in his own mind, he felt like a failure. It seemed like he was doing all the right things yet his revenue – and his paycheck – did not reflect his dedication and commitment.

By the time we met, he was feeling pretty discouraged. Not only did he feel uncertain about his future, he was losing confidence in his ability to succeed.

What caused his situation?  In his desperation to carve out a living for his family, he had launched his business without the benefit of a plan. He was not only off course – he didn’t have a course. Yikes!

Bob hadn’t ignored the advice of other successful business owners. He suffered from unconscious incompetence – he didn’t know what he didn’t know. Bob, like most of us, was a member of the 63% of entrepreneurs who lack sufficient, relevant and applicable business experience to succeed.

It didn’t take long to discover Bob was doing the wrong work for the wrong audience.  Bob lacked a clear sense of his desired market.

Be Clear About Your Tier

While acquiring my MDE at the Anderson School of Business (UCLA), I was first introduced to the concept of “market tiers”.

It is not a new concept. Prof. Philip Kotler, world authority on marketing, and Prof. Gary Armstrong, award-winning teacher of undergraduate business students, had introduced it years before I received the 10th edition of Principles of Marketing  in 2003.

Essentially, Kotler and Armstrong identified three different tiers in the market:

The Tier I audience is most interested in quality, service, and prestige. Price is the least of their concern. Using the automotive and retail industry as an example, your Tier I audience is most likely having their Rolls Royce valeted while shopping at Barney’s.  As such, the Tier I audience is likely to be the smallest of the three.

Those who comprise the Tier II audience strike a balance between quality, service, prestige, and price. Subsequently, this audience is smaller than Tier I, and they are self-parking their Lexus while shopping at Nordstrom’s.

Tier III, the largest audience, is most concerned about price. So much so, they are willing to trade off quality, service, and prestige for it. You’ll find them in the parking lot at Wal-Mart. Look for the Ford Escort.

The value in knowing about market tiers is the ability to make a conscious decision of the tier in which you want to operate your business. Unlike Bob, being a Tier II business providing services for a Tier I client, helps you avoid a lot of angst.

Are you marketing your business services to the market tier you want? In what market tier does your current client base reside? Does it fit what you intend to achieve with your business? If not, what market tier do you want to target going forward? Once you’re clear on your tier, the buyer persona will be much easier to identify.

How about Bob? Within one year of clearly identifying and marketing the right service to the right market, his enthusiasm & his confidence returned – along with some revenue and a rise in profits of 375.2%!

Buyer Persona: The Ultimate Tool for Small Business Success in a Crowded Market

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

Marketing online today is much like Where’s Waldo. Your perfect client knows you’re out there somewhere but, like Waldo, your small business is lost in the massive amount of information published.  Plus, there are suspiciously similar looking “Waldos” designed to throw your potential clients off course from finding the real deal.

Where’s Waldo is series of children’s books filled with pages of illustrations with dozens of people participating in a variety of fun activities at a certain location. The purpose of the book is to challenge the reader to find “Waldo” hidden in the group.

Waldo wears a distinctive red-and-white striped shirt, bobble hat, and glasses that make him easier to identify. However, the use of red-and-white striped “red herrings” is sprinkled throughout the illustration to throw the reader off course.

Finding Waldo

Doesn’t that sound eerily familiar? Your client – the one that should be hiring you – can’t seem to find you in the crowded marketplace. One by one, they click, connect, and engage various service providers – only to discover its yet another hollow chocolate Easter bunny. Plus, you have trouble finding your ideal client! How frustrating – for both of you.

Enter your buyer persona – the tool that makes it easier for your buyer to find you – and for you to find them!

Lead generation and client acquisition are dramatically enhanced with a buyer persona. Your small business’ unique persona:

  • Narrows your focus
  • Sharpens your marketing messages so you can be heard more clearly
  • Meets your buyer’s need for a more human, one-to-one experience
  • Serves as a real competition hacker
  • Dramatically improves your marketing efforts

Confused by knowing who to connect with on social media? Let your buyer persona be your guide.

Not sure what to write for your blog? No worries! Allow your persona to inform you of topics most important to your client.

Stumped for words for social media posts? Simple. Your buyer persona enlightens you to the words most commonly used by your ideal client.

Your buyer persona: it’s personal – relevant – engaging. It’s the perfect tool to connect you and your buyer. And, just like “Waldo,” neither of you will be fooled by the red herrings.

Ready to make the connection?

10 Fun Ways to Repurpose Blog Content to Grow Your Small Business

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

Marketing certainly has changed through the years! From carrier pigeon to pony express to letters, land lines, mobile phones, and social media, the tools, and the ways in which clients prefer to do business, has evolved. These transformations have allowed small business owners to go toe-to-toe with the Goliath of their industry.

Inbound marketing, in particular, levels the playing field and allows potential clients to connect with you in a way that better suits them. In fact, according to the Content Marketing Institute, 70% of your prospects would rather learn about your business through an article or a blog than an ad.

In July of 2014, Harvard Business Review reported that Nine out of ten organizations are now marketing with content – that is, going beyond the traditional sales pitches and instead enhancing brands by publishing (or passing along) relevant information, ideas, and entertainment that customers will value.

It was 2009 when I first heard about content marketing and its ability to attract clients. In Get Content Get Customers: Turn Prospects into Buyers with Content Marketing, Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett shared this revolutionary approach to lead generation. It was right-for-the-times!

