Blogging isn’t dead!
In fact, it’s more effective than ever before when it comes to boosting visibility for your business, providing your audience with epic high-value free content, and driving traffic to your website through strategic SEO and keyword use.
But I won’t lie to you — there are effective and ineffective ways to use blogging as a visibility + growth tool. As a business owner who is coming up on one year consistently running a successful blog, today I’m going to be sharing with you EVERYTHING I know about writing winning and wow-worthy blog posts.
You’ll be able to use this “rinse & repeat” method for writing blog posts time and time again, so grab a snack (or glass of vino) and let’s dive in!
What’s a blog, anyways?
If you’ve spent any time on the internet at all, you’re probably already familiar with what a blog is. After all, you are reading one right now! But to officially put a definition to the term, a blog is a regularly updated website or web page that contains long-form written content for the purpose of fulfilling either a personal or business need. The topics that you write about on your own blog will vary depending on your niche and expertise. A typical blog post will be educational in nature and highly specific, range between 600-2000 words, and may contain media in addition to plain text (such as images, charts, video clips, and so on).
Why should I be utilising blogging in my business?
Blog posts give you the opportunity to publish thoughts, insights, and stories on your website about any topic you wish. They also allow you to elaborate on shorter-form content that deserves more attention, like social media posts with word limits. The major benefits to consistently blogging include:
- Boosted brand awareness and visibility
- Increased credibility and authority
- More web traffic
- Higher conversion rate
- New clients or sales
How to set up your blog
The steps to creating your blog will depend on the web provider you are using. Make sure your platform supports blogging (most do) and Google a step-by-step tutorial to getting your blog set up correctly.
You should also think about the general topic your blog will cover. Typically, if you are writing a blog for business purposes, the focus of your blog will directly correlate with your industry.
For example, since I run a business and marketing consulting company, my blog tends to cover topics within those umbrella categories of “business” and “marketing.”
How to write a blog post
Once you have a proper web host and topic in place for your blog, you can start the actual process of brainstorming and writing your blog post! This is where the magic happens. Here’s what to do:
Before you can begin the writing process, you need to know what you are writing about. You’ll want to choose a topic that speaks to your target demographic and will answer their questions and resonate with them. This may mean returning to your ideal client avatar or buyer persona in order to understand what they truly want and need.
From there, you can decide how you plan to format that information. Here are a few common post formats that you can work from:
Now that you know exactly what you’ll be writing about, it’s time to organise that information into an outline. Blog posts can get quite lengthy, so this is a really clever way to compartmentalize different ideas that may be covered in one post. Here’s what your outline should contain:
You can’t just jump right into writing about your topic of choice. You need to set the stage for your audience through a captivating introduction that makes them want to keep reading. You can do this by telling a story or joke, empathizing with your audience, or leading with a gripping fact or statistic.
Your introduction should also clearly state what the post will be focused on and why this topic is important.
The body of your blog is the actual content — the information you are giving your audience. To make sure you are being as clear as possible and are making the experience of reading your blog post enjoyable for your audience, use smart stylistic choices (like headers, sub-sections, bullet points, and numbered lists) to help segment this information into easily digestible and “skimmable” chunks. Write about what you already know, and if necessary, do research and track down factual sources to back up your claims.
Pro Tip: Even though the post you are writing is informational in nature, you don’t have to sound like a robot! You can infuse your personality into your writing (and even add jokes/anecdotes into the mix) to showcase your brand voice and make the reading experience more entertaining.
To finish off your blog post, briefly summarize what you wrote about and why it’s important, then leave your audience with a call-to-action that will help them take a desired action. This may mean asking them to connect with you on social media, subscribe to your email list, book a call with you, visit your website, or purchase a product/service. This step is how you can use your blog to convert readers into loyal members of your community and eventually, paying customers.
To make this step even easier, click here to gain access to my FREE customisable blog post template that will have you drafting your first post in no time.
It’s important not to skip the editing process once your blog post is drafted. You can ask a grammar-conscious team member to look it over, or utilise online tools like Grammarly to check your spelling and grammar. This is a simple and quick step that adds an extra layer of authority and credibility to your blog post.
Once the writing portion is complete, you can go back in and add visual elements to your blog post to make it more attractive. Some ways to do this include:
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Choosing a visually appealing “Featured Image” to represent your blog post
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Organising your blog post into sections with headers and sub-headers (see outline)
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Adding charts or infographics to help visually demonstrate your points when possible
One of the main benefits of blogging is the major visibility and traffic boost that comes with it. In order to capitalise on this, you should have a basic understanding of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and how to use it in your posts. Here’s a simple checklist to review:
Choose a title for your blog that clearly and concisely states what the post will be about.
Keyword research is the process of finding and analysing commonly searched-for terms with the goal of using that data to inform topic selection. Choose 1-5 keywords you want each given blog post to rank for in the Google algorithm and then make an effort to use those keywords frequently throughout your blog post.
The description that goes below the post’s page title when it shows up in search engines. Providers searchers with a short summary of the post before clicking on it. Ideally between 150-160 characters.
Alt text is a short, written description of an image that helps direct users’ searches when an image cannot be viewed by context correlating to the topic clusters and keywords of the post.
When possible, try to link to relevant pages on your own website (inbound links) and sources from other websites (outbound links) to boost your ranking.
You did it! Now all that’s left to do is publish your blog post and start promoting it to the world. Use your social media presence, email marketing, and website to get the word out. You can also opt for paid ads to drive significant targeted traffic to your blog.
Ready to become a true leader in your industry? If so, blogging will put you on a surefire path to that expert-level status. Stick to the formation in this guide and you’ll be well on your way to building brand awareness and authority plus boosting sales through blogging!
To get even more direct support, click here to learn more about booking a 90-minute strategy intensive with me. If you’re wanting to build out and execute an epic plan for your blog with an award-winning business and marketing consultant guiding you every step of the way, I can’t wait to hear from you!