• the best online marketing professionals and experts - WHO WE ARE

blogging

Tips

How to Make Your Blogs More Readable [2022 Edition]

Many do not have the luxury of time to dig through blog posts to look for information. A Nielsen Norman Group report claimed that a typical person spends less than a minute (10 to 20 seconds) deciding if they should stay or abandon your webpage. It only shows that you have a really short time to capture the attention of your target audience. 

With millions of blogs on the Internet, making your blog post stand out from the sea of competition is only half the battle. If the reader thinks your blog is unreadable, they still have plenty of options that offer the information they are searching for. That is why engaging your audience long enough to read their entire post is crucial. Satisfied readers are more likely to come back and read your blogs in the future. Readable and quality content not only do you acquire more visitors, but you also get a higher conversion rate. 

Luckily, there are several things you can do to improve the readability of your content and give your webpage a quick boost. Here are 7 practical tips for writing a readable and exceptional blog. 

  • Use Proper Headings

Headings help split up lengthy blocks of text and promote coherent division in the content. 

While you can find plenty of guideposts about using headings, they never explain how to use them properly. Perhaps, you have probably come across posts where headings are not relevant or helpful.

A proper heading should provide clear meaning to the content. For instance, labelling the sub-heading of this section as simply “headings” can be vague and not helpful at first glance. Be sure to phrase your headings so they can be meaningful to readers. Being precise with your heading helps your audience get the summary.

  • Keep Paragraphs Shorter

When readers look for informational blog posts, they want it concise (more or less 400 to 600 words). However, if you need to write a longer, in-depth post, make sure to write shorter paragraphs, preferably 2 to 4 sentences long. 

Breaking up the paragraphs can make your content more readable. Since most readers are more likely to scan the post, you can help them find important information using bullet points, numbered lists, or bold headlines. It will help summarize information while making them stand out from the rest of the text.

  • Using Good Typography

While plenty of unique and interesting fonts to choose from, simplicity is still the best. Arial and Times New Roman are standard fonts since they are easy to read. 

Also, use a slightly larger font for your introduction paragraph to help capture attention. However, avoid making it too big as it will take up more space and make it harder to read. 

  • Limit Difficult Words

Many readers do not appreciate complex words that are hard to understand. Also, avoid using words with 4 or more syllables as they are difficult to read. However, there are instances when you need to include difficult words in your blog. Make sure to write shorter and clearer paragraphs and sentences to ensure your post is more readable. 

Also, complicated words usually make less useful keywords, especially if you focus on a niche market. For instance, instead of using illustrations (which consist of 4 syllables), ‘visuals’ or ‘images’ are a better choice. Keep in mind that your focus keyword is suitable for the subject of your blog post. Proper keyword research can help you find better options for complex keywords.

  • Highlight Important Words or Phrases

In addition to using bullet points and lists, bolding words or phrases can make your content more skimmable while bringing the attention of the reader to a particular set of word(s). However, be sure to choose carefully the important words or phrases to highlight, or otherwise, you will lose the whole point of why you are doing it in the first place. 

  • Use Variations

Using variations of words can make your blog more attractive and interesting to your readers. Avoid using the same terms throughout the content by shaking things up a little using synonyms. Instead of using ‘and’ or ‘too’ plenty of times, alternating with ‘also’ or ‘moreover’ can make your blog more compelling and readable. 

0 64
 Online Marketing Trends

7 Essential Elements of an Exceptional Blog Post

As a business owner, one of your main marketing goals is to create engaging and valuable content that will want your target audience coming back to your website for more. Blogging is among the important tool for every small business. Your blog should be eye-catching and provide all the key information your target audience is looking for. To be effective, you will need to know all the key elements of writing an exceptional blog post.

Catchy Topic

Your topic creates an impression and compels your target audience to click on your post. Be sure to carefully choose topics that will spark interest in your readers. Luckily, there are many tools available on the Internet, such as Google Trends, HubSpot Blog Topic Generator, and Buzz Sumo, that can help you generate unique blog topics that are relevant to your niche. Another way to create catchy and compelling topics is by taking feedback from your audience and gathering enough relevant information.

Powerful Headline

Writing a meaningful headline can catch the attention of your target audience to your blog. A blog post with a boring headline can easily get lost in the vast ocean of competitors online. 

Interesting Introduction

While writing a powerful headline can compel people to click on your website, having an interesting induction is key to converting site visitors into readers. Your blog introduction should give your readers an idea of what to expect from your content. You do not have to provide them with that whole picture of your topic, but just enough information to arouse inquisitiveness and curiosity.

