One of my clients is using an online service to find writers to produce blog posts. Maybe you’ve thought about that option as well. The posts are decent drafts to start with, but are far from polished and ready for our audience.
Fortunately, all of the writers do have English as their first language (most of them are from the UK.) Of course, the “queen’s English” does cause some of its own issues . . .
But long before we talk about individual word choices or their spelling for a U.S. market, the blog posts are missing the mark in a couple of key areas that could easily be fixed.
First, the writers frequently have good story elements buried within the copy, rather than highlighted. The reader is forced to wade through the copy to find them.
Second, many of the posts seem to start off with a “warm up” that’s too basic for the audience.
As the messaging strategist, I want to help produce blog posts that keep visitors reading ̶ and encourage prospects to visit other pages on the site.
To improve the blog posts, we’ve come up with our 7-Point Plan . . .
1. Outline All of the Key Points You Want Visitors to Really Notice
This is the framework of your blog post. If you outline the key points you want to make, you’ll know where your blog post is going.
Too many times, writers just string paragraphs together without an overall message plan. Outlining key points first helps them to focus on the key conclusions of the blog post.
2. Introduce Your Key Points in the Headline
Once you have your framework, then you need an engaging headline to summarize your key message. Are your key points summarized or introduced in your headline?
I shouldn’t read four paragraphs and THEN discover what your key point is . . .
3. Emphasize Each Key Point in a Subhead
If you outlined all of the key take-aways you wanted your prospects to glean from your post, is each of them highlighted in a subhead?
Subheads act as an outline of the key points you’re going to talk about. So, every key point should appear in a subhead. Subheads help the reader and can be helpful for SEO – win-win!
We previously had another writer who had the annoying habit of wanting to REPEAT the headline as the first subhead. Huh? You’ve already introduced the overall message. Use your subheads to introduce your message sections.
4. Get to the Point: Write an Engaging Lead-In
Once you have an engaging headline and subheads that outline your key points, now it’s time to draw the reader in with a great “lede.”
Are the first few sentences of your blog post really engaging? Are they so interesting that prospects are pulled into the copy?
Or do your blog posts wander around at the beginning, with a lot of fluff or generic statements?
Some writers seem to think they need a “warm up” in the first few paragraphs. And so, they write in generalities that don’t pique the interest of their target prospects.
If you write snooze-worthy content at the beginning of a blog post, it’s highly likely your prospects won’t stick around to read the rest.
Your first few sentences are your “lede” or lead-in. They need to specifically draw your prospects in, by asking an intriguing question, introducing an interesting situation, or telling them something they didn’t know.
Is it a great lede? Read it out loud, envisioning yourself trying to get the attention of a roomful of prospects with your words. Are your words compelling?
5. Write to Have Value for Your Specific Target
Be sure your writers understand the audience each blog post is designed for. Many younger writers (and marketers, in general) seem to think that everyone is like them. Expert copywriters (and marketers) know you are RARELY your exact target audience; so, you need to get to know your targets and how they think.
If you’re painting a picture of how your product or service might be helpful, be sure you’re using a situation and language that your target relates to.
6. Link to Related Products or Services
You’re doing blog posts to drive traffic to your website. Once those visitors are there, let’s get them to an “action” page. Link to your Lead Generation Offer or the product or service pages related to the post.
And put the link on keywords related to the page you’re linking to (don’t say “click here” – that misses an SEO opportunity).
7. Write it the Way Your Target Audience Speaks
With the UK writers, we have 3 key areas we always have to check:
- Wording more common in the UK than the US, like “amongst”, “whilst”, etc.
- Real estate selling specifics, like “open house” versus “open home”, etc.
- Contractions
For some reason, the posts these young writers produce are completely devoid of contractions used in everyday speech. Do they think things are MORE formal in the U.S.?
Be sure to read your copy out loud – and watch out for stiffness where a contraction could help, like “it is” “we will”, etc. If it’s not the way you’d actually say it, it needs rewriting.
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