Not all blog content is equal. For some time now, blog content hasn’t been about quantity and the number of backlinks and keywords you can fit into a singular piece. Now it is about quality, having reputable sources, and a couple of key terms that make sense and offer substance to your readers.
It all sounds simple enough, but many businesses are still failing to draw in organic traffic or have a blog in the first place.
You have 2 – 3 seconds to grab your reader’s attention and to convince them to delve deeper into your website (hopefully urging them to click onto a call to action). To do this, you need to learn what makes effective blog content.
1. Know your audience
Don’t know who you are writing for? If you don’t, your content isn’t going to be curated for them and will fail to catch their attention. You should know what your audience want/need from your business (if you don’t, then this is a larger issue you need to rectify), and your content should reflect these needs.
Industry-related news, opinion pieces, guides, eBooks, seasonal blog posts… all these different forms of content should be targeting a specific type of person. Take the time to create a buyer persona so that you know who your customers are and how to reach them.
2. Have a tone of voice (TOV) and brand image
A consistent and unique TOV will set you apart from other, similar businesses. Consumers may decide they enjoy your content more and find your brand more trustworthy if you have a consistent TOV that reflects your brand image.
Are you going to be upbeat and fun?
Is your content going to be professional and informative?
Will your content include a good pun?
While it’s easy to think of blog content as an easy means to add SEO technic, it also allows you to add personality to your brand that’ll garner better brand presence. Consider the brands that have viral content and how it sits with their readers? Research your competitors and whether there is room for a different voice to cut through the noise.
3. Invest in quality content writers
Writing is a skill and investing in quality content writers is an investment that shouldn’t be overlooked. Your blogs need to be grammatically correct, unique, and groundbreaking. Professional copywriters will usually possess research skills as well as the ability to edit – extremely useful to have within an in-house content team.
If you want to test out writers and whether an in-house writer or freelancer would be best for you, but do not have the necessary funds right now, then looking for payday loans to help bridge the gap can be useful. This money can also go towards a proper setup, with a computer and accounts to platforms and software that can help them do keyword research and analytics.
4. Put a content strategy in place
There is little point in creating content without having a strategy in place that highlights your goals and how well your content is doing – you need to review facts and figures and see what is working and what isn’t so that you can adapt your strategy.
Your content strategy should consider these following key elements:
- Your audience
- Content formats
- Where it will be published
- How regularly you will be publishing
- Your main goals
- Where you want to be in a year’s time
