I often hear from clients and readers that they struggle to write blog posts. For some of them, they aren’t sure how to write great content, while others hold themselves back from hitting “publish.”
Today, we’re going to address the how behind blog post writing. And it’s all thanks to my formula for a great blog post. These are the steps you can take every single time you write to ensure your content is a hit!
The Formula for a Great Blog Post
To help you create amazing blog posts with ease, all you need to do is follow a simple formula. This will guide you through the steps of writing blog content, as well as the important elements every post needs to have. So, let’s dive in!
1. Keep Your Audience in Mind
The formula for a great blog post starts with knowing your audience. You always need to keep your ideal reader in mind whenever you create content. It’s the best way to ensure what you publish is going to resonate with them.
You should aim to answer their questions and solve their problems with your content. If you ever struggle to come up with blog post ideas, ask yourself, “How can I help my audience today?” That will help you determine what would benefit them the most. (Be sure to snag a few ideas from my list, 15 Types of Blog Posts to Grow Your Audience.)
Not only that, but your audience dictates the voice you write with. If your target market is made up of teenage girls, you won’t be writing in the same voice that a corporate website uses. If your audience is primarily moms, don’t use teenage slang they won’t understand.
Always consider who the audience is before starting the writing process. If you don’t choose topics they’re interested in or write in a voice that resonates, they won’t stick around long.
2. Conduct Any Necessary Research
Sometimes, a blog post is going to require a little research. You might need to brush up on the topic you’re writing about. Or perhaps you want to find statistics, quotes, and outside information you can link to. Take the proper time to conduct research and save links to any sources you might reference in your blog post.
3. Outline Your Post
Not everyone takes the time to outline their blog posts before writing. However, I really recommend it because it makes it easier to stay on track. Plus, you’re able to get all of your ideas out beforehand.
To successfully outline your content, jot down all of the key points you want to make within your post. Organize them into the order you’d like to discuss those points within your post. And then, start conducting any necessary research and adding in information you’d like to include.
4. Craft a Catchy Headline
For some people, they decide to write their headline before starting to write, while others wait until the very end. The reason being, headlines can be tricky stuff. Getting them just right is crucial to the success of your post.
Why? Well, your headline potentially makes or breaks whether or not someone actually clicks through to your post.
Headlines need to be informative, but also attention-grabbing. You should never mislead your readers with a clickbait headline, otherwise you risk getting on their nerves. To help you out, read this post on Catchy Blog Post Titles from CoSchedule. It has tons of formulas you can use!
5. Secure Their Interest With a Great Introduction
The headline helps them get to your blog post, but it’s your introduction that pulls them to continue reading. You need to secure their attention early on, otherwise they’ll say “Peace out!” to your site. There are a number of ways you can craft a compelling introduction, but Neil Patel says there are three elements of a good blog post intro. Those elements include a hook, a transition, and a thesis. The hook grabs their attention, while the transition begins to connect the dots and leads people into your blog post. Then, the thesis summarizes the topic and gives people a reason to continue reading.
Think about what generally makes you want to continue reading a post and apply that to your own content. You can try sharing a story, addressing your reader’s pain points, write a controversial introduction, or even include surprising statistics. In Neil’s post that I linked above, there are many great ideas for you to try out.
6. Make it Reader-Friendly
An essential elements in my formula for a great blog post is to make it reader-friendly. After all, there’s nothing more overwhelming than a gigantic block of text staring you in the face. That’s going to send your readers away from your site faster than you ever thought possible.
Instead, you need to utilize headings and lists to break up the text. Headings help organize blog posts into sections, while bulleted lists are easy to skim. Readers will appreciate this extra effort!
7. Links to Related Content for Continued Reading
Another element of my formula for a great blog post is to add links to related content. This gives your reader more blog posts to check out, which provides additional value. You can link to your own blog posts to keep people on your website longer. And you can also link to high-quality posts that have been published by other sources. As long as it’s relevant and adds value, it’s smart to add in that extra link!
8. Add Eye-Catching Images
When you were a kid, did you ever get mad when a book didn’t have pictures? If so, you likely aren’t alone in that. And as adults, we still need a little visual interest in our lives to hold our attention. Plus, many of us are visual learners and it can help us soak in the content we’re reading.
For a successful blog post, make sure you’ve added some sort of visual element. You’ll obviously want to have the standard blog post graphic (like you see at the top of this post), but you can add additional images depending on how long your post is. These can be photographs, graphics with quotes from the post, or even an infographic. Or summarize some of your post’s main points in a graphic like I did above!
9. Provide an Irresistible Call to Action
To wrap up your blog post, provide your readers with a call to action. A call to action (CTA) tells people what to do next. After all, you don’t want them to scurry off without taking your desired action. Having a CTA allows you to hold their hand and guide them in the right direction.
So, what do you want people to do after they’ve read your post? Sign-up for your email list? Purchase a product or service? Leave a comment to get the conversation started? Tell them! It’s as simple as that.
10. Be Yourself
And finally, the last step in my formula for a great blog post is to just be yourself. If you aren’t genuine with your readers, they’re going to see right through you. Show off your personality and the passion you have for your topic and people will be immediately drawn to what you’re doing.
Tired of struggling to write content for your blog? It doesn’t have to be a hassle!
My Captivating Content Kit for Bloggers teaches you how to craft content that attracts readers and keeps them coming back to your site for more.
Get the scoop on the course here!
