How to Write the Perfect Blog: Content Strategy 101
November 6, 2017
For many of us, crafting a blog can be the most dreaded part of the work week. From sitting down and writing content that’s actuate, organized, and engaging can be one of the most intimidating challenges you face.
There are several rules of thumb you can use to help craft a wonderful blog. Here we’ve put together our list of the best tips and tricks our team uses every day to craft blogs we publish for our clients.
Know Your Audience
Writing the perfect blog starts with understanding your audience. Taking a step back and asking yourself “What are my readers looking for?” and “What do my readers need to know?” is a great way to begin.
By putting yourself in your reader’s shoes, you can begin to understand what their pain points are and what information is most valuable to their needs. Based on your reader’s needs, your topics could range from any of the following:
- Information about industry news or events (Ex: Upcoming tradeshows)
- Tips and information that help solve specific problems for your readers (Ex: How product ABC can help save your company money)
- Important industry updates they need to know (Ex: Law changes affecting your customers)
Doing your homework and learning what drives your readers will help you create relevant content that grabs their attention. Taking a look at other industry related blogs or even competitors can help start you on the right path. You can also do keyword research to uncover specific topics that users on search engines like Google are searching for on a regular basis, we’ll go over this in a later section.
Optimize For Long-tail Keywords
Writing amazing content only helps if people can actually find it. Some of you may be familiar with keyword research and SEO related tactics and others may be new to the game. For those of you who are just learning, here’s a crash course.
Whenever we write a blog, we try to tailor the content around a few specific long-tail keywords. In simple terms, long-tail keywords are a string of words users type into the search bar of a search engine. Usually, they look something like “How to write a great blog” or “Japanese Restaurants Near Me”.
Whenever users type these words into a search bar, search engines like Yahoo and Google review web pages in their databases and return results that are relevant to what the user is searching for. They determine this relevancy based on keywords derived from web pages and content.
If you’re writing a blog and want to have it rank organically on a search engine, you should tailor the topics and content around long-tail keywords that your visitors are actively searching for. This will help drive readers to your blog and also help improve the organic keyword rankings of your site overall.
Include Images & Videos
Like most readers, when you’re scrolling through the pages of your favorite website or blog, you notice images and videos. Reading through the text you likely gravitate towards diagrams, helpful info, and even the occasional “How-To” YouTube video linked right into the page. Believe it or not, blogs with images or other media get 94% more total views compared to posts with just text.
Not only do images and videos help break up longer content, they also help create a better user experience overall. Through drawing attention to the most important areas of your content using different types of media, you can increase valuable traffic metrics and create a resource for your readers to reference in the future.
Just on the topic of SEO alone, there are several popular charts that have been circulating the internet on hundreds of different blogs. These images not only help aspiring professionals understand the material, they also help drive leads back to their original source. We at VIG have referenced a few of these images from time to time and give shout-outs whenever we can.
Bottom line? Pictures are worth far more than a thousand words. They can help improve the value of your content and drive leads to your website far into the future.
Build Your Content Strategy
Knowing how to write the perfect blog is only one component of reaching your audience and helping them achieve their goals. Understanding how your blog integrates with your other channels like social media, advertising, and sales materials is a critical aspect of building a successful content strategy.
One of the biggest issues we see today with clients is the general disconnect they have between their different touch points. Their blog might position them as an industry leader in their market with the most advanced technology available and their social media and print material might convey a value-based proposition instead.
Regardless of your value proposition and positioning, when putting together your blog, you need to have a clear and consistent message in relation to your other communication channels. This will help you create a more unified brand image overall and help build your credibility in the market.
Creating the perfect blog isn’t easy. It’s a skill writers’ need to practice over and over again. If you’ve read this far and still have questions about how to write the perfect blog for your business, don’t be afraid to reach out. We love working with new clients and guiding them to a successful, content-driven future.
Want to learn more about how our copywriters can help you grow your business? Think VIG!