HOW 5 SIMPLE STEPS CAN PUT THE LIMELIGHT ON YOUR BLOG POSTS Seth Godin, Neil Patel, Amit Agarwal, Jeff Bullas, … the list of blogging geniuses goes on. Yes, blog posts are still one of the key content deliverables of your digital marketing strategy. In today’s digital-centric era, where most of our waking time is in front of digital devices, blog posts have become super important in communicating with your target audience and building your brand. But beyond these obvious advantages, blog posts can help you achieve a lot of your digital marketing goals. So let’s take a deeper look at blog posts and find out why they are your best buddies.
WHY BLOGGING? Blogging is a digital extension of a social diary – a fantastic instrument to chronicle your thoughts and ideas. But beyond the personal domain, blogging is a great tool for your business, especially when you are in the ever-competitive IT products and services space. We recently worked for an IoT initiative in healthcare, where our role was to plan the digital marketing approach. Yes, blog posts were the critical elements of our content strategy primarily because 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
They gave us an opportunity to create awareness about the benefits of the specific IoT solution among the niche target audience It helped us establish our expertise and slowly build trust with them This medium assisted us in creating a meaningful content repository that helped our clients go up the Google ranking ladder We were also able to establish our presence with the right audience across our chosen social media channels With increasing interest, our content was able to spark easy, meaningful conversations over the social media channels, when we posted the posts The increased awareness and keen interest in this unique IoT application helped us get the much-sought-after shares incorporating our focus keywords in the content helped us stay visible in searches
The list of benefits goes on, but I’m sure that many others who diligently use blog posts would have had the same experience. But if you haven’t, then you’ll need to go back to see whether you are using the right approach to create and distribute the blog posts. Here is a list of 5 smart techniques you can use to create just the perfect blog post.
1 THE TOPIC SAYS IT ALL There are a million content ideas you can work on under any topic. Let’s take IoT in healthcare for instance. This topic is way too broad to make any impact. So fine-tune the topic – create an org chart of subtopics under IoT in healthcare. You can take the help of popular tools, such
as Buzzsumo, that can point out the most popular articles and other content forms under any topic. For IoT in healthcare, for instance, the most popular topics have spoken about how IoT can fill the existing gaps in healthcare, the phrase of going “beyond the pill” in the digital healthcare context, and IoT solutions for health practitioners who focus on geriatric care. The second topic suited my requirements since my client’s products included solutions for geriatric patients. So, I chose a related topic for my blog post. There are many other approaches too. Ensure that you read well on a consistent basis on the subject that you need to create content on. Not just when you write a blog post, but even on a regular basis. Add the specific topics to your daily feedly reads or add Google alerts for the key terms.
2 BACK IT UP WITH HEALTHY RESEARCH A great blog content needs to have a strong research –based foundation. Hence, first review your client’s brief carefully, understand their product or service offerings, check the competitor approaches, do a thorough research of the landscape and opinion or white papers on this topic. Note down the points – statistics, studies, observations, and findings – from your research. Validate them against your client’s observations. At every point, remember to note the source of reference. Check with your client for points that require clarity and then create the skeletal structure of your blog post.
3 BUILD A STRONG CONTENT FRAMEWORK Many of us jump into writing content. I prefer working from a base skeletal approach format and then fill it up with content. Most blog posts use a standard framework of introduction (setting the context, shocking the reader, delivering the stats, telling a story, or giving a quick snapshot of the conclusion), getting to the point, and conclusion. The second part is usually the longest and is broken into smaller points or paragraphs. The content is supported by images, screenshots, graphs, and annotations as required. So a smart approach would be to have all the essentials in place and create the basic flow of content before working on the content.
4 ENRICH CONTENT WITH KEYWORDS AND OTHER EMBELLISHMENTS Of course, even the best of blog posts would mean nothing without the right keywords. So optimize your content with the right keywords. Do not fill up all the available space with all the keywords. You’ll then be creating just pure junk. Instead smartly select meaningful keywords that gel with your post and then incorporate it carefully in strategic locations after your post is ready. Incorporate keywords in the link and image filenames too. Add the required links and back-links that can help both you and your audience.
5 FOCUS EQUALLY ON DISTRIBUTING YOUR BLOG POST SMARTLY What’s the use of creating great content when no one can access it? Don’t hide your posts inside the multiple layers of your website. Distribute your content smartly across select social media channels to your audiences, boost your post targeting specific types of audiences, and don’t forget the article advertising and news release web websites. Encourage your team, partners, distributors, and others within your network to share the content to boost visibility.
BLOG POSTS – STILL VERY MUCH IN TREND A favorite blog can reap HUGE dividends for your digital marketing strategy, not just for the b2c players but also for the b2b players who are into IT products and services. But getting there takes a consistent effort. And if you cannot commit to it long term, then do not go there. Blog posts are not just content put together in brilliant language and posted into multiple online locations. It requires a lot of research and focus and it needs to be relevant to the readers. If you are not sure about how to create wow blog posts for your audience, remember to ask for help. Your digital marketers can fill the gap and help you connect with your audience. Credits : https://digitalmarketingit.in/open-talk-our-collection-of-blog-posts/