Blogging is a vital part of a content marketing strategy but writing blog posts without a built-in blog content strategy can represent your brand in a negative fashion. Blogging can increase revenue, improve brand awareness, and boost conversions based on the written content topics targeted towards aiding customers to understand all facets of your product or service.

55% of marketers have reported blogging is their top inbound marketing priority. The key is making quality, valuable content. The purpose for the blog must be present to maintain a successful blog and to keep your target audience engaged,

Once you have all the elements in place for the blog post, it’s time to sit down and write the content itself. The answer to how to create a blog content strategy that converts lies within blog writing tips and following notable blog content strategies.

5 Steps to Creating a Blog Content Strategy

How you market your blog to line up with your business marketing strategy will depend on how you share it on other channels. According to Content Marketing Institute, 60% of organizations who use written content strategy are effective in their efforts. Elevating your blog content will start with best practices for blog content strategies. The following are five steps that will help craft a blog content strategy that converts:

Identify the Goal of The Post

The first thing that you need to keep in mind throughout brainstorming is the goal of the post itself. Before you write the post, ask yourself “What do I want to accomplish with this blog post that will enhance the blog content strategy”?

The five common goals of most blog posts are:

  • To inform: This is usually about something that is newsworthy about your product, service, or event. A newspaper story and a new product that you’re introducing to the market are examples of an informative blog post.
  • To educate: These posts focus on content that teaches you how to do something. The goal of this very blog is to educate you on how to write blog posts. A video game, movie, or book review are examples of educational posts because the media receives access to the materials before the general public. They in turn educate you on whether the product is worth your money.
  • To entertain: The goal of these posts is to make the readers laugh or at the very least take their minds off their stressful day. BuzzFeed stories often have great examples of this type of blog post. Notice the story isn’t that funny, but it does makes the readers wish they were eating at one of those breathtaking restaurants.
  • To introduce a discussion: The goal of these blog posts is to increase the interaction between the writer of the posts and the audience. This story used social media to create a discussion about telling better stories. The writer served as the moderator and sometimes contributor to the discussion. This is simply how embedded tweets can be used to dole out the advice.
  • To motivate: The goal of these posts is to get the audience to do something worthwhile. A good example of this is the “Get Out to Vote” posts that you will see as election time approaches.

There are times that you will be able to combine these goals, but it needs to be done in the right manner. For example, if you’re are trying to educate on how to write persuasive content, you should not use examples of bad content in an attempt to entertain. As you engage with your audience, keep in mind their needs as well as your goals. The basis of all you do should surround a well-thought-out plan.

Capture Audience Attention Quickly

This is the hardest part of blog writing. Most visitors won’t read even 50% of your content and many will be gone before the halfway point if you don’t capture the reader’s attention immediately. Content Management Systems having a designated meta description box will allow you to write creative and informative leads that can draw the audience into your stories.

Get to your main point of the story quickly. Tell the audience what they need to know right at the top of your post. For instance, you’re writing a movie review, tell the audience whether the movie was good or bad right away. Don’t dive into the plot, individual performances, or cinematography before telling the audience that this movie is worthy of their time. This movie review from Variety is a great example of telling the audience what they need to know about the movie. Variety is a decent example of getting to the main point quickly before dealing with the other details. They devote a whole paragraph to telling you that the “Need For Speed” movie is simply okay.

Have Multiple Headings 

When someone visits a blog post the visitor needs to be engaged throughout the whole post.

If the entire post is just regular text, the audience is never going to devote the mental effort of figuring out the main points of the story. However, if you put the main points into individual sections and give the sections a title, the audience can clearly see when you’re transitioning to a different point. Remember that when you blog, you don’t use indents so diversifying your content by creating headings will allow you transition from point-to-point.

Change Up Paragraph Lengths

The days of having to write four or five sentences to make a paragraph are long gone, at least on the Web. For online, you usually want your paragraphs to consist of 1-3 sentences. A direct quote should be its own paragraph, even if it’s not a block quote.

Conduct Target Market Research

Before you begin asking how to write blog posts, you need to know what content to include based on what your audience is researching. Your blog posts should naturally fit not only your audience’s current needs but also what they will need in the future. Good research can help with that. See where your competitors are so you can make sure you are on trend, or if you have a hidden opportunity to be the subject matter expert for your industry.

For your blog to drive traffic to your site, persuade and convert prospective customers, and increase revenue, your blog content strategy must be well managed. Focus on interacting with content like yours and being an influential blog within your niche. Understand with this content you are aiming to be a thought-leader on the topics you present to build customer loyalty and awareness. By fulfilling curiosities and building a vault of trust with your audience, you will see your blog content strategies prove to be successful as your business will reflect your blog marketing performance.

Tips for Writing a Blog

Once created and established, the blog can be further maintained through marketing and content. Since a blog can be time consuming to maintain, here are a few tips for writing a blog:

One of many blog writing tips that is helpful to command authority in your blog posts is repurposing blogs. By updating or republishing content, you continue providing relevant topics, so your audience won’t miss you in their research. Knowing how to write blog posts with recreated elements will help you save time while maintaining quality.

In addition to repurposing content, blog writing tips such as deciding where you will distribute your blog content can be beneficial. Having a blog builder to service how content is published and managed online is a great option that can be automated. For example, CRMs like SharpSpring Social can help you manage the blog and make content sharable on various platforms to represent the brand. Once you’re ready to start blogging, these tips for writing a blog are a potentially successful way to nurture quality and potential leads.

Forming trust and answering questions of your audience will contribute to how to create a blog content strategy that helps individuals. This will then help move them through your marketing funnel. Your audience will appreciate the information and this shows purpose for your blog’s existence for continued marketing success.

 Frequently Asked Blog Content Questions

How do you create a content strategy?

Begin with establishing your goals, conduct research to satisfy your target customer persona, then brainstorm your ideas based on the information you compile. From there, choose a CMS that will fit your strategy needs, run a content audit based on what is working and what needs adjustments. Finally, determine your content types to publish and further manage your content based on the data collected.

What should be in a content strategy?

Included in a content strategy should be content ideation, content development, and publications. Be sure to make time for editorial calendar planning, on-page SEO, creation, editing, oversight, and any other activities related to content management needed to support the brand goals.

How do I choose content for my blog?

First, recognize your target audience, then focus on topics that will be relevant to your niche, objectives, and audience. Leverage content that will keep you on track with your strategy plans by finding blogs that compete with yours or are seen as thought leaders of the topics you want to cover.

How do you write a blog post?

Starting with a topic in your niche that is brand specific or low-volume in search will help you begin to establish authority with your blog in your industry. Do research on the subjects or questions related to your overarching topic and title which will allow you to shape the blog before you finally execute and promote the post.

AUTHOR
Isabel Hasty
Isabel Hasty writes and edits case studies to share client success stories and industry trends. She produces a variety of lead-generation content, including white papers, blogs, infographics, and thought leadership articles.