You all know the phrase “content is king,” but do you know that blogging is the fundamental component of content marketing? Although visual formats like videos and infographics are getting increasingly popular, the fact remains that an overwhelming 77% of Internet users regularly read blog posts.
It’s a staggering figure and it proves that blogs were, are, and will be the most dominant content marketing format. The real question is not whether you should write articles, but rather how to do it in a way that promises to generate results.
The competition in this field is harsh, particularly if you know that a new blog post is published every 0.5 seconds. It takes an excellent plan to find your place in the blogging sun, so keep reading to learn nine ways to design a blog strategy for a sustainable content marketing success.
What Makes Blogging so Important?
If you are still not sure about the impact of blogs on modern marketing, we would like to begin by presenting you with a few practical advantages of article writing.
First of all, blogging can help you and your business raise awareness in the long run. Studies show that websites with blogs have 434% more indexed pages, so it’s always a good idea to publish posts and help the audience discover your company easily.
Secondly, blogging makes it possible to prove your expertise and become a key opinion leader in a given industry or niche. That way, consumers who want to solve everyday problems will consult with you rather than your competitors.
Finally, quality articles will turn your fans into loyal followers and brand advocates. They will keep coming back to your site, while some of them will also become your long-term customers.
9 Ways to Craft a Great Blogging Plan
Figuring out the importance of blogging is easy, but making a good plan of work is much harder. Our job is to help you with that, so let’s check out nine ways to craft a great blog writing strategy.
- Choose the right niche and stick to it
The first tip on our list is to choose the right niche and stick to it in the long run. This is extremely important because you don’t want to run out of ideas within weeks or jeopardize professional reputation by writing subpar articles.
According to the reports of the assignment help from UK Dissertation, your blog must have a clear purpose. Let’s say you are selling sports gear. In this case, the only reasonable idea is to launch a sport-related blog with lots of articles about the latest events, results, workouts, transfers, and similar.
Keep in mind not to burden the audience with promotional content. The general rule of thumb is to publish 80% of informative and educational posts and leave only about 20% for brand-related announcements.
- Make a schedule of work
Do you know that bloggers publish more than two million posts daily? Users have more than enough material to read these days, so the only way to stand out is by making a consistent schedule of work. Of course, the ultimate goal is not to allow fans to forget your brand.
You need to keep reminding them of your business, which requires full dedication and lots of new posts.
No one expects you to publish a new article every day, but you should definitely try to do it at least twice a week. This proves to be a good rhythm for the majority of individuals and small and medium-sized businesses.
- Write for your audience
The difference between top-performing bloggers and their less successful colleagues is that the former group pays attention to the needs of their target audiences. They are not egocentric authors, but rather consumer-focused writers who address customers’ everyday problems.
What does it mean in practice?
It means you ought to explore the target group and figure out the characteristics of the average follower. Who is this person? How old is she/he? Do you know their interests, problems, average income, relationship status, personal beliefs, locations, etc.?
If you are not really sure about it, spend some time researching before you begin writing. It will show you the right path and help you craft better and more interesting posts.
- Identify the best topics and write attractive headlines
Modern users are not exactly great readers, mostly because they are constantly bombarded with more or less relevant content. According to the report, 80% of readers never make it past the headline. In such circumstances, it is clear that you must identify the best topics for your blog and write very attractive titles.
Don’t repeat the same topics you get to see frequently on other websites. Take the extra step and try to pinpoint relevant topics that really matter to your audience groups. Once you’re done with that, you can try a tool like Headline Analyzer to learn whether your title solutions are really worthwhile or not.
- Publish premium quality posts only
Item number five is probably the most significant tip on our list. No matter how thorough or well-planned your blogging strategy might be, it can only get you so far if you fail to publish premium quality articles.
According to the reports of the Write My Assignment, there are thousands of below-average posts to be found online, but readers want more than that. Your goal is to indulge them by publishing highly relevant, stylish, informative, and educational articles week after week.
This is the main reason why blog posts are getting longer these days. You can’t just write a 400-word post and hope to impress the audience. On the contrary, they expect you to write comprehensively and analyze topics from various points of view.
You should also try to enrich posts using alternative formats such as GIFs, animations, images, and so on: “It is always a nice tactic because visual elements make blogs more colorful and help authors to structure articles more conveniently.”
- Use the right keywords
It’s no secret that most blogs are discovered through Google, Yahoo, and similar platforms. As a matter of fact, it turns out that 93% of all traffic comes from a search engine. SEO is a complex topic, but it all comes down to one simple fact – you must use the right keywords in order to maximize the discoverability of your blog. Here are a few tips on how to your keyword strategy:
- Brainstorm different ideas with your team and make initial lists of search terms
- Use keyword planning tools such as Google Keyword Planner
- Combine different phrases, synonyms, and long tail keywords
- Use keywords to augment posts and avoid keyword-stuffing
- Don’t forget to add a CTA
Writing impressive blog posts is one thing, but inspiring readers to engage is totally different. The audience should have a clear idea of what to do after reading an article, so you better add a call to action (CTA) to each post.
For instance, you can invite them to read similar posts, sign up for your email newsletter, or check out the latest products. In each case, a CTA button should stand out from the rest of the content and be easy to recognize.
- Promote your blog
Even the most famous blogs have to promote their content regularly because it’s impossible to maintain the highest level of popularity otherwise. Luckily enough, there are many ways to market your posts online.
First of all, you should always send new posts and content digests to your email subscribers. With over two billion daily active users, social media also makes a previous blog promotion tool. You should add social sharing icons to the blog as it enables readers to share posts on their social media accounts as well.
Another option is to write guest posts for popular websites. That way, you will earn the attention of new audience groups and convince some of them to start following your blog. We also believe that Q/A websites are an excellent blog promotion channel because you can use it to boost authority and deserve the status of an industry thought leader.
- Measure and improve
The last piece in your blogging strategy is data analytics. You cannot improve what you don’t measure, so do your best to analyze website performance and learn what your audience likes and dislikes.
For instance, you might notice that your readers don’t enjoy certain topics. It’s a clear sign that you must change something or simply stop publishing similar posts. On the other side, you will figure out the readers’ favorites and use this insight to improve the strategy.
Up to You!
The Internet is crowded with all sorts of content types, but blogging still remains the most popular online format. Blog posts can help you to raise brand awareness and drive tons of fresh leads, but your content creation plan has to be flawless.
In this post, we discussed nine ways to design a blog strategy and ensure long-term content marketing success. Now it’s up to you to display professionalism and creativity, so do your best to make a sustainable blogging plan and impress the audience!
Tiffany Harper is a training guru who’s been working in the corporate sector for over a decade now. She is a management graduate and loves to share her experience through blogs and articles. For her love of writing, she also provided freelance consultations for the help with dissertations. Please do not hesitate to contact her on Twitter
