Content, content, content. You hear all the time that good content is the backbone of your business’s online marketing strategy and that the company blog is an important part of the content-creation process. If you are new to blogging, especially in the B2B realm, figuring out where to start can be overwhelming. What does a good blog post look like? While all post formats and specific goals will differ between industries, companies, and people, there are a few key components that will make your content stand out.
An attention-grabbing (and SEO-friendly) headline
A strong blog post title is often the first thing your readers see and the first to draw them in to a post. It can and should be funny or thought provoking for the interest of readers, but make sure it also appeals to the search engines by including relevant keywords in a way that makes sense. Accordingly, make your lead paragraph as interesting and relevant to your purpose as possible. A good example of this is a Primm post from a few months ago:
An eye-catching image
Never underestimate the power of a striking photo for drawing readers into a blog post. Like your headline, it is best that whatever image you choose at least distantly relates to the goal and content of your post. Readers will lose trust in your work if they feel misled.
A concise and easy-to-understand text-body
The rule of thumb for blog post length is anywhere between 300 and 1000 words, so, as long as you write about something people really care about, you have a bit of leeway with their attention spans and the search engines’ web crawlers.
Keep your paragraphs broken up idea by idea. People like to be able to scan a blog post to get the general idea and big blocks of words will often deter them from reading.
Some kind of call to action at the end
Especially in the corporate blogging world, it’s important that a blog post sets forth “next steps” for its reader. Avoid hard sells (another way to lose reader trust), but do include encouragement for further engagement with your company. “If you need help with [blank], we’re here for you,” or “Follow us on Twitter!” Anything to help ensure that they establish more connections and associations with your brand.
Do you have questions about corporate blogging or need some advice about how to get started? Call or contact the experts at Primm (see what we did there?).