Case Study: How to Gradually Promote a Product Using Multiple Blog Posts
Posted on November 14, 2007 by
Adie 
Blogging, Internet Marketing, Promotion 
9 Comments
Yesterday, I wrote about not relying on the header or sidebar to guide your visitors. Instead, use the content area to guide your visitors because many internet users don’t pay attention to the header or sidebar.
Today, we’ll look at how Brian Clark used the content area of his blog, Copyblogger, to guide his readers to his product. We’ll see how he promoted his product with multiple blog posts.
I think blogs are a great way to sell products - whether your own or affiliate products. Established bloggers make great salespeople because they have built trust with their readership and they have many repeat visitors. These two things make selling much easier.
Selling with blogs can be tricky though. While you have trust and repeat visitors, you don’t want to overdo the promotion of products. That would make your blog too commercial. Many people think blogs should not be overly commercial. Therefore, you have to find a way to mention products without coming off like a used car salesman :)
Brian Clark makes a living producing and selling information products. His latest successful product launch, Teaching Sells, was promoted through his blog so I decided to look at how he did it.
In this case study, it will help to know what Teaching Sells is about. It’s a paid membership site where you learn how to build your own paid membership site. You learn how to create interactive membership sites where you teach others through text, audio, and video. Currently, Brian is offering 5 courses for $197.
How did Brian promote Teaching Sells on his blog? To find out, let’s look back at his blog posts from September 30 to November 13. Make sure to check out Brian’s posts to get a better picture of his blog promotion strategy. I’ll only be giving brief comments for each post that mentions Teaching Sells.
Blog Promotion Timeline
Sept. 30, 2007: 40 is the New 20
It’s not often that someone begins to promote their product on their birthday, but that’s what Brian did. He promoted his product in a low-key way. The post was about his birthday but it also had a list of links.
The next to last link pointed to a post by his business partner of Teaching Sells. In the post, his partner briefly argued for the paid content business model. The last link had this curious anchor text: Don’t click here. It pointed to teachingsells.com. At this point in time, the only thing on the domain was the logo.
In this post, Brian subtly began to guide us to his product and also persuade us of one of the product’s selling points:
Online publishers should sell content to make more money.
Oct. 1: Guest post (None of the guest posts mentioned Teaching Sells.)
Oct. 3: A post that didn’t mention Teaching Sells
Oct. 4: Are You Truly Focused on Your Audience?
Brian talked about using audio and video because many people don’t comprehend well with text alone. By using multimedia, you can help more people. Some people learn better through audio while others learn better through video. Also, audio and video formats raise the perceived value of your content, allowing you to charge more.
Brian told us about the benefits of multimedia because Teaching Sells is about creating multimedia membership sites.
Oct. 8: How to Create Ebooks That Sell
When this post was first published, Brian had a closing paragraph about a free report he was writing. The report was about the paid content model.
Oct. 9: Here’s How to Stop Worrying About Google Once and for All
At this time, Google had lowered the PageRank of some popular sites that sold links. Brian tied in his upcoming report to the news. He talked about how selling content helps you rely less on Google.
Oct. 12: Guest post
Oct. 13: Link Karma Story Time
This was another link post. Brian linked to a couple pages that supported the principles of Teaching Sells. He also linked to teachingsells.com. The domain still only had the logo.
Oct. 15: A post that didn’t mention Teaching Sells
Oct. 15: Free Report: Teaching Sells
We got the free report. Brian linked to the download page of the Teaching Sells report.
At the end of the report, Brian talked about Teaching Sells also being a paid membership site. He said he was working on it and getting it ready for launch. The free report was so good, many people were ready to join his site.
Notice when he first talked about his paid product. It wasn’t on the blog. Instead, it was on the short report. The report allowed Brian to keep his blog from being too commercial while still selling to those who were interested in the benefits of his product.
Oct. 18: Radiohead, The 4-Hour Work Week and the Importance of Raving Fans
He related his report to Radiohead’s decision to sell its new album directly to their fans.
Oct. 23: A post that didn’t mention Teaching Sells.
Oct. 24: Thanks Google!
Copyblogger’s PageRank was lowered. He used this event to write a humorous post saying his PageRank was lowered because he released a report that will help people rely less on Google.
