People write blogs for a variety of topics: travel, beauty, food, family, cars, technology, fashion. Today, we are going to focus on how to write a blog for your business – specifically, how to create content that is centered around a specific idea or question that is relevant to your industry.

You want to use blogs to promote your business and drive traffic to your website in the hope that you will get new customers. Even better, once those customers get to your website, you hope they will start sharing it with others, and then so on. This means the goal of your blog is to engage with your intended audience by addressing any questions or concerns they might have in relation to your business. Obviously, don’t write a blog on how to get ink stains out of clothes if your business is about exotic pets. Make your blog thought-provoking and interesting.

So let’s talk about how to write a blog for your business.

Plan Your Blog Topic

Before you start writing, you need a blog topic. Your blog topic is almost always going to be your keyword, too. Make sure it is something that you find somewhat interesting; lack of enthusiasm can show in an article. This is also a good time to decide what kind of blog you are going to write (how-to, list-based, curated collection, etc.).

Next, come up with a basic outline for your blog topic. Outlines can be extremely helpful – they plot out the different sections in your blog and act as a guide so you don’t ramble too much. The outline should list out the main blog topic and then break that into subheads. The clearer the outline, the better off your blog will be in the long run.

Once you have figured out your blog topic, do your homework and start researching. Use other blogs, websites, research papers, data and facts and, obviously, personal experience to address your blog topic. If you do use other people’s facts, make sure they are correct and that you cite the source.

Create Your Headline

No matter what, your headline needs to get your readers’ attention immediately. Otherwise, they aren’t going to bother reading your blog. At the same time, don’t give away your big solution or information in the headline; you want to entice your readers so they click on your blog.

With this in mind, avoid clickbait headlines. You know, the ones that promise something amazing and when you get to the end, there is nothing there. If your headline says you are going to list out the best romantic hiking spots in Los Angeles, you better list those out.

Don’t be afraid to fine-tune your headline as you write. You might start off knowing you want to write about fajitas but don’t know your exact headline until you start doing some research on fajitas.

Actually Write the Blog

This is the hardest part of blog writing; it can take several drafts before you get your ideal post. Make sure you get your crucial points down and focus on those throughout the blog. It’s even okay to write the introduction and conclusion last, so long as you hit those main points. For example, if you are doing a how-to blog, make sure you address the topic and teach your reader. Just make sure you don’t go off on rants that have nothing to do with the subject.

As for the actual tone of the blog, make it relatable and conversational, personable and engaging. No one likes being talked down to or bored to tears. Try to add something extra that separates your blog from the others. One way to do this is with a call to action at the end of your blog. A call to action could be for the reader to comment or subscribe to your blog. It could be urging them to buy something from your website.

Most importantly, break up the text. Subheads are your best friend; use them every few paragraphs. Bullet points are another way to add a nice break in between paragraphs of information. With this in mind, be consistent with your writing amount; make sure your paragraph and subhead sections are about the same length.

Images

Speaking of breaking up text, use pictures. Better yet, use pictures that enhance the post; make sure they are relevant to what you are writing about. People don’t want to read long, chunky blocks of text with no breaks.

Images can add humor or help explain difficult (or boring) subjects to the reader. You can use diagrams, charts, tables and more, especially with how-to blogs.

However, make sure you are allowed to use the images in your blog. Don’t use someone else’s photo if you don’t have permission. You can use Unsplash or Pixabay for free images, or you can insert your own.

Edit Before Publishing

Before you hit that publish button, edit, edit and edit some more. Do several rounds of edits to catch as many errors as possible. You can read your blog aloud or ask someone else to read it; this can also help determine if your blog is too difficult or boring to read.

When you edit, look for repetitious words or phrases and change them. Make sure your grammar, punctuation and sentence structure is correct. At Promotion LA, we use Grammarly to check for writing mistakes and typos. Look at the blog’s flow – is it smooth? Does it move coherently from one section to the next? As I said before, keep your sentences and paragraphs short to help with this.

And again, your goal is to hit your main topic points. If you didn’t do that, go back to the beginning and try again.

With all this in mind, don’t fret – writing blogs gets easier the more you practice.