Blogging is only half the battle. Promoting it is the other half.
While blog posts are valuable for nurturing existing customers and reaching new ones to bring in more traffic, effective promotion is necessary for content to be noticed.
The greatest challenge lies in discovering robust strategies that maximize reader engagement and boost your content’s visibility.
If you’re unsure how to promote a new blog post, these tried and tested strategies effectively generate more traffic for brands.
Email Marketing
Email remains one of the best ways to communicate with your subscribers and potential customers, as well as promote your blog posts.
A few tips when marketing content through email include:
Teasing subscribers with snippets to pique their interest.
Using eye-catching CTAs to encourage them to take action.
Personalizing the email by including warm greetings and the subscriber’s name.
Sending follow-up emails to remind them to check out the amazing content.
When sending a teaser email, keep it simple. Short intros, non-distracting graphics, and a link to the blog post are more effective than lengthy content.
Did you know you can also repurpose your blog post into emails? Split them into smaller topics for variety and link each topic to the original blog post.
Marketing your blog post through email gives you direct access to subscribers via their inboxes. It’s also inexpensive, and the results are measurable by analyzing email opening rates and click-through rates.
When using email marketing as a promotional strategy, let your readers choose a frequency for receiving mail that won’t overwhelm them.
Also, segment your audience so that you promote your blog posts to the right audience and increase your chances of getting them read.
Social media platforms like Facebook, X, and Instagram are great avenues for networking, microblogging, and media sharing.
If you’re wondering how to share a blog post on social media, an effective approach is to share teaser points along with a link to the full article.
You can also take advantage of WhatsApp Status, Facebook and Instagram Stories, and Twitter Threads that disappear after 24 hours.
An effective way to use these status and stories features is to break down your blog post into key points and turn them into multiple statuses, then include a link in the last status.
YouTube Stories, on the other hand, last longer. They disappear after 7 days, but they’re only available for channels with 10,000 subscribers. If you’re not eligible, promote your blog post through a short YouTube video and include the blog’s link.
With social media sharing, you’ll enjoy increased visibility due to a large audience. It’s also cost-effective since sharing is free unless you’re using paid ads.
You also get real-time feedback through comments, likes, and shares, and gradually build a community as readers interact with your post.
When choosing a social media platform, consider which suits your audience’s demographics. For instance, Instagram is popular with Gen Z while Facebook caters mostly to Millenials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers.
Share on Content Publishing Platforms
Content publishing platforms allow you to create and publish longer content than is possible on social media.
Popular ones include LinkedIn, Medium, Blogger, and WordPress.
Platforms like LinkedIn and Medium, which have numerous users, have inbuilt audiences where your posts are recommended to users, helping you reach a wider audience.
They also contain engagement metrics such as shares, comments, likes, number of views, and average time spent by readers on your articles.
Other platforms like Substack can integrate with email to further promote your blog posts to your subscribers. WordPress has SEO optimization features to help your blog post generate traffic.
These content publishing platforms are user-friendly, making them easy to use for non-tech persons. They reach a wide audience and encourage community engagement, and you can monetize your content through ads or sponsored posts.
When choosing the best publishing platform, consider your audience. For instance, LinkedIn caters to professionals seeking B2B content while Medium has a broad readership.
Influencers have a significantly large fan base, and they also have the power to influence their fans to make certain decisions.
With their wide reach, influencers can promote your brand’s blog posts to reach a wider audience and generate more traffic.
Search your industry or niche to discover which influencers fit your needs. There are influencer search tools such as Upfluence and Promoty which make it easier to find them.
When you find the right one, collaborate with them on ideas such as allowing them to take over your social media for a day, and helping you promote your content to your followers and the influencer’s followers.
When seeking influencers to promote your brand’s blog posts, consider settling for ideas that benefit both you and the influencer. Therefore, your blog posts should be relevant to the influencer’s followers.
Also, look out for influencers with a genuine connection to their audience and whether their previous collaborations with other brands were successful.
Generate Backlinks to Your Blog Posts
Links from other websites to your brand’s website are a signal to search engines that your content is credible enough to be referenced. That is a big boost to your visibility and has the potential to increase your website’s traffic.
Here’s how to promote a new blog post by getting quality backlinks:
Create valuable content that people want to link to as their point of reference, and ensure you also link to credible sources.
Write for other reputable blogs (guest blogging) in your niche and include a link back to your website or a relevant article.
Get on Quora, Reddit, and other Question and Answer sites. Answer questions expertly there so that when you leave a link readers will want to click on it.
When using backlinks as a means of promoting your brand’s blog posts, remember to choose quality over quantity. A few quality links to and from reputable brands are better than many low-quality links that can harm your SEO.
