5 Essential Tips to Blog for Content Marketing

I know I say it often when talking about social media marketing, and here I go again, no selling your product or service on a blog. For marketers, I know that it is tricky. Consumers go to blogs for information, not to see advertisements. Too much selling can diminish the value of a brand. Instead, offer knowledge while building trust and respect. 
 
That’s not to say we do not provide links or offers. The key is providing an abundance of information, so your potential audience clicks through to your business to find more. For all content marketing outlets on social media, stick to an 80/20 Rule. Provide content 80% of the time, sell 20% of the time.
 
Always have these five tips in mind – 

1. Write to solve problems for the audience – Write from the customer view point providing information and unique solutions that your customer craves. Do the research necessary to learn about your potential audience and what content they are craving. 
2. Use How To, List Posts, and Infographics frequently – Keep blogs short and straightforward, reading more like bullet points than a report with paragraph after paragraph. 
3. Have a catchy Headline – You are passionate about your topic, the audience should feel that same enthusiasm. Your potential customers will not keep reading if they do not see benefits. A title might not come at first, be willing to revise and improve your title as you are writing your blog. 
4. Edit and Revise – We are not all writers making this essential. Here are some proofreading tips 

• Use my Editing Cheat Sheet - I use this to go over all of my writing to improve words or phrases. 
• Grammarly is an excellent tool for extra help with grammar and punctuation. 
• Read Writing backward sentence by sentence. 
• Of course, an editor is always good if we have one or can afford one.

   5.  Add links to your website, landing page, or store – Using your blog to get website traffic is ok. Be sure you  have relevant information or offer promotions.

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Remember, it takes time to establish good blogging habits. Be willing to use trial and error learning from what is working and not working. As you write, you will get better and better and learn more about what attracts an audience in your industry. You can have fun, learn, and blog all at the same time.

Please offer any additional tips especially on how you ensure your writing is properly edited?

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Dr Kellie Emrich
@thesocialprof
www.thesocialprof.com

Additional Resources for Content Marketing
Wheel of Content Types
​Storytelling
Content Marketing Process