So, you want to write a blog?
We can’t blame you! Blogs are a great way to flex your writing skills and connect with readers. There’s a reason people across all disciplines and industries use them.
Savvy bloggers use theirs to boost their presence and build their brands. Their blogs help them build credibility while establishing them as thought leaders in their space. Businesses can also use them to generate leads and sales.
However, a blog writing strategy is more nuanced than you might expect. You need to know your audience, optimize your content to play nice with Google, and be confident in your vision to succeed as a blogger on today’s internet.
This is our “how to write a blog for beginners” guide, so keep reading to learn how to write engaging blog posts!
1. Quality Over Quantity
Here’s a general piece of advice: always choose quality over quantity.
This is a good rule of thumb for all kinds of writing that most definitely applies to blogs. Attention spans are getting shorter every day. Your written content is out there competing against flashy 60-second videos for people’s attention. People move on to the next thing as soon as they start to feel as if their time is being wasted.
If the old expression is true and a picture is in fact worth a thousand words, then a TikTok is probably worth a million, right? Make yours count!
2. Know What People Are Searching
You probably want people to read your writing.
Well, assuming that’s the case, then you should probably start your blog writing process by doing some research into what people are searching for. Nothing’s more defeating than investing time and energy into a topic no one cares about.
Put your wonderful topic idea into your favourite search engine.
Are there decent articles from within the last year? If so, people are probably interested in your topic. However, if the most recent result was written in 2015 on a website that looks primed to give you malware, then maybe reconsider.
3. Tell A Story
Instruction manuals, product roundups, think pieces—all writing tells a story.
Structured creativity matters in all kinds of writing. Telling a story doesn’t have to mean creating characters or writing huge action scenes. For our purposes, it means taking your readers from A to Z in a way that makes sense.
Follow this blog writing format. Start with some contextual information to set the scene, introduce your problems, then, finally, offer some solutions. We did exactly that in this blog: we opened by telling you why people write blogs (context), introduced a problem (writing blogs is hard), then moved into giving you solutions (our tips). Pretty meta, right?
P.S.: find a blog post template online if you’re stuck!
4. Optimize For SEO
Repeat after me: S-E-O is your f-r-i-e-n-d!
While, yes, you should probably enlist the services of some experts if you’re really looking to take your SEO game to the next level, we can offer some basic tips. Following these will at least get you on the path toward well-optimized content.
Your meta description—think of it like a little summary—should be roughly 150 characters, while your meta title should be 50-60. Include your keywords in your headings whenever possible without it coming across as unnatural or forced. Our primary keyword for this blog is “tips for writing a blog,” so do with that what you will!
5. Choose Your Photos Carefully
Why compete against visual media when you can use it to your advantage?
The only place you should find a wall of text is in a book. If someone scrolling through your blog could accidentally mistake it for an e-text version of a high-fantasy novel, you’re probably suffering from a case of “not-enough-photos-itis.”
Not all photos are created equal, though. Your photos must be well-optimized, properly sized, and match the tone of your blog. Your blog about fun family activities shouldn’t include dark and depressing images. Your photos should complement your writing, not detract from it, or, even worse, distract readers.
6. Tie A Bow On It
If you’ve made it this far, you better stick the landing.
Business-focused blogs should end with a “Call To Action” (CTA) that bridges the gap between what the reader has read and what you’re selling. The two big mistakes to avoid here are not bridging the gap effectively and not asking for the sale.
The former involves awkwardly transitioning into your CTA as if nothing that the reader just read even matters. Doing this will leave them wondering why they just read that entire blog in the first place—remember our earlier warning about wasted time?
Not asking for the sale comes down to confidence. Your reader is ready to hear your pitch if they’ve read all the way to the end. Be confident and direct! If you don’t ask for the sale, you are never going to get it.
Take Your Blogs To The Next Level
There you have it: six tips for writing a blog post.
But, as you’ve probably gathered, putting a blog writing strategy into action is easier said than done. Why not enlist some expert help?
The Influence Agency is a full-service digital marketing agency ready to elevate your next online marketing campaign. Whether you want us to write your blogs or help optimize your pre-existing content, we’re more than up to the task!
Contact us today to get started!