Writing A Blog Post
When writing a blog post you have to keep in mind a lot of aspects, such as the audience you are targeting, the publication frequency, and the promotion. But sometimes, you don’t even get that far because you don’t know where to start.
Writing a blog post can be difficult, especially with all the factors you need to keep in mind as mentioned before. Having a carefully structured article, with logic in the presentation of ideas while also being attractive to users is essential to achieve success. If you want to know how to write better blog posts, take a look at these tips and start implementing them with an effective content marketing strategy.
Characteristics for Writing a Blog Post
A
udience
When writing content you have to know the audience you want to reach, what they need and what the best approach is to communicate your message to them. When you write about a certain topic you have to do it using a language and a script according to the audience you are addressing.
Adapt the theme of your blog to your needs and knowledge about the subject. It is not the same to approach a topic before a specialized audience than in front of a generic audience.
The former would call for industry jargon and convey its message with a high level of knowledge while the latter would be more layman. On many occasions, it can be good to use examples to illustrate what you are talking about.
Personalization
Decide whether your niche or specific form of content is more suited to address people directly or indirectly. Referring to your readers as “you” or “we” could make a big difference to the way your message is interpreted and the reaction you get from your readers.
Using the word “you” makes it seem as if you’re talking directly to them, and can at times feel like you’re instructing them.
Using the word “we” speaks to the reader as if you and them are doing something together.
Both terms can essentially convey the same message, but both terms can also be subconsciously interpreted differently as well.
Value
In addition to creating content tailored to the audience you want to reach, it must be original, provide something informative, and be high in quality.
The public generally does not want you to advertise your products or services to them, but they can be receptive if your content provides them with a lot of value for free. There are many different types of content marketing that you could try, and some would work better than others depending on your niche and audience.
Creating long, in-depth blog posts that educates the reader can gain their trust and leave them with a feeling of reciprocity towards you as a result.
A lot of the most successful blogs provide the vast majority, if not all, of their content for free. Readers can see the value here and keep coming back for more, and there is always a portion of them who would purchase something.
Structure
Before you start writing wildly, you have to stop and think about what you are going to say and how you are going to structure it for the reader. Your blog posts having a logical order in the presentation of ideas is necessary so that your audience can follow the storyline of what you present. Therefore, it is good to divide the posts into the following sections:
a) Introduction: The beginning of the text, where the subject and the objectives of the article are presented. It must attract and motivate reading. Many people will skim-read the first paragraph of an article to decide if they should continue reading or not.
b) Development: The central ideas, information, and descriptions are exposed. The idea is to classify the information according to importance and present it as a structured, flowing body.
c) Conclusion: It is rather a synthesis related to what you have exposed in the article, summarizing the most important information. Think of it as a TLDR; but with a bit more information and possibly a closing passage to direct them somewhere else on your website.
Captivation
The longer your content is, the longer it takes to reach the end of it. Your readers need to be engaged and enticed the whole way through to reach the end. The length of your blog post will play a large role in this and you have to cover the specific aspects of each topic.
When you are writing a blog post don’t set a maximum number of words. There is a false belief that extensive articles cause a great laziness when it comes to addressing their reading, but the truth is that no matter how long your article is, what is really important is how you are presenting it. If you start to deviate from the topic on which you started writing, it may be time to conclude.
Reference
Reinforce your opinions with expert testimonies, studies, and links to other pages that may be of interest to your reader. Having references and external opinions that reinforce your arguments is always a point in your favor. It backs up what you’re saying and gives you the credibility to command their trust and respect.
Anyone can make a claim and throw up a bunch of statistics to go with it, but without a source, it’s just words and numbers.
If you’re making such claims on your website, make sure that you can back them up and give your readers reassurance that what you’re saying is accurate.
Visualization
Insert images, videos and infographics to visually de-stress and facilitate understanding of what is being told. Content like this can be used to break up large bodies of text which then makes your blog post easier to read. This is because it causes a break in your readers attention span to prevent them from getting bored and leaving your website.
Highlight the main ideas by making use of visual hierarchy. You can use bold, italics, different font sizes and links. This way you can help readers to detect the most important information you’re trying to convey that would otherwise be easier with speech.
Narration
An article written as if you are telling a story rates higher among readers than an article written for search engines. People want to be able to relate to things and connect with them. Storytelling does this and builds rapport with the reader that can keep them coming back to you for more.
While SEO is important, the way that search engines read content in comparison to humans is very different. Your content should be written for the people above all, and then tweaked where necessary for the benefit of search engines without sacrificing the quality for the reader.
Simplification
You don’t need long sentences or paragraphs full of fluff that takes forever to get to the point.
Tips For Writing a Blog Post
At this point, there are a few questions to consider before starting production on content:
What is the purpose of your content?
What topics do you want to address?
Who will read the content? Think of positions, industries, and sizes of companies.
Are there links of interest or already created content that can help you?
What blog writing format will you use?
Giving as much information as possible saves time and makes it easier for everyone to work.
