Structure your blog posts for the best results
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Transcript of Structure your blog posts for the best results
HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST
LEARN HOW STRUCTURING YOUR POST YIELDS THE BEST RESULTS
MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST
Many times the question arises, just how to write the perfect blog post? For me that’s
an impossible question to answer as the post can only be perfect to the reader who is
digesting the piece of content you’ve decided to distribute.
What you can do however, is devise a structure that will enable you to properly work
out whom the post is targeted at, using buyer personas. If you haven’t established your
buyer personas then down tools and start researching those. A great tool and template
resource can be found here and here.
Image courtesy of Hubspot
Introduction
MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST
What are they?Buyer Personas are profiles of your ideal customers based on research generated on
your current customer/client base. Ideally you should have several personas for your
business, based on your current client’s backgrounds, businesses or lifestyles and
decision making processes. This is why if you haven’t already you should document
where possible as much of the buying process of each client as possible. This will give
you a clear understanding of who they are, why they required your product or service
and how long the buying cycle took from start to finish.
Questions to ask yourselfWhat did your product or service provide
a solution for? Were you the first and only
option, how did that customer end up at
your door? What is it about your business
that actually sealed the deal for this client?
The more information you know about
your customer base, the better your
content offering can be.
BUYER PERSONAS
?
MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST
So you’ve researched your client base and created your personas, well where do you
go from there? Simple, the next stage of any good structure is to work out what your
persona will take away from this post. Ultimately, all blog posts are educational with a
long term sales view so there are a few options for this:
1. What stage of the sales funnel does this article fall into? Unsure, check here.
2. What is the point of this post? To drive traffic to another post? Talk about a new
product or service? A content post to drive registrations for an ebook or webinar?
Once this is clarified you are starting to establish a clear and strategic approach to
your blogging activity.
POSITION YOUR POST
MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST
The first thing to do is make sure the subject or topic of your blog post genuinely
interests you or you are experienced in that subject matter. Writing a post because you
think it will get readers in a subject you have limited knowledge in will simply show you
have limited knowledge and is counter-productive.
There are some great tools around the web available to help you out;
Hubspot have a good tool
Portent also have a topic generator
Inbound Now has idea generator
And so does content forest
THE TOPIC
MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST
OUTLINE YOUR BLOG POST STRUCTURE
Now you’ve done the hard part, you need to look at how your post will lay out. To get
into good habits lets break this down into three parts:
The Introduction
The body
The conclusion
MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST
IntroductionThe introduction is where you will set the stage for what this
article will teach your reader. Be clear and concise at this
stage. At this stage you want to establish credibility and build a
relationship with the reader to keep their interest. Conversely,
you could leave this part until after you have written the body of
the text to really sell the reader your following content. Use bullet
points to list the points you want to convey in this part of the
content.
BodyThe body really has to deliver on whatever you explained to the
reader in the introduction. The body can consist of paragraphs,
bullet points and or numbered lists. Whatever is suitable for this
particular post is what will work. Ensure that your body content is
clear, concise and easy to follow whilst also educational. Make a
list of bullet points on what this text section has to deliver so your
message is clear and easy to understand.
Conclusion/SummaryThis is where you sign off on the key message that the blog post
was written to discuss. You need to emphasise the message in a
summary style so that the reader really understands the point and
the context that was used to drive that home. To get maximum
return, again list the points this text section has to fulfil and use
this to draft an excellent conclusion or closing statement.
Your Structure
01
02
03
MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST
RESEARCH
Any written copy worth reading will be heavily researched. That means you should
spend time actively looking for external sites that support or back up your chosen
content. Look for reputable sites so that when you link copy to those sites, you get the
added benefit of the inbound/outbound links. A well-researched piece should always
provide the writer with a broader knowledge and opinion of the chosen subject matter.
If you have don’t have copy on your blog already at this stage then link to external sites,
where you have copy to support your new post, link to that.
Research
Blogs
Your posts
Video
Ebooks
News
Infographics
Webinars
Industry Publications
MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST
The tools that have been mentioned in the topic section will definitely generate ideas
for your content subject title and you can adopt any of the suggestions… for now!
The title of your blog post should always be something that is a work in progress until
just before you optimise the article for SEO purposes. Remember, the reason we leave
the SEO until last is because you are writing for an audience, you never set out with
the SEO in mind first.
CHOOSE YOUR TITLE
MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST
FINALISE THE TITLE
By now you should have a well written article just about ready to post on your blog,
however it’s time to revisit the working title you created earlier and see if that title is the
most suitable for the subject and the content you’ve just produced.
If you are struggling to write a captivating title check out this great article by Hubspot
“How to write kick ass blog titles”
Remember, the title of the article will count somewhat towards what the SEO ranking will
be so at this point your keywords will come into play. If you aren’t really sure how your
keywords can be chosen, there is a great tool available.
MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST
EDIT EDIT AND EDIT AGAIN!
Now you are ready to copy your post and paste it onto your blogging platform, have you
chosen your supporting images? Have you ensured you have all your sub headings in
the right place and all your grammar has been spell checked for the language you post
in? You wouldn’t want US English spellings in the UK and vice versa.
Always use a second pair of eyes, if you work in a marketing department or are a sole
trader, just get a colleague or family member to read it back to you, it’s better to do it
pre post than post your post!
Nearly DONE Almost ADD THAT IN
REDRAFT IT HMMMMM UNDO it all
MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST
COPY AND PASTE YOUR POST
Now you can paste your copy into your platform, some platforms will lose your styling
so never just cut and paste so you can reformat your post quite quickly with bold text,
highlights, underlines etc.
MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST
CHOOSE A MAIN IMAGE
Now the final piece of your puzzle. You need to choose a very relevant and contextual
image that will help sell your article to your potential readers. This isn’t the time to
scrimp on effort, if you don’t have your own images then look to platforms like
istockphoto.com
gettyimages.co.uk
https://bootstrapbay.com/blog/free-stock-photos/
shutterstock.com
These are only a few and I’m not affiliated to any of the sites mentioned in any way, it’s
always your choice to find your own image sources but ensure you give credit where
credit is requested or due.
In summary, when planning on how to write the perfect blog post…which I may say
might just about be impossible, structure your post to gain maximum effect from it. Like
most aspects of marketing, you need to plan well and look long term. Look past this
one post into a chain of posts to ensure the message you intend to send will resonate
throughout your content strategy at all times. Hopefully this will help you along the way!
MODEDAWEB - HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT BLOG POST
Good talk, see you out there
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