- December 23, 2022
How To Write A Good & Engaging Blog Post For A Business
Nigel is a Technical SEO Specialist at a Digital Marketing Agency based in Singapore. He also dabbles in freelance SEO content writing and is an avid language learner.
They don’t say content is king for nothing 👑
76% of respondents in a Content Marketing Institute study revealed that blog posts are most effective from moving leads from the awareness to consideration stage of the marketing funnel. That is a lot of marketers.
But in an online world inundated with a seemingly endless amount of content, how can businesses produce engaging blog posts to stand out from the crowd and drive results?
In this article, I will be discussing the criteria for a good blog post, what the format of a blog post should look like, and the best tips for writing a good and engaging one. Let’s delve in, shall we?
What is a blog post?
A blog post is a body of written text published on web pages. Apart from regular text content, they contain other elements such as header tags, images, as well as internal and external links.
For businesses, blog posts serve many functions ranging from helping to grow the site’s organic traffic to educating potential buyers on the company’s unique selling point.
What makes a great blog post?
1) An engaging introduction with a roadmap
Your introduction is THE most important section of your blog article. If your readers don’t stay on your page, you have essentially failed. And the time spent planning for and writing the blog would be for naught.
Play around with your opening line, and try injecting humor. I did this when I was writing a piece comparing cold, warm, and hot calls.
Alternatively, you can use words that bring out the gravitas or urgency of the problem your blog post aims to address. I tried this in a listicle I wrote on the best sales automation tools in the market.
Engaging hooks aside, you will also need to include a roadmap about what your article will be about. This will help inform your reader about what they can expect in your article. It also helps them see if any of the headers in your article will help address their query.
2) Headers that answer your searchers’ queries
People take to search engines to try and find the information they need to address their queries or solve a problem. If your post does not address these queries, it’s unlikely to perform well from an SEO perspective.
If you’re not sure how to start, look at what your competitors are writing about to get a sense of the headers you should include in your blog article.
I’d recommend writing down the headers that are common among all the top-ranking pages and then adding your own ones. Then, you can add more value to your piece by adding your own headers that provide additional useful information that you think your reader might need to know.
3) Body paragraphs that tell a coherent story
Now that your introduction and headers are settled, you’ll need to tell a coherent story in your body paragraphs.
Ensure that you arrange your headers in a logical manner. For example, if you are writing a piece about the best sales automation software, you should talk about how the reader can pick the best one before going on to list the many options.
4) Useful and concrete examples
Always write with the reader in mind and add value to their experience on your site.
There really isn’t a point in you writing a blog post about writing a good blog post if you don’t talk about the ‘how’. If you’ve noticed by now, I’ve included examples in a few points above in order to illustrate what I was talking about.
5) Elements that break up plain text
Reading through a 2000-word article can be a real pain if there aren’t any breaks to the text. Include elements like images, bolded text, or even emojis 👍😊🥺 to change things up a little and add a bit of attitude to your writing 😎
6) A persuasive call to action (CTA)
You’ll definitely want your readers to take action after they’ve finished reading the article. Include CTA to guide your reader to take action. If you were writing an informational piece, you could include a CTA to get them to check out other articles on your blog.
If you were writing a bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) piece, you could include a CTA that directs your readers to a page to schedule a call for a demo.
What does the format of a blog look like?
This really depends on the goal of writing the blog post in the first place.
The overall blog posts need to tell readers exactly what they should expect to see when they visit your web page via. If they landed on your page by Googling “best food blogs in Singapore”, your blog should have a format that lists down the various local food blogs. And everything on that page should convince the reader why the food blogs listed are among the best in the country.
Top tips for writing an amazing blog post
1. Have a topic
The first thing you need to do before beginning any article is to have a clear idea in mind about what kind of content you want to share.
If your goal is to get traffic to your website, then you should focus on providing valuable information that people would enjoy reading. You should always remember that a good blog post is something that makes readers think or feel something.
In that regard, it is also important for you to think about who would actually be interested in reading what you’re going to say. Try having some sort of goal in mind – if you know a certain audience you need to target, do some research on them. You could even go online and find blogs written by their authors and look at those.
So make sure that you choose your topics carefully. In fact, you could write about anything if it helps your audience understand something or learn something.
2. Use SEO keywords
In order for your words to reach millions of people, you should use SEO keywords that are relevant to your niche. Your keywords should appear naturally in your articles.
Avoid using general terms such as “product”, “service”, “website”, etc., unless you’re specifically targeting those companies. People won’t search for these generic terms – they’ll look for specific ones. For example, use keywords like “content marketing agency singapore”, “outbound call software”, or “freelance web designer”.
You should also target long-tail keywords that are related to your product or service. These keywords are generally less competitive and can improve the odds of your content ranking for them.
3. Create compelling headlines
A headline is a short summary of your entire piece written somewhere above the body text. Headlines are extremely important because they tell people whether to read your blog post or not.
According to research, 60% of Facebook users scan headlines to decide whether or not to click a link. It’s absolutely necessary to get the attention of your audience right away.
Keep in mind that headlines should be concise yet descriptive. Try to avoid using phrases like, “This is my new website,” or “Read this blog post to discover how to…” Instead, say something like, “Learn How to Build An Amazing Website.” This type of headline will draw people’s attention much more quickly than the previous one.
Also, your headline should convey the same message as your entire article. If you talk about a method to improve your social media marketing skills, don’t end up telling people that you’ve got great skills. Make your headline stand out by being original and unique. Include special characters, numbers, and symbols to make your headline catchy and memorable.
4. Use images
When it comes to visual communication, images are often overlooked. Using pictures as blog posts’ background isn’t uncommon nowadays. Many people prefer visual content over plain text because they’re easier to digest.
Some types of images you can use in your blog posts include infographics, charts and graphs, or even memes.
Images grab attention fast, let you communicate more effectively, and help your readers visualize everything you describe. Never neglect them.
5. Keep it simple
When you’re crafting a blog post, keep it short and sweet. Give people exactly what they came looking for so they can move along. Don’t ramble on and on about something that’s already been said.
People, on average, actually read at an eight grader’s level. So stop stressing out about the need to include New York Times-esuqe vocabulary. Just stick to the basics. This also helps you ensure that everything makes sense and isn’t confusing to your reader.
I believe that the best blogs share stories that teach lessons, inspire action, and improve lives. And while there are many aspects to writing a good piece of content, simplicity trumps complexity.
Do you have a better idea on how to write an engaging blog post for your business now?
You might not realize it now, but perfecting your skills takes dedication.
Just like practicing the guitar, learning how to write a blog post for your business takes patience. While you can’t put in hours upon hours working on your craft every single day, you can still set aside a few minutes per week to work on your writing.
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