Once you have these questions answered, you can decide which types of content marketing ideas you want to work with. You don’t need long sentences or paragraphs full of fluff that takes forever to get to the point. Starting off by asking yourself these questions can teach you how to write better blog posts for your audience.
Find Your Niche
You will obviously have a niche that your website and business is centered around, but what you may need is your own niche within that niche. This is a segment of your industry that you target and do better than anyone else.
Do you sell a wide range of products but one of them is the leading seller by a large margin? Make this your specialty and be the go-to resource for people seeking information about this topic.
If you have a product like this that makes up the bulk of your sales, it’s a no-brainer to focus on driving more sales to it since its already proven itself. This is where finding your niche and specializing in it can be incredibly effective.
Perform keyword research on your product and create content centered around it so you can try to drive search engine and social media traffic.
Fill The Gaps
Investigate what your competitors are doing: go to their websites, sign up for their newsletters and follow their social media channels. Analyze the topics of which they speak and the formats they use and really get to understand it.
Look for what they’re doing right, and especially what they’re doing wrong.
Make a list of both of these points and then work out how you can do it better then go and create content about it. This can help to get you recognized as an authoritative source and a respected player in your industry.
Be Direct
High-quality content is content that responds in a clear and complete way to the potential readers. Instead of simply circumventing the problem, it deals with it directly by proposing not a simple re-elaboration of content that can already be read around, but a unique, detailed approach to an existing problem, helping readers to find a solution to their need.
For example, do you have a blog that deals with beauty? Then you would certainly have to talk about some particular problems such as skin care. Well, informative content explains the problem and presents a practical solution in a manner that is clear, structured, and easy to understand.
We used a product guide from makeup.com as an example for finding a problem and presenting a solution.
They created a product guide about How to Apply Primer and listed different types of primers they sell, what it should be used for, and links to the products in addition to step-by-step instructions for use.
You can check out this example in our guide Content Marketing for eCommerce.
Except when the context requires a different approach, try to use a direct tone in your post. This means writing a blog post more pragmatically as if you really have your target in front of you, always using a language suitable for your audience. However, if you do not have great knowledge of your target, it may be better to use a simple but not too trivial language in order to avoid big mistakes.
Emphasize the Benefits
All your content must provide clear value to consumers. The key to differentiating your brand is not talking about yourself all the time, but really putting yourself in the shoes of your potential audience. Anyone can see that a hammer is a hammer. You need to show them why your hammer is the best one for their needs and provide a solution to their problems.
A good way to do this is to cover the benefits that the consumer will receive if they purchase your product. They already know what a hammer does, but they may not be aware of just how damn useful one could be to them.
Use Images and Videos
Always use images and/or video accompanying the post, if there is an opportunity. The multimedia content must be explanatory or relevant and able to deepen the textual context. It should compliment the text, and if possible, enhance it by turning your words into imagery.
Do not underestimate, however, the importance that emotional images could have. Not only does this break up the text as mentioned before, it also adds another dimension to your content that could give you better results with your readers and the search engines.
Insert Links
Don’t underestimate the importance of linking. With it be internal or external, these types of links should be included in all of your blog posts.
An internal link is a link to another page on your website. You can do this by selecting a related page to your article and including a link to in somewhere in your content.
An external link is a link to a different website. It is best to keep these links as relevant as possible not only to your niche but to the precise topic that your blog post is about. It’s better to link out to an authoritative source in this instance such as Wikipedia or an authority such as the government, reputable institute, etc.
Spread The Word
The best content is the relevant ones which make people willing to share them with their friends. To make content shareable you must consider both the technical factors, such as the type of text and the level of sharability and the emotional factors as well. And remember: shareable content not only gives satisfaction but also brings concrete visibility to your blog and subsequently to your brand.
You should make your content easy to share as well.
If you are using Shopify or WooCommerce, you can easily integrate a social sharing system on your blog so that the reader can simply click a button and share your blog post on their channels. Much like the one you can see on the left side of this website.
Be You
Try to bring out your talent when writing a blog post. Add your point of view, write it “your way” and personalize it. Competition is there, regardless of your industry, so the key way to differentiate yourself is to be yourself.
Adopt a style of writing that’s yours, be whimsical, different, and original. It will be the only way to give your reader the feeling of reading something unique and totally different from others.
It is difficult to differentiate your brand if you are not clear about your style and positioning. Finding it requires analyzing in detail everything that your brand represents and understanding what its value in the market is really. Only then can you create content that really makes a difference.
Try to always bring out your opinion and your personal style in the realization of the content. Differentiate yourself from others is to adopt a style that is unique and inimitable for competitors. A fundamental criterion for generating truly amazing content!
Give Value
The best articles are the ones that provide value which offers a number of clearly defined benefits for users.
Of course, much of the way you can provide value will depend on your industry. For example, if you run a travel eCommerce site, it might be helpful to post content about how travelers need to prepare for the trip and what they should pack.
You don’t need to create a product guide and sell everything that you mention, the goal is to provide value and generate traffic.
To understand how to provide value, assess what your target audience is, what information might be useful, what content is popular in your niche today, and whether you have unique points of view that could benefit your readers.