When potential clients first find your business, they’re generally complete strangers. So how do you convert someone from a stranger into a client? You need to start by establishing a relationship with them, which leads them to trust your brand. And although many things can help you establish these all important relationships, blogging is a great place to start.
Regular and exciting content is extremely important to a business’s success. Blogs are a great way to consistently produce interesting content that educates, informs, and sways your audience. It’s a comfortable first step with a soft sell that can coax new faces into the fold and inform and solidify existing clients. Google’s algorithms look fondly upon the casual, friendly tone that you can easily achieve in a blog, which is just icing on the cake.
If you’re new to blogging or writing just isn’t your favourite part of running your business, here are 5 simple steps which will help you get started.
Step 1: Plan
Before you even begin writing the headline, you need to do some thorough research and plan out the structure of your blog.
You might have a vague idea of what you want to write about, and that’s a great place to start. But here’s where you really want to drill down on a particular topic. And by planning before you do anything else, you’ll save yourself a bucket load of time when you actually start writing.
Once you have a topic, a good place to start is doing keyword research. Think about what people are likely to search for, what problems are they looking to solve? There are a bunch of really useful tools to help you out, such as Wordstream or the Google search console (try using it with incognito mode on!)
So, you have a wealth of knowledge about the subject, a few specific keywords, and you’re ready to begin writing? Well, almost. One more extremely important thing to do at this point is to carefully fact check all your notes. Nothing sinks a ship faster than a glaring mistake.
Step 2: Craft Your Headline!
You might be surprised to learn that your headline is actually the most important part of your entire blog. Why? Because a poor headline will mean that no one reads the rest of the blog, and a great headline will not only grab your reader’s attention immediately, but it will also help you write.
There’s a lot of conventional wisdom when it comes to creating a headline, and, for the most part, it pays to follow it. Simple, direct, and exciting. You generally only have about 8 seconds of someone’s time in a written format. So, if you don’t start strong, you won’t get a second chance.
This is a great place to use your keywords; try writing it, re-writing it and rearranging it. Use attention-grabbing language like “learn how to”, “here’s how to”, or ask a question that you know from your research your reader wants the answer to. Also, including numbers in your headline can really spur interest too. An example could be “5 Simple Steps to Writing An Awesome Blog Post”!
Step 3: Write the body
If you’ve done a good job on the first two steps, then the body of the blog should just about write itself.
Here are some key things to keep in mind when you’re writing your blog body:
- You’re writing for people, not search engines! While you do want to be found by Google, don’t spam keywords or try to squeeze them where they clearly don’t fit.
- Keep your sentences really short. Clear, concise, and to the point is the name of the game. If your sentence is longer than 20 words, consider splitting it into two.
- Likewise, keep your paragraphs short. And a great tip is to break up blocks of text with related images, which makes for easier reading.
- Don’t use language that could confuse some readers. It’s important to remember that not everyone has the same knowledge as you, so try to aim for an 8th-grade reading level.
- Your reader is going to be asking themselves, “what’s in it for me?” Be sure that you’re writing to and about your reader, not just about yourself and your business. Otherwise, they’ll likely tune out.
- Overcome objections. Predict what people may contest and show why it’s not an issue. Social proof such as case studies or testimonials can be really helpful here. Also, consider referencing articles or peer-reviewed studies.
- The conclusion of your blog shouldn’t ever go back over and reflect on every point you made in the body; it isn’t an essay! Just a couple of sentences that wrap everything up for your reader is all you need.
- Include a call to action. Blogs should have a ‘soft sell’ like “give us a shout” or “let us know what you think about this!” This helps you generate engagement and prompts the reader to follow up with you without making them feel as though they’re being pressured into doing something they may not be ready for.
If you find yourself having trouble writing the body of the blog, consider writing the outline. Start with your headings and sub-headings. Then, under each, jot down 2 or 3 dot points of relevant information for that section. Now, segue from one section to another with just a line or two, which will help your text flow seamlessly from one point to another.
And remember, you can always walk away and come back later if it just isn’t happening. Most experts recommend Two-hour session blocks for writing!
Step 4: Improve
Awesome job on writing your first draft! Often, getting words on the page is the hardest part,
but don’t stop there. Re-write sentences, rearrange sections, read the blog with fresh eyes. Even ask someone else to read it!
And another hot tip, read the blog out loud so that you can hear if it flows, and this will also help you figure out if you have your punctuation in the right places. The better you get at blog writing, the less you’ll find you have to do this step.
Step 5: Edit
I’m sure you would have seen it before, but there is nothing worse than reading a blog post that is riddled with mistakes. So, have you got all of your spelling and punctuation correct? Is the tone consistent throughout the blog? Have you fact checked all of your claims? These are the simple, easy to fix problems that can make or break your credibility. Double, triple, and quadruple check everything. It doesn’t take too long, and it will save you in the end.
So that’s your blog done!
Hopefully, I’ve provided some tips and tricks which will help you when you go to write your next blog post.
As the Director of Creative Copy Co., I love having the opportunity to write blogs, website copy, and other engaging content for businesses that want to stand out from the crowd and care about connecting with their audiences.
And, if you’ve got any questions, suggestions, or other tips that I have mentioned here, I’d love to hear from you. Just drop me a line at holly@creativecopyco.com.au or go and check out our website at creativecopyco.com.au.
