Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last ten
years, you’ve probably heard about blogging and how it can be a great way to
help your search engine rankings, build a connection with prospects and turn
those prospects into leads. You probably
also know that there’s lots of competition out there for readership. So what do you do? How do you build an audience and engage
readers when there is so much background noise drowning out your message? This post describes simple steps that you can
follow to write a post that will put you above the rest.
A Catchy Title
A strong title is the most important part of a good post. It’s like an invitation to a party—if the
party sounds boring then no-one will want to come. Your title has to have a bit of sizzle to it
– it’s what a reader will quickly eye and decide whether to click to see the
rest of your post or not.
Good titles include “How To” guides, “Top X Reasons to …”,
or something that’s a bit cheeky (double score on the title of this post!).
An Engaging First Paragraph
After your title has caught the reader’s eye, the first
paragraph needs to continue the momentum.
You don’t want to dive too deep into the content because
you’re still coaxing the reader, but at the same time you have to start giving
them something to show that they’re not wasting your time. Good things to include in the first paragraph
include an anecdote, reference to a current event or a personal story that
might resonate with them. Set up a
problem or ask a question that the rest of the post promises to answer.
Images
What’s that old saying about what a picture is worth? Well, you can probably get some free images
from your friend Google (although be sure not to use any protected images) or
if you use a professional image service you can expect to pay as much as $20
for a large high-resolution image.
Either way, add one or more relevant images to your blog post whenever
you can: images break up the text on the
post and make it look more readable.
Headers
Like images, headers are a way to make your posts visually
appealing—instead of having a large block of text you have a post that is
divided into sections. Another way that
headers make your post more readable is by allowing the user to see what the
following section is about and allowing them to skip it if it’s not something
that interests them.
Killer Content
Finally we get to the meat of your blog post: the
content. Your content should inspire,
educate, entertain and solve problems.
You should have something relevant to say, voice an opinion, frame
something like no-one else has or write with a twist of humor or sarcasm –
anything that’ll help differentiate your blog from the rest of the blogs out
there.
A Strong Finish
Your reader has made it to the end of your post … so now
what? Every post should end with a
call-to-action (CTA) – tell the reader what you want them to do next. If you don’t they might leave your blog and
you lose the opportunity to engage them further.
Conclusion
Blogging is a great way to get exposure and generate
interest for your business or brand and engage your prospects. However, blogging isn’t just a matter of
putting words on your website and calling it a day. Follow the pointers outlined above and you’ll
be well on your way, or (CTA spoiler alert!) if you find that you don’t have the
time or resources to maintain a blog or you can’t manage to make the words on
the screen say what you want them to, give us a shout, we’d be glad to help!
Got
something to say? Leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you! Got a
question that we can address in our blog? Contact us through our website or email me directly and we’ll put our
crack team to work and let you know when we post a reply.
Other Blog Posts
If you
liked this blog post, here are some other blog posts that you might also like:
- 10 Great Reasons Why Your Company SHOULD Be Blogging
- 5 Great Sources for Blogging Topics
- Social Media & Content Marketing: In-house or Outsource?
Steve Hartley,
Managing Partner
Fering Communications Inc.
Website: www.feringcommunications.com
