Choose a target and a topic

If you’re a fashion blogger, don’t write about bad news in the world, write positively and bring some happiness to your reader. You have to be consistent with your main subject. We are a Digital Marketing Agency, so we write about what we know, giving you some advice on how to develop your digital marketing activity. It’s that simple.

Have fun

If you write about something that does not interest you, your post won’t be easy to read and your readers won’t crave to finish it. But remember to be consistent with your main subject (see the point above). Having fun doesn’t mean writing something crazy. You just have to love what you do, so that you’ll do it well.

Know your audience

This is true for every business. Knowing your audience is the key to catching their attention, to be relevant and meet expectations. You have to see your blog as a business (because that’s clearly what it is). Your posts are the products, the readers are the clients. The more they read your posts the more they will talk about you to their family and friends and the more opportunities you’ll have to actually sell your products/services.

The blog is an open window on what you do

It has to reflect the company atmosphere, present what you do, what you sell, and who you are. But don’t misunderstand, this is nothing to do with a basic brochure. On your blog you can use a tone which is less professional, you shouldn’t have to speak a specific language that could be hard for readers to understand. The goal is to catch everyone’s attention. Even if it took you four hours to write a post, don’t let it show, be natural, friendly and easy to approach.

Don’t follow rules

Yes I know, at the beginning of this post I said that I encourage you to follow these rules, but I made a mistake…To err is human! Instead of rules I should have said “best practices”. Because on your blog there is no place for conventional writing. You have to enjoy writing (see point number two) and your readers have to enjoy reading. Don’t hesitate to speak with really simple sentences, avoid endless and technical phrases, otherwise you’ll be boring which is the last thing you want.

Be Offbeat

Don’t write the same thing everybody else is writing, find subjects that are really engaging so that your readers feel interested in what you have to say. Encourage them for feedback, comments, or ideas they would add. By the way, what are your own secrets to make noise above the noise? Share them with us in the comments!

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1) Evoke interest with your title

Your title is the first thing that gets read on your blog post, so you have to make sure that it’s clear and delivers a glimpse of what your blog post is about (see 100 great ideas here). It has to immediately set the mind of the reader so they’ll decide if they should read the article or not. That’s why your title serves one goal; grab attention so people feel compelled to read your opening.

2) Grab attention in the first 3 to 4 sentences

If you get people to read you first 3 to 4 sentences, they’re more likely to read your entire article. Delivering a sense of urgency is  crucial at this point so promising some benefits is always a great start. That said, the point of your opening is to get people to read the rest of the blog post… and that’s it. Whatever approach you take, just ensure that your first 3 to 4 sentences have to be compelling and evoke interest.

3) Visual appearance

How can I make my readers keep coming back for more? The visual appearance is crucial, so these are some tips to attract your readers’ attention:
– Fewer characters per line, so that it won’t take too long to read and the readers will feel that they are reading it very fast. A half width image shortens the line length of the opening and will make it easier to read.
– Always try to include at least one image; it will surely increase your readership.
– Choose a font that is clear enough to read.

4) Emotional connection

If you can understand and implement the psychology of connecting emotionally with your readers, then your website can keep driving traffic. Write unique content which readers will think about after reading it. That way they will come back for more and be more likely to click on a link to your blog the next time on of their friends shares it. When people get emotional, they pay attention. They’re also more likely to take action after being put into an emotional state.

5) Give readers practical advice that is easy to implement

One of the main goals of writing an article is to get people to take action, and that should be done religiously. Readers will look for step-by-step methods and how-to sections. Make sure you explain clearly and give practical, easy to implement advice. Get people results, and they’ll remember you forever. As an added bonus, practically useful content is more viral than other types of content.

6) Optimise your blog post for search engines

What’s the point of writing blog posts that no one reads? Optimising your articles for search engines will help the article rank higher on search engine results and be visible to people searching about the related subject. Also, make sure that you have someone who can proofread your article and check for spelling and grammar.
It’s important to utilise keywords throughout your post:
– Title, page name and URL
– Headings and subheadings
– Title tags and meta descriptions
– General content
– Anchor text (links to other related pages on your site)
Make sure that you have a mobile friendly website, so that every reader using a mobile device will have it well displayed and clear to read.

7) Check your word count

There’s basically no rule on how much words one should write in a blog post. However, after doing some research I found that the ideal length of an article is between 1000 and 1500 words, and if your goal is search engine traffic, longer is better. Neil Patel’s blog posts can go up to 40,000 words… But it depends, focusing on blog word count might not be as important as you think. Some topics take 100 words to explain, others take 1000.

