Have you put a ton of thought and effort into your blog posts, only to find that they aren’t getting any clicks? Writing a blog post that converts will take a bit of knowledge on your end. And because you only have a few seconds to grab the attention of your users, knowing a few tricks can significantly help in your content marketing strategy.
Today we’re going over a few simple steps that will help get your blog posts the conversions you’re looking for.
Who Are You Targeting?
Understanding who your target audience is will give you valuable information. What does your audience want? How do they want you to speak to them? Where can they be found online (social platforms or otherwise)?
You need to know your audience in order to know how to grab their attention. Luckily, there are several tools you can use in order to get to know your audience better. Some are even free- like Google Analytics. You want to take advantage of these tools ASAP if you haven’t already.
Audience targeting tools will allow you to make informed decisions based on actual data about your customers specifically. You can also find out about your competition which can help you understand who you’d like to primarily target.
Find out how people are searching for your industry, what keywords they use, and then put some thought into how you can make yourself stand out from all the rest.
Write an Attention-Grabbing Headline
Your blog post’s headline is the first thing your user will see, so you gotta make it a good one. Think about your customers and what you think they’d be compelled to click on. What would you click on?
Asking friends and family for their advice can help you out, too (if they fall into your target audience guidelines). Give them a few headlines to choose from (like an A/B test) and evaluate their feedback.
Looking for more insight into the success of your headline? There’s a free tool that can help. Just add your headline into the Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer and see your quick results.
Keep in mind that your headline needs to match the mood and tone of your blog post. Don’t be funny if you’re tone is serious, that can be off-putting to your readers. Also, don’t try to get too clever with it, you want to be found when people type in their query, going overboard on the metaphors or wit can make your blog post difficult to find and may even deter some readers.
H2s? Yes. Bullet Points? Please. Make Your Blog Post Scannable
Blog posts should be easy to read, scannable, and broken down into parts. A whole slew of copy with no rest in between does not make for a good read, no matter how amazing said copy is.
Break up your information with smart formatting. That means adding h1, h2, h3, etc. Some users just want to read one section of what your blog post offers, make it easy for them to do that by heading each new section of information with its own headline.
Again, creativity is awesome, but make sure your users will grasp what the information is about through your header for that section.
When listing or detailing, bullet points are a solid bet. This allows for ease of read without relying on a paragraph format. If you want something to really stand out, using bullet points gets that job done. Remember to keep your bullets short and sweet.
Add an Image
We’re all about the images these days, so be sure you have a relative and unique image to highlight your blog post.
Depending on your industry images can be very personal, or you can find photos on stock photo websites. Just make sure you choose something that will ignite the click! Adding images is a great way to show some personality, too. Don’t forget to keep int relative to your copy!
SEO Optimization
Making sure to be found on the search engine results pages (SERPs) is most likely one of your goals, so make sure the search engines can easily find and understand your blog post.
Some smart and effective ways to do that are:
- Creating a good meta title
- Creating a good meta description
- Optimizing for your keywords
- Creating related keywords and negative keywords
- Optimizing your image(s)
- Link building
Create an Obvious CTA
Nothing’s worse for a user than trying to figure out how to buy something or sign up for something or share something. Whatever action it is you want your users to make, show them how to do so with a clear and obvious call to action (CTA).
Create a CTA that stands out from the rest of the blog post, yet makes sense standing within it.
The Takeaway
Writing a killer blog post doesn’t mean anything if you’re not getting the clicks. Write strong copy and fine-tune with these easy blog writing tips and you’ll help your click-factor. More clicks, more traffic, bigger audience- Google likes it.
If you have any questions about writing blogs that convert or want more information on your content strategy. Give us a call.
