Write blogs?
Then make sure you’re including all five of these essential items in every post!
(Found it useful? Let us know!)
1. Advice your customers can use
There’s a golden rule in blogging: if it doesn’t give anything of value to the reader, don’t bother posting it.
The whole premise of inbound marketing is that customers find you, not the other way around.
And they’ll find you if you’re providing the answer to a question they’re typing into Google.
So – answer a problem. Explain a solution. Write a step-by-step guide.
Give your readers something they can actually *use*.
Opinion pieces are great – but they shouldn’t form the heart of your inbound marketing strategy.
Like this article. This is just bursting with awesome advice about blogging.
BURSTING.
2. Lots of pictures
Here’s the biggest (and greatest!) secret about being a fully grown adult:
We’re basically massive children.
We might like to think that we’re all mature and grown up.
We might even sit in Shoreditch speakeasies, drink craft beer, and read Walt Whitman.
But at heart, we’re just big kids.
And what do kids love?
Pictures.
Long-form text is just so dull.
So appeal to your customer’s inner kid, and pepper your blog with pictures.
Bonus points if they’re (a) relevant to the article, and (b) actually help explain one of your points.
Unlike this. This is just a picture of Danny De Vito in It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. You should check it out. I think it’s still on Netflix.
3. Free giveaways
You know what else EVERYONE loves?
Free stuff.
YEAH, free stuff.
Proper nerdy inbound marketers call these “content upgrades“.
But let’s just stick with “free stuff” for now.
While you’re writing your blog post, think – what could I give away that would be useful to the reader, and relevant to this topic?
We do it all the time. Look – here’s a big old button offering you a FREE download of this blog post as a PDF.
Go on, have a click. You know you want to:
See? Now you’ve got your very own copy of this post. It’s yours. You can keep it. Forever.
Even if I have a big old hissy fit one day and delete this post – it won’t matter to you, will it?
No. Because you’ve been all clever, and downloaded your very own copy. And no one can take that away from you.
We like you. You’re awesome.
4. Big fonts
Is your blog written in Arial 11pt?
Or (god help us), Times New Roman 10pt?
Change it. Change it to at least 16pt.
We’re massive kids, remember? And kids’ books are all written in massive font.
Trust us – this makes a HUGE difference.
(Seriously – it makes your blog feel more “readable”, and encourages people to read for longer. Fewer people leave your page halfway through. And that means more engaged fans. YAY!)
5. Sharing buttons
There’s a bit of a myth about sharing blog posts.
Some would have you believe that if you write a decent post, it’ll get shared all around the world.
Truth is, it probably won’t.
Most blog posts never reach more than a few people.
But – sometimes they DO get shared.
And when that reader decides they want to share it, you’d best have some sharing buttons ready to go.
We’ve got loads, look. We’ve got some at the bottom of the post; some are over there on the left. Loads.
Go on, give one of them a click, see what happens.
(Spoiler: your friends will ALL think you’re awesome. That’s what’ll happen.)
Check out SumoMe’s “Share” for some easy to install, neat sharing buttons.
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