Blogs serve many different purposes – to share industry insights, to share behind the scenes news, or to simply share something fun or interesting.
While the reasons to blog change from person to person and company to company, there are a few key factors to keep in mind for every blog post written and shared – no matter who is writing it and for what purpose.
Below is a list of 7 items to include in every blog post to ensure your content gets the most bang for your buck.
While this list is not totally comprehensive, it does provide a solid enough foundation; start implementing these into your daily and weekly strategies, and you will see the results unfold before you.
1. Author box at the end:
There is nothing worse than choosing to read a piece of content, only to find out the post was shared by an “admin.” The point of blogging and being social is to create trust in the community, build influence, etc. In order to take advantage of the limitless opportunities available to you, you first must put yourself out there to be seen.
2. Internal links between pages:
You are fortunate enough to catch someone’s attention and they click on the link that takes them to your blog. But, what next? Internal links on blog posts allow your readers to engage with more posts and content without needing to think about it. You have their attention; now keep it by sending it to relevant, similar topics they will likely be interested in.
3. Topic geared towards audience:
Sometimes we just want to sit down and start writing. Inspiration strikes and before you know it you are sitting down putting words onto paper. However, before diving head first into your next great masterpiece, make sure you are writing something that your target audience will appreciate and hopefully share. What’s interesting to you is not always interesting to your audience. Write to fulfill their needs, not yours.
4. Share it for extra eyeballs:
You took the time to write a compelling piece of content that has a title that stops people in their tracks. And now you sit back in your desk and read it twice and give yourself a pat on the back. If your reach ends there, you are missing the point of blogging. Sure, it feels good to create great content but it feels even better (and serves a much bigger purpose) when you write great content that a lot of other people see. Once you finish your blog, share on your personal profiles, company profiles, ask your friends to share it for you, etc.
5. Use one or two captivating photos:
Forget about writing 1,000 words and just use a picture instead. Well, not really. Content is king, so the more quality content you provide that delivers value to your audiences the better off you are. However, pictures do serve a great purpose because they can be used to spark an initial interest. In addition to that, a photo that compliments the text aids in overall understanding of your topic/content and the better educated someone is the more likely they are to make a good decision.
6. Divide content into bite size pieces:
Use bullet points to keep pieces of content consumable and keep paragraphs short and to the point, or create a list. Nobody likes huge chunks of content thrown together in one, long scrolling page. After all, not many people get extra excited holding a 500-page novel.
7. Call to Action:
Basically, what is the purpose of your content/post? Do you want to educate people? If so, perhaps you have a download at the end where they can learn more by providing an email address (lead capture). Do you want to sell a product or service? If so, perhaps you want to link to your product or service page where your audience can learn more. Just want to entertain or engage? Perhaps an interesting question at the end for them to answer in the comments would work best.
At RODA marketing, all of our content marketing packages include ongoing blogging and we are sure to keep these strategies in mind when working for you.
To contact us to learn more, click here.