Oct. 24: Teaching Sells is Live
Finally, Brian announced the launch of the Teaching Sells paid membership site.
Oct. 25: Guest post
Oct. 28: No Really… Thanks Google!
Brian’s PageRank increased. He snuck another link to Teaching Sells. He mentioned how busy he was with Teaching Sells that he didn’t have time to contact Google.
Oct. 28: Guest post
Oct. 31: The Blogger’s Guide to Indirect Selling
This was a perfect post to link to Teaching Sells. Brian did just that in the closing paragraph.
Nov. 1: Guest post
Nov. 5: A post that didn’t mention Teaching Sells
Nov. 8: Guest post
Nov. 12: Guest post
Nov. 13: What Web Writers Can Learn from the Writer’s Strike
Brian commented on the current scriptwriter’s strike in Hollywood. He said that freelance bloggers can avoid that situation by becoming a writer/producer rather than just a writer. He linked to an article on teachingsells.com that gave information on how Teaching Sells can help you become a writer/producer.
What We Can Learn From This Case Study
1. From September 30 to November 13, Copyblogger had 22 posts. 12 of these posts were related to Teaching Sells. That seems like a lot. Basically, every other post referred to Teaching Sells in some way. However, I don’t think Brian was overdoing his promotion.
My commentary may make it seem like Brian was constantly talking about Teaching Sells. However, when you look at his posts, much of the time he devotes only a small portion of the post to Teaching Sells. For example, this post was over 900 words yet he only devotes the closing sentence to Teaching Sells. This post was close to 1000 words and he only talked about Teaching Sells in one short paragraph.
2. Free reports are very useful because you can give a lot of quality information and introduce your product without hijacking your blog.
3. Use current events especially those in your niche and relate them to your product.
4. Gradual promotion builds buzz and expectation. First, Brian gave us the domain name. Second, he wrote posts about the principles of Teaching Sells while telling us about a free report in the near future. Third, he gave us the free report. And the free report told us about his upcoming paid membership site. Finally, he launched the membership site. He didn’t just make a product launch announcement out of the blue. Instead, he gradually showed us where he was going.
5. Finally, don’t try Brian’s tactics unless you have a loyal readership. Build up your blog first. Get some traffic and subscribers. Improve your brand and increase your mindshare.
How has Teaching Sells sold for Brian?
Currently, Brian has over 800 members. Some have paid $97 (early bird special) to join his 3 month course while others have paid $197. Crunch the numbers and that’s a good chunk of change.
What can you take away from Brian’s blog promotion methods?
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Really valid.. and a nice descriptive post about it… in my opinion being able to promote your products and services seamlessly through your daily activities is a hallmark of all successful entrepreneurs and something we all should learn.. another blogger who does this quite well in my opinion is yaro starak…
Dee, Thanks for breaking it down. It’s kind of amazing that he was able to be so subtle, build interest, and not sound like a “used car salesman”.
I wonder if this style of promotion is a by product of trial and error, intrinsic capability, reproducing another method, or none of the above. It’s like in comedy: Standups always find a way to refer to their best punchlines, whats known as the “dipsy doodle” per David Spade. Works here too, I guess.
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You know who else is doing this on a massive scale, is Yahoo! No, they aren’t bloggers, but they leverage their boat-loads of internal content to promote products without “promoting products.”
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“Use current events especially those in your niche and relate them to your product.”
Here’s a Yahoo headline from a few days ago illustrating how Yahoo espouses this principle. “What we can learn from Britney about setting up retirement plans”
This article from Yahoo Finance was merely recycled info about planning retirement early baited on a pretty Britney hook. It sure got my click, though! Great post, Dee.
Great examples :) Thanks for sharing.
I guess it helps to have over 26 thousand readers everyday too .. although, you can’t sneeze at the 800/26000 (3%) conversion rate. Big chunks indeed~ And, cheers to Brian.
[...] Check This Out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today. Here’s a quick excerpt: How did Brian promote Teaching Sells on his blog? To find out, let’s look back at his blog posts from September 30 to November 13. Make sure to check out Brian’s posts to get a better picture of his blog promotion strategy. … [...]
[...] wrote a case study about gradual promotion through blog posts. I was concrete by giving commentary on every post that promoted the product in question. My case [...]
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