Contents
- Writing great great blog post titles
- Get people hooked with a magnetic intro
- Writing in a style that is easy to read
- Get the graphics and photos right
- Link to other good stuff on your site
- Make sure your keywords are on point
- Links to great websites
Writing a great blog post is really good fun.
OK, I know that writing a blog post can feel like a chore but once you are really clear on what you are doing and why you are doing it, I promise you it gets a lot more enjoyable.
Here’s what we all see at the top of our content brief:
We know that our readers appreciate the help we give them and business stuff aside, that’s a great feeling.
You’ve probably been in that position: frustrated trying to solve a problem at work or frustrated trying to work out the best thing to buy. How grateful were you for that blog post that finally helped you? So let’s aim to deliver that lovely feeling everytime we write.
First, picture your blog post audience as a single person
Get used to writing yourself a brief for your blog posts. The first item on this brief should be a clear picture of who you are writing your blog post for – give them a name and a job title ( if you’re writing B to B). be clear on what they are struggling with and how you can help. It’ll feel great as you help them through your writing.
Next, get yourself clear on keywords
This is where a lot of folks get a bit tangled up in the tech of writing. Don’t do that – relax! In the simplest terms you just want to find a keyword or phrase that you will focus on so that Google knows what you’re talking about and who to show your article to. Once you have it clear then make sure you use it in your title and about 3% of the time in your blog.
There’s more to SEO, of course, and you can learn as much as you wish or perhaps find a good technical support team.
Now write a magnetic blog post title
Remember that the blog post title is your first and best chance to hook someone in from their Google results page so here’s a topline checklist for your blog post title:
- Clearly explains the content of the post
- Contains the keyword
- Has a powerful positive emotion
- Shows how reading the article will be helpful
This article by Hubspot goes into the main types of title you can employ. For our learning centre we focus heavily on helping people so our titles fall under the category of ‘ Making my life easier’ and ‘ The best way to…’ Our audience are trying to do the difficult task of growing their business so we want to help them do that.
Experts teach, they don’t sell – get the tone right
A great blog post does not sell. Repeat: Selling and teaching are not compatible. In your blog you are aiming to entertain, inform, inspire and above all, build trust among your audience. They will not trust your expertises if you are constantly selling so leave it out completely from your piece.
Your Call to Action at the bottom of your article is the exception
At the bottom of each article you can explain ( if appropriate) that your expertise means that your service can help or you may link to a relevant product you sell.
OK now you’re off – let’s write
Writing your piece will probably be a mixture of personal experience and research. However you write, do make sure that the blog post is authentic to your experience or understanding. Nobody wants a dry, academic piece. Make it useful and engaging – 600 words as minimum – good luck!
The best blog posts have pictures
Make sure to help the reader with great photos, graphics or illustrations. These can present a challenge if you don’t have a designer on hand but remember there’s nothing wrong with sourcing images from other sites as long as you credit and link to that website.
Here are two tricks for adding unique images without great design support.
- Me holding a whiteboard
- Sticky notes – like the one we used above.
Great blog post image – man holding whiteboard with message
Your blog post needs external links…
Remember we’re out to help our reader so chances are there is another great website that could help them? In the case of this article you can find out a ton from the wonderful folks at Hubspot about great blog posts ( Hubspot is a great CRM and a great way to organise your blog posts among other things)
Secret: By linking to authoritative websites in your field, you will signal to Google that you are in that sector and help Google know a bit more about you.
…and internal ones.
You probably have articles that will help people even more on your site so don’t forget to link to them from within each article you write. Here’s a link to an article that’s all about inbound content
Subheads make blog posts easy to read
You can probably tell that we’re big fans of sub-headings. Here’s a good rule:
Aim for five lines of copy per paragraph, and 65 characters (45- 75) per line once published.
Pulling important facts out in bold helps too, right?
For more on this head over to see this great article in Smashing Magazine, the web design experts.
Finish your perfect blog post with a call to action.
Once your blog post has done its job and helped people then you have earned the right to add a small note about your product or service. Here’s ours:
For firms looking to supercharge their sales then our complete digital mastery program may be perfect. Usually over 18 or 24 months, the ‘They Ask You Answer’ program will make your team a sales machine which not only produces perfect content but has a smooth and efficient sales process. Find out more.
