Don’t Skip a Blog Content Strategy

Adding a blog to your website is a smart move. What’s even smarter is when you build it with a clear blog content strategy in mind.

You will not regret it. Starting your blog with clear goals and tactics will guide you through everything that comes next. You’ll better understand who you’re writing for, which topics will reach them best, and how to measure your blog’s success.

And if you’re delegating people on your team to plan and publish the blog, you have created a valuable guiding tool for them to follow.

So, let’s walk you through the steps for writing a custom blog content strategy.

Like with any marketing project, you want to start by asking, why are we doing this? Take time to think this through, and get as specific as you can.

If you’re selling a high-ticket item that takes a while to consider before purchase, the goal may be to collect email sign-ups from interested parties. For a service agency that’s focused on lead generation, the goal may be having the website visitor schedule a complimentary 30-minute consultation call.

Whichever goal you choose, record it! This is now your inspiration for your blog content strategy and your measuring stick for success.

Now’s the time to ask: who am I writing for? Ask yourself what motivates them, what their pain points are, and how you can help them. Determine the specific action you want them to take before they leave the website.

Many businesses have multiple goals for their website visitors, dependent on where the visitors are in the sales funnel. They may want to capture email addresses from browsing visitors and increase sales conversions from visitors ready to make a purchase.

If you’re a business with multiple website goals, plan blog content with different themes that appeals to the 3 main types of website visitors:

1. Top funnel visitors are searching for information about general trends in your industry.
2. Middle funnel visitors are conducting research around the specific product or service you offer.
3. Bottom funnel visitors are shopping for the product or service you’re offering.

So, for example, if you’re an online fashion retailer that sells yoga leggings, your blog content themes might look like this:

1. A top funnel article about “The Activewear Fashion Trends You’ll See Everywhere This Spring.”
2. A middle funnel article about “How to Care for Your Favorite Pair of Yoga Leggings.”
3. A bottom funnel article about “The 5 Things to Look for When Shopping for Yoga Leggings.”

With audiences defined, and general content themes determined, create a list of keywords for each type of website visitor you want to attract.

The easiest way to do this is by setting up Google Search Console for your website and seeing which queries are currently bringing the most traffic to your website.

List all your target keywords out, and use them to create blog post article titles.

Is this sounding complicated? We promise it can all be managed in one spreadsheet with a few tabs!

List out your blog post titles with target keywords, publish date, and assigned author. Create columns where you can check off the blog post’s promotion once it’s published, like:

• A mention and link on Facebook
• Inclusion in the weekly customer email newsletter
• A mention and link on LinkedIn.

Trust us, this extra step really helps the writer jump into the post. We use a content brief that include all the basics: the title, the target keywords, the target audience, competing articles, and the total word count.

Point out clear calls to action (CTA).  Do you want the writer to link to another article on the website that goes more deeply into something you mention in this post? Do you want the post to end with a link to the lead magnet? You need to include this in your blog content brief.

A blog post is just calling to be repurposed. Provide an excerpt of it on social media and link back to the article. Not only does this give you engagement with your social media followers, but drives traffic to your website: a major goal!

It may take 3 to 6 months for your blog post to start ranking in Google, but you can test other reactions in advance.

For example, you can create a customer email newsletter that teases each blog post with a few sentences and a direct link. You’ll be able to see right away which blog posts are most interesting to your current customers. That will give you your first clues about which articles are likely to perform best.

Once you have identified your most popular blog content, write more of it!

And for the blog posts that aren’t performing well, consider if a catchier headline or better introduction can make it more exciting. If not, simply remove it from your website to make room for a better blog post.

If you’re committed to experimenting with a blog section on your website, but you’re convinced you don’t have the time and resources to make it happen, consider working with an outside agency. They can help you set your website goals, conduct an audit of existing content, provide recommendations for your blog content strategy, and even write it all!