We've written a few articles recently about snackable content and micro-blogging, and how you don't always need to be writing long articles anymore. Content marketing is changing, reflecting the changing ways we find, take in and engage with information.
Because of this, business blogging is changing too. Creating great blog posts on a regular basis no longer needs to the immense challenge that it once was. So what do you need to be doing? And more importantly…
What are the essential components of great blog posts?
There are many articles out there on blogging strategy, the different types of blogs you can create, and the key components of great blog posts. And let's be honest, a lot of their suggestions go without saying…
Create a catchy title
You need to draw your readers in, and create content that they will want to click on and read.
Structure and format
Make you blog post as easy to read and visually appealing as possible. Lists, bullet points and subheadings always work well.
Include images and videos
The more visual you content, the more engaging it is for readers.
Optimise for SEO
Target related keywords, include links and meta tags to give your blog posts the best chance of ranking highly on search engines
But surely these points are already fairly obvious?!
They have been propounded a million times before, and are probably things you do already when trying to create great blog posts.
I believe there is one key component to business blogging – or any kind of blogging – which is fundamental to all content marketing, now and in the future:
Adding value
Marketing is – and always will be – primarily about people. Which is why there has to be a purpose to your content.
Great blog posts need to be human-centric, something that people will read and genuinely take benefit from – not just a "tactic" employed to increase web traffic and build up your total number of webpages. Keywords and SEO are of course important, but they are far secondary to providing content of value to your audience.
Easier said than done, you might well argue. How can you add significant value through your company blog, but still manage to create great blog posts on a regular basis? We've all heard the expression "quality over quantity", but anything you read on the topic of business blogging will still tell you how important frequency is.
Our answer is that you don't need to be writing full blown articles every week.
Now that IS a challenge. You can still create great blog posts which add value, in just a few sentences. This can be done through:
• Providing your own point of view on a current issue or news story
• Sharing and commenting on an infographic
• Discussing insightful new statistics and what these mean for your industry
• Quoting an industry professional and discussing their point of view
• Sharing a video and giving your own thoughts on it
• Bringing together several ideas or recent events, and observing an underlying trend
• Giving a different or new opinion on a well-covered topic
There is no point just adding to the masses and masses of content being produced every minute for the sake of "content marketing". Just a few lines on something of genuine interest to your audience is far more valuable than 600 meaningless words on a topic that has been covered 100 times before.
Not convinced? Just look at our Content Marketing and Business Blogging feeds to see how this can be done.
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