Did you know that B2B marketers generate 67% more leads when they write blog posts?
Clearly blogging can produce returns for your business.
However, the marketers who know how to write the awesome blog posts, will often get better results than the those who produce mediocre content.
If you want to benefit from all that blogging can offer, you therefore need to figure out how you can write awesome blog posts.
In this post, we’re going to look at exactly what it takes to write an awesome blog post.
We’ll explore how you can come up with proven blog post ideas and how you can turn those ideas into fantastic content. You’ll also learn how to promote your blog posts so that your work doesn’t go unnoticed.
By the end of this post, you’ll understand precisely how to turn a blank word document into an awesome blog post that will bring your website traffic and your business leads.
Let’s begin!
If you’ve never written a blog post before, you might not know where to begin.
In general, the process of writing a blog post goes like this –
1. Decide on a topic for your blog post
2. Write your blog post
3. Promote your blog post
If you ever find yourself getting overwhelmed when you feel like writing a blog post – just refer to those three steps.
When you understand that blogging is really just the process of doing those three things, it becomes a lot easier to focus on what you need to do next.
With that being said...let’s get started, and dive into the first step – deciding on a topic!
Picking the right topic is one of the most important things you’ll need to do, if you want to create an awesome blog post.
After all, your goal is write something that people will want to read – and if your topic choice is poor, nobody’s going to want to read your content!
Thankfully, there are two proven ways you can come up with winning topic ideas, each time and every time.
Buzzsumo is a tool that helps you find popular, widely shared content, based on a certain topic.
Buzzsumo works well because it lets you find existing topic ideas that have already done well in your niche. As these topics have done well in the past, there’s a good chance they’ll be well received when should you cover them.
To get started, head over to https://app.buzzsumo.com/research/most-shared/.
You should then see this screen –
Here, you need to enter in your topic – I’m going to use the topic of ‘Facebook Ads.’
Upon clicking ‘Search,’ I’m presented with a bunch of posts related to this topic, of which have proven themselves to be popular.
As you can see, there are posts related to –
…And so on and so on.
Since Buzzsumo lets me know that content covering those topics has been widely shared before, I know that there is a demand for content relating to that subject matter.
As a result, I don’t need to guess what will work anymore – I can just pick one of those proven ideas and begin with a topic idea that already has existing demand.
The Google Keyword tool provides you with data, based on what people are typing into Google, in relation to a specific keyword/topic.
I’ve talked about using the keyword tool here.
Using search data to come up with blog post topics is a good idea, because the very fact that people are searching for something, let’s you know there’s a demand for it.
To use the AdWords Keyword tool, head over to https://adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner/.
Once there, type in a relevant term within the ‘Your product or service’ dialog box.
Make sure the term relates to the overarching topic of your blog.
For instance, if I wanted to run a blog dedicated to providing AdWords advertising tips, I could type in ‘AdWords tips.’
Once you’ve entered in your term, click on ‘Get ideas.’
You’ll then be shown a screen like the one below.
As you can see, you’re now presented with the number of ‘Average monthly searches’ related to this term.
You’re also presented with some ‘Keyword ideas.’
Whilst it can be a good idea to review keywords data – going through all of the keyword information can take a long time.
With this feature, keywords are now bunched up into topics, making it easier to get general a sense of what people are searching for and what they want to learn more about.
In the screenshot below, for instance, I highlighted some of the topics that people want to learn more about when it comes to AdWords – based on the Ad group data.
If I click through to one of these ‘Ad groups’ I’ll be able to see the exact kinds of keywords that people are typing in, when trying to learn about a specific topic.
It can be a good idea to check out these keywords, because each keyword represents a specific thing that people want to learn, in relation to the broader ‘Ad group’ topic.
When writing a blog post based on a broad ad group topic, you need to make sure you cover any of the questions posed by the keywords contained, within that Ad group.
This will ensure that your blog posts are detailed and comprehensive.
So, that’s how you can find topics for your blog posts.
Now let’s look at how you can write one that will be amazing!
A lot of people consider blog writing a difficult task.
And there’s no shame in this – especially if you hated writing essays in school or university!
But if you go into blogging with this mindset, your results will be poor and you won’t be able to reap the full benefits of blogging.
If you have some doubts about writing a blog post, here are some things you need to keep in mind...
Whilst it’s important to cover the basics, you don’t have to write your content in a formal, uptight way. It’s important to remember this, if you consider yourself to be a ‘bad’ writer.
People enjoy content that is easy to understand.
...And the best way to do this, is by writing as though you’re writing to a friend.
Doing so will make it easier for people to ‘digest’ your content.
Writing as if you’re writing to a friend also lets your personality and ‘story’ shine in your writing.
