Write Blogs For Inbound Traffic – How To Guide [Updated 2.0]

Digital Marketing Blog May 24, 2018
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How to blog like a marketing expert
I get it! Taking the time to write relevant blogs to your audience is time-consuming and sometimes frustrating. Here is the good news… I’m going to make things super simple for you! In this article, I will cover:
  • The marketing strategy behind writing blogs.
  • How to use Blogs to drive traffic.
  • 6 Basic steps to creating amazing content quickly.
Let’s begin with the purpose of writing a blog.

Blogs are going to be centered around “cold traffic” which is going to be the audience out there that has never heard of your brand before. Blogs provide relevant content to your “cold traffic” this means producing information for consumption – not selling. Blogs are going to put you in an authority role, and in the position of being an expert on a specific topic relevant to your industry. Now that you understand the purpose of writing a blog, let’s dive into the 6 steps to producing amazing content.

Write backward.

Start with your call-to-action in mind. Determine the goal & your call to action. Some goals or calls to action might include:

1
Increasing touch points with your brand (brand exposure).
2
Relevant leads
3
Customer Acquisition / Activation.
4
Offer Awareness (of a high-ticket item).
5
Offer Awareness (of premium/membership content).
6
Consumption (of premium/membership content).
Choose a topic that aligns with your call to action.
Your topic is hiding in these questions:
  • What does the prospect need to know/learn/understand about your products & services BEFORE they can convert into a paying customer?
  • What barriers/objections do they have to convert into a paying customer? Think about consumer perceptions about your industry.
  • What are they thinking about/worrying about/researching/talking about before they decide to buy your products & services?
  • What is the primary pain point your prospect is experiencing? What problems are they facing?

Example: If you are selling training services to marathon runners you may write about topics such as:

Are you Marathon Ready?
10 must-haves for marathon runners.

This is where you are going to GET INVOLVED with their pin point research. Remember, this is cold traffic. They don’t know about you. This is how you are going to introduce yourself, your company and position yourself as an expert.

Choose your weapon.
There are many different types of blog posts that I will cover below.
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Listicles (people love these!): You are simply compiling a list of relevant data for your audience.

Example: 147 Blog Post Topics or 33 Workouts to grow your biceps. 

H

How to post: This is simple enough. You simply explain how to do something that your audience is likely to find valuable and may need to learn before purchasing your products & services. This blog post is a “how to.”

C

Content Aggregation Post (collecting other blog posts from other authors and compiling it into one article). Different than a listicle as you are not creating all the content.

Example: 21 Juicy Steak Recipes

C

Crowd Source Post: Several experts answer questions regarding a relevant topic,

Example: 6 Marketing experts tell us how they would spend $10 a day marketing budget.

R

Reaction Post: Write a quick response or reaction to a relevant video, image, article, etc.

Example: You are a photographer, pick a popular image and explain what you like, what different lenses you would have used, etc.

Edit for Consumption.
People have a short attention span these days. The goal is to have the audience consume the entire post so that you can position yourself as an expert and produce leads.
1

Headline: Your headline wants to be in the sweet spot of 10-12 words. Make a clear statement, not something cute or fancy. Complete but not wordy (take a few minutes to mess with this… if it’s too long see what words you can eliminate will still having the title be complete.

2

The Introduction: The first sentence needs to be short, punchy, and curiosity-based. For example, “You’ve finally found it,” “Here is the big misconception out there,” or “I get it…”

3

Transitions: These are Stop Signs – This is when a lot of readers leave! Similar to your opening sentence it needs to grab the reader to continue reading. Examples: “Let’s take a look at each…” “Let’s begin with” and “Now here is where the problem is.”

4

 Formatting: The is to make this post desirable to read at first glance. If your blog is long with no breaks it’s going to look like a huge task for your reader. Make it extremely comfortable to read (use bullets, bold text, italics, breaks to make it seem shorter)

Try to keep each paragraph only 3-4 sentences. Nice small chunks for your reader to tackle, with strongly positioned transitions to keep them going. Try this formatting trick…

Turn your copy side-ways. It should look like a graph with high peaks and low valleys. Sometimes this is a challenge to write this way. Do you best – research shows that it does the work.

5

Use A Deep Tease (optional): Wherever you are posting your blog to drive traffic, use a tease deep into the content to grab a readers attention. For example: “#3 on this list is going to surprise you! Method #8 takes no time at all.”

6

Insert (2) Types of Calls To Action: Put consistent offers in your content (for example if you have a free report or eBook, you can connect a hyperlink directly in your blog text)

1. First type of call to action: Text-based link as explained above.

2. Second type of call to action: Graphic call to action (people love pictures and buttons)

Example: You are writing a blog on “Improving Your Sales Skills” you could insert an image with a click button to sign up for a “free Sales Training webinar” to that you can continue to build expertise and trust with your audience for later product offers.

THANKS FOR READING – Now get to work. Share your blogs on social media, forums, partner sites, etc. to start driving traffic to your site.

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