You are probably aware that blogging is critical to running a successful online business. But you need to learn how blogging works and how to write each post in such a way that it benefits your business.
Not having a blog means that you will have no content for your social media channels, you won’t be able to build a good relationship with your leads, and you won’t have enough pages to put your lead magnet or call to action.
So why does every marketer I come across have every excuse in the book not to blog?
Well, maybe it’s because business blogging is not one of the most interesting ventures out there. You have to use the right words in the right places and make them flow naturally …where do you even get started?
Well, it’s time to stop giving excuses.
You will find people from different industries blogging to share criticisms, instructions, and various observations and analysis of an industry in which they are still growing and learning.
At the end of this post, you have no reason why you can’t blog every day – and churn out lots of content quickly.
How Do You Write a Blog Post?
1. Know your target audience
Before you write your first word, it’s important that you have a clear understanding of who your audience is and what they want. Think of your knowledge of their interest while trying to craft a blog post.
Instead of playing the guessing game, my recommendation is that you determine the need of your audience by making a data-driven decision after a thorough competitor and industry analysis.
Sounds like a complicated task? It’s actually simple.
There are many tools and resources that you can use to your advantage, and some of them include:
- KeywordTool.io – a tool that can be used to determine the most popularly searched keywords in your niche.
- Quora – a platform where you can answer questions that people in your niche are asking.
- SEMRush – Although this is a premium tool, it’s great at helping you spy on what your competitors are doing, and you can copy some of their strategies.
2. Choose the topic for your first blog post
The first step before writing is to choose your topic. It’s okay if you want to choose a general topic. For instance, if you are into plumbing, a good topic might be something related to tips on fixing specific items in the home.
Then, with further research, you can expand and write about how to fix a blocked kitchen sink as well as the various possible reasons for blockage.
It’s okay if you don’t want to do a “how-to” type of content for your first post, though, which is fine. You might want to write about various types of modern kitchen sink designs or talk about how you fixed problematic mould in a client’s home.
If a plumber wants to blog about fixing a blocked sink, they can start with these ideas:
- List-type article: 7 easy ways to fix a blocked sink
- Curated collection: 10 amazing sink brands and designs you should consider right away
- Slideshare presentation: 7 sink types that should be gracing your kitchen today (with pictures)
- News post: latest research reveals that X% of homeowners don’t care for their sinks enough.
- Look for more blog post ideas at the end of this guide.
If it’s becoming a challenge to come up with ideas for your topics, then try coming up with new and compelling topics by iterating off old ones. You can achieve this by:
- Changing your audience
- Choosing a different time frame
- Choosing a different topic
- Choosing a new format
- Adopting a negative/positive approach
3. Craft Attention-Grabbing Headlines
If your headline is not striking enough, you will probably have fewer people reading your post
It’s a normal thing for humans to want to judge a book by its cover, and in this case, it’s the title.
This explains why the success of any blog post is largely dependent on its title.
So looking at previous examples, it might be okay to narrow your topic to “the common causes of blocked sink” or “the best tools for fixing a blocked sink.” A clear title will serve as a guide when you begin to write.
My recommendation is that you run every one of your headlines through EMV Headlines Analyzer to determine what their emotional values are.
4. Write a captivating intro
The first thing is that you want to draw in the readers’ attention in the intro of your post or the first paragraph. Otherwise, they will lose interest in in the post before they even discover the information you are delivering in the post. There are lots of ways to achieve this: throwing in some interesting facts or statistics, adopt a storytelling approach, or being empathetic.
Then tell the readers what the post is all about and how it aims to solve their problem. This encourages the reader to continue reading.
Make good use of subheadings
There are times when you will have lots of information to squeeze into a blog post. The best practice is to break your points into different subheadings as no one wants to read a giant block of texts or a lengthy paragraph.
Use proper formatting for posts
You need to organise your points and info, so readers don’t get overwhelmed by the word count of your content. This can be done in various ways – tips, lists, sections, whatever makes sense. But you must keep things organised!
