Blogging represents an opportunity to give your business a voice. Blogs add value to your brand by offering your customers something more than just a product or service. This added value helps you to build longer term relationships. Whether it is advice on how to get the most from your product or an interesting industry related topic, this medium allows you to connect with your audience on a more intimate and personal level.
1. Don’t be overly promotional
Typically, readers visit your blog to be entertained and educated on a topic you’re writing about, not for the product you’re trying to sell. A primary objective for writing a blog post should be to firstly educate your audience, once you have achieved this, only then can you tie in a product that may be of relevance to the post.
Do be in touch with your readers needs
Research into topics that your readers will be interested in, how-to tips and tools that address these topics and create an interesting and engaging post.
2. Don’t write a novel, write a letter
When writing a blog post you should consider the tone of voice as highly important. If the blog is complicated to read it’s likely your reader will become bored and leave your page. It’s recommended that you write your blog as though you’re writing a letter to a friend. This helps keep the blog post personal, yet still provides the reader with useful and entertaining information.
Do tell a story
Although you’re not writing a novel you still want your blog post to tell its own story. Use your storyteller toolbox and use interesting imagery, creative words and small anecdotes.
3. Don’t be boring
For SEO purposes, a blog post should have a minimum of 300 words and rarely go beyond 500. Posts tend to have a greater impact when they’re precise and to the point. By using headings, bullet points and having a clear layout your reader is more likely to read the whole post.
Do stick to the point
Don’t write long-winded paragraphs, blogs read much simpler when they are written in short sentences and small paragraphs.
4. Don’t neglect visuals
As they say… a picture is worth a 1,000 words. Visuals are a vital part of storytelling, so it’s highly recommended bloggers use multimedia images on posts.
Do put thought into your visuals
It’s important for your business to think in depth about what visuals you should be including on your blog. By using an image that draws your readers in it will increase your social referral traffic. According to Zabisco, 40% of people will respond better to visual information than plain text (Source: Zabisco).
5. Don’t be too reliant on others expertise
Although it can be difficult to consistently think of original ideas for blog posts, try not to become too reliant on others expertise. Blogs that discuss unoriginal topics or offer an alternative read are often considered far more interesting and engaging than those that don’t.
Do write unique posts
As said, thinking of a completely original idea can be very challenging. If you search your topic on Google and discover other bloggers have written similar posts try writing about the opposite topic. For example, if someone already wrote about ‘5 Reasons to use social media marketing’, you could write a blog post about ‘5 Reasons not to use social media marketing’. Finding a new angle is key when thinking of refreshing posts.
In order to maintain a healthy audience be sure to create blog posts that are constantly engaging, captivating, and unique. The final step after writing your blog post is sharing it on your social media platforms and necessary websites.