How To Write A Blog In Six Steps
You’ve had a great idea for a blog, but now you’ve realised that you’ve got to write the damn thing, and it’s filling you with dread. The good news is that there’s a pain-free method to blog writing; from ideal word count to boosting your website SEO -- you'll be done in no time.
1. Understand your blog’s audience
Question what your objective is and who will read the blog -- why would they read it and what do you want them to do after?
Ideally, you need to understand who your readers are, what challenges they have, and what solutions or help you can provide. This is called understanding your buyer personas (customers) and creating a content strategy (what to write).
63% of marketers are creating content with buyer persona in mind above all else. (Omnicore, 2019)
If you can identify a specific challenge and write about a solution, then your blog is more likely to resonate with people. What keeps your customers awake at night or cheeses them off during the day?
If your readers enjoy what you've written, you’ll also find that they’ll want to read more, so try to take them to another piece of content on your website that might convert them into a customer. You can do this by adding a link at the bottom of your blog, which is called a ‘call to action’.
2. Structure your blog
Split your blog into sections:
Headline
Introduction
Around six to ten subheaders
Key takeaways (for larger blogs)
Call to action (what you want people to do)
By creating a structure, you’ll ensure that you get your key points across to the reader without them falling asleep. It also makes the whole process far more enjoyable -- it’s quick.
Audience relevance is number one when it comes to content effectiveness at 58%, but compelling storytelling takes a strong second place at 57%. (Omnicore, 2019)
3. Fill in the blanks and add stats to your blog
Fill in the subheaders with short paragraphs of information, then add some stats or industry opinion to drive home your point professionally.
87% of B2B audiences will give more credit to content with an industry expert’s opinion over general advice. (Omnicore, 2019)
Try to aim for over 750 words for your blog post and up to 1500 if you're looking to really boost website traffic.
4. Give your blog a hard-hitting headline
Writing a blog does more than providing some great content for those that see it promoted on social media -- it drives visitors to your website organically from search engines (for free).
However, there are some cool little tricks to make sure this happens. You need to ensure your headline is catchy, in title case, and relates to the copy that is written underneath the headline.
Marketers will get the best results by crafting exciting titles that are between 6 and 13 words long. (Omnicore, 2019)
To please the search engines even more, you can ensure that your subheaders include the same words from your title, for instance, ‘blog’. You can also help the search engines to see this by ensuring your headline is in a big font (H1) and your subheaders are slightly smaller (H2).
Content creation leads to 434% more indexed pages than websites without updated content. The key is to create as many pathways around the web for customers to find you. (Omnicore, 2019)
5. Add some pictures to your blog and proofread
As you breathe a sigh of relief that you’ve managed to fit in the time to write a blog, you can start the nice bit -- adding images or even a quick 45-second video. Try to add an image for every subheader and ensure that it is relevant to the topic.
You can then proofread your blog yourself or install a free tool called Grammarly to whiz through it for you. It doesn’t just check typos, it looks at tone of voice, style, repetition of words, and how to enhance vocabulary or say things more clearly.
You can also ask word to read your blog out loud (I love this feature), which often picks up little typos too.
Blogs with images receive 94% more views than blogs that are text only. Blogs with videos can increase organic search results by up to 157%. (Omnicore, 2019)
6. Promotion and analysis
Once you’ve produced your blog and uploaded it to your website, you can promote it on social media. Not a fan? Try LinkedIn if you’re a B2B brand -- it’s professional and easy to use.
Once you’ve got a few blogs out there, it’s important to see how many people are viewing or engaging with your content on social media. If it works, be sure to promote it regularly.
When it comes to delivering content and securing audience engagement, LinkedIn is the most effective social media platform at 82%. Twitter took second place at 66%. (Omnicore, 2019)
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