The age old conundrum of e-marketers: more blogging posts and more emails, or better ones with less frequency?
I did my own test a few years ago and was surprised by the answer, but I just read a new report from Hubspot.com, that updated my own thinking on this.
Hubspot was more scientific in their approach than I was but the results were quite similar. Hubspot carried out a multi-dimensional test to try and learn what happens to two objectives : numbers of views and numbers of leads. They measured for these across a broad range of tactics below. (This is from their previously published article “Quality vs Quantity“)
“Tactical: These post make up the bulk of our blog. They teach people how to do something or inform them about a marketing-specific subject. The coverage usually is at a higher level and may not feature data or original quotes. (Example: What Is Multi-Channel Marketing?)
Deep Tactical: These posts are like Tactical posts, but more in-depth. Often, their word count often exceeds 1,500 words — but that’s not its only defining characteristic. These in-depth posts cover topics using relevant, recent examples, original quotes, and current data (which can be original). (Example: Typography 101: Everything a Beginner Should Know)
Infographic/SlideShare: These posts let the curated infographic or SlideShare stand on its own.
Editorial: These posts cover a trend or issue that pertains to marketers, using original interviews, hard data, and examples. The difference between this and a tactical post is there will often be no concrete takeaway to implement and the issues discussed in these posts may not be directly about marketing. (Example: The Engagement Ring Story: How De Beers Created a Multi-Billion Dollar Industry From the Ground Up)
Promo: These posts are very short and directly promotional of a gated offer (like an ebook, template, webinar, or download) or tool (like the Blog Topic Generator). (Example: How to Get 100,000 People to Read Your Blog .
Syndications: These posts always have an italicized line of text that says “This post originally appeared on …” (usually from an internal blog like Agency or Sales, but could also be an external site). (Example: B2B Businesses Are Adopting a B2C Sales Approach)
TOFU: These posts are created with broad, top-of-the-funnel traffic in mind (hence, the name). They’re usually related to larger internet trends or business-related topics, and are lighter in nature. There are also very few tactical lessons that can be taken away from them. We tend to publish these posts in an ad hoc basis, often with traffic goals in mind. (Example: 15 of Google’s Coolest Doodles)”
The tests were highly detailed, but to skip to the end, the infographics below show how they plan to change.
The first one here, shows their old weekly article and other posts.
This next graphic shows how they plant to change as a result of their findings.
In my own test, I was comparing responses to emails. I used to publish 3 email news broadcasts a week and 2 promo “eblasts” I cut back to incorporating the eblast ads into my email posts as native ads and cut back to 2 email news a week. My results, I could not get the native ads to work as well as the “eblasts” but I did get a lot higher readership of my e-news.
AE Tip: Take advantage of Adventure Engine’s ability to schedule emails to previous clients automatically. Send promos, travel tips, reminders.
There are several good takeaways in the article. You can read the whole Deep Tactical story from Hubspot here.