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How to Grow a Blog the Hard Way
…the hard way!? Who the heck wants to learn about that?
Well, we do. And you do too because there’s truly no other way to build a great blog in 2018, other than the hard way.
One example of a great blog built the hard way is Intercom’s blog. They focused on one thing to grow their blog – subject matter expertise.
The company realized that yes, distribution matters and so does strategy, but if your blog isn’t really hitting home with your audience, then it’s not gonna be a success.
And the best way to hit a home run with a piece of content is to have it written by someone in the know – a subject matter expert (SME). Yes, marketers can (and should) write blog posts. But every now and then you need one written by someone who works in the industry every day.
Here’s how Intercom pulls that off:
Their content team is full of great marketers, but they don’t necessarily focus on writing. They focus on getting traffic to the blog and making it easier for SMEs to write.
The Intercom team also hires experienced editors, instead of just content marketers to edit their blog. As much as we don’t wanna admit it, there’s a big difference there.
Make it easy for non-writers to write
204 different people within Intercom have written a post. That’s wild. They suggest that you don’t just give someone a topic and have them write the whole thing. Instead, give authors the freedom to come up with their own topic ideas. Ask them to think about the things they deal with in their day-to-day.
From there, help them clarify the core idea and work together to create an outline. The outline will help keep your writer on track. It’s like a wireframe for a designer.
Once they get you a draft of the piece, schedule an in-person meeting to review it. That will help them learn and get better for the next time they write.
Rinse and repeat until you have a perfect final version.
Okay, we skipped some things here, but this is a pretty cool way to build a blog. We recommend you read the whole thing…
Watch
WhoppHER
Do you know what time it is?
It’s time for a little feel-good Friday! Today’s Watch will surely give you YAAAAAAAAS vibes. Why? Well, Burger King in Saudi Arabia is introducing a WhoppHER campaign and we are all for it.
In case you’ve been drowning in marketing work, we thought we could share a little worldwide news. About a week or so ago, Saudi Arabia lifted its ban on female drivers.
Jumping in on the celebrations, Burger King is offering a free Whopper to all women who use the drive-through for the next 30 days in Saudi Arabia.
Why this works?
- Positivity by association. A very good thing happened in Saudi Arabia this week and Burger King got involved with full support. In the long run, it will help with brand loyalty.
- The offer is simple and directly related to the historical milestone. Burger King could have just said ‘coupons for everyone’, but they didn’t. Getting to the root of it all, the king of hamburgers rewarded women drivers and didn’t cheap out either.
“… many organizations don’t realize that they have a much better option—they can tell their story directly to an interested market.”
David Meerman Scott
