Are you looking for a better way to attract more customers with more interesting blog post ideas? Sure, you are! Every savvy business owner is. After all, a great blog post could be the difference in success and failure.

Blogging is a great way to drive traffic to your website, keep your target audience there longer, and attract new customers. By maximizing search engine optimization (SEO) through user-generated content and ensuring interesting post ideas, it’s also a way to expand your audience. People don’t usually share ads with their friends, which limits your potential for reaching people who aren’t already following you.

It’s fun, too. But not everyone is a natural writer. Even the best ideas can fall flat if they’re not presented in an entertaining fashion. On the other hand, a well-written blog post can make even the dullest subject interesting enough to read about.

Here’s how to craft a blog post with quality content that’s not only fun to read, but also drives traffic to your business. After all, content is everything and writing blog posts with good content creation should be fun—just ask any successful blogger.

Research your keywords

To begin with, you’ll want to find out what your customers are looking for. In the days of old, ad companies got paid millions of dollars just to figure this out. Nowadays, that information is just a few keystrokes away. Add the right blog content and you are away.

Online services like Ahrefs and Moz can tell you everything you need to know for only a few dollars a month. They do this by tracking what people are searching for online. For example, if you type “electrician” into one of these sites, they’ll tell you all the words people are using along with “electrician.”

You’ll get a list with terms like “cheap electrician,” “master electrician,” “licensed electrician” and “electrician near me.” If you use these popular search terms in your post, people will be more likely to find it.

Choose a relevant topic

Now that you know what your audience is searching for, you’ll need to choose a topic and blog content they’re interested in. Returning to our electrician example, we could choose a topic that’s relevant to several of those keywords.

For example, we might write an article on “How to Find a Cheap, Licensed Electrician Near Me.” That article could include the keywords “cheap electrician,” “licensed electrician” and “electrician near me” several times throughout the text.

By choosing a relevant topic, you’re not just finding a way to use lots of keywords. You’re also writing about something your audience actually cares about, which means they’re more likely to read the entire post.

Don’t over-optimize

Whether on social media or looking at online blogs, once you’ve learned the importance of keywords and how to find them, it can be tempting to insert them everywhere in your post. To show why this is a bad idea, here’s an example of an over-optimized paragraph:

If you’re looking for a cheap electrician, you can find a master electrician for cheap on our site. Whether you’re looking for a licensed electrician for interior work, or a qualified electrician for commercial work, you’ll find one. If you’ve ever asked yourself “How do I find an electrician near me?” we’ll show you how to get the best electricians in your area.

Sure, that paragraph is full of keywords. But it also sounds awful. Even if the rest of the article is full of great tips, nobody’s going to keep reading.

Use keywords, but use them naturally. Less is more, especially when it comes to making your blog post readable.

Begin with a hook

When you’re writing a blog, you’re writing on the internet. People have short attention spans, and the next blog is just one click away.

So how do you keep their attention?

Give them a reason to keep reading. You’ll want to address their needs in the first sentence or the first paragraph at a bare minimum. For example, if you’re writing a post about finding a cheap electrician, you might start with something like this:

Do you need electrical work done on a budget? Do you need to fix a safety issue or add an outlet without breaking the bank?

That’s not exactly perfect, but it addresses your customers’ needs. They’ll read that, nod their heads and keep reading. Now, they’ve committed to reading your post.

Use short paragraphs, subheadings and bullets

If you’re used to reading novels or technical writing, you’re probably used to long paragraphs. There’s nothing wrong with long paragraphs, either. Sometimes, good writing requires them.

But, again, we come back to the fact that this is the internet. Huge blocks of text look boring and people start skimming instead of reading. How do you avoid this?

Leave plenty of white space on the screen. Ideally, paragraphs should be four lines or shorter. They can even be a single sentence—if you want to emphasize something.

Another way to add white space is to use subheadings. Ideally, you’ll want to insert a new subheading every 100–300 words. This makes the article feel shorter and people feel like they’re making progress while they’re reading.

If you have a subheading that requires a lot of words, you can change things up by adding a bulleted list. This adds more white space and makes the subheading feel shorter.

End with a call to action

Finally, you’ll want to connect the blog back to your business. After all, the ultimate goal is to attract customers. To do this, you’ll need to incorporate what marketers call a call to action. Basically, you need to specifically ask people for their business.

