The Hockey Talk Blog by: Mark Sadowski and Scott Welch
April 26, 2011http://www.twinhl.blogspot.com
Why Internet Marketing Matters
• Money spent on internet advertising is the fastest growing segment of ad dollars spent
• Facebook and Twitter are becoming more and more popular among all demographics
• Canadians spend the most time online than any other country in the world
Blog Topic – NHL
• Selected for our mutual interest in the subject
• We could provide a unique perspective on the events and happenings of the NHL
• Our target market was similar to ourselves; therefore we could easily identify with them
• We saw an opportunity to become authorities on a very popular subject in Canada
Persona – Doug
• Doug is 25 years old and attends University in Toronto
• He is currently enrolled in a business degree and spends his free time playing in a men’s hockey league
• He competes in hockey pools with his friends and is very out-going
• Doug drives a new 2-door Mazda and lives in the city of Toronto
Blog Posts
• Fighting in Hockey• Trade Deadline vs. Playoff Race• Is The Trade Deadline Over-Hyped?• A full out spring to the post season• Hits to the Head and GM Meeting• The Post Season Upon Us. The Season
Thus Far.• The Stanley Cup Playoffs are here…
Facebook Page
Twitter Account
YouTube Channel
Google Analytics
Google Analytics Continued
Ice Rocket
Twitter Grader
Key Learnings - Blog
• Blog posts needed better SEO• Posts were not shared through various social
media channels effectively enough after they were posted
• High bounce rate indicates that people became uninterested after seeing our Home Page
Key Learnings - Facebook
• Not enough people were invited to our Facebook page
• Page was not updated often enough to make our content “newsworthy”
• Need to stimulate conversations on our Facebook page to get the word out and make our page more newsworthy
Key Learnings - Twitter
• Not enough followers, not following enough people/organizations
• Did not tweet often enough to make us an authority on the subject of the NHL
• Twitter account needs to be monitored and updated on a regular/daily basis in order to remain relevant and popular
Key Learnings - YouTube
• Good and relevant video content that our target audience is interested in
• Not enough videos however, to make our YouTube channel the place to go for NHL highlights and videos
• Needs to be updated on a regular/daily basis in order to become the “place to go” when looking for relevant NHL-related videos
Actions - Blog
• Revise Blog posts for Search Engine Optimization
• Share posts on all social media channels immediately after posting in order to drive traffic to our Blog
• Make the main page more concise to decrease bounce rate
• Create more tabs with relevant and interesting content to reduce bounce rate
Actions - Facebook
• Invite more people, not spamming, to our Facebook page to get more traffic
• Update it with relevant information on a regular basis to make it more newsworthy
• Create interesting posts: Pose questions, generate debates in order to generate traffic and make the page more of an authority
Actions - Twitter
• Invite more people and follow more NHL related organizations on Twitter
• Post more regularly and re-tweet relevant NHL related content for our followers
• Tweet our Blog posts as soon as they are posted to promote them more effectively
Actions - YouTube
• Post more NHL related videos on our YouTube Channel, such as highlights and big hits
• Make our YouTube Channel known for being the place to see all the relevant and up-to-date NHL videos that people want to see
• Create our own videos promoting our own Blog and what it can offer our target audience
Website
• No plans for a website; for what our Blog is, it doesn’t owe itself to having it’s own website
• Rather, we will focus on becoming an authority on the NHL in order to drive traffic more regularly to our Blog and monetize the Blog once we have done that
Blog
Blog
• Visually, we can improve the way it looks; make it more visually appealing, work with different backgrounds, colours, etc.
• Update all aspects of the Blog; highlights tab, posts, on a regular basis in order to make it more newsworthy
• Use social book marking websites to increase our credibility and popularity
SEO
• Regularly check Google Adwords to see which words are being searched for and revise our posts once they’ve been posted in order to come up higher on search engine lists
• Need to be careful not to overdo the SEO efforts and be blacklisted from search engines
PPC Ads
• Keywords: NHL, NHL blog, hockey, hockey news
• Competition for these key words is relatively low
• Avg. CPC is less than $1.00
Display Ads
Display Ads Continued
• ontariohockeyleague.com• nhl.com• fan590.com• network54.com• pointstreak.com• theahl.com• thescore.com• sbnation.com• hfboards.com• cbssports.com
Social Media Campaign• Will include a Social Media release designed
to attract new visitors to our Blog
Affiliate Marketing
• Could be a useful tool when we begin to monetize our Blog and we therefore have money to spend on affiliate marketing campaigns
• Would be useful to use local sports radio stations, sports networks and other sports media with our affiliate marketing campaign to give us integrity and credibility when we start
Email Marketing
• Would be used on a monthly to bi-monthly basis as our Blog is only updated weekly
• Content would include upcoming posts, reasons to check our Blog regularly, incentives for them to invite their friends, etc.