How to Write Blogs with Great Copy
Blogging can help you establish your expertise in your chosen niche or promote your business, but only if you’re able to craft winning copy. The way that you communicate your message matters just as much as the information the message contains. After all, you want readers to be captivated by your text, anxious to keep reading and eager to continue following your blog.
Great copywriting is an art but unlike most naturally talented artists, copywriting is a learned skill. The more you practice the clearer your ‘copy’ will become. Fortunately, for bloggers writing practice is just part of a days work.
How to Write Blogs with Great Copy
Following these tips will help you to create compelling copy for your blog:
1. Keep It Short and Sweet
If you can say something with just one or two words, don’t use 10 to do it. Imagine that you’re writing every sentence the way you would a compelling Tweet for social media. Trim away unnecessary words to make your message clear and concise. A message is only as good as its delivery and when writing good copy you sentences might be as short as a single line.
2. Know Your Audience
Before writing any blog post, think about who is most likely to read it. What would that person want to learn from the text? What can you do to add value for your ideal reader? A demographic isn’t an audience, Female 25-35 isn’t detailed enough. Create an Avatar of your ideal reader, get to know them like your best friend. Then write to directly to them.
3. Think of the Why
Whenever you’re writing about something on your blog, think about why it matters. If you’re sharing a news story, make it clear why the story is relevant and of interest. Describe its direct impact on your target audience in your post. If you’re promoting a product or service, don’t just describe its features. Talk about why its features are beneficial, focusing on the values of your audience. People come to your blog to solve a problem. How has your post answered their question.
4. Do Your Research
Blogging is appealing to readers because it’s interactive and gives them a chance to weigh in on the topic. For bloggers, it’s also dangerous because your entire post could be discredited by one reader. Take the time to double and triple check your references and use only reputable resources to ensure that the information you’re sharing is 100% true and accurate.
5. Keep Up on SEO Rules
Blogs can help to boost a site’s SEO rankings, but only if they are well written. Search engines are constantly updating their algorithms. It use to be enough to simply include keywords in text to get a favorable ranking, but now search engines are capable of judging the quality of text. Overusing keywords or linking to low-quality sites in blog posts could actually hurt your site.
Do your keyword research with products like Long Tail Pro and Google Adwords Keyword Tool to learn what phrases people are searching for. Use that natural search language in your copy for maximum effect.
6. Set Yourself Apart
Your voice needs to come through in every blog post. If you’re writing for your personal blog, don’t be afraid to inject yourself into the copy by sharing personal anecdotes and stories. If you’re writing for your business, make your brand come through in the text. Show why your company isn’t just one of the many that offers your product or service; you’re the absolute best choice to buy from or work with. You know that, so make sure your readers know that before they leave.
7. Using the Right Language
As mentioned before, natural search language gathered from keyword research is important for your copy. However, they are a number of power words that all great copywriters will swear by. Using these 10 powerful words will make your blog copy resonate with any reader.
8. Create a Compelling Headline
This one should be near the top of the list, but some bloggers will write the headline last to ensure it truly reflects the content, whilst others write it first because it’s that important. I’m not exaggerating when I say some blogger spend more time on the headline that on the actual content. Your headline is your first interaction with your audience. Get it right and they click through to read more, get it wrong and they pass on by.
I use the Advanced Marketing Institute Headline Analysis Tool to help me refine my blog headlines and I think it’s really helped, don’t you?
One last tip before I go.
When you’ve finished writing your blog post, take a few moments to read it out loud. Not only will this help you spot punctuation and grammar errors, but it will also help you to hear how the text will sound in your readers’ heads. You’ll be amazed what a difference a single reading can make! I also use a product called Grammarly to handle my basic grammar checking. It’s one tool you need to be a better writer and it’s free so check it out.
Happy copywriting and hopefully I’ve answered your question, ‘How to Write Blogs with Great Copy‘
