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TL;DR The 探花精选 Sales Blog pivoted to an organic-first strategy that helped us bounce back from several months of low traffic. Now we鈥檙e applying this strategy to all three of 探花精选's blogs.
Table of Contents(6 minuteread)
Last year I became the editor of 探花精选鈥檚 Sales Blog. I was super excited -- until the end of the month, when we missed our blog traffic goal.
And the end of the next month, when we missed again. And the next month, and the next, and the next.
Our monthly traffic number used to spell success or failure. If the Sales Blog hit its target, I鈥檇 succeeded. If it was under, I鈥檇 failed. (Kind of like a salesperson!)
But just like scrambling to hit quota can lead you to the wrong tactics (such as discounting heavily), trying to hit that monthly number encouraged less-than-ideal strategies.
If we were falling behind, I鈥檇 publish 鈥渜uick win鈥� posts -- digestible and clicky content that was guaranteed to give us a traffic boost (e.g. 7 Seemingly Harmless (But Secretly Deadly) Sales Phrases).
I鈥檇 also temporarily stop publishing 鈥渦nsexy鈥� content, which was basically anything technical and higher-level directed at executives and managers instead of front-line reps. These posts never performed well in their first several weeks.
On the surface, it seemed like these techniques were helping me salvage bad months. But every sexy post had an opportunity cost. Publishing something clicky might have earned us a few extra thousand views that month鈥� but it meant I didn鈥檛 publish a search-friendly post that would become a reliable traffic-earner down the line.
To illustrate, here鈥檚 our editorial calendar for the week of June 12, 2017. I鈥檝e noted the search-friendly posts in orange (鈥渟earch-friendly鈥� = has an organic angle).
The four orange posts have cumulatively racked up 97,084 views. The other seven have gotten 39,955 in total.
That鈥檚 24,271 average views per post versus 5,708. (And the gap will only grow wider over time as those four posts continue to get organic traffic -- which will boost their page authority and help them gain more backlinks and social shares, leading to higher rankings in a self-fulfilling cycle.)
The old content playbook had made the Sales Blog one of (if not the biggest) publications in the sales world and earned it hundreds of thousands of readers every month.
But it was time to tweak the playbook.
I realized focusing on the monthly number was jeopardizing our long-term results. So, I stopped treating it as the main measure of success.
To understand how we were doing, I鈥檇 compare equivalent weeks:
When looking at performance, I鈥檇 also factor in seasonal trends and holidays.
Most importantly, I decided we鈥檇 prioritize search-friendly content, even though it wouldn鈥檛 have a significant impact on our traffic for months.
It made me nervous, but I tried to think of it like working out, going to the dentist, or saving the other half of my burrito for dinner instead of eating it all at lunch -- down the line, I鈥檇 be glad I made the sacrifice.
I needed an objective way to measure this new strategy, so I started closely monitoring our percentage of organic traffic. The more search-friendly content we published, the higher this percentage should grow -- even if overall traffic flatlined or dipped.
The Sales Blog used to publish many different 鈥渇lavors鈥� of posts. Each flavor had a different purpose: the aforementioned 鈥渜uick wins,鈥� which tended to be about email/voicemails/phrases and generated instant traffic; thought leadership, which presented different views and helped us build the 探花精选 brand; placeholders, which were easy to write up (think infographics and SlideShares) and let us fill slots in a pinch; and more.3
Our posts all have the same purpose now -- capture search traffic. If an update or new post doesn鈥檛 have an organic angle, we tweak the angle so it does or look for a different topic altogether. It鈥檚 not easy to keep this going, but once you see far too many posts do this:
鈥� you realize every piece of content needs to have legs. In other words, it must bring in significant organic traffic every month -- every half year or so, we might update it, but for the most part it鈥檚 like passive income. Big results, low effort.
(This is 21 Salespeople Reveal the Worst Sales Advice They Ever Got, which I wrote because I thought it would be attention-grabbing and interesting. The problem is, no one is searching for 鈥渨orst sales advice,鈥� so this post gets barely any traffic on its own.)
That doesn鈥檛 mean we鈥檝e stopped publishing thought leadership, or awesome infographics, or posts about sales emails. We still do. The difference is, they鈥檙e intended to rank.
And if you鈥檙e wondering how we found new topics to target -- great question.
You know how finishing a jar of peanut butter is a real struggle? To get those last spoonfuls, you have to dig.
That鈥檚 how I felt about scooping up the last bits of search potential for the Sales Blog.
If there was a general sales-related term with any search volume behind it -- we鈥檙e talking as little as 50 searches per month -- the 探花精选 Sales Blog was almost always already ranking for it.
That鈥檚 great from a mind-share perspective. But from a 鈥済row the blog鈥� perspective? It鈥檚 not so great. Short of getting people to search for sales advice more frequently (I wish I had that power), we couldn鈥檛 influence our organic traffic.
So, my team and I got creative. We delved into topics that weren鈥檛 familiar to us.
Topics like:
While these stray from our usual topics, they do boast significant search volume. And we found ways to put the 探花精选 spin on all sorts of subjects. No matter the topic, a post only went on the blog if it was:
Here鈥檚 the total traffic from this post (published in Nov. 2017):
Not bad at all! This post will continually bring in thousands of visits per month for us. (For context, the average post gets less than 100 views per month after its first 30 days.)
To make sure we didn鈥檛 lose our regular audience, I鈥檇 always balance these posts with more traditional fare, like The Ultimate Guide to Creating and Using a Sales Playbook.
The Sales Blog typically publishes two posts per day: one at 7:30 am and another at 8:30 am. If a post was super niche -- like 鈥淗ow to Get Your Real Estate License鈥� -- I鈥檇 schedule it for 6:30 as a third post. The other post(s) going live that day would always target our main audience.
This January, we finally broke through an 18-month traffic plateau, setting a new record for sessions (a 14.7% increase from our previous highest month in May 2017).
If you publish a blog post in the forest and no one reads it, did you truly publish it all? These days, simply producing great content is table stakes. To meet your performance goals, you have to make sure you鈥檙e covering the right topics (i.e. what your readers are looking for) in the right way (so they can find it on Google).
You might be thinking, 鈥淒o we want more visitors if they鈥檙e not going to convert right away?鈥�
Because the blog is as top of the funnel as it gets, yes, we do want more visitors even if they don鈥檛 convert right away. And chances are, they will -- . This concept doesn鈥檛 just hold true for ads. Increasing your content reach gets your company鈥檚 name out to a greater number of buyers 鈥� and down the line, when they need to make a purchase, they鈥檒l think of you.
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