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Optimize your content

Creating blog content is a business practice that has proved itself useful for quite some time. Various types of content now flood the Internet and the clutter is hard to cut through.

In order to stay relevant, the content you create must be written mindfully. Stay aware of your potential audience’s preferences and only create pieces that you deem worthy of reading yourself.

Deciding on a topic

Think about your customer base when deciding on a blog topic. Your readers are your target market and knowing their buyer persona will help narrow down your topic choices. Focus on what they may be researching or what they may find interesting and helpful.

A blog post about the future of virtual reality may not bode well for a company who’s focus is on an older generation but would spark interest for one such as Apple. Below are some ideas to consider when choosing your topic:

• Educate: Educate your readers on a topic that is confusing, or explain the new features on the latest service you offer. Consumers are constantly researching potential products before a purchase. Use this to your advantage by producing educational unbiased blogs about products that you just so happen to offer. By including a call-to-action somewhere in your post, it becomes easy to lead the reader down the buyer’s journey.

• Current industry trends: Potential prospects like to know you have the inside scoop; showcase your industry knowledge by creating content on emerging trends within your expertise. Readers will continue to frequent your blog and be exposed to your brand image if you are keeping them consistently updated.

• Defining industry jargon: Oftentimes abbreviations and acronyms are the preferred languages in the fast-paced business world. Decoding terms such as “DSP” or “Saas” will bring those curious readers to your site.

• New business updates: Finally, keep your following updated on the most recent exciting advancements your company is making! Although be wary of overusing this topic, you want readers to feel as if the content you are pushing out is mostly unbiased and educational.

What goes in

Now that you have decided upon a topic for your post, time to start writing. A planned careful approach is best when creating content for your site or blog. Many things need to be considered to stand out against the mounting competition. Following guidelines based upon optimizing your content and providing an enjoyable reader experience will help guarantee a successful piece.

• Photos: A blog post containing any sort of visual, be it video or graphic, is more effective at drawing your readers in. When posting on social media, a graphic to accompany a post makes the content appear more interesting and encourages the user to click on the link. Statistically, social media posts with multimedia perform better than without. Don’t forget to make sure the image corresponds appropriately with the theme of the post!

• Lists: Bulleted or numbered lists help to organize thoughts into a digestible format for your readers. Oftentimes when you are trying to educate your audience on a subject, a list will help spell it out crystal clear. Lists keep your writing separated by breaking it up on the page, in turn making it less overwhelming for the reader.

• Keep it concise: You don’t want to bombard your readers with an eight page, formally written post. The goal is to engage your reader quickly and inform them in an easy to understand manner. Keep paragraphs short and language simplistic to appeal to a wide audience.

• Titles/Headers: Highlight the most important aspects of your post with a catchy title and corresponding headers. This will spell out the flow of your content by showcasing which key points you will be hitting on.

• Social Sharing Buttons: Social sharing buttons are necessary to increase your content awareness and inserting them into the post itself gives the reader the option to share with their followers.

Optimize!

Maintaining good search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the key reasons for creating content.

You want to optimize your content appropriately by utilizing keywords in the right places. You can include those keywords in image alt text, titles, text links, and the meta description, just to name a few.

Citing credible sources throughout your content will improve SEO and additional links within your content to other aspects of your site do as well.

Remember that search engines value quality content so in order to rank higher, populate your blog with fresh, innovative and helpful material.

Get the word out

Lastly, once you have created content you are proud of, it’s time to get the word out!

Share your new blog post with your followers across all channels. You should know which media outlets bring the most attention for your particular business. Target those outlets first to capitalize on potential readers and conversions.

Online forums are a great tool to use to get the maximum amount of exposure. To use them properly remember to post in forums that have similarly themed content.

Repurposing a piece of content when appropriate can bring new traffic to an old post. If the subject of your blog is relevant to current events or even a conversation occurring on social media, try reposting it and monitor the results.

Try for yourself

Now that you have the knowledge to create content that counts, start writing! A blog is an important factor in any company’s marketing strategy and keeping updated on the trends of content creation will ensure success. To help get you started, click here for some inspiration![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″][vc_raw_js]JTNDc2NyaXB0JTIwdHlwZSUzRCUyMnRleHQlMkZqYXZhc2NyaXB0JTIyJTNFJTBBJTBBd2luZG93Lm9uYmx1ciUyMCUzRCUyMGZ1bmN0aW9uJTIwJTI4JTI5JTIwJTdCJTBBJTIwZG9jdW1lbnQuX3RpdGxlJTIwJTNEJTIwZG9jdW1lbnQudGl0bGUlM0IlMEElMjBkb2N1bWVudC50aXRsZSUyMCUzRCUyMCUyMkRvbiUyN3QlMjBmb3JnZXQlMjB0byUyMHJlYWQlMjB0aGlzLi4uJTIyJTNCJTBBJTBBJTIwJTdEJTBBJTBBd2luZG93Lm9uZm9jdXMlMjAlM0QlMjBmdW5jdGlvbiUyMCUyOCUyOSUyMCU3QiUwQSUyMGRvY3VtZW50LnRpdGxlJTIwJTNEJTIwZG9jdW1lbnQuX3RpdGxlJTNCJTBBJTBBJTBBJTIwJTdEJTNDJTJGc2NyaXB0JTNF[/vc_raw_js][/vc_column][/vc_row]