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👩‍💻 Created By: Michelle Hsu, Founder of *KJMH Digital*

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<aside> 📌 **Blogging is a great way to share your unique product, expertise, and ideas with prospects and enable them to move through their buyer journey seamlessly. It's a marketing channel that seems easy to execute but hard to do well.

Get a headstart with the framework below on how to set up, execute, and measure your blog. I've kept it general enough so you can customize it for your specific needs as no B2B SaaS company is exactly the same.

No fluff. All actionable tips you can apply right away. With that said, let's jump right in. ⬇️**

</aside>

Set-Up 🏗️

Potential Blogging Platform

• WordPress
• Hubspot
• Medium
• Squarespace
• Webflow
• Ghost

For inspirations, can consider: Slack, Shopify, Hubspot, First Round Review, Intercom, Buffer

Note: Your blog can be set up on either the company's site or separately depending on your content strategy

Potential Blog Topics can Come From

• Keyword research (industry, product, topic-related, etc)
• Market research
• Target buyers' questions/comments
• Target buyers' need to get their job done (JTBD theory)
• Competitors' blog content
• Sales feedback
• Customer feedback
• Customer success feedback

Potential Blog Content Types

• How-Tos
• Thought Leadership
• Listicles
• Infographics
• Interviews
• Industry trends or news
• Persona or vertical-based
• Guest bloggers (could be customers or industry experts)

Note: Check out the Execute section for blog post template resource!

Guest Blogger Invitations/Pitches

Cold Outreach 🧊

• Source a list of potential guest bloggers by combing through industry associations, social media, academia, publications, VCs, etc
• Key elements to include in the cold email/DM:
  • Why you'd like them to guest blog (expertise, particular opinions, unique experiences, etc)
  • Blog post details - suggested topic, ideal word count (if applicable), ideal keyword(s), ideal publish date
  • Time/Work commitment + edit/proofread/approval process
  • Your contact info and next steps

Warm Outreach ️‍🔥

• Ask people in your organization or social network to directly connect you to potential guest bloggers for your ideal topics
• Key elements to include in the warm email:
  • Why you were introduced and why you'd want them to guest blog
  • Blog post details - suggested topic, ideal word count (if applicable), ideal keyword(s), ideal publish date
  • Time/Work commitment + edit/proofread/approval process
  • Next steps

Guest Blogger Tracker Template

Blog Post Framework 📋

SEO Checklist 🔠

• Blog post title (CoSchedule has a good headline analyzer tool)

• One-liner previews below blog post title (if fits your content style guide)

• Author(s)

• Date published (or "last updated" if it's an old post being refreshed)

• Category (if applicable)

• The actual blog content (intro, body, conclusion)

• Visuals sprinkled throughout the blog post (if applicable)

• CTA links or banner format (routes to another related resource or ask to subscribe to newsletter/marketing communications)

• Social share icons/capability

• Author bio and photo

• Related posts and/or resources

• [ ] Web page title - 60 characters or less with target keyword included early on if possible

• [ ] Blog post title - 65 characters or less with target keyword included

• [ ] Meta description - brief description of the blog post content, 120 characters or less with target keyword included early on

• [ ] URL text - include target keyword if possible while keeping it concise and reflective of the blog post content

• [ ] Sub-headers - headers transitioning between sections of the blog post, include target keyword if possible

• [ ] Anchor text(s) - word or phrases that's hyperlinked to an internal or external webpage, include target keyword if possible

• [ ] Image(s) - include target keyword in alt-tag section of image(s)

• [ ] Links - have a good mix of internal and external links throughout the blog post (between 3-5 overall)

• [ ] Keyword(s) - Try to use low-volume keywords as the target so you can rank faster, also don't stuff your keywords instead incorporate them as naturally and seamlessly as you can

Execute✍🏻

Blog Post 📝

For blog post templates, Hubspot curated a collection that's a great starting point that you can check out here.

Research Topic

• Start with potential target keywords, their monthly search volume, and your target buyer personas. Then comb through the news, academic sources, social media, network resources, competitors' content, etc.

Draft Outline

Introduction

• Pique interest with a hook in the beginning. Get to your main points quickly. Outline what readers can expect as they continue reading and seamlessly transition to the body.

Body

• Should have at least a few paragraphs to cover your main points. Make use of the various formatting options (italics, bolding, underline, bullet points, different subheader sizes, emojis — if fits your content style guide) throughout the body to ensure the reader stays engaged.

Conclusion

• A few sentences summarizing the context, main points, and highlights of your blog post content
• Can prompt them to move to the next step by including CTA here if applicable

Edit Post

• Fact check your resources, quotes, and stats
• Proofread and spell check your blog post content in full (*Grammarly is a great tool to help with the editing process!)*
• Ensure the blog post is in alignment with your content style guide

Publish Post

• Schedule blog posts if possible. Otherwise, set calendar reminders if need to publish manually. Can set reoccurring reminders if you've established a publishing cadence.
• Next, time to distribute and promote new blog posts ➡️

Metrics 📈

What's Next? ➡️