Hello and welcome to our obligatory end of the year article roundup! This blog changed a lot when I took the reins, and I like to think the experience turned out positive for everyone involved. Before I get to the list, I want to share what I learned about blogging this year from YOU, our readers.
#1) Keyword content sucks – I never tried to cram as many keywords as possible into my copy for obvious reasons. But when I look back at the material I produced when I got hired back in February, it’s clear that I was putting too much emphasis on keywords. One of the main indicators would be my downright putrid post titles. I come from an SEO background, so I always viewed titles as an awesome place to put primary and secondary keyword phrases. That’s all well and good, so long as you’re able to do so with style. It took a while for this to sink in, and I’ll bet you’re equally happy I finally got a clue. The keyword formula is fine for our ecommerce site; the blog should be treated with great care because it’s in a totally different ballgame.
#2) Long form content rocks- I used to be deathly afraid of posting more than 500 words. I assumed that no one reads my writing anyway, and that longer posts would surely repel any actual users. Then Google decided to encourage authors to post long form content. This got me thinking about my length aversion and inspired me to give longer articles a try. Challenge accepted, and the response on your end has been spectacular. I can see in Analytics that you guys are staying on the pages long enough to absorb the information. Many of you decided to return to the site on a regular basis to consume or share the extended articles. On a personal level, I feel as though you guys actually care what I have to say, which means more to me than you’ll ever know.
#3) It’s ok to be ME! – We copywriters all end up ghost writing at some point, which requires 3rd person POV i.e. no personal voice. And my college professors drilled it in my head that there’s no room for the “I” in academic essays. While their advice helped me excel academically, impersonal copy just doesn’t work on the web. So I slowly started to move away from the standoffish tone, and you actually accepted my voice. Now I feel free to express MY thoughts on print, marketing, design, and small business advocacy. It’s a relief to know that you’re cool with my quirks, but I am still afraid that you’ll eventually get sick of me. I’m hoping to get more guest bloggers to keep things fresh around here next year.
Top 13 PrintFirm Posts
Here are our favorite blog posts in 2013 by month :
March: Vocus and PrintFirm: A Twitter Tale
The good people at Vocus sent me a book simply for tweeting them. We currently use their PRWeb service for press release distribution, so there’s your direct mail ROI. Anyway, this post is key because it’s literally a personal story. Vocus made an intimate gesture, so I held my breath and responded in kind. I guess you could say this post started it all.
April: Trade Show Banners and Marketing Psychology
I came across this infographic, and built a post around it for a couple of reasons. Many of our clients attend trade shows, so I thought this would be useful for people preparing print marketing materials. At the same time, I wanted to demonstrate the need to be strategic about marketing communications. Roll up banners are no different than direct mailers in this respect. They should both use design to send the right message about your brand.
May: Originality in Marketing: Business Leadership Lessons from Cypress Hill
This post also incorporated a personal anecdote, although I didn’t reveal the true source of my inspiration at that time. I discovered a couple of competitors were ripping off our blog posts, and this was my passive-aggressive response to them. Since they must’ve been following our blog, I knew they’d get the message without my having to call them out. They didn’t stop, but that’s ok—it means we’re still on top of the creative content game.
June: PrintFirm Joins Print Media Centr
As soon as I discovered the weekly #printchat session on Twitter, I dreamed of guest blogging on the Print Media Centr. After I landed the guest post on the Xerox Digital Printing blog (thanks to Bill Michael), Debrah from PMC approached me to become a contributor. So the link above more or less just links to my first PMC post. My print geek confession did earn a lot of shares on the PMC site, and it lead to a solid relationship between Debrah and I. I currently write at least 2 blogs per month for PMC.
July: The Declaration of Independence: A Piece of Printing History
They say that a big part of creativity lies in making connections. For the 4th of July, I did some research to show the way print media impacted the American Revolution. The subject matter naturally appealed to fellow printers, and I finally got a chance to indulge my political passions at work. Win-win.
August: How to Use Social Media Psychology for Content Marketing
I designed a tongue in cheek infographic on my own time on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I decided to post about it because I think the underlying message is super important for businesses. Social media users are NOT all the same across sites, which means you need to tailor your content to suit the user base. I must’ve struck a chord because this graphic keeps popping up on the web. Not bad for a half-baked Photoshop exercise.
PrintFirm Honored with NAPL Marketing Plus Award
August gets 2 posts since that’s when we won our Marketing Plus Award from the National Association of Printing Leadership (NAPL). No, this post wasn’t too popular with our fans. It just means the world to our team.
September: Print 13 Recap
The Print 13 Printing and Graphics Expo gave our CEO Nick and Operations Manager Alex a chance to meet some of the coolest people we know online in person. I’m still overcome with envy, although I won’t stand in the way of re-sharing memories from this most excellent occasion.
October: Prepare for National Print Day 2013
Since National Print Day no longer exists (we’ll be celebrating the first ever International Print Day in 2014), this one’s for posterity. Besides, the post remains relevant because all the ideas on how to celebrate NPD can easily be applied to IPD as well.
10 Last Minute Halloween 2013 Marketing Ideas
I did a handful of posts featuring small biz marketing strategies and advice. For whatever reason, the Halloween post generated a lot of reader comments. A couple of people mentioned that they wished I’d written the post sooner so they’d have more time to actually implement the suggestions. The fact that you guys wanted to give this stuff a try makes the post worth mentioning again. Hey, there’s always next Halloween, right?
November: Are you getting ready for Small Business Saturday 2013?
I’m a huge supporter of the #shopsmall movement. Most of our clients own small to medium sized businesses; in fact, you’re probably a business owner yourself. Despite the questionable practices from Facebook, I believe this represents an awesome opportunity for local businesses to play up their strengths against corporate competitors.
Exclusive Interview with Leading Designer Paul Biedermann
Not only is Paul Biedermann one of my professional mentors, he also tries to bridge the communications gap between designers and clients. Paul’s mission is to help everyone in the business world from entrepreneurs to marketers understand the importance of design. This interview covers such a wide range of topics that I consider it a must read.
December: 7 Things Not to Say to Your Printer Part 3: I Don’t Need a Graphic Designer
We’ve gotten a lot of good feedback on blog posts in November and December, but this educational series is probably the most valuable to our customers. I am trying to answer common questions about professional printing using this overarching theme of thing not to say. This specific post really resonated with the design community because it explains the relationship between design and ROI.
Reflections
And that’s a year’s worth of blogging, in a nutshell. Now I want to hear from YOU! What were your favorite posts? What do you want to see more of? Is there anything you’d rather not see in 2014? Let me know in the comments below.
Happy New Year from PrintFirm.com!