Blogs, much like social media, were originally created back in the 1990s to enable people to share their thoughts, ideas and passions online. A relatively simple creation, the act of blogging has evolved quite a lot since then…
As technology has progressed over the years, blogs have made their way into the business world as a form of professional content creation. Since their origin as a social tool to connect and share information, blogs are now more commonly used to expand businesses’ online presence, demonstrate their expertise and, ultimately, grow their leads and sales.
However, not everyone has the time to invest in blog writing like the Apples and Amazons of the world. At Crush, we understand that, perhaps for small business owners or rookie content creators, writing regular website blogs can seem daunting, bewildering and possibly even impractical.
If that’s something you can resonate with, then don’t worry; you’re in the right place. In this beginner’s guide to blog writing, we’ll be sharing our marketing expertise here at Crush, revealing our secrets and listing our top tips to help you on your way to writing blogs that are high-quality and feasible to your business.
First, decide a topic
First things first, you need to decide what you want to write about…
To do this, you should consider the perspective you are writing from.. What does your business sell? What industry(s) does it operate within? Who is the target audience(s)? What tone of voice should you use? And thus, what is the aim of the blog?
Considering the aim of your blog is essential to what topic you choose to write about. There are several different aims to blog writing, aside from website enhancement as discussed above, blogs can also promote the reputation of a business by acting as ‘thought-pieces’ that portray the business as the ‘leaders’ of their profession. Similarly, blogs can also be simple how-to guides for audiences to learn from which, in turn, promotes the business as helpful, knowledgeable and experienced.
You can find a great guide to different types of blogs in this short article by WordPress here.
Once you have the aim of your blog decided, you can think about what topics you could talk about. For example, this blog’s aim is to share Crush’s marketing expertise, so the blog’s topic is a simple blog-writing guide for beginners to enhance their own marketing efforts.
Consider the structure
Next, you should consider the structure of your blog. Often, the structure can actually depend on the aim of the blog, so this step should be rather simple.
A blueprint structure you could use would be:
- Introduction
- Subheading and short paragraph
- Subheading and short paragraph
- Subheading and short paragraph
- Conclusion or Call To Action
However, you should consider the length of your blog, too. For example, a guide needn’t be too long, as the readers will want information that is easy to read, and easy to find. This is where structure is important – not everyone will read the whole blog, they may just cherry pick the bits of information they’re looking for.
You should also take into account the blog’s readability, even if it’s a more complex, thought-provoking blog. The overall readability will not only influence the reader’s experience and engagement with the blog, but it will also affect its SEO ranking.
A tool we like to use to check readability is the Flesch-Kincaid Test, aiming for a score of at least 52!
Make it engaging
A truly well-written blog needs to be engaging. You may have some brilliant insights to share, but it’s no use if people don’t choose to read it.
Blogs are just as much about visuals as they are about writing. We would recommend that every blog should include at least one image that is engaging and captivating whilst relevant to the conversation at hand. It’s also important to ensure you have the rights to the image; photos that the business has taken themself are especially good, as they’re unique and personal to your brand. However, if this isn’t possible, you can also find hundreds of royalty-free images online on sites like AdobeStock, or free sites like the ones listed in this helpful blog by Buffer.
The next thing to think about is the title of the blog, make sure it’s catchy! Don’t be afraid to chop and change the title as you develop the blog, too. Often, the content will steer and alter in direction as you begin to write, so you may need to tweak the title after finishing. The title is also an ideal place to include a target keyword for the blog, more on that next…
Optimise the content
The final thing you should consider is how you can optimise the blog. In this digital age, a well-written blog will only get you so far, you need to consider SEO, too.
The best way to do this is to include several topical keywords within the blog, as well as locating one ‘target keyword’ to use in the blog’s title and overall content.
However, finding a balance is key to mastering this SEO strategy. You should be cautious not to ‘over-stuff’ your blog with as many keywords as possible – this is a term called ‘keyword stuffing’ and is not an effective way of optimising your content.
Check out our SEO for beginners blog here for more guidance.
Time to get writing!
It’s all about practice, so don’t worry if you don’t get the hang of blogging straight away and don’t feel you need to write a hundred copies of War and Peace; just aim for one blog a month that is:
- On-brand
- Focused and easy to read
- Engaging
- SEO-optimised
- Thought-provoking; include a conclusion or Call to Action
Wondering whether you should use AI to help you out? Check out another of our blogs here, it’ll tell you everything you need to know about AI copywriting…