If you have been following our blog, you know that we have touched upon the need to blog regularly, The Essentials of Aligning Sales and Marketing and How to Generate B2B Leads through Inbound Marketing.
This blog post is intended to further your understanding on the various elements of inbound marketing.
In this, we will discuss the framework of a blog and its many aspects.
Follow this blog to the letter and you will know how to write a perfect blog post that will help you generate leads.
Most of us consider writing a blog post as a job or a duty. Let’s admit, it does not strike us that we need to write a blog until we realize our proximity to the deadline! We try and scurry to the finish line, forgetting the intent of a blog post.
Why Blog?
Blogs are an integral part of inbound marketing. Therefore, your posts ought to be useful to your audience while being comprehensive.
Here is a checklist of what you need in a blog post to make it truly outstanding!
Captivating Headline
It takes about 5-7 seconds for a reader to realize if he/she should continue reading your blog. To make an impact during these crucial 5-7 seconds, you need to have a captivating headline. Your headline should grab the reader’s attention and compel them to read the entire blog.
So how do you write a headline that captivates your reader?
Before we answer that, understand that there are several types of headlines.
Your blog could be a listicle, a guide to, or an explanatory article. Unless you mention the type, the chances of your readers reading the entire blog are slim.
Another key element of a headline and a blog, in general, is keyword research. This research will help you come up with a headline that will do well in search engine results.
Google ranks blogs with targeted keywords in the headline better than those which don’t have any. This will help your blog in more ways than you can imagine. An optimized title makes it easier for internet users to find the information they are looking for.
Coming up with a catchy headline within the scope of targeted keywords can be perplexing. You could use tools like SEMrush and HubSpot’s keyword tool to determine which keywords are being searched for and position your headline (and blog) in that fashion.
Based on the blog type and your keyword research, it should be relatively easy to come up with a captivating headline!
Mesmerizing Image
A picture says a thousand words! But the image for your blog needn’t. Similar to a headline, the picture you choose should entice your readers. It should give them a glimpse of what to expect in the blog. You needn’t go all out with the design and format; the image should be aesthetically pleasing. For reference, go back up and look at the image for this blog post.
There are many websites from where you can choose images for your blog post. But make sure that from whichever website you are choosing your images, you are not breaking any laws.
Instagram is a fantastic way to market your business. Learn how here.
Captain Hook!
Yep, you need Captain Hook to impress your readers! We are not actually talking about the fictional character made famous through the Peter Pan series, but the idea of a hook.
Hooks are essentially paragraphs that follow the headline. Therefore, you must make sure that the headline and the hook are in sync. Hook paragraphs, otherwise known as lead paragraphs, can have an interesting fact, a quote or even a question. To put things into perspective, consider them as introductions to the blog post. They ought to be interesting and attention-grabbing.
The aim of hooks is to – make the reader to read the entire blog post.
A word for the prudent, don’t go for click baits! This puts off your readers and they may never come back to your blog!
Comprehensive Body
The body is where you work your magic. This is the meat of your blog post. Usually, a blog will have a lead paragraph, the body, and a conclusion. A number of paragraphs, sentence length and word count are elements that you should consider strongly when writing this bit. Make sure you are discussing the facts mentioned in the headline.
Of course, aesthetics do play their part. Make sure your content is neatly formatted with proper sub-headings; also, include bold fonts – for emphasis, italics – for embellishment, etc.
Here, in the body, most of your keywords would be integrated. It is advisable to include latent semantic indexes as well.
Tip: One way of making paragraphs stand out is by giving exciting statistics.
If you feel your readers will not read the entire blog, you can add a few images and gifs to spruce up the blog. Also, to make the reader’s experience exciting, you can add options to share the content to social media.
Conclusion
A lot of bloggers fail to write a good conclusion. Unless you are writing a crime thriller, where you can leave your readers guessing, blogs need a conclusion. You could do a recap of the entire blog in 100 words or less. Try not to make it too lengthy – your reader should not be lost in the conclusion.
Additionally, you could point him/her to additional resources and/or related blogs. This is known as a call-to-action.
YOUR CONCLUSION SHOULD HAVE A CALL-TO-ACTION (we cannot stress on this point more than this). Your CTAs can quirkily ask your readers to share their thoughts about the post, or share it on social media, or entice them to click on a subscribe link/image.
So that was our checklist on writing an exciting blog post. Do you think this checklist suits every business? Did we miss something? Do let us know in the comments section below.
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