Structured gatherings like webinars and seminars provide a platform for educating your audience about various topics.
With these real-time question-and-answer sessions, you’re in a better position to discuss your blog post topics and provide the audience with links.
This is an opportunity to grow your readership base and connect with bloggers and other influencers who can share your content with a wider audience.
Ask your audience which event format they prefer, whether seminar or webinar and promote the event beforehand to encourage sign-ups.
If you choose to promote your blog content through organized events, consider discussing content that relates to your blog posts to encourage participants to follow up on your content.
Content promotional tools help market your content to reach a wider audience and increase your brand’s visibility.
These promotional tools include:
Analytical Tools: Google Analytics, Ahrefs, and SEMrush.
Email Marketing Tools: Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and Omnisend.
Paid Advertising: Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and sponsored posts.
To optimize content for search engines and conduct an analysis of your competitors’ performance, use analytical tools.
To help create newsletters and distribute them to subscribers, use email marketing tools. They also help segment your audiences and track subscriber engagement.
Paid advertisements, on the other hand, help you promote your blog posts through pay-per-click advertising, while sponsored posts enable you to collaborate with established brands to feature your blog post and further increase your visibility.
Select content promotional tools that are user-friendly to allow easy navigation. Also, check how well they integrate with your existing systems and processes.
Upgrade Your Blog Post Content
If your blog posts are underperforming, revisiting them and putting a spin on them improves engagement for your readers and enhances your brand’s authority.
First, review your content’s analytics using analytics tools like Google Analytics. Then, replace bits of outdated content with new information and recent statistics.
Break up large chunks of text into smaller ones and add elements such as subheadings and bullet points for easier navigation.
Optimize keyword usage, meta descriptions, and meta titles, and make the headlines catchy. This greatly improves visibility. Also, enhance the calls to action (CTAs) and add external and internal links.
Be sure to add visuals such as infographics, images, and videos to further engage the reader and make the content easier to understand.
If your brand chooses to upgrade your content to promote your blog posts, maintain your brand’s voice in the new content and make content upgrading a regular part of your content strategy.
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While actively promoting your blog posts on social media and applying other methods discussed here is helpful, establishing a sustainable content strategy is of utmost importance.
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You probably know how essential keywords are to your website traffic. Keywords help search engines crawl your website and rank it highly, letting your website appear on the first page for search queries related to your website content. Considering this, it only sounds logical to stuff your content with as many keywords as possible.
However, this goes against SEO best practices and may lead to your website being punished and ranking lower. This might sound counterintuitive, but there is a method to the madness. In this article, we help you understand the intricacies of keywords and how to avoid ending up on the second page or, worse, being removed from the search engine’s index.
Understanding Keywords: What Are They?
There is little to take away from the literal meaning behind the word “keyword.” It might be misleading to some. As the name suggests, a keyword is essential to website content. However, keywords can sometimes be “key phrases.” By definition, a keyword is a word or phrase that defines the topic of your content.
In other words, a keyword is a word or phrase that users would use to find information in your content. For example, the keyword that might have brought you to this article would be “How many keywords should I use for SEO?”
How Many Keywords Should You Use in SEO?
When it comes to search engine optimization with keywords, how many are too many? There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution to how many keywords should be in any content. As a general rule of thumb, it is largely accepted that SEO keyword density should amount to between 1-2 percent of the total content word count. This translates to around five keywords for every 500 words.
However, it is essential to remember that content quality trumps keyword density. Search engines prioritize the human experience, so keyword stuffing should be avoided.
For highly technical articles, it may be impossible to try to avoid heavy keyword usage throughout the length of your content. This is because they may often be descriptive or integral in conveying the critical intent of your chosen topic.
In such cases, as a marketer or website owner, you should focus on writing high-quality and engaging content that effectively answers the user’s search query. This will indicate to search engines that your content is relevant and consequently avoid hurting your ranking and visibility.
How Many Keywords for SEO Count as Keyword Stuffing?
Keyword stuffing is a practice that manipulates search engines into ranking content highly simply because it is chock-full of keywords. This black hat technique could lead to your website being punished.
You might have encountered content that barely sounds logical while attempting to find an answer to your search query. “Are you looking for a home in NY that is more than a house in NY? Then this home in NY is just what you need.” The previous statements target the keyword “home in NY,” but they make no sense to the reader and are an excellent example of keyword stuffing.
Consequently, keyword stuffing is less of a numbers game and more of a technique that prioritizes keywords over the user experience. The consequences of keyword stuffing are explored further in this article.
