How To Write A Good Blog That Engages Your Audience?
The art of storytelling is as old as human kind. It’s through the power of words that humans have always found a release of their emotion. This art form has taken a new shape in the 21st century as the art of blogging. Besides the obvious necessity of a good grasp over the language, grammar, and comprehensive knowledge, there are some other points to keep in mind when writing a blog that enriches reader engagement.
Writing an essay is easy. What’s difficult is making it interesting enough to attract and engage your target audience. This post will simplify and highlight pointers to keep in mind that will help you navigate the competitive waters of the blogging world.
The Topic
The first step to writing is to come up with a topic. There are endless things to write about but it always helps to choose something that you know and is passionate about. Always remember that content is king. The relevance of the topic you chose is only validated by the body of content you write. Market research is crucial to ensure that what you put forward is accurate and concise. There is nothing worse than spreading misinformation in a world where data is the new gold.
The Structure
The structure of your blog is very important. It’s all about the flow of information. Any good blog would need these 4 structural templates-
Headline
A powerful headline is a good starting off point to peak interest as well as be informed about what’s to follow. It’s the first impression you make on your audience. The headline should be reflective of the intent and purpose of the subject of the blog. Statistically 77% of all internet users read blogs regularly. That’s a huge market to tap into, however, the competition for their attention is just as astronomical. Hence it’s imperative that the headline is magnetic and compelling so that it intrigues the reader to take a look through. Pitch your headline to be as unique, creative and straight forward as possible while keeping in mind what would relate the most to your target audience.
Lead
A good lead significantly increases the chances of retaining the attention of the readers. You want your readers to continue with the post. So start with an appealing beginning to draw them in and continue to build on it.
Sub Heads
Our attention span is ever so declining. Therefore, writing big chunks of text is unappealing and tends to turn away your readers. So incorporating subheads brings back interest and makes it easier to navigate the important parts of the post. Always make sections so that it’s easier to read and converts scanners into actual readers.
Body
The body of the blog contains the bulk of the information. It’s understandably the most important part that delivers the message that you’re trying to send across to your audience. It’s vital to ensure that the body is impeccably written, informative, enticing and precise. You want your audience to take away something from your story when they come to the end of it. So make it count. Don’t be afraid to put in your personal touch and point of view. Remember that creativity and individualism is the point of differentiation between you and others.
The Graphics
Human beings are visual creatures. We rely on our sense of sight the most. So graphics in the form of images and videos help to break the monotony of text and keeps user engagement high. Keep in mind the relevance of the image and/or video in relation to the content of the blog. It should enhance the reading experience, not hamper it. At regular intervals interject a picture or two to keep the readers interested.
Relevant Links
To access your prospective target audience you need to maximise your visibility across all digital platforms. Relevant backlinks make your blog more authoritative in Google search results. When you’re back linking, consider both outbound link and inter links. Outbound links will give the search engines definitive idea of your blog and also connect you to other blogs/creators of the same niche. On the other hand inter linking helps the overall SEO of the blog.
Good Meta Description
A meta description is a preview of your article that Google displays on its search results. Without a proper meta description, Google will just pick up the first few lines of your post as a snippet, which may not always be the most accurate representation of the blog. A well-written meta description can be a valuable insight into the blog. Invest time to write a concise and witty meta description for your blog that gives a small snippet of what’s to come without giving away too much.
Optimization Of Keywords & Images
As consumer behaviour has changed so has blog writing. Utilising keywords in blogs is a necessity that affords you constant and relevant visibility on search engines. A blog written with keywords is more likely to attract traffic as it aims to answer the most asked questions and queries of the internet users. As part of the research, tap into tools that help you find trending keywords and integrate them naturally into the content of the blog post.
As discussed earlier images are a great way to break the monotony and drive more traffic to the blog. Optimising images and videos help with the page speed. Studies show that a whopping 40% of visitors leave a website if it takes more than 3 secs to load. Hence it’s imperative that images and videos that are used in the content are optimised for better page speed.
Consistency
If you dream of becoming an influential blogger then remember that consistency is a key factor to your success. Blogging regularly and consistently will drive your relevance in the blogosphere and enhance audience engagement. That’s the reason why bloggers across the world update their content on a regular basis. It’s also important to give weightage to the tone of the content. The unique style of writing of each individual is what resonates with the audience and keeps them spellbound. It’s what they connect to. Whether it’s a satirical, witty, anecdotal or authoritative style of writing you adopt, keep consistency throughout your work. A definitive personal signature of writing is something that always attracts readers.
Final Thoughts
Writing blogs is for everyone. It’s really not rocket science. What you do need is a passion for writing and a bit of flair. These pointers will help you create a tasteful masterpiece that leaves a mark on your readers. So go ahead and start blogging.
At Alkye, we offer content creation and SEO as part of our dynamic digital marketing services to help clients to produce valuable, insightful, and relevant content for the target audience and grow their business. A robust content marketing strategy can improve brand awareness by delivering important information about the company and its products or services to the customers.
Talk to us today about writing blogs.
