The article will be all over the place, without any purpose and they irk me. I used to struggle through them, hoping that they would come together at the end but those once-in-a-blue-moon-ramblings rarely do. Nowadays, I don’t bother reading till the end if I catch on early enough that it’s a purposeless ramble.There’s a blog that I follow and for the most part, the blog posts are enthralling. They’re usually spellbinding interviews or musings and they’re the perfect way to enjoy your tea break at work. But every now and then, the writer of that blog will post an article that is more of a ramble.
This specific blogger can afford to do that. They’ve developed a loyal following and most of their blog posts are dynamite. But for most bloggers that are still building a name for their blog or who write on educative content such as tech, you cannot afford to ramble.
You need to know why you’re writing your blog post so that your article doesn’t come off as a confused mess that reflects poorly on your writing skills and expertise. A blog post with purpose will tell your readers from the beginning what your blog post is about and it will attract your target audience to your blog.
A blog post with defined intent will have the correct titles, subtitles, and keywords necessary to attract your target audience. None of this content will go to waste. It’s like the difference between aiming for a bulls eye in the dark (purposeless) or aiming for it in the light (purposeful).
When trying to figure out the purpose for your blog post, you should ask:
What is the core reason that you have a blog?
For example, if you’re blog is about helping introverts such as I Speak People then at the core of every post and course offered is the aim to help introverts. This blog by Bob Miller aims to help introverts thrive by helping them understand themselves, connect with others and living a life that they’re passionate about.
I wouldn’t expect to find articles on carpentry on this blog because that isn’t the core reason or purpose of the blog.
Having the purpose of your blog in your about page or scribbled down somewhere can act as a compass every time you write a blog post.
Who am I writing for?
Who are you serving? You can actually come up with a customer profile for this that includes demographics, their income, where they work and even a name for the person you’ve written about in your customer profile.
Once you’ve done this then find groups related to the niche of your blog on Facebook or places where your target customers frequent and follow their comments and pain points that will show you where you can help them and in turn, what you can write about.
Being able to have a target audience ensures more success in engagement and sales rather than writing for a large group of people, few of who will follow you or buy from you.
What need of my reader do I want to meet?
Service is all about solving a problem/ need which is what you do as a blogger. Even if what you write about are humorous posts, you readers are coming to you because they want to laugh. That is their need.
There are a couple of ways that you can pinpoint the needs of your readers:
- Ask them. You can send private messages to some of your readers to know what their needs are.
- Follow their comments on social media sites concerning the topics that you write about.
- Find out what your target market is searching for via search engines. What are the key terms they use?
- If your blog doesn’t have many followers yet then read the comments at the bottom of other bloggers’ posts on similar topics or even on Youtube videos about similar topics.
What do you want to achieve with this blog post?
Are you writing to educate? Are you writing to inform? Are you writing to entertain? Are you writing to sell? There should be a call to action for this one.
Are you writing to connect? Are you writing to encourage? Are you writing to make them laugh? Perhaps you’ve been producing a lot of heavy content and now you want to your next post to be something light to make your readers laugh.
Mulling over these questions will help you figure out what you want to achieve with this blog post.
Once you’ve figured out the purpose for your blog post, you need to implement a list of writing strategies. Purpose alone does not guarantee a good blog post.
List of writing strategies
1) Research
Read about the topic. In addition to what you already know, find out what several sites have to say about it. Find out what stats are available and see whether there are other articles that verify those stats. Look for quotes or references that you can include in your blog post. If you’re going to use a citation word for word then make sure you include the link to the article that you copied it from so that you’re not plagiarizing.
As you’re researching, you can use an app like Airstory to collect data from different articles which you can then quickly use in your article. No more copying and pasting.
Don’t neglect to carry out keyword research. I think of keywords as words that tell your target readers, “Hey. I’m here. I’m what you’re looking for. Click this link to find out more about this topic that you’re interested in. We’ve got you covered.”
2) Plan your blog post
As you’re carrying out research, you’ll start to get an idea of how you’d like the blog post to be arranged. Blog posts tend to start with the introduction, followed by the body and then the conclusion.
You can write down the headings and subheadings. You can even write a few sentences or ideas below each heading to remind you of what you want to write in each segment.
How to, lists and reviews are articles that attract readers so titles like, ‘How to transition to being a vegan,’ or ’10 filling and delicious vegan meals,’ or ’30 days as a vegan: Here’s my take,’ are titles that will draw readers to your site.
4) Write a draft
As you’re filling in your draft, do your best to hook your readers with the introduction. After the title, you only have a few seconds to convince your readers to continue reading. Starting with a story is a nice way to reel them in.
Using statistics at the beginning of the introduction is also a good way to establish credibility and make your readers feel like they came to someone that is an expert on the subject matter.
Keep writing as you refer to your research. Do not get stuck in trying to write perfectly. Leave that for editing once you’re done with the draft.
5) Promote
You’ve written a fantastic blog post but alas, nobody knows about it because you’re not promoting it. It’s like having the best chicken restaurant in town but not telling anybody about it. You’ve not even put a signpost outside your restaurant indicating that it’s a chicken restaurant!
A blog should be treated the same way you would a business. You have to market it for people to find out about it. Once they find your blog, the quality of your content will determine how fast your audience grows and whether you’re able to keep your readers.
Write posts related to your article on your social media platforms and then include the link to your blog post. And it doesn’t have to be one post per social media handle. On Instagram, you can post several pictures with different captivating posts that all include a link to the same blog post.
Your Instagram profile should also include a link to your latest blog post. The same goes for your other social media profiles.
Engage in conversations on social media groups and if your blog post offers a solution to a problem that’s being discussed then include a link. Don’t be those annoying people that promote everywhere, all the time on topics that do not relate to their blog post.
Don’t be embarrassed to promote yourself. Remember that you’re providing a service that people are actually looking for.
You could also create a group on Facebook or Reddit or on a similar social media site to tackle issues related to the niche that you’re in where you can comfortably post links to your blog post without feeling like people are getting sick of you.
These groups can be used to engage, discuss issues, and help your followers find solutions or get deals from you that other readers won’t have access to. It’s a great way to build a loyal following.
Create an email list that you send a summary of your blog post to every time a new one is up along with a link to the full blog post. People that have subscribed to your newsletters are
Now that you know the purpose for your blog post, execute
As soon as you know the intent for your article, then everything else flows easily from there. Implement the writing strategies knowing that it’s all a waste of time if you don’t promote your blog. You’ve got the best fried chicken in town? Tell people about it!