Keyword Diversity: Exact Match vs. Variations
Keywords funnel users to your website through search engine rankings. However, several keywords exist depending on their relationship to the search query. Exact match keywords match the search query verbatim. Exact match keywords appeal to search engines by signaling high relevance for a specific search query.
One downside of exact-match keywords is that the user’s search query must match your keyword’s meaning, translating to a narrow reach (the very high relevance may offset this).
On the other hand, variation keywords may retain the SEO keyword’s meaning with slight changes in article usage, contain similar phrases, or be closely related to the keyword. Variation keywords have the advantage of having a broader reach with a slight compromise on relevance.
Exact-match and variation keywords have their shortcomings. Pairing both keyword types ensures your website content ranks highly without over-optimizing, which may contribute to keyword stuffing. Additionally, your content reads naturally, which helps with SEO and prevents your content from sounding generic, which may be off-putting to users.
Keyword Semantics vs. Keyword Synonyms
As you might have noticed, an SEO strategy is the safest way to ensure you stay on the right side of search engine rankings. Understanding the differences between keyword semantics and synonyms is crucial to drafting a winning strategy. So, what is the difference between the two?
Keyword Semantics
Keyword semantics are variations of the keyword that meet the user’s search query. Taking this article as an example, the keyword “how many words for SEO” can be replaced with keyword semantics such as “keyword density,” “keyword optimization,” or “keyword count.” In simple terms, keyword semantics target the same idea with different languages.
Google and other search engines have extremely advanced algorithms that can identify keyword synonyms and semantics with pinpoint accuracy. These algorithms allow you to create high-ranking content for your website without risking keyword stuffing.
Keyword synonyms are SEO keywords with the same or nearly the same meaning as the search query or the target keyword. For this article, the keyword synonym of “SEO keywords” could be “SEO terms.” Keyword synonyms allow you to diversify your content and rank for multiple search queries without overusing a single keyword.
Why Over-Optimizing Can Lead to Penalties
Search engines crawl websites to determine their relevance to users when answering a search query. Consequently, they tend to prioritize user-friendly content while punishing any attempts at keyword stuffing. Google and other search engines use complex algorithms to determine keyword density and can pick out keyword stuffing by referencing keyword usage with other high-ranking content.
Additionally, keyword stuffing tends to increase a website’s bounce rate and engagement, indicators that are picked up by search engines for low-quality content. Ultimately, this causes the search engines to reduce your website’s ranking by reducing your visibility, which dents traffic directed toward the website.
Best Practices for Keyword Use
What should be at the forefront of your SEO strategy? Creating high-quality, relevant, and engaging content is the best way to ensure your website enjoys high SEO keyword ranking. Below is a brief illustration of some of the most important SEO practices to guarantee your website remains on the first page for your target keyword.
Stick to Relevance
When in doubt, stick to relevance. Highly technical topics are bound to be riddled with keywords. This might trigger alarm bells of keyword stuffing. However, as earlier mentioned, you will not be penalized for providing high-quality, engaging, and relevant content. The interplay between keyword semantics, synonyms, variations, and long-tail keywords guarantees that high-quality content will rank highly.
Optimize for Long-Tail Keyword
Long-tail keywords are longer versions of the target keyword that have the same meaning and target the same search query. The advantage of long-tail keywords over their exact-match counterparts is that they tend to be more specific and often less competitive, positively impacting your conversion rate.
Monitor Keyword Density
Whenever the question “How many keywords should I use for SEO?” pops up, the phrase “keyword stuffing” is never far behind. To avoid low rankings on search engines and removal from search indexes, among other penalties, you should routinely monitor SEO keyword density to ensure your content doesn’t exceed recommended numbers. Remembering that SEO word count should be conducted per page and not for the entire website is crucial.
Wrapping Up
The exact number of keywords you should use for SEO without being penalized by Google and other search engines depends on a case-by-case basis but should be limited to roughly one to two percent of the total word count. However, marketers and website owners should prioritize high-quality, relevant, and engaging content to ensure their content adequately addresses the topic of their target keyword.
We provide tailored keyword research, content planning, and optimized content that helps your website rank and convert.
If you are looking to level up your SEO strategy with expert content, check out our content strategy services.
You’ve planned and prepared and put in the work on your unique product. You’re aligned with customer needs. You’re on top of your game.
Then… you’re knocked out by a competitor you didn’t even see coming.
One of the universal business owner experiences is losing to the competition. Maybe they released a new product before yours was off the production line. Or they launched a stellar marketing campaign that won over some of your customers.
The trailblazing tennis champion, Billie Jean King, once said, “For me, losing… isn’t failure, it’s research.”
If you are losing to the competition, put down the tissues and voodoo dolls. And do some research instead.
Here are three words to give you a jump start — competitive gap analysis.
