Does blogging really drive sales?
Does it get more people to your website?
And are those people any more likely to buy something (or in a staffing firm’s case, apply for a job)?
In this series of posts, I’ll answer these questions and more, using our 2017 blogging challenge as a case study. Find out exactly what we did; check out the amazing results we generated; and learn how your staffing firm can accomplish the same!
What was the 2017 90-Day Blogging Challenge?
Last May, we challenged our team to conceptualize, write, proofread, optimize, format, and publish 90 blog articles in 90 days (June, July and August) on the Ask Haley Blog.
Why did our team do it?
Well, if we’re going to be fully transparent, the team was bribed.
For any team member who created at least one article during the 90-day period, the Friday before Labor Day would become a half day with the second half of the day becoming a team party, complete with food, lawn games and…of course…drinks.
But, there was more to the challenge than a good party.
On a personal level, the challenge was designed to position individual team members as thought leaders within their area of expertise. At Haley Marketing, the individual skills of our team are spread across the digital (and non-digital) landscape. And while that’s an amazing asset for any staffing or recruiting firm that chooses to work with us, it’s also an incredible asset for our blog because it allows us to have resources that relate to almost any marketing question a staffing specialist from across the world may have.
On a company-wide level, the push for 90 blogs in 90 days was extremely strategic.
By consistently creating top-tier content that addresses the pain points of staffing and recruiting professionals, we can provide more decision makers and influencers with answers to their common marketing challenges, ultimately driving them to our website and guiding them through our on-site conversion funnel.
Adding to website traffic we could generate from social media, email marketing, or casually sharing a new blog article with a connection, more traffic from organic search was a high priority.
While Google’s ranking algorithm is made up of over 200 signals that determine what site should rank in the top slots for given search strands, unique content continues to be a leading ranking factor.
What steps did we implement?
In the first team meeting of June, the challenge was presented and outlined.
From there, we established a set of brand guidelines for the blog. After all, if we were going to have 40+ people publishing on their own, we had to create a level of consistency.
The guidelines were as follows:
- Each article should address and answer a marketing pain point commonly faced by the staffing industry.
- Each article should tie back to Haley Marketing and a service we offer.
- Each article should have a Call to Action banner that drives a reader to a targeted page on Haley Marketing’s website.
- Each article should have a supporting featured image.
- Each article should be added to a relevant blog category.
- Each article should contain strategic keywords that will influence organic search traffic.
With the guidelines laid out, every team member was given access to the blog and the challenge was launched.
For a company that puts heavy focus on data, analytics and measuring the effectiveness of a campaign, we let the blogging challenge run for the full 90 days. No tweaks were made to the overall guidelines, and the only metrics kept during the 90 days was a list of who contributed to the challenge and who did not…mostly so we could have a little fun with the people who hadn’t contributed yet during our weekly team meeting!
Up Next: Did it work? Results from the 90-Day Blogging Challenge
Did our team produce the ninety blogs required? Did they get to have their party? What was the impact of the challenge on Haley Marketing and our website traffic? My next installment in this series will discuss the outcomes and demonstrate how a little thing like a blog can deliver some major results!
Don’t want to wait for the next post to publish? Download the Idea Club article, “Does blogging really work in staffing? Case Study Results” now!