5 Steps to Write Quality Blog Posts for Your Business
Learning how to write a blog post is the first step in cultivating a content marketing strategy that will serve your business for years. To start building your marketing foundation, use the following insights to how to use your unique and timely insights to ideate, write, and publish effective blog posts.
Jump-To:
- Introduction
- What Is a Blog?
- Why Should You Blog for Your Business?
- How to Write a Blog Post
- Write what you know.
- Change your perspective.
- Write your blog post.
- Enhance your blog post for SEO.
- Transform your blog content into new mediums.
- Conclusion
Introduction
Content marketing for businesses takes many forms and can be created for your website or shared on social media. From written articles to podcasts, infographics, and more, content creation is essential for businesses who want to connect with—and educate—their clients on their business, their offering, and their industry.
Today, we’re focusing on your blog, and why it’s such a foundational aspect of your online presence.
What Is a Blog?
Blogging—short-form for the early-internet term “weblog”—is an article written on the internet published by an individual or representative of a business. These articles often share key ideas or information on a specific topic related to the interests of the publisher’s target audience.
Why Should You Blog for Business?
A blog is an unparalleled opportunity for thought leaders and professionals to get started in content marketing for their business. Content marketing is often made up of various mediums (written, audio, and visual).
Blogs can be referenced by and repurposed into these other mediums; this is what makes blogging so foundational. Once you’ve written and optimized a blog post, it’s available for months and years to come.
How to Write a Blog Post
The hardest part of writing a blog post is deciding what you should write about and getting started.
Having trouble coming up with ideas for your blog? Read our post on creating a content strategy here.
Whether you have an idea ready or not, use the following steps to start blog writing for your business:
1. Write what you know.
Your experience and insights are valuable—and can have a big impact on the lives of leads, prospects, team, and clients.
The easiest way to get started with blogging is to document what you know. From processes to lived expertise, you have a unique perspective and understanding.
Craft content ideas based on:
- What you know
- How you see things
- What your customers want to learn from you
Topics based on these themes are what differentiate you from the rest, helping you create original and impactful content.
Coming up with blog ideas isn’t a one day process; rather, it’s important to start slow and intentionally.
Dedicate a document to the purpose of writing down interesting ideas and thoughts throughout your day. Not only can the act of writing them down help you remember them later; you may find that writing down the idea prompts you to write a little more, perhaps to even create your first draft.
If you find writing isn’t your forte, try talking it out—with a friend, a colleague, or even in a voice note to yourself. Often, what you’re trying to say will come out more naturally when spoken aloud.
Although you’ll never have all of the answers, your unique insights and point-of-view can go a long way in helping you create impactful blog ideas that can be used in your content marketing strategy for years to come.
2. Change your perspective.
An effective blog is one that enlightens and educates its reader, often on a niche topic they’ve been thinking about—or even Googled—and giving them the answers they’re seeking.
Business owners know that part of attracting and retaining clients is building a trusted connection between their life and your offering.
You have to prove that you can make their life simpler, more enjoyable, or how you can be the solution to their problem.
To do so, however, you need to understand them. You need to thinking like them, and ask yourself, “What do clients want to know from me? What do they want to learn before, during, or after working my business? How can I help them find the information they need?”
Blogging and content marketing isn’t about selling—it’s about serving.
3. Write your blog post.
Once you’ve found a topic that aligns with your area of expertise and answers a question your prospects, clients or colleagues may have, it’s time to start writing.
A basic, well-structured blog post will have:
- A clear introduction and conclusion
- A body separated in to clear sections by headers
- A headline that tells readers exactly what to expect (we love freelance SaaS writer Kaleigh Moore’s blog on click-worthy headlines)
How long should your blog post be? We believe in quality over quantity. We suggest no less than 750 words, but of course, this depends on the purpose of your post.
Want to know how to properly publish a blog post? Check out our Teakie Tutorial for a step-by-step guide.
4. Enhance your blog post for SEO.
Whether you’re feeling stuck or find it natural to write over 1000-words on a topic, a blog outline can help you optimize the process—especially in formatting your blog for SEO.
Getting started in SEO is relatively easy. By doing some very basic research on your topic, you can gain insights on what people may be searching for. Try searching for a few select keywords related to your topic and see what articles come up.
Once you’ve identified some common keywords (or key phrases), try to weave them naturally throughout your article, including in the headline and in-text headers.
There are some great WordPress SEO plugins designed to make this process simple—our favourite is Yoast SEO.
5. Transform your blog content into new mediums.
The magic of blogging is how easy it is to use information from every post to beef up and populate other areas of your content strategy.
Are you incredibly passionate about a niche topic related to your business? Why not start a podcast?
Armed with a myriad of interesting statistics? An infographic helps you visualize this data for easy sharing on social media.
As you build your audience, don’t forget to push yourself to learn and grow. With so many topic ideas to explore, you can use your unique insights and point of view to write a blog post that educates clients and inspires readers to learn more about who you are and what you do.