In 2015, the FH team identified the need for a blog to showcase the agency’s thought leadership in strategic marketing, communications and public relations. Intensive online research began early that year and the Rhumba Room was launched in August 2015 – ultimately winning a Central Ohio PRSA PRism award for Best Online Communications in 2016.
Because FH specializes in all aspects of digital communications, social media and inbound/content marketing services, we knew our own blog had to be done right. In addition to research, planning the content and launching the blog, we also had to implement a blog promotion and outreach program to help drive visitors and engagement. Like any good blog, the FH Rhumba Room is part of an integrated inbound and content marketing program.
Step One: Research
In order to create a successful blog, we investigated national and local PR agency blogs to benchmark best practices. From there, we developed a wish list and plan for our own site and blog.We researched potential hosting platforms as well as an inbound marketing partner to support and enhance the blog and related content marketing efforts.Finally, we studied the top PR bloggers to continue gleaning best practices and build a list for blogger outreach and engagement.
Step Two: Strategy and Execution
We collaborated with our in-house creative team and a Hubspot consultant to design a blog that would mirror the look and feel of the FH brand, communications materials and Squarespace-hosted website. The firm’s blog manager immediately began to recruit, educate and activate all FH staff as bloggers. We trained the blog team on Hubspot, inbound marketing, blog writing and social publishing, and also set up short weekly meetings to touch base about content needs, blog posts in progress and hot topics. Our blog team developed an editorial calendar to keep the content flowing, relevant and on schedule.The blog launched in August 2015 with a half-dozen posts and a consistent twice-weekly posting schedule moving forward. We created a blog promotion checklist and circulated it to all staff, requesting that each employee assist in getting the word out about the blog and the firm’s published content by sharing the URL on social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. We rolled out a newsletter, the FH Feed, to promote our blog posts and get even more eyes on the content. We offered several pieces of “gated” content on the blog to grow our prospect list and attract qualified leads. In addition, FH team members share links to each new blog post via our own LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram profiles.
Step Three: Our Results
Together our staff, including interns, wrote and published more than 50 posts in 2015. Statistics through Hubspot and Google analytics indicate that traffic has risen steadily since August 2015, outpacing several competitive sites that have been established far longer. Our statistics have also shown stronger visitor attention and engagement than the website prior to the blog’s launch.The FrazierHeiby blog already has more than 17 inbound links from other blogs and websites, and received a Website grade of 82 out of 100 from Hubspot.com’s Website Grader, showing significantly improved search rankings since the launch.
The FH Feed is sent out monthly to more than 900 prospects, partners and clients to widen the reach of our blog content; we continue to receive anecdotal accolades for the blog and newsletter.Overall, we were extremely pleased with this project and gratified to see it win a PRism award. Growing our firm and helping others is what we love!Are you looking to start a blog or rework your company’s website? Sign up for our monthly newsletter for tips on how to make it a success.