10 Steps to Write An Effective Blog Post
You know that blogging can have a powerful impact on your online presence. You’ve read the statistics about increased conversions, better brand awareness, and more credibility. But how do you get there?

You know that blogging can have a powerful impact on your online presence. You’ve read the statistics about increased conversions, better brand awareness, and more credibility. But how do you get there?
Blogging is not as simple as opening a blank document and starting to write. The best posts answer specific questions for a targeted audience in a way that’s easy to skim, understand, and remember.
As you might imagine, that’s no easy task. It’s also far from impossible. Analyse successful blog posts, and you begin to see how they accomplish their goals. Distilled down to a formula, these 10 steps can help you write an effective blog post designed to attract, convince, and convert your readers.
The right blog post starts where every good marketing initiative begins: your target audience. No matter how great the content is, you will not succeed if you don’t write specifically to the wants, needs, and pain points of your audience.
That’s no easy task. Pure demographics probably won’t help you accomplish it. Instead, you have to dig deeper:
Think about it from your audience’s perspective: what type of content would you actually want to read? What adds value in a way that’s significant enough to draw them in, and keep engaging them throughout the length of the post?
You can’t afford to guess the answers. Only thorough audience research can help you build the right type of post.
Heads up: this is the first of two sections in which at least basic knowledge of Search Engine Optimisation practices becomes absolutely valuable. Once you have a good idea of your audience and the types of posts they want to read, start connecting that to actual searches.
You likely already know about the concept of keyword research, which helps you find out what exact terms and phrases Google users in your industry actually look for. It’s an invaluable part of blog writing.
Your blog post, above all, is an optimisation opportunity. Yes, you can push to the page using social media and other tactics (more on that in step 10). But ultimately, a large percentage of your readers should come as a result of a Google search on the topic.
That means finding the terms and phrases that your audience looks for when they seek answers to their questions and solutions to their pain points. Don’t be afraid to learn from your competitors, either. A number of competitive keyword research tools help you find the phrases they rank for.
As Google moves more towards natural language, semantic search and user intent in their algorithm, remember to make this a key consideration in your keyword research process.
You know your audience, and you have at least an idea on what topics you should focus on based on relevant keywords. That means it’s time to get specific.
First, select a specific topic to write on. That should consist of an intersection between audience need, relevant high-volume keywords, and your own expertise. If you can find the middle of that triangle, you’re in good shape.
Next, determine what post type best addresses the topic at hand. You technically have countless options, but most of them can be boiled down to a few simple archetypes:
Which of these makes sense for the post in question depends on a number of things. First, it has to match the topic at hand. Second, you have to keep content varied; the fifth tutorial in a row probably won’t be as successful as the first you posted. Finally, general audience preferences matter. For instance, lists posts have been proven to drive more traffic than most other content types.
With your post type in hand, it’s temptingly easy to create a content outline. Be careful here; instead of restricting yourself to a simple broad overview, start digging down on the research and subheadings that can take your post to the next level.
It starts with a basic outline. Create a working headline, a rough introduction/synopsis of what the post will be about, and a few subheaders that cover the different sections you want to cover within the topic you’ve chosen.
Then, dig in. While all content should be working copy only, it’s time to get specific so that the final writing job just flows out of your brain and onto the page. In that vein, a detailed content outline might look something like the below:
Completing an outline with this kind of detail is daunting, but well worth the effort. It sets the stage for everything that’s about to come, first and foremost the writing.
We’re halfway through the article, and the writing hasn’t even started yet. That changes now. At this point, you should have a great idea of exactly what you need to focus on, and how to find your way there. Now, it’s time to finally put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, or voice to dictation).
Pay special attention to the introduction. Here, you have to grab your reader’s attention, establish your authority, and explain just what the post will aim to accomplish. Here are some great introduction examples to get you started.
As you begin to write, it pays to keep a few other considerations in mind as well:
As you write your content, pay special attention to the audience’s ability to skim through it.
According to one study, the average reader will spend 15 seconds or less on your blog post. To make them count, you have to make sure they can get at least the basic premise and content even within that short time frame.
Some of the techniques mentioned above, especially the simple sentences and short paragraphs, help. Don’t be afraid to go beyond them:
The last part of the writing exercise is the headline. This might just be the most important part of the entire blog post. Within 60 characters or less, it has to grab attention, convey basic information, and hook the reader.
The best-performing headlines tend to include power words that convey a specific emotion. One study actually found that negative superlative headlines outperform all other types in click-through rates. A few other headline tips include:
Don’t be afraid to test your headlines, either. Run a few options past select audience members or even your own employees for feedback. More advanced systems offer A/B testing that accomplish the same feat in real time.
Other than your metadata and the promotional strategy surrounding the blog post, the writing is done. Time to pay attention to the visuals that will make the content pop where needed.
We’re inherently visual beings, and the vast majority of information our brains process on a minute-to-minute basis is visual. Your blog post needs to reflect that focus, ideally through images and graphics that enhance the content.
Use images and infographics to enhance and visualise key points you’re trying to make in the writing. Break up the text where needed. Blog posts with relevant images receive, on average, 94% more views than those without visuals. Pick a feature image, as well as several secondary visuals to live alongside the written portions.
We don’t believe that there is a single “best way” to format a blog post. Too much depends on the content, type, and visuals. That said, this template tends to work well as a general guideline. It helps you organise just where writing, images, and the final call to action should live. Also, don’t forget a proper heading structure. The H1, H2’s etc are important in conveying importance, focus and page hierarchy.
With the writing and images in place, it’s time to talk about Search Engine Optimisation again. The final touches on the blog post consist of the metadata you need to add for accessibility, to tempt users in, and for search engine crawlers who rank your site based on relevance.
Metadata is a complex topic that deserves significant attention in its own right. That said, a few factors are crucial to keep in mind as you build out and finalise the post:
At this point, it also makes sense to rethink and potentially improve your headline. Make sure that the main keyword of focus is integrated naturally, and the headline fits both the page title and the meta description.
Finally, it’s time to get the word out. You’ve spent significant time, likely hours, crafting the perfect blog post. What good is that if nobody knows about it?
You cannot simply publish the blog post and hope for the best. Instead, there is a general rule of thumb that suggests using three times as much time promoting the content as you did writing it. That means even a few social media posts about it won’t be enough. You need to dig deeper:
This comprehensive promotional campaign is the best way to make sure that your blog gets seen by the right people, as well as a critical mass of your target audience. Each post becomes a valuable promotional and value-add tool, designed to help you gain both credibility and customers.
Writing an effective blog post is not easy. In fact, it requires much more than just the writing component. But if you get it right, the results can be immense. You begin to generate leads, convert customers, and establish yourself as an authority in your industry. And isn’t that worth all the effort you put into creating all that content in the first place?
We list 7 great reasons to keep your company blog updated on a regular basis.
The first few posts of a company blog tend to be spirited, exciting, and well-attuned to the needs of the customer. However, as the months go on, you may find it challenging to sustain your blog, even if you are choosing to update only once a month. As you work on content idea generation, keep these principles in mind.
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