What Is Competitive Gap Analysis?
Most businesses conduct some form of strategic analysis. The most common practice is standard gap analysis. This process compares your business’s expectations to its results. It can help you close the gap between them.
Competitive gap analysis expands on this tactic by factoring in competing businesses’ results as well.
Analyses can center on many aspects. These include product design, business structure, advertising, and website performance. Based on your needs, competitive gap analyses can be broad or focused.
Refining your analysis by focusing on either a content gap or a product gap can help you pinpoint your weak spots. A content-focused competitive gap analysis looks at competitors’ SEO advantages. In comparison, a product-focused analysis shines a spotlight on how a competitor meets their customer’s needs.
Why Does It Matter to Your Business?
The 2023 State of Competitive Intelligence Report found that over half of stakeholders said their industries are growing more competitive. They also said that competitive data is vital to their success.
Competitive gap analysis is a key method in gathering competitive data. By examining competitors’ successful tactics — things like product, process, market share, marketing strategies, and customer experience — you can gain crucial insights into your industry and unlock opportunities to improve your performance.
A competitive gap analysis can support key business tasks. Here are a few:
Proactive Risk Mitigation: More data allows for more informed decisions. By assessing your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, you gain crucial insights. This can help you plan for risks and divide resources better.
Long-Term Strategic Planning: Comparing your performance to competitors shows your successes and areas to improve over time. Understanding your competition’s successes can help you build a better planning framework.
Adaptation to Industry Changes: Studying other businesses in your industry helps to identify market shifts and stay ahead of changes. A competitive gap analysis can reveal opportunities like untapped demographics and unmet needs.
It’s important to know what competitive gap analysis is and why it matters to your business. But, before you can do any competitive research, you must identify who to research.
That is, you need to know your competition.
Identifying Your Direct (and Indirect) Competition
You can’t conquer an invisible monster. To win, you must know who you’re up against.
Identifying your competition is the prerequisite to performing a competitive gap analysis. In the business world, there are two main types of competition — direct and indirect.
Knowing the distinct types of competition can help you identify them in your market:
Direct Competition: Direct competitors are businesses that target the same audience and sell comparable products and services. For example, if you run a local movie theater, your competitors are nearby theaters.
Indirect Competition: Indirect competitors sell different products and services than you but serve the same customer needs. A prime example of a movie theater’s indirect competition is at-home streaming services. Other indoor venues, like bowling alleys and skating rinks, are also in indirect competition with movie theaters.
A Google search with your business’s keywords will show top competitors. Use tools like Google Trends and SEMrush to discover who’s ranking for similar keywords. Studying social media influencers and trending topics in your industry can also help you target your competition.
Understanding direct vs indirect competitors helps you tailor your analysis strategies to yield more deliberate results. Ensuring you gather data from both types of competition helps you finely hone your competitive edge and top the competition.
5 Steps to Performing Competitive Gap Analysis
Gathering effective competitive intelligence requires a systematic approach. Here are five steps to help you get started.
1. Understand Your Customers’ Needs
Using a competitor’s product as your only metric for what the customer wants will get you somewhere… But it’s like trying to decipher an entire cake recipe by eating one slice. You’ll get an idea of what’s needed, but it will be impossible to isolate specific details.
Truly knowing what a customer needs will only come from one place. The customer.
Talk to your customers and get their direct feedback. What do they like or dislike about your product/service? What do they think of your competitors? What would they most love to see from you?
Offering surveys on your website and social media accounts or sending questionnaires to your virtual mailing list are excellent ways to collect this valuable data.
2. Gather Your Competitors’ Data
You already understand the types of business competition and how to identify them from the previous section. Once you find a competitor, it’s time to start gathering intel on them.
Focus on the following areas:
Website and SEO Analysis: Evaluate their website design, user experience, and content strategy. Use tools like SEMrush or Google Analytics to assess organic search traffic, keyword rankings, and backlink profiles.
Product Analysis: Pull product data from item description webpages and technical manuals. Study the company’s past sales trends and market share. Use the Statistics of U.S. Businesses website to find applicable information.
Social Media Presence: Analyze their social media engagement, follower counts, and content strategies. Which posts generate the most engagement? Are they dominating any platforms?
Customer Opinions: Explore reviews on platforms like Yelp, Google My Business, and social media to gauge customer sentiment. Consider a direct analysis by buying the product yourself.
As you compile your data, make sure you organize it effectively. It will help you gain a clearer picture of your strengths and weaknesses.
3. Organize and Analyze the Competitive Data
Staring at pages of disorganized statistics is overwhelming. Set yourself up for success by organizing your data with analysis frameworks and templates.
