A Guide to Creating a Blog Post - Universal

Content marketing would be incomplete without blogging. Blogging allows businesses to not only educate their customers and prospects on important industry issues, products, and services, but delivers a personalized voice based on the style and attitudes of the company. The popularity and need for content marketing has sky rocketed during the past few years. Ceros cites that 55 percent of B2B organizations are planning to increase their content marketing budget in the next year. We outline how to organize ideas, write, and share blogs.

Organize Yourself: Content Schedules, Topics, & Types of Content

The Content Marketing Institutes affirms that just 32 percent of B2B marketers have a written content marketing strategy planned. The first step in organizing yourself is to develop a content schedule. This will help to organize ideas, topics, due dates, and what type of content you will be publishing in advance. It is advisable to create content schedules on a quarterly basis, although it can also be beneficial to develop a schedule for once or twice a year. Simply create an Excel spreadsheet, outlining the due date of the post, topic and/or title, outlined keywords, and other notes based on your organization.

When creating blog post topics try to educate your audience and answer any questions they may have. Remember, educational and evergreen content is always better than pushing your own products or services. Create and publish different types of content including regular blog posts as well as infographics that visualize statistics and creative quizzes.

Gated content is a popular trend that includes longer and research-based content pieces like whitepapers, case studies, gated guides, and more. The purpose of these pieces is to provide informational content and generate leads. Gated content pieces live behind a form that can only be downloaded if customers fill out some personal information.

Creating the Post from A to Z

Begin by outlining your post in a new Word document. Organize the main parts beginning at the top of the page. Include information including the URL of the page, title, meta description, blog category, author of the post, and more. Think about the main points you would like to discuss throughout the post. These will serve as your “H1” tags and will guide the reader from beginning to end. Make sure to include relevant statistics, information, and sources throughout your post. Incorporate some internal and external links where you see appropriate.

Don’t forget about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) while writing the post. Implement around three priority keywords to include in your post. These keywords should be included in your title as well as in the first few paragraphs of the body. Make sure that you also include effective calls to action to relevant landing pages, forms, or other offers on your site.

One of the most important parts of an effective blog post is coming up with a creative and search-friendly title. Use CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer (http://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer) to come up with clever titles and incorporate keywords.

It’s Game Time: Your Blog Post is Ready to be Published

Double check the post for spelling and grammar. If possible, have someone else at your company look over the post for a second opinion. Try to incorporate imagery and videos where possible. When choosing imagery, make sure that you have permission to use them, if they are not your own.

After Your Blog Post Has Been Published

Ensure that the title and meta descriptions as well as the URL you chose have been deployed properly. Design wise, you want to make sure that the images are rendering the right way on the page. Sometimes this step of the blog creation process can be the most important in getting your content out there. Sharing this new piece of content on social media as well as email blasts is crucial to drive traffic to the post. If you have relationships with a local chamber of commerce, community organization, or news outlet, try to get your blog seen by as many eyes as possible.

Fortune Web Marketing, (877) 813-6390 or jennifer@fortunewebmarketing.com. Visit the company online.