A Foolproof Guide to Writing a Stellar Blog
4 Easy Steps to Creating Relevant Content
Writing a blog is more than just putting words on a screen. A quality blog post has to have relevant content that adds value and tells a story with a new twist that people haven’t heard before. It also requires proper planning and an interesting, catchy headline that grabs the attention of your targeted audience. At Big Red Dog Marketing, we always make sure we create content that keeps people reading, engaged, and coming back for more. Not 100% sure how to create a great blog that keeps your readers hooked? Check out these four easy steps below.
Step 1: Plan it out
The first part of planning your blogs starts with choosing a relevant topic that will be meaningful to your targeted audience and interesting to you as a writer. If the topic is mundane, or you have no interest in writing the article, that tone will come through in the writing.
Once you have decided on your topic, don’t skip the planning phase. As a blog writer, planning is probably the most important part of the writing process, so take the time to do your “homework.”
- Pick a topic that is interesting to you so that your reader can feel your enthusiasm. Connect emotionally to the piece so that you can grab the attention of the reader, and then hold their attention.
- Research your topic and make sure to become knowledgeable enough to write a blog post that is informative, makes sense, and adds value to the reader. Think of it as being a “jack of all trades, master of none” when it comes to the topic. While you don’t have to write a thesis on the topic, you do need to know enough to write intelligently about it.
- Make sure your information is correct and relevant! Fake news and fake facts do not make for quality content. Also, make sure this information has a new angle so the reader doesn’t feel like they have seen this same approach before.
- Create an outline for your blog. Don’t skip this step. It’s important to take the time to rough out a plan of attack and use those outlining skills you learned in college. Consider it your road map for how you’d like to begin and where you see your blog ending, having it relate back to the opening thought.
Step 2: Create a relevant headline
Your headline is essential, so make sure to create a headline that is informative as well as captures the reader’s attention. Some people like to create their headline after they write the blog, but other writers are inspired by a headline first and then write their blog. A headline can also always be adapted as you work through the piece. Oftentimes, we will create a headline and subheadings, that are short and to the point but also convey enough information to entice the reader to continue. Look at your headline objectively and see if it would be interesting enough to make you click on the link to read it. Once the blog post is done, revisit the headline, and make sure it captures the essence of the blog post.
Write a quality piece
Now it’s time to take your outline and turn it into a good piece of writing. Whether you are the type of person who sits down and writes a blog post in a few hours or breaks the work up over the span of a few days, the most important thing you can do is make your blog relevant and easy to read. The whole point of your writing should be to create an engaging blog post that will keep people interested in your website and clicking through the content. Let’s face it…a blog is simply a marketing strategy to increase time and traffic on-site and make someone take action (buy now, subscribe, take a look at our products, etc.). To do this, make sure to:
- Create a great introduction to keep your readers engaged
- Use subheadings to break up your post, so it can be easily read (or skimmed)
- Wrap up your blog post by going full circle back to the introduction
- Have a “call to action” at the bottom of the blog post
Double check your work
Double, triple, quadruple check your work!! While sentence structure and grammar are important details to focus on, editing is more than just spell-checking. Make sure your work has a good flow and is short, sweet, and to the point. No one wants to read a post that is full of complex sentence structures, redundant information, or a wall of daunting text. One way to help with editing your work is to have a second pair of eyes look over it— the more eyes on your work, the less significant errors and issues you will have once it is published. Remember, your writing “street-cred” is significantly reduced if you have grammatical errors or content mistakes.
Final Thoughts
While writing a blog is more than just these four simple steps, the process for success is rather simple—write blogs about things you like, do the research, and make sure your work is quality. If you aren’t quite sure where to start your journey with blog writing and creating content for your business, feel free to give us a call.
Big Red Dog is a full-service marketing company based out of Raleigh, NC. With clients located across the country, we focus on what your business really needs and understand how to make your company competitive to deliver high-quality results. From Integrated Marketing to SEO, we tackle any marketing strategy to help drive quality traffic to your website, raise conversions that build results, and solve those complex problems that every business owner faces.
Want to learn more about our team and how we can help your business, feel free to give us a call at 919-926-8727 or email us at hello@bigreddog.marketing.
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