Have you written a blog post lately? If so, you know first hand that they can be quite an undertaking, especially when you are writing one to represent your business. If the idea of sitting down to craft a great blog post has you heading for the hills, take heart! We know how difficult business blogging can be, so we’ve decided to write a blog post all about how to write a great blog post!

From the crucial elements such as voice, audience, angle, purpose, and content, to the structure you may want to use including a headline, introduction, images, subheadings, body, conclusion, and call-to-action, we’ve covered it all in this post! Keep reading to become better equipped to write a truly awesome blog post the next time around.

How to Write a Great Blog Post

We know there’s no such thing as perfect blog post – but there are some tried and true ways to boost the quality of your blog post! These methods are simple, yet can garner big results. Read on to learn some ways to take your blog post to the next level:

Elements of a Great Blog Post

When you’re writing a blog post, it’s pretty easy to pick a topic, sit down, and start writing – but this generally results in something that’s disjointed, confusing, or strays off track. Even if you’re a naturally good writer, flying by the seat of your pants may not result in your best blog post. When you sit down to write the next post for your blog, take the extra time to consider a few basic, but crucial, elements before you start typing.

The Voice and Audience of Your Blog Post: Writing a Great Blog Post

The first thing to decide when you sit down to write your next blog post is the voice in which you’ll be writing. Generally, this voice is going to be the same from post to post. When writing for your business blog, it is the voice of your business. You, as the writer, will have one or more natural voices you tend to slip into when you write, so it is important to make sure you keep the voice of your business in mind. Your audience will be able to tell if you switch voices within a post or between blog posts. Maintain a level of professionalism and credibility by keeping your voice consistent on your blog.

That being said, professional doesn’t mean dry or standoffish! Your business blog can be a place to let your brand personality shine through. Is your brand witty or more serious? Is it fun and light-hearted or academic? Putting some personality into your blog can help your readers feel like they are in a conversation with a real person when reading your posts. Your blog is the platform where your business can share detailed and personal content. Invite your readers in even further by showing them that there are real people behind your blog posts.

The second part of considering the voice you’re writing in is to consider the audience you’re writing to. The hope of a blog is that you have both loyal, returning readers and some new readers with every post. How can you possibly consider each individual when you’re writing a blog post? Realistically, you can’t. However, think about your audience base. Are they young adults? Professionals? Seniors? Pet-owners? Men? Women? A combination of a few? You know your business and who most of your customers are. Think about the demographic and keep them in mind when writing your blog posts.

Use your voice to be inviting and engaging with your audience, as well as to represent your business well. Make sure your voice matches both your brand and your audience – they go hand in hand. Be intentional but try not to be formulaic. Let your audience know that there is a real person who understands them behind the screen. Even though you want your voice to be consistent, you don’t want it to be robotic. It can take some time to settle into a voice that is strong, fitting, and comfortable, and that’s okay! Have fun with it and remember that it will help your blog in the long run.

The Angle and Purpose of Your Blog Post

The next crucial thing to consider when drafting a blog post is the angle. This is simply your viewpoint. When writing about a topic, you will usually be taking some sort of stance. Even if it’s not a strong, life-and-death sort of stance, you will still be approaching the topic with an angle. Decide what angle with which to approach, and then be consistent. Try not to give your audience whiplash by switching back and forth, or to leave them floating and wondering what exactly you’re getting at. Having a clear angle and purpose will set your post apart and will not leave your readers in confusion (and therefore likely to click away, never to return).

In addition to angle, it’s important to think about your blog post’s purpose. Your purpose is to answer a question or relay information, while your angle is the route you take to do so. They go hand-in-hand, but they aren’t exactly the same thing. Purpose is where things get a little exciting, and you can be personally invested into your post. One way to make your blog posts the best they can be is to be excited about the content you’re sharing. It’s not always going to be the most exciting topic you’ve ever encountered, but if you’re invested into your blog’s purpose, it will make a difference.

The Content of Your Blog Post

Now that you have your voice, audience, angle, and purpose in your blog toolbox, you can focus on the meat: the content that makes up the blog post. Content is more than just words. When thinking about content, you’re thinking about multimedia, sentence and paragraph structure, length, grammar, subject matter, and more! The bottom line is make sure every little piece of content you include in a blog post has quality and pulls its weight. Ask yourself, “is this worth including, does it add to the post I am writing rather than detracting from it?” For instance, including a blurry or irrelevant photo in your post just for the sake of including a photo isn’t worth it. It can be tempting, when writing a blog post, to include images, statistics, quotes, etc. just to check off a box on a list of elements that blog posts should have. If you’re going to include these elements, make sure to find strong examples that are worth including!

Remember, when you write a blog post, you represent your company and yourself. Make it something you’re proud to attach your name to. It’s worth the extra time to reread your post for errors and to have an extra set of eyes review it for things you missed. It’s time to dust off your knowledge of grammar rules from high school to make sure your post is polished! This part can be tedious, but it is the bread and butter of writing a blog post.

