I talk a lot to my clients about writing an impactful blog, often I hear them groan, if not immediately then certainly as we start to work on our first article. I understand that it can be quite time consuming to write engaging content and is not always something the comes naturally to everyone.
So why blog?
Blogs without doubt have become a really important part of today’s digital marketing activity, especially for a small business owner. There are a couple of reasons as to why this maybe. Firstly it enables you to speak to your ideal client about topical events, news items, answer questions or demonstrate your knowledge and experience in a slightly more informal way. Secondly, it helps your SEO. From Google’s perspective it helps to show the website is being used, updated regularly, hopefully interacted with and ultimately helps to drive traffic to your website. Finally, sharing your knowledge and demonstrating your experience is good social media content to share with your audiences. So all in all, with a little focus it can be a bit of a no brainer to write a regular blog, done well the benefits far out weight the effort. With the above in mind I wanted to share with you our top 9 tips to help you write an impactful blog:
- The optimum length for a blog is between 300-1200 words. In today’s society where we are all time poor think about your audience and how much time they may have to read your article. Perhaps vary the length of your articles.
- Timing when you distribute your blog will depend very much on your business and your target audience. Take some learnings from your email and social media activity and think about when they would wish to hear from you e.g.: if you are a hotel group then to send weekend ideas on a Wednesday so that they can book a getaway for the coming weekend.
- Engaging Content: What to write about is key, if you make your blog topic engaging, interesting and relevant to your audience they will interact with you. So have a brainstorm, spend some time doing a little planning about what your ideal client may wish to hear from you about, if in doubt ask them!
- Your blog should tell a story, solve a problem or answer a question.
- Key words: are all linked to your SEO, identify what terms people would search for by using tools such as the Google Keyword Planner, eg: if you are writing a blog about the fitness industry, make sure you use terms that people would use to search with.
- Frequency, how often you should deploy a blog will again come down to you and your business and most importantly what is achievable for you given your other commitments. As a minimum to write a blog once a month is a good start point but the more frequently you can write the better.
- A strong headline for an impactful blog is key. This is tricky as you want something that clearly explains what the article is about, is in keeping with your SEO learning and will grab attention.
- Promote it! Once you have written an impactful blog then you need to tell people about it, ask them to comment, share it and interact with it. You can use your social media channels, social media groups and email marketing channels to let people know that your article is there.
- Have fun! Writing is creative so enjoy the process and let the passion for your business flourish
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As we move towards the biggest planing time of the year, please do get in touch with us if we can help build your 2018 marketing strategy, help you write a blog or generate your 2018 content plan.
Happy writing!
Sources:
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/10/10-tips-for-corporate-bloggers/
https://www.copyblogger.com/effective-blog habits/
http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/02/09/how-to-write-a-blog-post
https://blog.bufferapp.com/blogging-advice-for-beginners-from-16-experts
