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The 90-Day Blogging Challenge

(2017 version)

Conceptualize, write, proofread, optimize, format, and publish 90 blog articles in 90 days (June, July and August) on the Ask Haley Blog.

Why?

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.

The Solution:

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:

  1. Each article should address and answer a marketing pain point commonly faced by the staffing industry.
  2. Each article should tie back to Haley Marketing and a service we offer.
  3. Each article should have a Call to Action banner that drives a reader to a targeted page on Haley Marketing's website.
  4. Each article should have a supporting featured image.
  5. Each article should be added to a relevant blog category.
  6. 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!

The Results:

With the last blog published at 4:30 p.m. on August 31 (talk about a photo finish to get an article published, Rick), we passed our goal of 90 blogs in 90 days, finishing with 102 articles published by 43 different team members!

But, what about the data?

What impact did publishing 102 articles in 90 days have on Haley Marketing and our website?

Comparing June 1 - August 31 to March 1 - May 31 we saw the following results on our website:

Total Pageviews increased by
7.95%
Total Website Sessions increased by
10.12%
Traffic from Organic Search increased by
3.44%
Direct traffic to our website increased by
25.19%
Sessions from Social Media increased by
45.45%

Sessions from Twitter increased by 64.55%

Sessions from Facebook increased by 32.29%

Sessions from LinkedIn increased by 50%

Traffic to individual blog articles increased by 28.66%

And that overall traffic was pushed through our conversion funnel...achieving the following results!

Sidebar Actions (Traffic to Idea Club Signups and eBook Downloads) increased by
47.31%
Call to Action clicks increased by
730%
Traffic to our services pages increased by
12.7%

What Does This Mean for YOUR Staffing Firm?

First off, don't let our challenge intimidate you.

We certainly took blogging to the extreme the past three months.

Your staffing firm can start developing and executing a content marketing and blogging strategy with just one blog post every week.

More importantly, this challenge confirms a concept we've been preaching and following for over five years.

Content works!

Not only does blogging help position you and your organization as a thought leader, but consistently publishing new articles on your website continues to be a leading way to drive new visitors to your website.

For staffing and recruiting firms, this means more candidates and more clients coming directly to you to find the answers to the pain points they are currently experiencing. When combined with a well-designed website that guides visitors through your conversion funnel (i.e., applying to a job or requesting information on your services), blogging translates to more job applications and job orders...all coming directly to you!

Ready to launch your own blogging program, but don't think you have the time to create your own weekly articles?
We do! Contact us today to learn more about our blog writing services