Salespeople will be familiar with this technique because they do it in person all the time. It’s called “asking for the sale” and it’s something every salesperson learns in Sales 101.

You’ll also want to include a link in your call to action. Why? Because people have short attention spans. Even if you’ve convinced them they need your services, they’re less likely to do so if they have to open another browser tab to Google your website.

The next thing you know, they’ve become distracted by some cute cat pictures and you’ve lost a customer.

If all else fails, hire an agency

For some people, this may seem daunting. Even if it sounds entirely doable, your time may be more useful elsewhere, like meeting with clients or managing your business.

If that sounds like you, consider hiring a marketing agency like Above The Fold to help create your blog content today.  Contact us today to receive a free consultation.

As a business in San Diego, you will create content, all in the hope that it will grow your business online. But a content marketing starter plan removes the word ‘hope’ to drive your business forward. Below are 6 tips to create a content marketing plan for your small business:

Tip 1 – WHY are you creating content?

Most San Diego businesses being asked this question are probably unsure as to the real reason why they are creating content.  There’s no clear direction or strategy and that’s a problem.

Content needs to be of high-quality. It needs to be relevant to your audience. It needs to be informative and not overstuffed with keywords and phrases, and so not created to entice people to buy.

Tip 2 – Setting goals for your content

You will want the content you create to accomplish goals for your business. Here are some common themes to content creation by other San Diego businesses;

• Raising/maintaining brand awareness – a buzz around your business means customers return and new ones find you. It is your chance to show people who and what you are.
• Provide value – some businesses and organizations take the opportunity to add value to their services with quality content. ‘How to’ articles and videos, for example, are useful and valued by customers.
• Earn traffic – links that are genuine and content that answer search questions boost your website rankings.
• Acquire more leads – when people find content, they can be asked to join an e-mailing list and this in itself can swell your customer numbers.
• Build community and connections – the online world doesn’t have to be disconnected and anonymous. Content can build an enthusiastic and thriving fan base.
• Promotion – content promotes your business in many ways but specific content can be created to promote something specific

Tip 3 – Create content for your audience

Many years ago, content wasn’t created for readers or customers but for search engines. Short pieces of content were rammed full of keywords in their extract format. Many articles and blog posts made very little sense in terms of language, grammar or how helpful it was to the customers.

This has changed and yet, so many businesses still don’t create content for their customer demographic.

The next time you load a blog post or spend dollars on creating a video, ask yourself is this what my customer wants?

What is it that your customer wants or needs to know? What is the best format to put this in – is it a blog, a how-to guide, a downloadable set of instructions or a video… or all of these things?

You may also find that what you produce, how and when changes based on the type of business you operate.

Tip 4 – Vary the content

In some ways, these tips are steps to a creating a content marketing strategy and we are now at the stage of deciding what format the information will be delivered.

• TOPICS – topics can be many and varied but providing they have a connection with your business, products or service, they could prove invaluable to your customer. What questions are your customers asking? What are they talking about on social media?
• KEYWORD ANALYSIS – this allows you to see what search terms and questions customers are using to search for products or services like yours. By using this key phrase in your posts, you will push yourself up the rankings.
• COMPETITORS – don’t copy what your competitors are doing but it is worth looking at their blog and so on to see what direction they are taking. But consider what they are missing too? Is there a gap that you could fill?
• FORMAT – what format works best for your customer? There is a growing range of content-vehicles from podcasts, videos, blogs, guest blogging, white papers, newsletters, downloadable guides…

Tip 5 – How will content be distributed?

It’s a sad fact that there is a wealth of amazing content out there that no one has seen, no one has viewed and no one has read.

Why you may ask?

Because most small businesses aren’t taking the right steps to amplify their content.  They need to be commenting on other blogs, posting to social media, and building the right buzz to get people to talk about the amazing content they create.

If you aren’t familiar with the digital marketing strategy of Outreach, we recommend you read about it to see the value it can bring to helping distribute your content.

Tip 6 – How will you measure success?

Are people finding the content? Are they commenting on it? In other words, how will you measure the success of what you are producing?

Think back to Tip 2 when we talked about setting goals. In effect, measuring the success of your content means answering the question of has it boosted brand awareness? Or has it earned more traffic to your site?

But more importantly, if you have a plan and a strategy fueling it, content will create a return on investment for your business.  You just need o track it to make sure it’s successful.

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