Have a mission
Your blog needs a point that accomplishes a mission and is therefore successful. It should give readers something memorable to latch onto. They should be more compelled to share it, comment on it, and engage with it. Monitor your rate of sharing.
Unique content
You do not need to make the same point everyone else is making. You need to necessarily have a unique angle, approach, or spin. Do not copy someone’s content. You could curate a list of articles that you’ve found to be interesting. But, do this very infrequently.
Some Content Statistics
- Content with images receives 94% more total views than content with just text.
- 67% of customers consider detailed images to be more important than a list of the product description and customer ratings.
- When making a buying decision, 60% of consumers are more likely to consider or contact a business if they see images about their products show up in search results.
- Facebook’s marketing statistics have shown us that businesses will see a 37% increase in engagement when their Facebook posts include photos or some type of graphics.
Content Goals
- Value – Content has to provide real value to the exact target market.
- Updates – Content is either Evergreen or Requires continued updates.
- Versioning – Content needs to follow a version pattern so we know when was it last worked upon.
- Sourcing – Document source of the information. You can “quote” your source
- Copyright – Make sure to run your content through copyright checks.
- Referencing – Document your references where you got your information from. This is for internal use.
Blog Strategy
- Organization – Break blogs into sections. Highlight main points
- Titles – Titles of the content needs to drive engagement.
- Social – Social icons should be present to promote sharing.
- Keywords -Each blog should be tagged with proper keywords
- Crosslinking – Embed inner links to other blogs or subjects.
- Structure – Question user in the end to promote comments.
- Plan keywords to target.
- Images: Users want strategic images that help readers enhance the understanding on your content. The goal isn’t just to add eye candy.
- Structure makes it easy to skim and digest content. An article will have headings, subheadings, paragraph breaks, and maybe a bullet point or two. Here’s the model you should follow:
- Introduction: Set the stage for your discussion.
- Make your point: Explain it.
- Make your next point: Explain it.
- Do this for as many points as you have.
- Conclusion: Wrap up the article with a call to action.
- Substantial length: As long as it takes to say what you need to say. Longer is better.
- Long-form content performs better in social sharing, search indexing, organic traffic, and conversions.
- If you are regularly creating content that is in the 1,000 – 1,500 word range, you’re doing well.
- If your articles are about 200-300 words, you could beef up a bit
Content Development Process
- Identifying – Identify key topics and subtopics for the content
- Gathering – Gathering information of the identified topics. You may gather using product guides, blogs, knowledge base, books, audio lessons, your own experience, etc.
- Organizing – Organize your topics and subtopics to start creating structure. Identify key questions for each topic.
- Filtering – Filter your organized content to decide what really is required for presentation based on your target audience. Eliminate any unwanted and unneeded content.
- Re-writing – Re-write content in your own words through your filtered list of content. Check for grammar, spelling, punctuations, etc.
- Copyright check – Make sure to copy right check your information and content.
- Authorize writing – Get a review done from an authorized professional writer, and have them correct your work for finalization.
- Visual design – Add any visual elements, diagrams. Design to appeal your content.
- Publishing – Author your work either online, or with team. This should be in the target format of either blog, ebook, white paper, powerpoint, etc.
Publishing Your Content
Connect to a Cause – Do you have a favorite cause that you volunteer for or donate to? Talk about it. Put their logo with a link on your website. Let people know that a portion of your proceeds goes to that cause.
Email/Social Combo – If you send out a regular newsletter, you can connect it to your social networks. This expands your audience and gets your information in front of many more people.
Publish on LinkedIn – Publish your content on LinkedIn alongside gurus and thought leaders. The expansion of your reach is incredible and elevates you to a higher level of expert status.
