Content marketing is the way to your Customers heart and the key to grow your business. Promoting your business through content marketing requires a strategy and a process to create blog posts that people actually WANT to read.
Blogging has been around since the late 90’s, but many businesses have not yet fully mastered, and many are still just beginning. The steps to writing great business blog posts aren’t always easy to follow, and that can leave you unsure of where to start or what to say.
Reading: How to create a captivating blog
The There are many advantages of business blogs:
- Generates authority: you become a “sympathetic expert” for your customers and prospects
- Increases traffic on your website
- Improves social media engagement
- Converts traffic into leads and sales
Quality content is a top ranking factor on Google and if you think about it, not having a blog is crazy.
The content of a page is what makes it a position in search results. It is what the user came for and is therefore extremely important for search engines. Therefore, it is important to create good content.
So what is good content?
Good content creates an experience for website visitors that informs and inspires them to make a change.
Yes, you want to inform your visitors, but that alone is not enough. To really help them change, you need to make their experience meaningful, and that means helping them apply what they’re learning. When done right, this builds trust, and when someone trusts you, they’re more likely to do business with you when they’re ready to make a buying decision. That’s effective content.
A blog has many components that make it successful, and with so much content published online every day, your content needs to be memorable or people just won’t respond.
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The goal is to impact your community, your prospects, and your customers. Nowadays we have to use all methods to captivate customers and your blog is the foundation from which to start.
10 key steps to creating blog posts people WANT to read
1 . Write what you think
One of the biggest challenges businesses face is “Who is going to create our content?”
There are many, many people who believe that they “ are not writers.” Simply put, blogs are just your thoughts and advice on paper (or videos, pictures, or even spoken into a microphone for the world to hear). When you put your thoughts on paper, something magical happens. Inspiration takes you to places you never thought you would go. Start by writing down what you think.
If you have a team, use brainstorming sessions to capitalize on your thoughts and collaborate on ideas.
Pro Tip: Even if you decide to outsource your writing, you still need to get your thoughts down on paper.
2. Put yourself in your reader’s shoes
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Ask yourself, “What is the ONE thing I want the reader to take away from this post?” Write with a concept in mind – don’t get caught up in it a bunch of different ideas. Save all these ideas for other blog posts. Focus on the one concept, one solution, one story that will captivate you.
3. A Clickable, Shareable, and Compelling Headline
You only have one chance to grab your reader’s attention and that’s with your headline. There are many formulas for writing great headlines, and studying headlines has been kind of a hobby of mine. One of my favorite formulas is this:
Number + Adjective + Keyword + Justification + Promise (Example: 6 smart content ideas to engage customers and grab their attention)
More Headline Tips:
- Numbers attract readers – e.g. B. 1o tips to…
- Use interesting adjectives like killer, amazing, ultimate, powerful, thrillingetc. I use this great list here->
- Remember: Power Words are emotional words full of persuasion.
- Use justifications like tips, tricks, reasons, principles, elements etc.
- If possible, add trigger words like ‘why’ and ‘how‘
- Enter a promise , such as B. 10 powerful tips to help you…
- Make your headline shorter rather than longer to avoid Google truncating it for you (60-100 characters is ideal).
- Include keywords/phrases in your headline to improve SEO and organic search results.
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4. Tell a story
There’s simply nothing more compelling than a story. The best way to illustrate why people buy from you (what separates you from your competitor) is to tell stories about your daily interactions with customers.
Never waste a good one Customer testimonials by keeping them private.
When you create blog posts, let customer and employee actions convey the trust you are building with your prospects. Stories paint a picture and evoke emotions, which goes a long way to instilling trust. Blog posts are best when they inspire trust by telling great stories that bring people closer.
5. Grab them with your first paragraph
The job of the headline is to get people to read your first paragraph. The job of the first paragraph is to get them reading on!
Address your customers’ pain points.
Your successful first paragraph has two components: expertise and empathy
- Expertise. Mention that people come to you with a problem or concern. Say: “Customers keep coming to us…” or “A customer recently asked me the following question…” This makes it clear that you/your company are an expert in solving this problem.
- Empathy. Nobody wants to feel alone with their problems. Everyone wants to feel understood. Phrases like “we can relate to that” or “we appreciate it” or “that’s understandable” go a long way in helping the reader perceive you as someone who is not only trustworthy, but who also “understands” them — which opens the doors for a potentially great work relationship goes ahead.
6. Add an compelling image
Images help tell stories. Sometimes they are the story. Add a compelling image to your post so people who learn visually (65% of your readers) can relate to your content.
Another important reason to include an image is so you can Posting on social media and other platforms will have the thumbnail filled in, optimizing your content for readers’ news feeds.
7. Readability
People consume content differently.
Many people will scan your post. Some will read 50% of it and some will read all of it. Make your post readable for every type of reader:
- Easy to read font
- Leave long paragraphs
- Use subheadings
- Use bullet points
- Use block quotes whenever possible
8. Optimize for Search
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Blog posts are valuable for two main reasons:
- People (customers and prospects) read them during their shopping research.
- Search engines look for fresh, relevant content when ranking websites and blogs are best at providing it.
You need to do a little keyword and research phrases that your potential customers Use to search for what you’re selling. Here are 3 tools we use:
- Google Keyword Planner
- Keyword.io
- Wordstream Keyword Suggestion Tool
Once you’ve decided on the keyword/phrase you want to write about, you need to optimize your post for search.
You can spend time figuring out how to blog -Can fine tune posts search OR you can use this handy plugin I use on my wordpress site. It’s called WordPress SEO by Yoast. Install it and it will guide you through the process of optimizing your post for search engines.
A note about outbound links: If appropriate, link to the sources you use for your content. It helps the reader and supports the points you mentioned. Linking to related domains not only helps the search engine understand your niche, but also helps increase the trust and quality of your site, which plays an important role in your blog’s SEO.
9 . Call-to-Action
In this sharing economy, we’ve all gotten used to getting information for free… and that’s a great thing. However, it’s still important to guide readers through your sales funnel where appropriate.
When creating blog posts, don’t forget to include a call-to-action at the end of your post. It reminds them that if they need more help or in-depth expertise, you’re there to help.
10. “Perfect is the Enemy of Done”
When I first started blogging ten years ago, I would resent my post to the point of driving me insane. I’ve learned that blogging is a conversation you have with your readers, prospects, colleagues, and customers. It doesn’t have to be perfect!
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t proofread it.
My editing routine is:
- Write from the heart (“Bleed on the page”, as Hemmingway once said)
- Edit accordingly
- Link to the sources if necessary
- Proofread twice – at different times
- Publish
Now that you’ve learned my top 10 steps to creating blog posts that people WANT to read, chances are good that you have thought about some subjects you want to write about.
Now honor that intention – take a moment and jot down your ideas.
“Dying You don’t have your music still in you.” -DR. Wayne Dyer
If you need further blogging support and guidance, contact me here.My focus is to support your content strategy so you can take your genius out into the world, gain more authority online and ultimately drive more leads and sales.
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