Use these frameworks to structure your competitive gap analysis process:
Porter’s Five Forces: In 1979, Harvard professor Michael Porter outlined the five most prominent controllers of competition in any industry. The forces are competitive rivalry, potential for new entrants into an industry, supplier power, customer power, and threat of substitutes. Businesses have used this strategy to make successful analyses ever since. This method helps gain an overall picture of your industry and your place in the market.
SWOT Method: This incredibly versatile framework uses a simple acronym to help you make sense of your data. Look at the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats faced by your competitors. Then, study the SWOT statistics for your business. Compare the two for insights into where you excel and where you need to adjust.
BCG’s Growth-Share Matrix: Another product of the 1980s business world, the growth-share matrix helps companies decide where to invest their efforts. At the height of its popularity, over half of Fortune 500 companies used this analysis framework. It remains an essential strategy for many businesses. Products and services with high growth and high market share are most desirable for investments. While low growth, low share products are lowest on the budgeting agenda.
These frameworks help you understand how to use the data you gathered. But you need to be able to see your data clearly before you can use it. Piles of information come together easily with an analysis template. You can create your own using spreadsheet software like Excel or Google Sheets.
HubSpot offers in-depth competitive analysis templates for free. And project management platforms like Asana are also excellent business template resources.
Once you’ve organized and analyzed all your data, it’s time for a game plan.
4. Develop an Action Plan
Decide what result you’d like to see from a competitive gap analysis. Be it a list of the best ROIs, a product improvement, or an innovative marketing strategy. Maybe you want to use the intelligence gained from content analysis to develop your unique content differentiation factor.
Having a distinct outcome in mind will help you focus your analysis on the most relevant areas.
Set realistic goals using the SMART framework. Making SMART goals ensures your plans are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. You develop more achievable objectives when you factor in details like budget, timeline, and deliverables.
5. Track Your Progress
Monitoring your progress is critical for continued success. Once you’ve implemented your action plan, you can begin to track the results.
Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of your strategies. Compare your performance to these benchmarks at regular intervals. Adjust your approach as needed. Use tools like SEMrush or Moz to track metrics. These include website traffic, sales, and customer engagement. This helps you identify trends and areas for improvement.
Stay connected with customer needs by soliciting feedback consistently. Proactive monitoring helps you stay aligned with your goals. It also lets you pivot quickly to market changes or competitors.
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There is a very high chance you are reading these posts on your smartphone.
Smartphone usage is increasing, right along with smartphone capabilities. Phones have changed so much over the years. In your teens or young adulthood, you most likely only used cell phones to make calls, send text messages, and play the game Snake. Now, you have the entire internet at your fingertips.
Because smartphones act as computers for many uses, users are no longer only restricted to using a computer for their daily browsing. After all, why haul around a heavy laptop when you can shop, game, and browse on a lightweight smartphone?
Browsing content on mobile devices comes with its unique challenges. Is your content prepared for mobile optimization?
We’ll walk you through seven tips on how to optimize your website for mobile readers by making it more browsable.
How Is Mobile Usage Changing Content Marketing?
A startling 95% of the U.S. own a smartphone. By 2025, an estimated 72% of internet users will be using smartphones to access the internet. That means three in every four website visitors may be logging on from their phones.
Mobile optimization for this change can take many forms. You’ll first want to look over the technical aspects of your site. Make sure your site runs on both web browsers and smartphone browsers.
A crucial part of optimizing for smartphones is keeping your images, video, and other media small so they don’t bog down mobile devices. You will also want to ensure your smartphone navigation is easy to use.
Once you have your technical details ironed out, it’s time to dig deeper into your content on the device and how people interact with content on their smartphones.
Think of the last time you read an article on a smartphone. While you may have sat down to read the article thoroughly, much of phone usage includes scrolling and quickly browsing. The user may not even have a specific end goal in mind.
When you want to access something on the laptop, you must be intentional about the process. After all, laptops aren’t convenient to pull out anytime to check a quick fact. Those who use laptops do so with a specific purpose. However, phones are accessible at all times.
Because of how often your smartphone visitors might visit your site to browse rather than sit down and digest content, you will want your content to be easily digestible for readers who want quick snippets on the go.
What Are the Benefits of Browsable Content for Mobile Optimization?
You don’t need to target serious readers ready to study your 2,000-word blog post to succeed. Mobile optimization through browsable content has several benefits. These benefits are not just for those reading on a smartphone but also for people browsing on their computer.
Readers Can Find Information Easily
What is one of the easiest books to navigate? I would argue it’s the dictionary or an encyclopedia. All the information is divided into chapters and in an organized manner. You can search by topic and first letter to find what you need to know.
