Extra! Extra! Build an Inbound Newsroom

By creating a virtual model of a traditional newsroom experience, equipped with content writers, editors and a publisher, I was able to increase ID Experts' brand awareness to a multitude of audiences, thereby increasing website traffic and lead nurture. This inbound marketing model resulted in an average of 11 blog posts per month that drove more than 13,000 unique monthly visitors in website traffic.

Situation

In early 2015, ID Experts had a standard blog presence with internal subject matter experts creating content on a time-available schedule. We posted approximately one blog every 5 to 6 weeks, promoting various events and product features. I learned that we needed to create content that people wanted to read, not what we wanted them to read. As a result, ID Experts attributed more resources to the Inbound Model, and I created the Brand Newsroom.

The Process

I contracted three individuals as ghost writers and our PR agency to staff our new Newsroom. I developed a content style guide to help the writers adhere to our brand voice and tone. With monthly content management meetings, I gathered story pitches that would speak to current industry trends and be appealing to our various audiences. On average I would screen about 30 different subject matter ideas monthly. I would follow these meetings with an editorial staff conference to cull down the quantity of publishable blog posts that would best address the needs of our database and attract web/blog visitors, positioning ID Experts as an industry thought leader.

Customizing JIRA, engineering software used for issue and project tracking, I created assignment tickets for each writer. In each, I provided guidance to external resources and news and contact information for friends of the firm to interview. Along with these resources, each ticket contained word count parameters, theme, a Sprint category, SEO keywords, bylines and deadlines for outline, first draft and publication date. I tracked each piece of content from content creation, to outside review/approval, editor review, publisher review, publication, syndication through social and archiving.

The Results

The newsroom was launched in May of 2015. Once the engine was fine tuned, we noticed a significant increase in traffic. In 2016 we published 135 blog posts, averaging more than 11 posts per month. Our website traffic increased from approximately 8,000 visitors per month to 13,000 monthly. Conversions through CTA buttons on each blog page trended upwards from a 3.1% conversion rate of unknown visitors to a new lead to 4.29% in the first four months.