Your blog is one of the most valuable tools in your arsenal when it comes to marketing your business. It is a great way to drive traffic to your site through articles that are educational, interesting, and entertaining.
With such a glut of content on the internet, of variable quality, online consumers have more choice in their reading material than ever before. And as a result they are increasingly picky. You can’t afford to be churning out rubbish blog articles in the hope of driving people to their website, as no one will read them.
It doesn’t matter whether your company deals with global finance, health food, or website design. The fundamentals of content marketing are the same. You need to be writing well-crafted content that offers value to your customers. It should be aligned with your brand in terms of style and tone, while providing them with solutions to solve their own needs and challenges. It’s good to have a range of content types, from short, punchy blogs to longer, more detailed articles. Get it right and you will not only see increased traffic to your blog, but you will also get more shares, more return visitors, and ultimately, more customers.
But how can you write better copy? You don’t have to be a literary genius in order to learn the basics. You just have to follow a few simple rules and avoid the most common mistakes made by content marketers. To get you started, here are seven ways to boost your blog traffic through better writing.
Write a catchy headline
The title of your piece is the first thing a potential reader sees and will determine whether or not they click through to the article. It needs to be enticing and punchy, while still containing all the information necessary to explain what the article is about. Writing compelling headlines is an artform that takes practice to get it right. There are no hard and fast rules about what must and must not go in the headline, but there are plenty of tricks that are likely to get you more views. People like lists, as they are easy to consume and satisfying to read, so title formats such as “10 Ways to…” or “5 Reasons Why…” are a good place to start.
Draw the reader in
Once a reader has clicked through to your article, you need to keep them suitably engaged to read through to the end. Your introductory paragraph must therefore be captivating. Your readers have started reading your article because they’ve been promised certain content, so get straight to the point with no waffle. Depending on the content, you could include an interesting fact or statistic, or even an anecdote to draw them in.
Solve a need
The majority of internet users read blog articles for information and advice that can help them solve a problem, so your blog posts need to provide value. Let’s say you are in the insurance business. A longform article about the history of insurance might be full of trivia that is interesting to those who work in the industry, but it’s unlikely to get someone to buy a policy from you. In order to target your ideal customers, i.e. people who need insurance, you need to be giving them advice about the types of insurance cover to get and how to go about it.
Do your research
You can’t just sit down at a laptop and write down any old stuff that comes into your mind. A good article needs to be well-researched and full of pertinent information. If it is full of mistakes and conjecture, it’s going to be clear to the discerning reader that the writer doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Take the time to find out all the facts and gather important information before starting. It’s better to post a fantastic blog article weekly than a rubbish one daily.
Be concise
Today’s consumers are increasingly busy and starved for time. Most readers are unlikely to want to sift through huge swathes of content in order to find the advice they need. Keep your articles concise and to-the-point. Use short sentences and paragraphs that are easy to digest, and divide your blog up into clearly-titled sections. If they’re after a particular piece of information, it should be possible for them to scan through the post in order to pick it out.
If you drone on and on, a reader will simply lose interest and go back to the search, ultimately landing on a competitor with a better writing style than you.
Write for your audience
You need to have your ideal customer in mind when writing your posts. You could have the most informative, well-written article evern, but if it’s targeted to your buyers then it’s all for nothing. Before starting on your content marketing journey, you need to think about your buyer personas. This exercise requires you to create profiles for your ideal customers, outlining their demographics, needs, and internet habits as well as other information. When writing your blogs, you need to keep these personas at the forefront of your mind, and work out exactly what information they would want to read. This way, you can create content that resonates with your readers and is much more likely to convert them into customers.
Be engaging
One of the key rules when it comes to writing anything, is to be engaging. An informative blog article doesn’t have to be dry and serious. It can be full of humor and informal language. Even if you work in a relatively formal industry, like law or finance, you can still find ways to be engaging and interesting. The better you are at this, the more likely you are to cultivate a loyal readership.
Hopefully these tips help you become a better writer and drive more blog traffic to your website. Becoming a master of copy doesn’t happen overnight, so it’s important to keep practicing your skills and you will see continuous improvement.
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