At the beginning of the year I asked my clients what areas of marketing they felt they most needed some help with, writing a good blog was definitely one area that people wanted to hear more about, hence the inspiration for this article. There is so much content available today online, how do you make yours stand out? Writing the blog is only the first part of the puzzle, the second part is then promoting it and getting your target audience to engage with you. Read on to discover our top 10 tips to help you get started:
1. Research and find your niche
Before setting up a blog, it pays to see what else is out there. Decide whether to focus on a particular topic, or you’ll be writing with certain opinions or interests in mind, it’s likely there’ll be other writers out there who have had the same idea. If nothing else, this exercise might spark some fresh ideas, if you already have a blog then it is also worth researching and understanding what your target audience want to hear about.
2. Consider your audience
We have talked a lot about understading your target audience as this underpins all of your marketing. Writing is no different, you may be writing for a purpose – say, to raise awareness of your expertise, or to establish your voice within your industry. Alternatively, you may wish to connect with people with similar interests.
3. Write from experience…
It’s much easier to write about a topic you are familiar with. Choosing topics you’re personally interested in will add an air of authenticity and passion to your writing, and the chances are that you won’t accidentally include any false information.
4. …but give credit where it’s due
If you’ve directly taken an idea from another source, be sure to include a hyperlink, reference or source list. The benefit for you is that you may find other writers reciprocate in the future, or share your content across their social channels to highlight their inclusion in your blog.
5. Hook readers in
The title is what will inspire people to click through to your blog in the first place, so it’s worth spending time on. Successful titles maybe emotive or include questions that you know your ideal clients maybe asking eg:” How do I find the right bike for me?” or “Top 10 tips for an engaging blog” or things that highlight your personal connection to the topic eg: “I cycled 500 miles and this is what happened”.
6. Make it topical
Keep an eye on the news for stories that might relate to your industry, if a topic’s at the front of people’s minds they are more likely to engage with online content about it eg: “Queen opens the new cyber crime centre” – very topical if you are in the IT/ technology sectors.
7. Think visually
Including images within the blog to break up the text will add interest, of course depending upon your business this may not always be relevant. You should also think about how to structure so it isn’t just a big block of text – split it up under headings to make it easy to read will also work.
8. Find the right call-to-action (CTA)
Think back to who your audience are, and what the purpose of the post is. What do you want people to do after reading your article – purchase your products? Follow you on Twitter? Read another blog? Make sure the next steps are obvious for readers reaching the end of your post. You could also think about integrating CTAs throughout the copy.
9. Edit
In my opinion, the perfect blog is somewhere between 400-900 words in length. You don’t want people to click away halfway through and you certainly don’t want readers’ attention spans to fall short of the call to action. Once you’ve written your first draft, cut out unnecessary waffle to shorten it to within these parameters.
10. Spread the word
You’ve written your blog – hoorah! Now it’s time to share it with potential readers. Social media platforms or your email marketing are perfect for posting links, consider sharing links on online forums relevant to your industry or interest, too.
If you need more guidance on planning or writing your blog content, then please do get in touch via email sophie@rimumarkeitng.co.uk or via phone 07786 225893.
Good Luck!
Sources: Inspired by…
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140602121530-3161863-20-quick-tips-on-writing-great-blog-posts
http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/02/09/how-to-write-a-blog-post
Great post ! I personally implemented most the techniques suggested by you on my site but few factors like “optimizing CSS delivery” and “minifying resources” was a bit technically complicated for me . Anyway the idea here were pretty cool. Thanks 🙂
Thanks Alena, I am pleased you found the article useful.