Blogging for any industry is essential.

In terms of marketing tactics…writing blog articles can be one of the most effective ways to build a strong media presence, as well as communicate with your customers.

By publishing content on a regular basis, you not only allow for more opportunities for your website to rank higher within search results, but you allow yourself to stay in the game with your competitors, attract more people to your website, and overall, increase the possibility of getting more customers and/or sales!

Sounds ideal right?

We often forget that blog writing can allow for these opportunities because as you may have already experienced, keeping up with several blog posts per month isn’t easy.

Creating consistent content can become overwhelming and feel burdensome. It is difficult to continuously produce attractive headlines, engaging content and captivating advice.

So, in order to assist you in becoming more effective in your blogging efforts, we’ve compiled a list of our top blog writing tips.

Here are ways in which you can write an effective blog article:

1. Start with a Catchy Headline

Before you put your pencil to paper, first, you must brainstorm.

Think about your audience…

Who are you writing to?

A consumer (of beverages, clothing or restaurants), college students, non-profits, local businesses?

Now put yourself in their shoes, what information would you like to know?

Is there something you just learned that you’d like to share with them?

How about sharing a bit of your expertise that you get questioned often about?

Thinking about these questions as well as applying specific strategies can help you find the best blog topic that will be both resourceful and compelling for your audience.

These specific strategies include looking at current competitors blog articles, revisiting your customers Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s), as well as doing a Google search for “news” within your industry.

Once you have the gears turning, come up with 3-5 titles and ensure that these have a catchy headline and then from there, you can decide which one is best.

Here are some examples of good headlines that we at The Endurance Group might come up with:

• “How to Create and Schedule a Social Media Content Plan”

• “Why you Should Not Avoid Blogging”

• “Sales VS. Marketing”

• “Increase Your Leads with a Landing Page”

• “Everything you Need to Know About Sales Outsourcing”

• “10 Reasons you Should be Utilizing Google Ads”

Using any of the bold item phrases above should help you to begin writing a captivating blog post.

2. Do Your Research

Ensure that whatever you write is accurate.

Remember, you are the expert!

If you are to share content that is not true, think about how bad that will make your company look?

Do you really want to take the risk of sharing inaccurate information?

Think about the value of having content with your name on it.

That being said, fact check!

It’s better to be safe than sorry!

Write down a list of takeaways and/or quotes from other resources that pertain to your blog topic.

Ensure that if you are to quote another resource, that you cite them properly.

For example:

According to OptinMonster’s 2021 Blogging Statistics, “Each month, approximately 409 million people view more than 20 billion pages.”

If you find a phrase you like from another resource and are not sure how to rephrase it, you can use a rephrase tool such as QuillBot to help formulate a similar sentence.

Be careful about paraphrasing too much. Really try to come up with your own material.

If you get nervous or have any doubts that your blog article might have issues with plagiarism; use a plagiarism checker tool, such as Grammarly.

Before you begin step three, understand the keywords for your industry. You can use a keyword tool such as WordStream to see what keywords show-up after doing a search for you or your competitors website.

You will want to use some of these keywords within your blog post. Keywords within blog posts are similar to hashtags in social media posts. They allow for your content to get noticed across the web and improve your Search Engine Optimization for your website.

3. Develop a Lead Paragraph

First impressions are everything!

And usually, you only get one shot…so why not make it worthwhile.

Start out your opening paragraph with something that will get your reader hooked.

Ways to do this is to begin by asking a question, paint a picture for a scenario, start with an interesting quote or even introduce a bold or surprising statement.

For example: “Without leads your business will fail.”

4. Formulate an Outline of Supporting Points

Break down your thoughts into bullet points.

Make it easy for your reader!

This allows for your reader to skim and understand your article within minutes.

This also allows you to constructively organize your thoughts.

You can leave the main takeaways as bullet points or use bullet points to start out your main sections.

Once you have the lead paragraph completed, the concrete takeaways should come naturally, especially if a number is within your headline.

5. Write your Call-To-Action

Once you have written a great piece, don’t forget to write your Call-To-Action (CTA). This is extremely important when it comes to why you wanted your audience to read your piece in the first place.

Certainly you want to share some useful advice or insight, however you want to also ensure that you give them something to do upon reading the blog post.

CTA’s are typically found towards the end of a blog article.

Examples of this are:

• For more information about our case studies, visit here.

• If you are interested in any of our services, such as: lead generation, outsourced sales, social media & digital marketing, LinkedIn campaigns or content development, please call us at 207-407-9264.

• To see our latest social media posts please click here.

6. Bring your Content to Life with Relative Images

Before you are ready to proceed to the final step, look for images that will bring your content to life.

Remember that you only get one chance to capture your audience’s attention.

Just writing content isn’t going to cut it.

Ensure that you have at least one fitting image to your blog post.

Blog posts should contain at least 300 words in order to rank well and around 2,500 to rank best so ideally you should aim for a image that captures every 300 words.

You should always have a featured or main image that summarizes your blog post.

If you are unsure where to find high quality images that are both relative and professional, you can use free stock photo tools such as Unsplash and Pexels.

7. Proofread your Work & Publish!

Lastly, read your article a few times and ensure that there aren’t any grammatical errors. It’s always good to have a second pair of eyes.

If someone from your team is able, have them review the article as well just for safe measure.

This will avoid any mistakes and will make you look your best!

Once finalized, you’re ready to publish!

If you enjoyed this blog article and would like The Endurance Group to help with your content creation, please contact us here.