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Blogs are a great marketing tool and, amongst other things, can reduce the amount of money you are spending on paid marketing.

If you’re making the effort to write blogs, make sure they have as much impact as possible. There are several things worth bearing in mind to help you write blogs people will actually want to read.

Blogs have to be both easy to read and worth reading. The search engines also expect this – and they have to be able to find them first. 

If you can remember these seven things each time you write a blog, they should help you grow your business.

1. Know why you are posting blogs

It’s hard to do something well if you don’t really know why you’re doing it. You’re not writing a blog just because your marketer or best friend told you it’s a good thing to do. And while they might help you sell a product or service, this is not their principle reason for being. You can do that with advertisements, direct marketing, and campaigns through social media channels, for example.

Blogs are there to inform, educate, or entertain your readers. They should help increase your expertise and authority within your given arena and promote trust. Done properly, they should also drive more traffic to your website: blogs are a valuable tool, particularly for small businesses. 

2. Know your audience

What does your target customer look like? What are they interested in? What level of knowledge do they already have in your product or service? It can be easy to forget that not everyone is an expert in your field. Make sure you are writing in a way that will be easily understood by the demographic you are targeting.

You should aim to write in an engaging, conversational manner regardless of your audience. However, your tone and register – or how formal or informal your writing is – and the words and phrases you use will vary according to your target market. If you want to sell financial services to people in their 20s you should write in a way that appeals to them, not their grandparents!

If you are not sure who your target audience is, there are various exercises you can do to help you work it out.

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3. Choose interesting topics and offer value

Knowing your target audience will also help you find subjects your readers will be interested in. Remember, you are not writing just for the sake of it. What topics would your customers like to know more about? What about what you do might they like more information on? Are there any frequently asked questions that would make good blog posts?

Can you provide free information and advice about things that matter to your clients? Maybe they are interested in knowing more about your industry and how it works. Or maybe they don’t care about the bigger picture, they just want to know about things that directly impact them. Either way, your blogs should show you as competent, expert, and providing further resources. They should show that you care. 

Addressing and answering the topics and questions your potential customers are searching for online will help them find you. 

4. Use SEO keywords and phrases

When you have chosen your topic and know what you’ll be writing about, you can do some keyword research. The search engines look for the keywords and phrases used in your writing to work out what it’s about. They then index it accordingly. 

SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the process of ‘optimising’ your content to show the search engines you’ve got what they’re looking for. They can see that by returning your blog in a search that includes specific matching keywords and phrases, they should be providing their users with what they need. 

When you are writing a blog, think about what questions it answers or the purpose it serves. Make sure you include the words and phrases people are likely to be searching in relation to your blog topic. It helps to use your keywords in headings and subheadings.

5 . Take care with your writing, editing, and proofreading

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Don’t think of a blog post as bashing out 500+ words when you have a spare hour. Think of it more as a way to show any potential clients how professional and insightful you are. To do this you need to write well and make sure you have checked and double-checked your blog before you publish it. There are various strategies you can use to improve your content writing skills.

When you’ve written a first draft it’s a good idea to leave it for a while before going through it again. You should find you can cut out lots of excess words. You might be able to rephrase sentences to make them more concise and pithy. Check your points flow from one to the next and there’s no rambling or going off on a tangent.

Take advice from your grammar and spell checkers  – but don’t automatically assume they’re always right or will find all errors. You could have the wrong word but if it’s spelt right it won’t be flagged as wrong.

When you’re happy with how your blog post reads, read it through again – preferably out loud. You’ll probably find a few more mistakes. Check for consistency too: if you use ‘£10m’ in one section, you should stick with this format: don’t write ‘half a million pounds’ in another section – it should be £10m and £500k or ten million pounds and half a million pounds/five hundred thousand pounds.

6. Make your blog visually appealing

You are competing for people’s attention at all times online. If your blog doesn’t look interesting enough to draw people in straight away, they’ll keep scrolling. 

Make sure your blog is laid out so it is easily skimmable. We tend to read in an F-shape pattern online and look for headings and lists so we can assess what is relevant to us and whether we should keep reading. Our brains like whitespace and visual breaks. Add in other media like pictures, videos, and infographics to add interest and appeal to different learning styles.

Always preview your blog before you press publish. How your post looks in the inputting screen may not be how it looks when it’s live. You’ll often find the layout and spacing is different. If you have bullet points you’ve cut and pasted, for example, they might not appear as you would expect. Photos can get stretched and might appear larger, smaller, or in a different position than they appear in your draft.

7. Be consistent

Consistency in all things is important because then people know what to expect. They make certain associations with you and your brand. Use or develop your own ‘house style’ and stick with it.

For example, try to make your blogs roughly the same length each time. It doesn’t have to be exact, but try to avoid 500 words one time, 2,000 the next. Use the same language and tone of voice each time. Visually your blogs should have a common theme. None of these things are set in stone – they can evolve with you – but try to see consistency as your friend.

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Posting great blogs regularly

If you would like to transform your blog writing skills, my online blog writing course could be for you. It takes you through the process from start to finish – and more – to ensure your blogs having the impact they should.

If, however, blog writing seems like all too much effort, getting a professional to provide you with a regular supply of blogs will pay dividends. You can choose how much support you need, depending on your requirements and your budget. You’ll find more information on my professional copy and content writing services page. 

Why not book a call to see what would work for you?