What makes a really good blog post that drives traffic and conversions? There are some key ingredients that should go into all blog content and your wider website copy as well for that matter. The foundations of a strong blog post starts with having great copy that inspires, educates and motivates your readers. Check out our top ingredients for creating more engaging blog posts designed to attract prospective customers.
CREATE EFFECTIVE COPY THAT CONVERTS
If you are selling a consultancy service or SaaS service, you have to be a bit more creative with content than B2C businesses selling a product. Unlike a physical product you can touch so therefore describe, a service is intangible so you have to rely on stressing the benefits as well the features. If you are in a space like tech, finance or property, customers are expecting content that is simple and straightforward to encourage them to purchase. Technical jargon may be fine internally, but that is unsuitable for consumers who often need guidance to invest in a service they may be unfamiliar with. This is where guides, tutorials and case studies are really useful in helping to drive conversions. You have an opportunity to really stress the benefits of your service, how it will solve the customer’s problem and more importantly how it could save them time and money. Perhaps you’re a business coach who is selling peace of mind or an interior designer selling a luxury lifestyle; by using emotive and persuasive words you can capture the imaginations of readers and really tackle their pain-points.
KEEP PARAGRAPHS AND SENTENCES PUNCHY
With more and more consumers reading your content on their phones and tablets, it makes sense to keep your blog posts short and snappy so they are easily digestible on the go. It’s worth remembering that most of us have a short attention span, especially when reading online, so you copy should cater to this. Paragraphs should only consist of a couple of sentences and those sentences should be brief and punchy. Your content brief should outline the word-count so stay away from long rambling sentences; chop them up into something easy and quick to consume.
OPEN WITH KEYWORD FRIENDLY TITLES AND INTRODUCTIONS
A title is the first thing a reader will see when they stumble on your content so make sure it’s a memorable one. A blog title can make or break a piece of content in the same way a news headline will either encourage or deter readers. Ensure your title is front loaded with the relevant keywords you want the piece to rank for and reflects any other popular search terms. What should follow is a brief introduction that neatly summarises the main themes of the article without giving too much away. This introduction should only be a few lines to entice readers to continue reading the rest of the article. Subheadings should be used liberally to break up the post, especially if it is a ‘how-to’ style guide or a list type of content. The best subheadings should ask the most frequently asked questions from customers regarding the subject matter as this could also reflect keyword search phrases too. Remember when this post is promoted across social media, readers will only briefly glance at your title and possibly your introduction so they need to have that ‘click-bait’ factor.
CONSIDER TONE OF VOICE AND RELEVANT KEYWORDS
Your content brief should outline the audience for your copy to ensure you have the correct tone of voice. If you are in the B2B sector writing for a corporate audience, naturally your TOV will be quite different from the content produced by the B2C sector. Breakdown your audience into buyer personas with real life customer profiles including names, ages and hobbies. Think about the types of magazines they read, the programmes they watch and the social media accounts they follow. This will give you an insight into the type of content your customers consume and you can create content based on this. Your tone of voice is essentially how you will sound to your personas. It is the difference between an informal humourous tone or a formal more corporate tone. Once TOV is established, you will need to incorporate relevant SEO keywords based on search volumes when writing blog content. This tends to fluctuate seasonally so your content should reflect this and as a side-note it is worth referencing any queries that may arise via social media or your customer services channels.
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