8) Inspirational conclusions

Your conclusion is as significant as your opening – here’s where you close out your article with another call to action. Buy, subscribe, call, email and share are some examples of calls to action you can include. The image below is a great example of different ways to close an article with a small simple form to subscribe, sharing buttons, other article recommendations and a commenting system.

To write a great blog post you need to know about the subject and polish your writing skills. And most of all, you need to sneak into the heads of your readers and potential clients. But magic will happen when you truly care about the subject you’re writing and your readers. Understand what they’re trying to achieve and know what they’re struggling with so that you can help them with the right advice.
You can’t expect to have a lot of traffic immediately after writing your first blog post. It takes time, be patient and your traffic will multiply over time.
If you keep up the good work, your social shares and comments will skyrocket. Other bloggers will start linking to your content. And most importantly, an endless stream of quality leads will flow to you.

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People have much less time to read about your brand

In fact, they have nearly no time to read about any brand at all (with the exception of a handful of brands that has achieved superstar status). Just like you are only interested in your products and services, people are only really interested in one thing: their lives
The difference is that customers are entitled to only be interested in themselves. You, as a brand, are not (well, unless you want to fail). To succeed online, you need to be able to think in terms of what you can offer to your customers. You need to have a long and hard think about what they need and how you’re going to solve it.

To succeed online, you need to be able to think in terms of what added value you can offer to your customers.

Now I hear you screaming: But my customers need to know that I have 58 colours of canopies in 4 different materials! So my marketing strategy should work after all. Well, if I needed a canopy right now, I would benefit from that particular tidbit of information, but you’ve taken no extra benefit compared to traditional advertising. You’re screaming out a message to 10,000 people in the hope that 10 of them need to receive it.
We believe in online advertising. We’ve run some very successful campaigns that saved our customers thousands of Euros. But there is more to online marketing than simple advertising. If you just want to use the internet like you use current media, then I’m pretty sure you can do so and save money too, but what we’re proposing here is an improvement.
Content marketing allows you to shift your advertising spend from a direct cost into a long-term investment. Rather than simply placing direct response ads that get people to act immediately on instinct, you could be putting your money in building long-term relationships with clients.
And how do you do this, I hear you ask?

Stop talking about your brand. Start talking around it

Once again I can go back to my days in publishing. The companies who saw the light were the ones coming to us with offers to give us content that was interesting. Content that we wanted to publish. Content that, as a publisher, I would usually have paid for.
As a content marketer, that should be the kind of material you should be producing. As a customer I’d want to see that you have a knowledge of the business that goes beyond the product you’re producing. I want to see that you care about the industry you’re working in. I want to see that you can help me make an informed decision. I want to feel comfortable in the knowledge that you are the right person to give my hard-earned cash to because you know what you’re talking about, so I can trust you to have the best choices for me.
You also have to understand that I, your customer, have wants and needs that go beyond your product. I am interested in all the things I can do with it. I want to know how I can get the best out of it, and how I can improve my performance around it.
Here are some examples of people doing content marketing right:

B&Q

Their site contains a wealth of knowledge for DIY enthusiasts that goes beyond the products it sells. It does not simply tell you why you should buy your tools and DIY materials from B&Q, but it helps you become a better DIYer.

IBM

IBM has really understood that marketing around their brand is far more powerful than shouting out about products and features. With great content marketing sites like The Big Data and Analytics Hub (which increased their social referral traffic by 291%) and the Cognitive Computing portal, IBM shows that the line between publishing and marketing is a very fine one indeed.

Hubspot

Hubspot should know a thing or two about content marketing since they are in the business themselves, however they do go beyond the call of duty with the vast wealth of content they publish on a regular basis. They run a very informative blog, they publish ebooks and great marketing resources, they have a fantastic (and somewhat hilarious) youtube channel, and an entire inbound marketing academy. They know their stuff, but they also communicate around it brilliantly. And you’ll never catching them attempting a hard sell.

Red Bull

OK, we can’t all send someone up to space to attempt a skydive nor can we all buy a couple of Formula 1 teams, but the bottom line is simple. Red Bull does those things as publicity stunts that generate thousands of mentions (and links), but you’ll never see them flaunting their product’s ingredients or its unique properties. They just market around the brand in a way that associates it with fun and daring.

Anthropologie

And finally, one of my favourite content marketing efforts around. Anthropologie, which carries women’s clothing, accessories and home decor, runs a blog that shows the brand’s understanding of content marketing for B 2 C. From cocktail recipes to playlists, Anthropologie has understood the importance of building a brand by simply being itself and writing about stuff that’s interesting for their customers in a tone of voice and with an aesthetic that matches the Anthropologie brand perfectly.

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