Browsable content has an organization that allows users to quickly identify what they need without spending hours scanning your copy, making your content convenient for smartphone users.
You Can Keep Your Audience Engaged Longer
There is a widely cited fact that people have an attention span of just 8.25 seconds.
This may feel accurate with how short everything is becoming in the world. Ads are shortening, people speed up their videos (we all know you do it for those Loom videos!), and the use of short-form videos like TikTok is becoming more popular. There is even evidence that filmmakers are shortening their shots in movies to hold the viewer’s attention longer.
However, how accurate is that information? Netflix’s data shows a different story, as people can spend hours watching a show. Social media usage also reflects how long people spend scrolling.
That’s because how you engage with content will drastically alter your attention span. That’s why you might have no problem binge-watching your favorite show on TV but struggle to read a financial report from your CFO.
When you create browsable content, you help connect with the reader and hold their attention longer. It’s a more engaging format, especially if paired with top-quality content.
Your Content Is Easier to Digest
Having small sections of content broken up is easier for people to process. It’s like reading a book broken up with chapters where you can focus on one topic at a time, helping you absorb the information in small increments rather than all at once.
Because people who browse content on mobile devices can do so from anywhere, distractions may often exist around them. They aren’t just reading your content in a home office on their computer. They could be watching TV, on a lunch break, or riding the metro to work.
Keeping your content easy to absorb makes reading more convenient in busy environments and on the go.
You Can Rank for Snippets
Browsable content helps with reading and improves your search engine ranking.
Google is also catching on that more and more people prefer bite-sized nuggets of information. That’s why you will see a People Also Ask section, and now Google offers an AI Overview. Both items pull snippets of information from online content so readers can find quick answers.
When you create quick answers for your readers, Google can use those short, easy-to-digest answers in their snippets, improving your search engine ranking alongside your readability.
7 Mobile Optimization Tips to Create Browsable Content
If you want the benefits of browsable content, use these seven tips to optimize your blogs for mobile and web browsing.
1. Add Frequent Headings
Headings will be your best friend for browsable content. They are like your chapter headings that tell people what they can find in each section.
Break up your content with frequent headings to make finding exact information easy. They can also help people just looking to skim the content for the main idea come away with a general understanding of the article.
For example, if you scroll through this article, you could come away and tell someone else what it was about and even list the seven tips without reading more than the headings.
As a general rule, keep no more than 300 words under any heading. This may mean you will be breaking sections up into several subheadings. Don’t be afraid to break out those H3s or even H4s to create browsable content.
2. Use Short Sentences
Shorter sentences are easier to read and digest. Every content creator has their own rule. We try to keep the average sentence under 25 words. There are exceptions, so don’t panic if you have longer sentences.
This word limit comes from several studies. The U. S. National Institutes of Health’s guidelines restrict sentences to under 20 words as they found that optimal for people to grasp information. Meanwhile, the CDC recommends 10-word sentences.
While you want most of your content to be shorter sentences, you ideally want to vary your length. You will have some that may run to 30 words, while others may only need 10 words. Natural sentence variation and flow will sound much better to the ear than exclusively using choppy, short sentences.
3. Stick to Short Paragraphs
Short paragraphs go hand-in-hand with the idea of short sentences. You are yet again breaking up information into smaller segments. The shorter paragraphs give your readers time to digest each thought.
Think of a paragraph break as a breather space. Each time you break up the text, your readers can breathe. It relaxes them and gives them a moment to process the previous thought before you introduce a new idea.
Generally, try to keep paragraphs shorter than six lines. Yes, this might go against all you learned in your college writing courses. Academic teachers push for those long paragraphs with an introductory sentence, three to five supporting sentences, and a closing sentence.
You can throw that out.
Blog writing is an entirely different game. You aren’t writing for a grade. You are writing to connect.
By shortening your paragraphs, you improve the flow and help people scan the text easier without getting lost in blocks of text.
4. Include Several Images
Since we are discussing breaking up text, why not throw an image in one of those paragraph breaks?
Images allow readers to take a break and breathe, digesting your last idea the same way paragraph breaks do.
Images also offer another way to absorb information. Some sources even argue images are MORE effective at conveying information than text. Even if that is true, infographics only convey a snippet of information. The best long-form content has a good mix of both text and images.
Let’s put that theory to the test here. I will list some statistics about infographics for you to remember:
Image posts have a 65% higher engagement rate
Infographics are read 30x more than text
Readers are 80% more motivated to read infographics than plain text
How many more of those statistics do you now remember from the image?
Find ways to communicate your message through pictures, video, charts, and graphic quotes to keep readers engaged and help others quickly glean and remember information, especially the most critical points in an article.