Your personality and story gives you the chance to connect with people.
It’s this connection that will keep people coming back to your blog, when they could potentially read similar content elsewhere.
You probably didn’t enjoy the subject matter you had to cover about when creating essays in School or Uni.
Blog writing is completely different, though.
You’re writing about something you find interesting when creating content for your blog.
Because you find the topic interesting, it’s a lot easier to write content and do the research necessary, to create something awesome.
So, keep those two things in mind, if you have any doubts about writing blog posts.
Now, let’s move on and take a look at how you can make the process of writing a blog post easier.
Creating an outline makes it much easier to write your blog posts.
The best way to create an outline is to list out the headers for each section. You then want to use bullet points to cover the main points for each section.
Here’s an example, based on this blog post –
Once you’ve created an outline, you’ll have a better sense of what your post is designed to achieve and exactly what you need to be focusing on when you start writing.
As a result, you’ll have a lot less anxiety about writing the blog post and issues like ‘writer's block’ won’t get in your way.
Once you’ve produced your outline, you then need go through each of the sections in your blog post and see if you can find any stats or relevant case studies, that back up the points you’re making.
Using data and case studies will help make your content stand out.
That’s because you’re showing readers that everything you write is based on facts and not some random opinion.
This can be especially important if you want people to link to your content and share it – all of which can improve long term search rankings.
The best way to find stats/case studies is by using Google.
All you need to do is type in the topic related to your blog post, alongside the term ‘stats’ or ‘case study/case studies.’
Here’s an example –
The easiest way to do this is by typing in the ‘year’ after the search term – ‘blogging stats 2017’ for example.
Here’s an example of how you can find case studies –
At the time of publishing this post, we’re only a couple of months into 2017, so using case studies from 2016 will do.
Once I’ve performed these searches, all I need to do is go through any relevant search listings and note down information I can use within my outline.
When it comes to writing your blog post, the main thing you’ll want to keep in mind, is writing as though you’re writing to a friend – something we covered earlier.
However, formatting is also something that you’ll want to pay a lot of attention to.
You want to make it so that your blog post can be easily scanned. If people are faced with a big wall of text, they’re not going to engage with your writing.
You can overcome this by using small sentences and not huge paragraphs. You’ll also want to make sure you ‘bold’ key sections and use headers to break up the information.
You can use this post for reference, in terms of how you should go about formatting your content.
You can use Google Docs, to write your blog post.
It’s free and very easy to use. Your work is also saved automatically, so there’s no worry of losing everything if your battery dies!
Side Tip: You also want to pay special attention to writing great headlines.
One of the easiest ways to write good headlines is to spend time writing out 15 blog post headlines, and then reviewing them to find the one looks the best.
You can also use the Coschedule Headline Analyzer to help you analyze the effectiveness of your headlines.
It’s also important to use Power Words when writing your headlines.
Power Words are words that are designed to bring out emotion. Using them can be a good way to grab someone’s attention, thereby getting them to click on your blog post.
Editing a blog post can be a tricky and tedious process.
The best way to ensure minimal editing, is to check your writing as you go along.
This is something you'll get better at with more experience. Yet, even an experienced writer will often need to deal with editing their text.
Thankfully, there several methods you can use to help make the editing process easier.
This free tool (there is a paid option too) will check your writing and review how complex it is.
The tool will tell you if you need to remove unneeded words, or if your sentences are too complex/wordy.
Here’s an example, of how it works (note the two sentences and how they were changed) –
It’s a very easy tool to use and all you need to do is copy and paste your writing into the editor.
Grammarly works in a similar way to the Hemingway app, except it places a special focus on Grammar. The tool also provides a lot in the way of general spelling checks.
The free version can be quite helpful, but the paid version that will bring you the best results.
Here’s an example of how the tool works, using a purposely edited piece of text –
As you can see, at the bottom of the image, the ‘Upgrade’ option helps you deal with some of the ‘Advanced issues.’
If you’re looking to be a writer for the long term, then Grammarly is something you’ll want to check out.
Whilst it can be costly to hire an editor, having one can make the whole process of writing blog posts a lot easier– especially if you hate editing.
The key to finding a good editor comes down to finding someone who understands the subject matter of your content.
Such individuals appreciate how to edit a blog post, without cutting out any important information.
One of the easiest ways to find an editor, is by using Upwork.com.
You can find editors on Upwork by visiting the homepage, and then using the search box in the top left hand corner.
Here are some of the results returned when I performed a search –
There are plenty of people here who like they’d be a good match for what I’m trying to achieve.
All I need to do now is reach out to them and learn more about their experience.
So that’s pretty much all you need to know about writing a blog post!
