There are more than 600 million blogs living on the web.
And if yours is one of them, it’s wise to take extra measures to ensure your content stands out from the crowd. The best way to do that is by creating a blog content strategy that makes your published content more intentional. This way, you’ll see better traffic results, engagement, and conversions on your site.
In this post, we’ll cover the benefits of having a blog strategy and share eight steps to create a powerful, effective strategy of your very own. With these tips, you’ll be well on your way to a successful blog.
The Benefits of Having a Blog Content Strategy
A blog strategy is an important part of your overall marketing plan. It creates a sustainable way to develop high-quality content for your website. But that’s not all it has to offer! Here are a couple of reasons why it’s essential to cultivate a blog content strategy:
- Content Will be Planned in Advance: No more scrambling to come up with content ideas at the last minute. With a strategy in place, you’ll know what your target audience wants to read, have keyword research, and you’ll have plenty of ideas ready. It’s also great for consistency, ensuring you’re publishing new content regularly.
- It’ll Increase Your Authority: When you’re showing up and adding value to your audiences’ lives, they’ll keep coming back to your blog for more. And, in time, they’ll begin to see you as an authority in your field because they’ll view you as a trustworthy resource.
8 Steps for Building a Foolproof Blog Content Strategy
Starting a blog is a real commitment. It takes time, effort, and even money to create quality content. For that reason, you want to make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck. You want your investment to pay off. For that reason, you need a blog content strategy in place to ensure intention behind everything you create. Here’s how you can create a strategy for your blog:
1. Get Clear on the Purpose of Your Blog
First, you need to know why you’re blogging. When you have a clear purpose for your blog, you’ll know what you’re working toward. Plus, you’ll be able to measure the success of your blog based on your goals. Many brands use their blogs to generate awareness, bring traffic to their website, and drive sales.
What are you hoping your blog will help you do? Having the answer to this question will ensure there’s a purpose behind the time and energy you’re investing into blogging.
2. Determine Who Your Target Reader Is
Next, you’ll need to take time to figure out who your ideal reader is. If you’ve been in business for a while, then you probably already have a clear picture of your target persona. But if you don’t, you have some work to do before moving forward.
Knowing all about your reader is a huge part of your blog content strategy because the content creation is for them. If you don’t know who you’re writing for, it’s will be for your content to resonate.
Luckily, there are a few ways to get to know your reader more deeply. For instance, you could create surveys and ask questions to develop more personalized content. But if you want to take it a step further, hop on a few market research calls where you can talk to people one-on-one and get their feedback in real-time.
3. Assign Someone to Write for and Manage Your Blog
If you’re a solopreneur, then it’s likely every blogging task will fall onto your to-do list. But if you’re lucky enough to have a team working alongside you, you can assign various blogging tasks to the team members that are best suited for the job. For instance, you probably have someone with spectacular writing skills and someone else who is great at editing and fine-tuning content. Bring them on board to help create a thriving blog your readers and Google will love.
Alternatively, you might consider outsourcing your content creation to an agency with a team of skilled writers, like Express Writers. Not only do we create expert content for a wide array of industries, but we can develop a blog strategy based on SEO research to ensure you’re publishing content that attracts readers and traffic. Just visit our Content Shop for more.
4. Decide How Frequently You’ll Post
An important element of your blog content strategy is the frequency at which you post content. Consistency is key because you want to give people a reason to keep coming back to your site well into the future. And you do that by providing high-quality, valuable content for visitors to consume. But should you aim to publish a certain number of posts each month?
According to data from HubSpot, sites that publish 16 blog posts or more a month receive 3.5 times more traffic than those publishing less than four posts. That’s likely because many people will come back to check out every new post. Plus, the more content you publish, the more opportunities you have to rank in search engine results.
However, it’s understandable that you might not have the resources to publish 16 posts per month. It takes time and effort to create incredible content. You don’t want the quality to suffer because you’re stretching yourself too thin. It’s better to ask yourself how many high-quality posts you can commit to each month and make that your goal.
5. Conduct Keyword Research to Plan Topics
Coming up with content ideas that are fresh and exciting is arguably one of the most difficult parts of content creation. After all, how are you supposed to know what a reader wants to see from you?
At this stage, you already know quite a bit of information about them. You know their interests and their pain points, which is a fantastic starting point. Put yourself in their shoes and think about the topics they’re likely to be Googling. Then, you can use various tools to gauge their popularity.
BuzzSumo is a great tool that allows you to enter a keyword or a domain (like your biggest competitor). It will then show you some of the most popular articles that are relevant to your search. The Google Keyword Planner is also a popular choice, but there are tons of other free keyword research tools to try.
When you know which topics are most appealing to your target audience, creating your blog content strategy becomes so much easier because you have tons of potential topics right at your fingertips.
6. Map Everything Out in Your Editorial Calendar
Once you’ve got some content ideas in mind, it’s time to begin mapping everything out in an editorial calendar. This allows you to create a flow from one piece to the next. Plus, you’ll always know which posts go live and when. It’s much more convenient to have everything planned out this way.
There are a few ways you can create your editorial calendar. If you’re the only person on your team, there’s no harm in writing it all down in a physical planner. But if you have a team that needs to know what your upcoming blog posts are, you’ll want something that’s a bit more high-tech.
Airtable is a popular choice among content creators, and it’s a tool we’ve used at Express Writers in the past. These days, we rely on HubSpot to keep our content organized and our team informed.
7. Start Creating Content
Congrats! You’ve now made it to the all-important step of content creation. This task will either be something you take on yourself or assign to a team member or content agency. Either way, don’t rush the content creation process. Give yourself or your writers ample time to create amazing content.
8. Track and Analyze Your Content’s Success
The final step in your blog content strategy is to do a deep dive into your analytics to see how your content is performing. It’s crucial to see which posts are resonating with your audience because it’s a good indicator of what to create more of in the future.
Pay attention to the topics that generate the most traffic. But also, it’s smart to note any other similarities with your top-performing content. For instance, does your audience seem to prefer listicles, infographics, or in-depth how-to guides?
Review your analytics at the end of each month to gain an understanding of which posts are doing well. By doing this monthly, you can make changes and tweak your strategy faster than waiting until the end of each quarter.
Let Us Help With Your Blog Strategy
Here at Express Writers, we have a team of expert writers who are ready and waiting to help you create incredible content for your blog. Not only do we offer four different levels of content writing, but our team can develop a blog plan based on thorough keyword research to ensure your content topics truly appeal to your target audience.
Visit our Content Shop to check out our available services.