5. Leave Room for White Space
One of the most influential sounds in the world is silence. Similarly, the most powerful words are often blank spaces. White space is the silence of your content.
Reading wall-to-wall content is like trying to think in a crowded room. White space gives the mind room to breathe as it processes the content. It also makes browsing content easier and finding just the right section you’re looking for amidst a long blog post or other content form.
You can create space by leaving a margin around your blog post, adding lists, and not being afraid to just leave one sentence on a line.
White space also helps to show how ideas are connected. For example, small paragraph breaks within a section have smaller gaps, while more significant breaks between headings have much larger white spaces. It helps our mind organize the information and create a visual content hierarchy.
6. Start with a Table of Contents
A table of contents isn’t just for a long book. It’s also helpful for long-form blog posts.
Imagine running across this blog post when all you wanted to know was where to place a table of contents in your post. Rather than reading through the entire post to find this section, you can use a table of contents (placed at the top, by the way) to identify it quickly.
Those browsing content just for one or two snippets would benefit most from a table of contents.
7. Summarize with Key Takeaways
A key takeaways section may also appear near the top, just like a table of contents. However, while a table of contents helps people find sections in a post, a key takeaways section summarizes the post.
This summary serves several vital purposes, including:
Allowing readers to know whether the post is about the topic they want to read.
Helping readers quickly understand a topic they don’t have time to read.
Refreshing their mind on the critical points in a post they read.
Use a key takeaways section to highlight your best points and create a browsable article where people are sure to at least walk away with those core ideas. Most key takeaway sections stick to just three to five points. The rest of the content’s treasure is hidden in its body, enticing the reader to read on.
Begin Your Mobile Optimization Journey Toward More Browsable Content
Creating content for several platforms and devices is challenging as there are many changing rules. However, those rules are there to help you optimize your blogs for mobile readers.
We can help you create content that isn’t just quality but also engaging for all readers, from mobile users to desktop readers.
When you go grocery shopping, you select specific brands and items because you know what they taste like or how they pair with your meals. You would be very disappointed if one day you bought your favorite nacho cheese dip and it tasted much spicier than usual. It might even be enough to put you off that brand and encourage you to try a different one.
Consistency is key to loyalty. Without being someone customers can rely on, recognize, and easily discover, you will have trouble maintaining customers.
Learn the secret behind brand consistency in content marketing and five tips to help you improve your brand consistency.
What Is Brand Consistency?
Brand consistency is creating a recognizable and predictable brand. Brand consistency runs deeper than your products. It’s about creating consistency in every interaction and publication. No matter what you do or sell, it should all relate to the brand image you are trying to build.
In content marketing, brand consistency includes:
Consistent images
Consistent content
Consistent video
More importantly, brand consistency is creating a personality for your brand. Just like your fashion choices, hobbies, and food help define you, your imagery and content will represent your brand. If you want a definition your customers can see and relate to, you must invest in brand consistency.
Brand Consistency Examples
You will become more than a brand name if you have a consistent brand. Think about the last time a friend described a brand in a way other than the name. For instance, if someone asked if you wanted to grab dinner at “The Golden Arches,” you would know they were talking about McDonald’s. If someone told you to “Just Do It,” you would instantly think of Nike.
For some brands, like Starbucks, you just need to mention the product and they will be the first name that pops into your head.
Below, you will see how Google uses color to create brand consistency, so no matter which app people use, they still have that tie back to Google.
HubSpot’s resource center shows how consistent branding on your website helps unify your posts. Even though they cover a wide range of topics, they connect all their posts. The posts have similar writing styles and imagery. Just look at those post headers. Each has the same fun image style and orange color palette, giving the entire resource page a cohesive feel.
Branding consistency builds a personality around your brand. Interacting with branded content feels similar to buying name-brand food versus eating generic store-brand food. It is familiar and often better quality.
Here are four of the top benefits of building a consistent brand.
Increases Trust
People are more likely to trust you when you are familiar and predictable.
Next time you go to Starbucks, look at the side of their cups. The baristas use lines on those cups as guides so they know precisely how much ice, coffee, and milk to add. In addition, they have consistent recipes for how much sweetener or shots of espresso to add to drinks. Because of those guides, you can always expect a similarly flavored drink.
Imagine if, one day, the baristas decided to measure with their heart rather than those guides. You would never know whether your drink will be sweet or bitter. Eventually, you will lose trust in the coffee shop and go somewhere where you can predict the flavor of your beverage.
By being a consistent brand through consistent content marketing, your audience and customers know what to expect and trust you because of that consistency.
Builds Relationships
Would you buy a product from a good friend’s business or a stranger’s business halfway across the country?
