Do you have a blog? If not, you should seriously consider starting one. By creating and maintaining a blog for your organization, you can publish insightful articles and position yourself as an authority in your industry. Blogging can also help you boost traffic, brand awareness, credibility, conversions, and revenue. But writing quality blog posts isn’t easy. And even if you do write blog posts, it can be challenging to leverage them in a way that has a tangible benefit your company.
Here are four tips for blogging that the most successful bloggers use to grow their business and reach their goals.
1. Write for Your Personas
A buyer persona is a semi-fictionalized representation of your ideal customer, based on research and real data about your customers. By developing and using personas when you write your blog posts, you can keep your target audience top-of-mind throughout the writing process. This will result in articles that address the specific needs of the audience you most want to reach with your content. Don’t believe me? The next time you begin drafting a blog post, pin up the buyer persona you are writing for. Put it somewhere you will see it as you write. This will keep your target audience in focus and help you create a blog post that will be appreciated and shared by your readers, as represented by your persona.
Need help developing a persona?
Use our handy Buyer Persona Template.
2. Bring Value to the Table in Each Article
Don’t waste the time of your audience. You want to build a blog that is worthwhile to follow and read, and the only way to do that is to bring value to the table in each and every blog post you write. Entertain them. Teach them. Inform them. Reading blog posts is transactional. Think about it. You are asking the audience to take the time to read your article, and in return you are going to help them in some way. Do your research and write about topics that readers will be interested in. Give them helpful tips, industry insights, and useful tools. If you do, they will come back for more and be more likely to share your articles with friends, family, and colleagues.
Blog about topics that will keep your target personas informed and entertained.
3. Use Multiple CTAs, in Different Formats
Whoa there! Slow down. What’s a CTA?
CTA stands for Call to Action. A CTA acts as an advertisement that you can use in your blog posts to promote other pieces of content that your audience might be interested in. CTAs can come in a variety of forms: a button, an image, or even a simple line of text. Regardless of the form a CTA may take, when a visitor clicks on it they will be able to continue their experience with your company. They can be directed to sign up for your email newsletter, fill out a form to download a guide, watch a video, and much, much more. The possibilities are nearly endless and you will love the results: more conversions, more data, and more time spent by your audience on your website.
4. Review, Revise, Repeat
Once you’ve drafted your post, you’re almost done. Now it’s time to edit. This starts by thoughtfully reviewing what you have written. Read the article and look for things that will need to be revised. As you review your article, try to answer these questions:
- Will the buyer persona care about this content? Why?
- Does this article add anything new or interesting to the broader conversation about this topic?
- Do the sentences make sense? Do they form cogent arguments for or against the topic?
- Does the article flow well? Do you notice any “gaps” that need to be filled?
- Is your grammar, punctuation, and spelling in order?
You probably noticed that I mention grammar, punctuation, and spelling last. Many first-time bloggers focus on punctuation and spelling during the editing process. This is a mistake. Review your content and ideas first, then focus on grammar. You can always go back and fix a typo—it’s much harder to fix a blog post that rambles, breaks down, or fails to deliver a meaningful message.
After the initial review, make your revisions. Rewrite. Fix the errors and smooth out the writing. And when all of that is done, review and revise the article again. After that, you should have a blog post worthy of publishing. Resist the urge to keep reviewing and revising. The pursuit of perfection can prevent the deployment of quality content. If you can answer the questions in the review stage satisfactorily, then move forward with your post.