Your small business blog is at the center of the content marketing revolution.

Think Outside the Blog

With all the exciting marketing adaptions, there is still one thing that hasn’t changed –  the time small business entrepreneurs have for marketing.

The best way to beat the buzzer before your marketing time runs out is to repurpose your blog content. Here are a few of our favorite ideas to stretch time and grow your business:

#1 Show off your expertise

You’re smart, right? What’s sad is most people don’t know how brilliant you are because they have yet to meet you. One of the best ways to display your chops is by sharing your know-how and expertise through your blog.

#2 Republish content on other blogs or websites

Many industry-related sites, where potential clients hang out, are on the lookout for solid, well-written, informative content for their readers. Contact them about syndicating your blog or publishing an article for their newsletter.

#3 Educate new and current clients

Undoubtedly, your business is a treasure-trove of good information. Why not use blog articles to inform new and current clients how to obtain the best value from your services.

Everett Andrew Marketing does a bang-up job of creating blog content that reminds clients they made the right choice when Everett Andrew Marketing was engaged for their online ad campaigns.

#4 Share on social media

Social media is here to stay, despite the naysayers. Fans of social media are continually snacking on information. Why not use content from your blog to satisfy their appetite?

#5 Turn blog posts into e-books

Whether used as a revenue generator or a lead generator, according to the largest distributor of e-books, Smashwords “we’re still in the early stages of the e-book self-publishing revolution.”

#6 Create checklists, infographics, online charts, slideshare, etc.

Tied into the idea of cerebral snacking, blog articles can easily be turned into checklists, infographics, or other platforms for easier and faster consumption.

#7 Convert blog content into video

Consumers have spoken and they want more video. In fact, “brand video is becoming a preferred way to learn about products and services,” according to Parade Media Group.

#8 Fashion several blogs into a newsletter

Email newsletters remain a preferred way for some clients to acquire information. Rather than create an entirely new piece of content for your newsletter, save time and pull several blogs together around a theme for your next newsletter.

#9 Transform blog content into a webinar, seminar, or workshop

Don’t let content just sit on your blog. Turn your nuggets of wisdom into a webinar or workshop that generates leads or revenue – or both!

#10 Add your latest blog to your email signature

Why not share your expertise with each email sent? See how Wisestamp syndicates your latest blog article in every email you send. Now that’s what I call “using time wisely.”

Marketing has changed. Marketing tools have changed. Clients and prospects have changed. Have you?

What other ways have you repurposed blog content to grow your small business?

 

How to Track Your Small Business Blogging Success

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

Any way you slice it, metrics are important. They give us insight into what’s working, what’s not, and what needs to be tweaked in order to gather better results. Tell yourself what you will about how well – or not – your small business blogging efforts are faring, metrics give you the real scoop.

Knowing that tracking the right blogging metrics is as important as tracking your metrics, we created a list of our top ten blog metrics for you.

Top Ten Blog Metrics

  1. Overall Blog Views discloses if you’re growing traffic to your blog.

  2. Traffic Sources shows where the traffic to your blog is coming from. It reveals your well-performing sources, as well as, your underutilized ones.

  3. Bounce Rate is an indicator of content value and appropriateness. Don’t be too alarmed if the bounce rate on your blog is higher than that of your website.  This is common (or so I’m told).

  4. Pages Per Visit provides understanding of the engagement level of your reader.

  5. Conversion to Subscribers gives you a clue about the quality and consistency of your content. Growing this metric is a good way to build credibility with your readers.

  6. Number of Blogs Published illustrations the correlation between blogging frequency, traffic to your website, and lead generation.

  7. Top Viewed Posts demonstrates the content that resonates best with your readers.

  8. Average Views Per Post reveals the correlation between frequency of blogging and results. For instance, if you’re blogging daily but the average views per post decline, it may indicate that the quality of your content suffers from posting repeatedly.

  9. Social Media Shares is a good indicator of how helpful others have found your content.

  10. Leads (and customers) generated from your blog are really the bottom line. Tracking this metric, along with which blog topics generate the most leads (and customers) and the best leads (and customers), is key.

Tools for Tracking

Now that you know what to track, the next step is to determine how you’ll track your information.

If your small business blog is on a word-press platform, there are numerous plug-ins to provide the data you’re after.  However, Google Analytics is still the granddaddy of information. In fact, we recently stumbled upon Google’s Solutions Gallery. What a treasure trove of information!

Google’s Solution Gallery provides custom reports and dashboards to use with Google Analytics. The reports most helpful in tracking the success of your blog include:

  • Hours/Day Report
  • Referral Traffic Dashboard
  • Content Success by Traffic Source Dashboard
  • Traffic Acquisition from Social Media Report

Alongside, what and how to track your blogging success is where to store the information.

We’re big fans of the data that we’re able to track through Hubspot’s marketing software. Even so, we love using the good, old-fashioned excel spreadsheet. It allows us to more easily see trends over time.

Finally, when is it best to track your metrics? The frequency is up to you, however, we recommend no less than once a month.

Whew! We broke a sweat with our tales of tracking your blogging success.  What other metrics do you find helpful? Have you found additional tracking tools we need to know?  If so, we want to hear all about it!

The more we know…the more we grow.

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Synnovatia is a strategic coaching firm that is detailed and knowledgeable about business. i have a small business that grew from $150K to $750K because of the goal setting and resources that Synnovatia provided. It saves me years of learning on my own.

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