Building relationships with your customers transforms your business into a trusted advisor. Your clients are more likely to turn to you for advice and products. That relationship comes from being someone your customers can get to know.
As a brand, you should keep your personality and appearance the same across your content so your customers can recognize you and become comfortable with your brand, like a friend. This helps your audience connect with you.
Encourages Loyalty
Loyalty is the natural outcome of building trust and relationships. When someone trusts you and feels connected to you as a friend, they are likelier to remain loyal to you.
About 72% of customers are loyal to one or more brands. There is comfort in reliability and predictability. When customers find a brand they can connect with or like the products, they will remain loyal.
Establishes a Recognizable Brand
We touched on this point earlier when discussing how easy it is to recognize Google’s apps. Building a consistent brand means more people recognize you across different platforms or even if you have other tools and products.
Apple computers are so recognizable that animated movies will feature an Apple laptop, but switch out the logo with any other design, and viewers still know what brand it’s supposed to be.
You can build brand recognition through consistent colors, design, speaking style, and logos. Not only will customers be able to find you easier, but you will also stand out among your competitors.
You’ll first notice they both promote chocolate, yet they look entirely different. Hershey uses bright, fun colors and thick, bold text. All their imagery and colors reflect their brand and ideal audience.
Ghirardelli has a more luxurious theme. The colors are natural browns, greens, and blues. This reflects their regular customers.
Choose imagery for your social media, blog post images, and email templates that reflect your audience and who you want to be. Then, stick with those colors and fonts to help your content become recognizable. Using logos can help with brand consistency, but you should be able to recognize your brand even if you don’t have a logo on your post.
2. Stick to the Same Writing Style
Several notable music artists suddenly switched styles, losing a large portion of their fan base. For example, the country star Garth Brooks created a rock persona, Chris Gaines, to explore different genres. That persona soon disappeared after it never gained traction.
Your audience gets to know your content style. When you switch your writing style, especially if it’s a drastic change, you will lose readers.
To keep your current readers and followers engaged, stick with the style they are familiar with and use it as a guide for all content.
Here are a few style guides to keep in mind:
Are you formal or informal?
How educational is your content?
How much humor do you usually incorporate?
Do you have a tell-tale hobby or interest you regularly reference in your content?
You will also want to consider grammar nuances. For instance, if you use contractions, stick with contractions. If you use sentence case in headings, keep sentence case for all your headings. If you use a standard phrase for your products, keep with that phrase.
3. Maintain a Consistent Schedule
Maintaining a relationship with someone who randomly disappears for long periods is challenging. Will they reply to your message tomorrow? Or next month? You don’t know.
Your customers would also like consistency in their brands. Creating a consistent publishing schedule for blog posts, social media, and emails you send helps develop a schedule your customers can count on. For most content creators, that schedule includes weekly blog posts, but the schedule will vary for each brand, your ideal audience, and your niche.
You will also want to set up a consistent response workflow. This may require automating emails that customers receive after completing specific actions. This consistency throughout the nurturing and purchasing process maintains trust and encourages greater loyalty because you become someone they can depend on.
Content marketing spans several channels, including websites, social media, and emails. Here is where brand consistency becomes a little more complicated.
The audience you have reading emails will most likely be different than your social media audience. Then, you have blog readers looking for something drastically different than the customers scrolling Instagram.
You want to create unique content for your audience on each platform. However, you also don’t want each platform to look, feel, and sound like entirely different brands.
Find ways to keep your content consistent across channels without copying content exactly on each channel. For instance, keeping the same fonts and colors on all platforms will connect the content, even if what you promote or discuss varies for each audience.
5. Create Brand Guidelines
To maintain consistent branding across channels and teams, create branding guidelines. This is a slide set or eBook that outlines each of those items we walked through, such as your:
Colors
Fonts
Imagery
Writing style
Ideal audience
Unique selling point
When you put all these elements on paper, you can unify your brand, even when several teams collaborate or work with freelancers.
Brand guidelines act like a recipe book. If you asked everyone on your team to make chocolate chip cookies, you would probably receive a dozen variations. However, if you gave everyone the same recipe and asked them to make cookies, you would have a greater chance of all the cookies tasting the same.
Your content guidelines act the same way, unifying everything from how content looks to small grammatical rules to keep everything unified and consistent across platforms.
At Express Writers, we frequently receive brand guidelines from clients. These help our writers write content that aligns with your brand and resonates with clients.
Create More Brand Consistency in Your Content Marketing
Working with content creators who understand your brand is a pivotal element to brand consistency.
Express Writers has a team of trained and knowledgeable subject-matter experts who can get to know your brand and audience. When you order authority content, you can choose the same writers for each project to help maintain brand consistency for all your email, blog, and social content.
