The cornerstone of the digital age is the democratization of information. Today, nothing’s unavailable if you know what you’re searching for. While forms of media like video and audio are playing a greater role, most of those search results still point to written content. Are blogs a stubborn relic of the past? Nah, this space is alive and kicking: Every day, close to 3 million blog posts are published on WordPress alone.
There are reasons behinds this: Unlike video, a blog allows users to skim for information and not get too heavily invested until they decide it’s useful. Since blogs are in text format, they’re also a vital part of your SEO strategy: search engine crawlers go through the text content on your site, and a relevant blog post will add to your page rank.
Blog popularity also has to do with the ever-increasing demand for information. Your audience and potential customers are constantly searching for solutions to their problems. You need to supply the answers in the form of blogs, events, whitepapers, videos, and other content formats.
Everyone’s doing this, leading to intense competition for keyword leadership and page ranks. This leads us to our main questions: prospects are looking for answers, and there’s plenty of content already out there. How do you write content that actually converts?
Let’s take a closer look at some of the key strategies you should practice consistently to churn out blogs that convert.
Be Solution-oriented
Your prospects and audience are searching for solutions when they are reading your blog. When creating content, though, it is often very easy for you to fall into the trap of not wanting to share too much. A lot of businesses focus on “filler” blogs that either introduce topics or talk about them at a high level, without offering real solutions. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that if you aren’t giving your readers that information, they will go somewhere else to get it!
It is important to be genuinely interested in solving your customer’s or prospect’s problems through the blogs you write. Be generous with tips, tricks and tools that will be of use to them in everyday life or work. Once you have established yourself as a provider of solutions, it is very likely that they will reach out to you when they have a problem that they truly can’t solve themselves and need expert help with.
Don’t Make Keyword Soup
Another trap many content writers fall into is focusing too much on technical SEO. They end up cramming keywords into pieces to create something resembling a blog while giving actual people very little value. This approach might have worked years ago. But today, advanced, AI-based search-engine crawlers assess the value of a piece of content to real people: keywords are just one part of the overall picture.
One thing to keep in mind is to remember that your audience is giving you their time and expecting value in return. If you don’t give them that value, they are not likely to come back! If you stuff keywords into your content, you might get a few more search hits, but it’s all temporary. Because the content’s actual utility is low, you’ll see a higher bounce rate as people close out your post and look for answers elsewhere. When creating content, don’t put on your SEO hat first. Find topics and content that matter to your audience, write about it. Then come back and see how you can optimize it for SEO.
Balance Brand And Product Promotion With Value
One of the major issues that people have when consuming brand content is that it’s often overtly salesy or promotional. No one wants to read your product or service catalog when they’re trying to find a solution to a problem. Are we saying not to promote at all? Of course not! You have every right to promote your product. But you need to find a way to do that in a subtle way that doesn’t detract from the value you’re trying to provide.
Adding a CTA at the end of the blog is a great way to promote your brand without cutting into your content. Alternately, you could present your product or service as one of a number of alternatives.
Give the reader valuable information they can use to solve the problem, then present your solution after this as a way to get things done easier and more effectively.
Focus on Quality Over Quantity
You might be tempted to write blog posts on a variety of topics because of the potential to attract a wider range of people. But a better use of your time would be to focus on cornerstone topics that people keep coming back to in the long-term. While writing blogs on the same topics, you must take assistance from an online paraphraser. It takes your previous content and paraphrases it effectively without losing its actual concept. A good piece of content that generates readers, subscribers, and leads on a long-term basis is always better than five blogs that can grab attention momentarily.
This doesn’t mean that you should focus only on a few cornerstone topics. However, your strategy needs to strike a balance between quality and quantity to ensure that you generate a consistent output of relevant, solution-oriented pieces.
It’s also important to update your cornerstone pieces regularly so that they remain relevant in the long-term. This gives you the ability to generate backlinks over time as other people quote your expertise, helping immensely with lead generation and SEO.
Write for Personas. One Size Doesn’t Fit All!
When you are writing blog posts for your brand, it is important to wear your marketer’s hat. You need to be constantly in touch with your sales, marketing, and product teams to keep yourself updated and also to sniff out opportunities for content that can help your organization.
One of the most important aspects to keep in mind is figuring out exactly who your audience is when you’re writing a particular blog post. When you have a persona in mind, it becomes much easier for you to write accordingly, and it also becomes easier for your marketing team to promote the content properly.
Some content appeals to those who are entirely new in the domain or to beginners and basic users. Some pieces could be targeted towards C-suite audiences, who are key decision-makers. Some could be for those key influencers that your sales team is trying to grab the attention of. Have conversations with sales and marketing to understand who you’re selling to, then keep those personas in mind while writing your content.
Conclusion
Your blog content becomes successful when it fits well within your overall marketing and sales strategy. A blog is only as good as the value that the readers see in it. For you to give your readers this value, you need to go beyond just stringing keywords and ideas together. Anyone can do that. It takes deep research into the product or service, your strategy, and the motivations and problems of your audience to providing real, actionable solutions.
As a writer, your job is to make sure that whatever time your reader spends on your blog, brings value to them. They need to learn something useful during that time. When you are able to do this consistently, your entire brand benefits. While video and other content formats are increasingly important, remember that blogs still play a vital role in inbound marketing. Following these simple tips, you can consistently create blogs that convert.
If you are looking to get started on your content marketing journey and need expert support, reach out to us at Flying V group. We are passionate about creating solution-oriented content, and we would be glad to help you out!
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