Compelling Sub-Heading

In addition to headings, subheadings can effectively emphasize the main elements of the topic, guiding readers and making your blog post easier to read. Your subheading should contain relevant keywords to enable search engines to identify the content of your post and quickly convey key points to your readers. However, avoid inserting the keyword forcibly into the subheading. Make sure that the keywords sound natural in subheadings. 

Format the subheading using the title tag hierarchy. This means that you have to increasingly use a smaller heading format. While most blog posts use H2, you can isolate H2 if it has lengthy content and uses H3 instead. Be sure to use header tags properly.

Interesting Supporting Points

The body is the “meat” of your content that backs up your main topic. When writing a blog, make sure that your story or idea has interesting supporting points that will give your readers something they can sink their teeth into. Carefully lay out your ideas and how you will support them. Make a list of bullet points to organize your ideas. You can start writing the body using these as your main sections. 

Photo by ANTONI SHKRABA

Appealing Visuals

Humans are visual creatures who tend to react and process images much better than reading text. The human brain has a unique way to process complex information, making visualization extremely crucial. Using charts and graphs to explain complex information is much easier than explaining it through words. Do not forget to optimize your images for search and engage your target audience by making them more appealing. 

Compelling Call-to-Action

Once you have captured the attention of your audience with a compelling title, engaged them with an interesting introduction, and led them through the content body with interesting points, then it is time to wrap it up with an engaging call-to-action. 

Call-to-actions should be clear and actionable, giving your audience something to reflect on or respond to. Your call-to-action should effectively entice and encourage your audience to leave a review or comment, answer your question, or share your post on their social media profiles.

0 109
 Business, Marketing

6 Key Elements of a Killer Content Marketing Strategy

Content marketing has increasingly grown in popularity over the years. Many businesses with an online presence use content marketing to build and strengthen their brand, attract prospects and retain loyal customers, and boost their bottom line. 

At the heart of every effective and successful content marketing effort are the core elements. Incorporating these elements into your content marketing strategy can boost audience engagement, improve brand awareness, and provide a healthy ROI to your business. To achieve these, you will need to develop a strategic method that demonstrates and targets your company’s realistic goals and measures results. 

In this post, you will learn the significant elements of content marketing and how you can implement them in your strategy. 

  1. Brand Story

Having a thorough understanding of the identity of your brand is crucial for communicating with your target audience. As a business owner, you need to identify who you are as a business, your values, your mission, and what your company does. These factors can help create your unique brand and develop a consistent personality and tone of voice to establish customer trust and confidence. In the fierce world of business, creating a unique brand story can make your voice stand out, setting you apart from the competition and resonating with your target market. 

  1. Audience Persona

It is impossible to tell your brand story without knowing who your target audience is. You will need to identify the audience whom you want to target with your content. Here are some tips to do this:

  • Study your existing customers
  • Get to know the latest trends in your industry
  • identify the people who you want to target 
  • Monitor the customers whom your competitors are targeting

  1. Style Guidelines

To develop consistently high-quality content, you need to follow documented style guidelines. It should cover key points from grammar and punctuation to the unique tone of your voice. Having a unique style guideline enables you to create consistent and well-written content that will engage your audience. 

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
  1. Business Case and Content Marketing Goals

For your content strategy to be successful, you must provide value to your target audience. It should not only capture new readers and followers, but it must also help drive your business forward. It starts with identifying the goals you want to achieve and determining the ways that will bring you closer to our objectives. For instance, find out the number of resources you need to invest in your content strategy and the results you want to attain. 

In addition to your content marketing goals, having a documented business case can help you gain a better understanding of the benefits and costs of content marketing strategy implementation. 

  1. Keywords

Well-written and engaging content is awesome, but you need to identify and use the right keywords to ensure that your content comes up in the top search results. Know the top keywords commonly used by your target audience and develop a strategic plan as to how your content assets can help you rank for the most crucial ones. 

  1. Action Plan

Lastly, you will need an effective action plan that puts together your primary content marketing campaign and projects that you want to achieve for the year. Consider how they will attain the goals that you have previously established for your business. A carefully thought-out action plan enables you to analyze each step to strategize your content marketing campaign. It should cover the following 

To help you choose the right formats and channels for your content, check your historical content performance and study your audience persona.

Proper implementation of these elements can make you feel confident with your content strategy. However, do not stop making improvements. Assess your strategy regularly and make the necessary adjustments. Always keep your strategy up-to-date and comprehensive to take your content marketing to new heights.

0 95