Does it feel like your company’s blog is being ignored? Blogging for your business is an excellent way to share valuable information with your customers and clients. It’s also useful for gaining traffic. But, what can make blogging especially rewarding is when your audience engages with you after reading your post. How do you progress from your readers thinking, “Great info, now I’m moving on to the next thing,” to feeling compelled enough by the content to comment on your post or share it on social media? Here are some tips for writing engaging blog posts for your business that will get your audience involved in the conversation.
To start, you need to catch their attention from the start while still giving them a feel for what the post is going to be about. Whether you write novels or just the occasional couple-hundred-word blog post, you know that the intro can be the hardest part to compose. There are a few tried-and-true methods to accomplish this, though. Starting with a thought-provoking question, like we did here, will force your readers to immediately engage with you. Quotes, statistics, and short anecdotes that pertain to your blog post are also wonderful attention-grabbers.
Next, apply the old KISS concept to your writing. Sentences and words should be kept short and simple. Too long sentences and unnecessarily complicated words can discourage them from reading. How do you know if a sentence is too long? If you read a longer sentence out loud, and you have to stop to catch your breath, it’s probably too long. Avoid using too many adverbs or adjectives that don’t add anything of substance to your sentence.
Readers don’t want to be bombarded with jargon, either. Instead of trying too hard to sound smart, try to sound sensible instead. You don’t want to lose your audience halfway through your post because it sounds too pretentious or their eyes are glassing over while they’re reading.
Read your blog out loud before you post it. If you feel certain sections drag on too long, or areas sound too wordy, edit out the extra bits. Some thoughts may sound incomplete when read out loud. Add a little more information to strengthen those areas or finish your thoughts.
Your content needs to be useful to your reader. What problem do they have that you can solve? What do they want to achieve? Focus your topic around a solution to their problem. Help them reach their achievements, and provide them with tools and resources to do so. Make sure your advice is practical.
As you write, be mindful of each and every sentence. The purpose of every line should be to compel the reader to go on to the next one. Using a storytelling approach is one way to keep your audience captivated. Incorporating otherwise dull statistics, facts, and points into relatable stories not only makes them easier to read, but it also makes them easier to remember. Draw from your experience, invent stories, or paraphrase other people’s experiences. It’s important to know your audience before you start telling stories, though. For example, you don’t want to use a reference to the band One Direction when your readers are more of a Rolling Stones crowd.
Address your audience directly as you share your content with them. Write in the 2nd person, using words like “you” and “your” to address the readers. They’ll feel like you’re speaking directly to them and gain an attachment to what you’re saying, making them more likely to take action.
The title of your blog post is incredibly important to engaging your readers. A good headline may be the reason someone chooses to read your blog in the first place. When you search for a topic, all you see is a title, a short excerpt, and a URL. If your title is better than the one above or below it, the chances of your blog post being clicked on are greater. This idea applies to RSS feeds as well as search engines.
If coming up with a compelling title is a struggle for you, try out the Copywriter Today Headline Creator. Sometimes you just need a little help generating ideas or combining certain words to form a cohesive headline. Use this tool to help you create headlines that readers will stop to click on.
Ending your blog post can be just as difficult as coming up with an introduction. The easiest solution is to recap the main points of the article, but that can be boring to readers. Instead, try ending with a question that compels readers to respond. Or, give them a call to action to share the post or engage in some other way.
Creating engaging content is the best way to connect with your audience, increase traffic to your site, and improve your results in search engines. Whatever your writing style may be, give your readers unique and useful content to act on, and they’ll keep coming back for more.