When you’ve finished your first draft, or even as you’re writing, ask yourself: would I read this post and, if I did, would I really find it valuable? Would I think the author was an expert, or would I discount them because of errors or disjointedness? Would I visit this blog again and again? Would I follow this person online? Be your own harshest critic for a minute to really make sure you’re putting out the best content you can. In this way, you’ll be your blog’s biggest advocate, and you’ll thank yourself for it later.

Anatomy of a Blog Post: How to Write a Great Blog Post

Now it’s time for the nitty-gritty of blog post writing – the skeleton and structure. Just like writing a paper for a composition class, there is a basic format of blog posts that is almost always smart to follow. If you were looking for a formula, this is the closest thing we’ve got:

Headline

You could call this a title, but a headline evokes the image of a newspaper being waved in the street. Are you going to stop to buy one? If you are, it’s most likely because the headline grabbed your attention! Imagine your blog is that newspaper – one of dozens that a person scrolling online is going to see. Give your blog post a head start by coming up with a headline that really grabs the attention of passers-by. Your headline should give the reader an idea of what the post is going to be about, in a way that makes it hard for them to refuse.

Hook readers with a question, a bold statement, or something that shocks them a little. Logistically, include a keyword or keyword phrase to help with search engine optimization (SEO). Be creative and come up with something punchy yet telling enough that it gives the reader an idea of what is going to follow.

Introduction

Open your blog post similarly to your headline: with something that is going to grab the reader’s attention and give them incentive to keep reading. Pique interest and ask questions right off the bat. Tell the reader what the post is about, propose a dilemma or a question and then tell them that you’re going to answer it, and how you’re going to answer it, without giving too much away. Tease them with the main points that are coming in the body of the post without giving them all the answers right there in the intro, otherwise they’ll have no need to read the rest of the post.

Stay tuned for next week’s post – a deep-dive into writing a killer blog post introduction!

Images

In every blog post, you should include at least one image, and more if the post is long. We like to have an image at the very top, to aid our headline in grabbing attention, and then images throughout, depending on the nature of the post. At SocialNicole, we write many how-to guides, and have found it to beneficial to include images with each step of the process, to make it abundantly clear for our readers. Other times, we will include a cool or interesting relevant image among the text, to give our audience’s eyes a break from words and help reinforce the point we are making.

Wherever you decide to include images, or however many you use, make sure they are clear and relevant. Place your images alongside the text they’re illustrating for added clarity. Look back over your post when you’re done and decide if you have enough or too many images, and adjust accordingly. Make your images work for you!

Subheadings

Subheadings can not only aid SEO with the use of keywords, they also aid the reading process for your audience. As with the headlines, make them attention-grabbing and informative. Use subheadings to break your post up into sections that tell your reader what is going to follow. This will help break the post down into manageable bites of information. Aim for an easy-to-read structure when using subheadings.

Body

The body of the post is going to make up the bulk of the post, split up between subheadings and often including images. Remember what we talked about above in terms of content: keep it quality and worth the space it takes up. Remember to break up the body of your post into relatively-short, chewable paragraphs, even if they aren’t all divided by subheadings. Keep a strong voice, remember your audience, represent your brand, etc. Try to flesh out your points completely without becoming superfluous.

The body of your post is where you will include keywords, in addition to your headline and subheadings. Stay away from keyword stuffing (spamming the post with your keyword or keyword phrase) while sprinkling your keyword phrase a handful of times throughout the body. Keep your post moving with transitions and make sure the body is clear, non-repetitive, and moving forward.

Conclusion and Call-To-Action

The conclusion of a blog post is quite similar to the introduction, in that you are summing up the blog post. Reiterate what you have said by laying out your main points again, and this time you can give a little more away, since they have already read the post. Try to tie up the post neatly, and don’t leave your audience feeling jolted by an abrupt ending.

The conclusion differs from the introduction in that, rather than enticing the audience to keep reading, you are finishing up the post and then leading them further down the path you have started them on. You don’t want them to finish the post and then leave. Include some sort of call-to-action that causes your reader to stay with you for a bit longer. Link to a mailing list or your online shop, and preface it with a clear directive acting like a big, red arrow pointing the reader to learn more. Make some sort of promise and then follow up by directing them to another page or site where you can keep that promise, building a relationship with them in the meantime!

Sitting down to write a blog post is no easy task, and, as we just learned, there is a lot that goes into it! There are elements to keep in mind, such as voice and audience, angle and purpose, and of course your very best content! There is a general structure most posts should follow, with a headline, introduction, subheadings, body, images, and a conclusion with a call-to-action! Blog posts can be tricky but they can also be very rewarding and there’s no greater feeling than the one when you know you created something awesome!

We hope this post has been beneficial to you and has left you feeling equipped to write your next killer business blog post!

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