Most people skim through a piece of content before choosing to read it, so breaking up your content with subheadings is always a great idea.
Do anything you can to make your content easy on the eyes of your readers. That way, they are encouraged to read your entire content and take the action you want them to take.
5. Format your post using bullet points
Since we already know that people like to skim through a piece of content before reading, it’s important that you highlight your main points.
You can combine bullets points with subheadings to make it easier for readers who want to skim through your post.
I use these tips to make bullet points that get people interested in reading:
- State the benefits they get by reading. Bullets are like mini-headlines
- Be consistent with your bullets (not more than two lines each)
- Never use bullets for paragraphs
- Bullets are different from sentences (they are simply headlines)
6. Dazzle with images
Research shows that our brain processes visual content faster than other forms of content, which is why images help you get more engagements.
You can check out some of the many places online where you can get high-quality stock images for free. Some of those places include Unsplash, Pexels or PicWizard.
7. Start writing your post!
The very next thing to do is to start writing your post. We couldn’t skip that, of course.
Once you have come up with a template or outline, it’s time to start filling in the blanks. Let your outline guide you as you expand on every one of your points as necessary. Make sure you have adequate knowledge about what your industry or niche. If not, do some research so you can have more data, examples, and information to support your points, giving credit to relevant external sources where necessary.
If you are finding it difficult to get into a proper rhythm with your words, don’t be discouraged. Many folks face the same problem now and then. Fortunately, some tools can help you overcome this issue, and some of them include:
- Power Thesaurus – this is a crowdsourced resource that provides you with lots of similar words and synonyms from the writers’ community.
- TomataoTimer – this is particularly helpful if you find it hard to manage your time. It utilizes the Pomodoro technique to help you achieve more productivity.
8. Add a catchy call-to-action
Adding a catchy call-to-action at the end of your blog post is one of the smartest things to do.
Whether you want readers to purchase your product, subscribe to your newsletter, share your post on social media, register for a webinar, or download an eBook, ensure you give them a clear instruction of the action you want them to take.
An effective call-to-action stands out from the rest of your content.
For instance, if you enjoyed reading this post, I’d appreciate it if you can share it on Facebook and Twitter.
You can also use the CTA section to direct your readers to a related post on your blog, allowing them to spend more time on your blog.
9. Do proper on-page SEO
After writing your content, make sure you optimise it properly for search engine marketing purposes.
Don’t stuff keywords into your content; if you can use a few keywords without making the post difficult for the reader to read, go for it. If you can make a shorter URL that contains your keywords, that’s cool too. But never try to stuff keywords in to achieve some bizarre keyword densities – – Google is smarter these days!
The following should remind you of what to look for:
Meta Description
Meta descriptions simply refer to the short descriptions that appear under the post’s title on Google’s search results pages. They are a concise summary of what’s contained in the post and are usually between 150-160 characters in length. They start with verbs such as “discover,” “Read,” “learn,” etc. while they are no longer as important in rankings as they used to be, meta descriptions tells searchers what your post is about, giving you a high click-through rate from search.
Headers and Page Title
The most popular blogging platforms recognize the title of your post as your page title, which happens to be the most important SEO element. But if you’ve been following this guide, you should now have some keyword-rich titles for your posts. Don’t go overboard trying to squeeze titles into inappropriate places. With that being said, if you have an opportunity to include keywords in your headers and titles, go for it. Also, try sticking to short headlines (less than 65 characters is good), so they are properly displayed in search engines.
Make sure your title hits the spot!
If you can, try to shorten the title. Long and arduous titles are really hard to read. Plus you have to remember that you need only 65 characters or less if you want it to display properly in Google’s search engine results pages. Try sneaking some keywords in there to further optimise it.
I hope you found this article really helpful. What other tips do you have for writing blog posts? Leave your comments in the section below.
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