How To Plan Your Blog Content So It Gets Read (Part 2 in a series)

My post last week, 7 Reasons Why A Professional Like You Should Be Writing A Blog, explained about the benefits of raising your brand profile and promoting your expertise by writing blog articles.

This week, I want to explain about the importance of planning to write your blog. You see, unless your blog is a blow-by-blow journal about your life that you can rattle off without too much thought involved, then you will need to plan what you're going to write about and how you're going to write it.

How much time have you got?

When you first begin to write blogs it's going to take time. Don't be surprised if it takes you anywhere from a couple of hours to several days - yes, I did say several days!

Think about it, if you're going to write meaningful content, which is relevant to your target audience and helps them solve challenges in their life or business then unless you're some kind of magician, it isn't going to happen in 5 minutes.

Researching and thinking

As an example, if you work in professional services and you decide to share your perspective on the Chancellor's budget speech, then you're going to need to give some thought to the key points your audience (clients) will be most interested in. It doesn't matter how much knowledge you have, regarding the budget's implications, further research will undoubtedly uncover additional facts you hadn't considered. This process will also confirm if your own understanding is, in fact, correct - it's a useful process to help double check your facts.

Who are you writing for?

When sharing your expertise, as someone more famous than me once said, 'people don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care'. So, when writing your blog do so for your customers, not yourself. What are their pain points, concerns, fears, uncertainties? Your advice might be well-intentioned but if it doesn't resonate with your audience then they're unlikely to benefit from your words of wisdom.

What's your style?

It's really important that your blog reflects the person behind the words. The more relatable you are to your audience, the more they'll buy into you and your blog's content. So, what is your style? It could be that your blog is a corporate news brief - factual and to the point. If it is then that's your style. If your posts are more personal in nature then will they be humorous or maybe more challenging in tone? Some of the most popular blogs are anticipated by their readers, not so much because of the content but more because of their style. Seth Godin is a great example. Often short in length, his blogs have a unique, thought provoking style which has ensured that Seth has becoming one of the most engaging and prolific bloggers on the planet.

Make your blog standout

You've only got to look at Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and most social media and other online platforms to appreciate the significant part that images play in drawing attention to key messages and adding to the story line of most articles - pure text posts are not engaging. 

The use of images or even video also requires some thought and planning. How will the image add relevance to the content you've written and will it provoke a reaction - a reaction which encourages people read your article? Google has millions of images available on its website but beware, most of these will be subject to copyright. Should you choose to save and use such an image, without prior permission from the originator or owner of that image, you could end up being sued for a considerable amount of money. Some companies, who share images regularly, use sophisticated tracking methods that will let them know if an image they own is being shared on another website.

My advice, when it comes to including images in your blog posts is to purchase them from stock photo sites, such as IStock or Dreamstime. You'll pay a small fee but in the long run it's much better than being sued. Another suggestion is to take your own photos. These days most smart phones produce HD quality images and taking your won photos allows you to create authentic images that are exactly right for your blog, without the need to pinch someone else's. Photos are also useful for breaking up large chunks of text, thereby providing the reader with a breather at key points in your post.

It's not the length that matters

There's a lot of debate about how long a blog article should be. Too long and people won't read it to the end, too short and perhaps it doesn't offer as much value? Personally, I don't believe the length of the post matters, as long as it's interesting and adds value to the reader's life or business. 

Seth Godin, who I mentioned earlier, writes relatively short blogs, sometimes just a few lines long but they pack a powerful message. 400-500 words though, is often seen as a good length and will keep most people's attention to the end. However, a long post, if it's written well and flows from topic to topic, can be equally as engaging, although you'll possibly have to work harder to maintain your audience's attention by using images, changes of font style and colour, sub headings, italics etc. 

When it boils down to it, there are many expert bloggers out there, who are doing this for a paid living. This post is aimed at you though, the business professional who has never really written a blog before. You're hopefully like me, someone who has a message or expertise to share - you're not a copy writer or a journalist, you're a business person and you simply want to increase the chances of people reading and engaging with your LinkedIn posts and your website blog. You may never get 23 zillion views but all you're looking to achieve is to raise your brand profile with your personal network or for those one or two useful engagements that you can respond to and maybe meet and do business with.

For my final article on '7 Reasons Why A Professional Like You Should Be Writing A Blog', next week, I'm going to explore what topics you might consider writing about, how to share your blog content and which blogging platforms you might want to consider using. 

Thank you for taking time out from your busy day to read my post and if you found it helpful, would you please like it and leave your comments. And if you think others would benefit from reading my post, would you share it using the social media buttons provided.

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Steve Phillip is Managing Director and co founder of Linked2Success, specialising in measurable social media sales & marketing support for businesses.

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