Top tips for effective blogging

Having a blog and writing about useful topics that are relevant to your audience helps to establish yourself as an authority in the space. Blogging also assists in building rapport and maintaining relationships by engaging with your target audience while also enhancing your professional image.

Today content is king, regular blogging is a fantastic way to keep your website fresh and your users informed. See below for some easy to follow tips to help you generate effective blogs for your business:

Write for your audience

Before you start writing the blog, determine who your target audience is and decide what tone is most appropriate to use, and write in that tone and style consistently. Provide value to your audience with useful and relevant content i.e. providing top tips in a relevant topic, and don’t use it as a sales pitch.

Planning

Preparation of your blog article is important, choose a topic, create an outline, conduct research, and check facts.

Use an engaging headline

The headline of the blog is what will determine if the reader will continue to read through the blog or not. Craft a headline that is punchy, informative and will capture the readers’ attention. You can write your blog post with a working title and see what fits when you’re done if this is easier for you.

Create an outline

Great blog posts don’t just happen. Even the best bloggers need a rough idea to keep them on-track. An outline doesn’t need to be lengthy, or even detailed – it’s just a rough guide to make sure you don’t go off track and off topic.

Keep it short and sweet

Short paragraphs, no more than 2-3 sentences is a good rule of thumb to stick by. Most readers will skim a blog article before committing to reading it in its entirety. Like your time poor audience, Google also prefers short, easily digestible sentences.

Blog articles using 400-600 words usually work the best, don’t make it too long winded as the audience prefers that you get straight to the point as they will be scanning it quickly anyway.

Use fact and stats

Including relevant and current facts and statistics associated with your chosen blog topic always adds value to your article and conveys credibility. Official associations. government websites, research papers, and respected industry experts are all good examples of where to source some of your information. Remember to reference the source at the bottom of your article too.

Write the bulk of it in one go

Getting as much done of your blog in one session is the way to go. This makes it easier to stay focused on the topic, minimises the chance that you will forget crucial points, and encourages you to get it done faster.

Review your post thoroughly

Try to avoid repetition, read your post aloud to check its flow, have someone else read it and provide feedback, keep sentences and paragraphs short, don’t be a perfectionist, and don’t be afraid to cut out text or adapt your copy at the last minute. Conduct a thorough spell check before publishing.

Break it up

Use headings and sub headings to make it easier to read. Since we know that people skim before they read, you need to make sure to highlight your best information. Aside from subheadings, bullet lists are perfect because they’re very easy to skim through.

Optimise it

It’s not much good having a great website if your audience can’t find you. Make sure you optimise your site, this includes your blog articles to ensure you are ranking well on search engines i.e. google.

Enhance with imagery

Use good quality images to bring your post to life. The human brain processes visual content a lot faster than text- based content. That’s why adding captivating images can help boost your engagement.

Support with video clips

With over 85% of users viewing video, wherever possible include a short video to support content and assist with engagement and SEO.

Share it

To get maximum leverage of your article, remember to share it across all suitable communication channels including social media, enewslettters etc. This is a great way to direct users back to your website.

Include a call to action where appropriate

When suitable include an appealing call to action enticing your audience to find out more information, make an enquiry or booking.

Practice makes perfect

The more you do it, the easier and faster you will get at creating your blog articles and the more comfortable and confident you will be with the process in general.

Be consistent and be regular, blogging is not a one off thing, be disciplined with it and if you are looking for support with development of blog articles and anything else marketing related please contact leonie@realitymarketing.com.au or call 0423 361 093.