blog strategy - Express Writers

How to Build a Foolproof Blog Content Strategy for Your Brand

July 5, 2022 by Nicole Inge

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 … Read more

3 Easy Ways to Keep Up Your Blogging This Summer

December 31, 2020July 18, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Can’t wait to escape to the beach and enjoy your margarita this summer? Hold on there, if you’re a business owner or marketer… The sad news is your business and marketing won’t run itself, if you’re gone and no one else is left to run it. That’s especially true of your online presence, like blogging and social media. It might seem ridiculously tempting to just let the blog sit still for a month and take off, but here are some killer statistics that prove why you shouldn’t let your blog stagnate (even for a week). Why Consistent Blogging Wins Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links than those who don’t. That’s a LOT of SEO ranking juice. 92% of companies that blog more than once a day (that’s a lot of blogging) have won customers from their blog. And finally…ready for it? Marketers who use blogs generate 67% more leads than those who don’t. Why would you put all of that on hold for a month? Don’t let your online exposure and presence drop because of time off. The good news is that you don’t have to fold up that beach towel just yet. 3 Ways to Keep Your Blogging Healthy Despite the Summer Holiday Keep reading for my top three methods to have a consistent content flow to boost your online presence despite the summer vacation season. 1. Stock topics and keyword research in advance. This one’s very simple. I’ll break topic skeletons and keyword research topic searches into two points. #1: Topic skeleton fodder For the topic skeletons, all you need is Word and a couple hours of time. Come up with great blog topics by asking yourself a few questions and digging down with solid answers. It doesn’t even have to be perfect, what you write down: a professional blog writer can finalize your content to perfection and come up with headlines that will earn more clicks than your rough sketches. Here are a few questions to ask yourself. Outline your answers in a doc, which can be a rough sketch you send to your writer. Your story: Your founding story alone can make multiple great blog topics. Think of the value points of your company and why you believe in what you do. For example: “My T-shirt printing company stands out because of the ink we produce and the quality assurance we give our clients.” What are your client’s biggest pain points? Each pain point can make a new blog topic possibility. Example, “My T-shirt printing clients come to me with the problem that a lot of shirts are made cheaply. The print might come off in the wash or with use too quickly.” Aha! 7 Ways to Preserve Your T-Shirt Print-Ons, or How to Wash Your T-Shirt And Avoid Fading (Every Time). There you go – winning blog topics out of a few customer pain points. The second side of this point can garner a double list of blog topics. #2: Keyword Research For keyword research opportunities to help you come up with great SEO topics, I love SEMrush and KWFinder. It’s simple to research for your best keyword opportunities when using these tools. Check out my nutshell guide to keyword research for an in-depth guide. If keyword discovery requires too much time to figure out, check to see if the writing solution you’re using can do the keyword research for you. (We offer keyword strategy ourselves here.) 2. Invest in a blog writing service. There’s no way around this one. If you want your blog to literally run itself, you’ll need to invest in a good blog writer (or two). Here are key things to ask for when you’re reaching out to your potential blog ghostwriter so you can find a perfect fit: Writing samples: This is key. Those with experience will have a large portfolio available and diverse samples. Online & search optimization writing skills: Although the creative skills of a genius writer are at the core of successful online writing, and that should be your primary concern, you should check secondarily for a skill set in SEO content optimization skills. Make sure your writer knows how to write a unique meta description for every blog, meta title, and how to use your topical keywords naturally throughout the post. 3. Don’t just hire a writer; get a specialist who fits your industry. Have you heard of the Google E-A-T and Y-M-Y-L standards? Basically, Google looks for expertise, authoritativeness, and trust in every post going out on the web. For the intense industries, like finance or law, Google looks for even higher standards (Your Money or Your Life). You need an expert copywriter if your content falls in a high level category to get the most results out of your Google presence. To make sure your blogger can match these standards, ask for relevant samples in your industry and their real-life expertise in your niche (example, 10 years as a paralegal). Conclusion Don’t let summer get your ‪content strategy down. With a serious, active blog strategy, your leads, online presence and revenue will stay on the rise. It’s easy to enjoy time off when you have experts keeping your blog up. Invest in your online content today & save with code summer5. Visit the Content Shop.