Now let’s take a quick look at how you can promote your content, so that all your hard work doesn’t go unnoticed.
Some marketers spend more time promoting content, than writing it.
Derek Halpern (@derekhalpern), for example, spends only 20% of his time writing and 80% promoting.
That’s because you’ll only be able to benefit from blogging, if people know your content exists.
When you understand how to promote your blog posts, more people will be aware of your writing.
This means that more people will consider linking to it – of which can lead to you ranking higher in Google and achieving better search traffic in the long term.
On top of that, if people are sharing your content, there will be a greater number of people visiting your blog.
If you have an opt in form, the rise in traffic will allow you to capture more leads, and eventually earn more money from your blogging efforts.
When it comes to promoting content, there are two approaches you can take –
1. ‘Organic’ promotion
2. Paid promotion
Let’s focus on how you can use each method.
The idea behind organic promotion is to…
Aside from the fact that you’re manually reaching out to people, it’s a relatively organic process and you’re not forcing anything.
The key to making this work, revolves around finding people with sizeable audiences that’ll enjoy reading your content and won’t mind sharing it.
You can find such individuals by using Buzzsumo.
The process for doing this is similar to what we covered above.
To begin with, all you need to do, is type in a keyword that will bring up content similar to yours.
For my example, I might use ‘AdWords Guide.’ Once I do that, I’m presented with related content.
I then need to find widely shared content that closely matches the subject matter of my own content. Let’s say I have a blog post based on ‘managing an AdWords campaign.’
Below, I’ve highlighted a piece of content that is closely related to my own blog post.
The fact that these people have shared this blog post, let’s me know that they’re interested in the topic of ‘AdWords campaign management.’
As a result, I can be confident that these people will be interested my own blog post and won’t mind sharing it if they like it.
By clicking on the ‘View Sharers’ button, I’m able to see who has shared this content. I need to click on ‘Export’ so that I can gather a spreadsheet of all these people.
Once the spreadsheet is downloaded, I need to organize the list, based on who has the largest following. I then need to gather the email addresses of these individuals.
I, therefore, need to sort the list by on ‘follower count.’
I can do this by clicking on the ‘num_follwers’ column and then using the ‘Sort & Filter’ option.
Initially, you’ll want to focus on contacting the first 250 people or so.
Now you need to get the email addresses of these people.
From this point, you can...
1. Gather the email addresses of these individuals manually
2. Pay someone to do the job
To find email addresses manually, you can use a tool like ‘Hunter.’
Or you can visit the person’s website, to see if they an email address on display.
For some that can seem too tedious.
As a result, you may want to use the paid option, which makes use of a tool known as Amazon Mechanical Turk.
Using this tool, you can pay people to find email addresses for you. Generally, it shouldn’t cost you more than $0.10 to find each email address.
When emailing people, you want to be respectful.
Here’s a good template you can use, courtesy of Quicksprout, that has worked well in the past –
There are no guaranteed results when doing something like this.
It’s generally a number’s game, and if you email enough people, you should get a decent response that will help kick-start traffic to your new blog post.
The easiest way to do this is by running some Facebook Ads – one of the many marketing strategies I’ve covered here.
If you want to get the best results with Facebook Ads, you need to understand who your target audience is.
If your targeting is poor, your ads will be shown to people who don’t care for them or to individuals who will just click on them out of curiosity.
Both situations lead to outcomes that cost you money but provide nothing in return.
Therefore, take some time to create a ‘reader persona’ based on your target audience.
A reader persona is essentially an imaginary character, based on your ideal blog reader.
Here’s an example –
When creating a reader persona, here’s some great advice from Problogger, on what needs to be covered (DPS is the name of the blog the persona was created for) –
If you’re struggling to create a reader persona, consider working backwards based on what Facebook asks of you in the ad ‘targeting’ section.
Now – this isn’t necessarily the best way to do things and should only be seen as a temporary fix.
After all, you need to have a good sense of the goals and fears your target audience – information you’d have in an otherwise comprehensive reader persona.
This information is important, especially when running ads, because you can use it to create persuasive text and images for your ad campaigns.
For people who are new to Facebook Advertising, this is generally the best option – especially for promoting a new blog post.
Writing blog content is one of the best ways to generate leads for your business and traffic to your website.
However, there are many people who’ve always wanted to write a blog post, but never got around to it.
If you’re one of those people, then hopefully this blog post has given you the knowledge and inspiration you need, to get started.
Whilst it can be tough, writing an awesome blog post can be incredibly rewarding – especially if you know how to promote it so other people can enjoy your hard work.
So, start writing now.
The sooner you make writing awesome content a priority, the sooner you’ll be able to benefit.