Do you find blog post writing hard to do? Most people do. Even experienced writers are often uneasy when they begin. Some studies have shown that just beginning your writing project can have a calming effect. That’s counterintuitive. You would expect to be even more anxious, but apparently, facing your fear and starting really helps.
To help you get over the feeling that you’d rather procrastinate, here’s a five step process that will help you get started. It helps you approach blog post writing in a logical way so you won’t have to suffer the emotional anxiety of writer’s block.
Step 1. Get your mindset in gear: Start by focusing on the reason you are writing this blog post.
Understand that blog post writing is marketing; not creative writing– it has to serve a business purpose. It’s not the great American novel. Don’t worry about all the things you fear about writing. Remember, you are writing these articles for a reason. Focusing on the business purpose should help you focus on the business at hand.
Step 2. Decide which of the three main business purposes you are focusing on.
- Branding: To promote the company’s image and expertise
- Lead Generation: To demonstrate that you have the knowledge to solve a particular problem
- Improved search engine ranking and increased site traffic: The key to remember here that developing a relationship with your readers takes time, so don’t be discouraged. One blog post isn’t going to be the measure of your success. It’s the value you provide over time.
Step 3. After you’ve decided what purpose the article will serve, you need to look at your “action information.” Those are your keywords, campaigns and format.
Determine:
Which keywords am I promoting? Is this being written for a specific campaign or product promotion?
What type of article will serve my purpose best? Which format should I choose? Five common ones are: Tip lists; Question and answer format; Problem and solution; Industry trend; Research article
Print out the mind map worksheet above and use it whenever you are going to create new content. It will help prompt you to consider other formats than the one you consistently choose.
How long should the article be? Not less than 400 for most posts. The current trend is to write long posts (i.e. 2,000 words) but don’t be bullied into only writing long posts. Write the post length that supplies the most valuable information and then stop there.
Step 4. What should you put in your author information section if you are writing a guest post? Obviously your name and company name; website address; and blog address; the call to action that relates to the purpose of the article. So if it’s lead generation for a specific product, you need to have the call to action say something like-
“Add your email address to get a discount coupon for our new line of audio speakers”
Step 5. Write that article and get it online!
Quick Action Tips:
- Repurpose the content you already have
- Create a mind map outlining the content on your website and see which topics lend themselves to articles
- Take your white papers and rewrite them as a customer posts
- Use the questions your customers ask you and turn them into articles
- Take the questions you find in forums and use them in an article
- Poll your customers and ask them what business problem they struggle with and use that as the jumping off point
- Use your blog post as the jumping off point for ‘Part 2’.
