Blogging might be an integral part of digital marketing but, unfortunately, not everyone is a born blogger. We’ve created a guide that will help you to not only write better blogs and target the correct audience, but that will also help you to stay on-trend and improve your reputation as an authoritative source in your industry.
Digital Marketing Guide to Being a Better Blogger:
Topics and Targeting
If you know who you are writing for and you pick topics that will speak to them, you have half the battle won. Take some time to find your audience, research them and brainstorm topics they will be interested in. Once you’ve determined your audience, you can alter your tone of voice and address pain points they might be experiencing. By speaking to the correct people in the correct way and providing answers to their questions, you’re paving the way to becoming a “go-to” source for issues they experience.
When brainstorming topics suited to your audience, be sure to maintain a balance between evergreen content and trending topics:
-
- Evergreen content will rarely become outdated and can easily be updated with minor changes. It includes topics that will drive traffic to your blog, long after being published (nothing time-sensitive goes in this category).
-
- Trending topics may have a shorter life span, but if the topic is relevant for a short time, it can drive a surge of traffic to your blog, especially if the content has an edge of exclusivity to it. However, don’t rely exclusively on trends to drive the majority of traffic to your blog. If you do, you’re setting yourself up for a large time investment in creating new trendy content all the time.
Writing
Here are a few valuable tips to keep in mind when you are writing:
-
- Start with an outline for your post (that will guide your writing) and if this outline can be valuable to your audience, incorporate it into your post. You don’t need an outline for every post, but the more complex your post, the more valuable this roadmap becomes to your audience.
-
- Keep your writing concise, but don’t under explain topics. Add just enough information so your post is clear but easy to digest.
-
- Keep SEO principles in mind when writing. Also, remember to incorporate keywords into every part of your post, including the title, descriptions, headers and captions. Earn links from other sites by incorporating (and citing) authoritative data and quotes from industry experts.
- Schedule time to go through old posts and update outdated information, maintain links and improve on existing content.
Content
Blogging and content creation is not only about the written word. You can experiment with different types of content to keep your audience engaged. Try using video and images to liven up your posts and if possible, display statistics in a visual format like an infographic.
Your content should cover a variety of topics that range from the following:
-
- Tips and resources (to teach your audience and alleviate pain points),
- Information on your products and services (where you can include discount codes or special offers), and
- More personal posts such as success stories and insights into your business.
Use your network
Part of being a better blogger is to understand how to leverage your network. Promoting your content on every possible medium is a start, but you can reach a wider audience by partnering up with contacts in your network and giving them exposure to your followers in return. Invite contributors to help you with the content workload, and offer to be a part of their content creation plan in return. The principle is to create a community that is mutually beneficial for all members instead of ruthlessly competing with other content creators.
Becoming a better blogger should be on your priority list for an improved digital strategy, and once you’ve incorporated these essential principles, blogging will become a much simpler task to take on. Click here to find more of our resources on blogging and digital marketing.