Blog writing is brilliant for business and is essential to your SEO strategy.
A quality blog will keep your audience engaged, position you as an expert in your field and help build trust with your prospects.
So it’s no surprise that B2B marketers who use blogs generate a staggering 66% more leads than those who don’t include blogging in their marketing strategy. And companies who blog bag themselves a whopping 97% more links to their website.
But how can you write a better blog and help your blog writing work hard for your business?
Along with on-page SEO factors, you’ll need to make your blog content clear, concise and irresistibly readable to get the results you need.
Ready to write a better blog?
Here are five of our favourite blog writing tips:
Shorten your sentences
Just in case you were wondering, you’re not a 19th-century novelist. So stick to short sentences.
Long, meandering sentences are wonderful when curling up with Tess of the d’Urbervilles, but the average internet browser doesn’t have time for endless adjectives and puzzling punctuation.
Using mainly simple and compound sentences when blog writing, rather than lots of complex ones will make your content less confusing. And ultimately more readable.
Keeping your sentences concise, helps your messages to be clearer too. And shorter sentences have more impact.
Creating impact is great because it puts a sense of urgency into your writing. And it’s this urgency that will compel your reader to take notice of what you’re saying and read on.
By keeping your sentences short, you’re also less likely to make grammatical errors. And nothing is a bigger turn off for any reader than bad grammar.
So, sticking with short, punchy sentences reduces the risk of making a grammatical gaffe too. Phew.
Shorten your paragraphs
Writing long paragraphs is a common mistake. But remember, scanning is the new black.
Everyone who’s anyone scan reads these days, particularly on the web. This means we don’t read every word written. Instead, we run our eyes over the text and zoom in on parts that look juicy. Come on — you know you do it too.
So, don’t be afraid to make your paragraphs super short.
Feel free to start a new paragraph every time you make a new statement. No one wants to be faced with big blocks of text to plough through when they’re reading a blog.
That’s why short paragraphs are more effective.
Making paragraphs smaller makes them less intimidating to readers. And makes it easier for your reader to move through your content, reducing the stop/start motion that longer paragraphs cause. Your reader will also feel like they’ve got less information to filter through to get to the important parts.
Shorter paragraphs have a much more dramatic effect too, creating a sense of urgency and drama that compels your reader to read on. This makes them highly persuasive.
Single sentence paragraphs are particularly dramatic.
The use of lots of short paragraphs creates more white space on the screen. This not only makes your blog writing clearer and more pleasurable to read, but also creates a cleaner, calmer impression.
Remember: give your content some room to breathe.
Simplify your words
In the same way that shorter sentences and paragraphs are easier to read and have a greater impact, the same is true of words. Bigger isn’t always better.
Simplify your language and don’t get sucked into choosing a long, fancy word when you’re writing because you think it’ll make you sound intelligent. You’re not writing a blog to show off your vast vocabulary; you’re doing it to communicate your messages.
Think about blog writing as a conversation, rather than a dictation.
By choosing a less complicated word over a more complex one, you’ve got a better chance of your reader staying with you. It ensures you’re understood and ensures your meanings are clear.
Simple words are often more emotive too.
That’s because shorter, simpler words used more often in everyday language, so the reader has more of an emotional connection with them.
So, for example, if you’re tempted to use the word ‘appropriate’ when writing, just go for the word ‘steal’ or even ‘take’ instead.
Both ‘steal’ and ‘take’ have a greater emotional impact as they carry more everyday meaning. Both words are only one syllable too, so they’re easier to read than the four-syllable ‘appropriate’.
Always choose words with fewer syllables.
When you choose a shorter word, your reader will feel more of its essence. The word becomes stronger, more potent, more powerful.
Use contractions
Your business blog should communicate your messages clearly, and in a way your target audience will quickly understand and connect with. And contractions help to make your writing sound more natural and personal.
Writing a blog post is all about friendly, useful communications. So, your writing needs to be chatty.
Be a helpful friend to your reader.
Think about how you’d talk to the person reading your blog. You wouldn’t speak in a stiff, formal way, so why write that way?
If you were speaking with a colleague or client, would you say, ‘can’t’, ‘don’t’, ‘isn’t’, ‘you’re’, ‘they’ve’, ‘we’ve’? Or ‘cannot’, ‘do not’, ‘is not’, ‘you are’, ‘they have’, ‘we have’?
Don’t use contractions, and your writing is likely to sound heavy and clunky. Urgh!
So, for better flow and fluidity to your content, imitate everyday speech and write as you’d sound.
Using contractions will make your blog writing more believable, sound warmer and create a stronger connection.
There may be times when not using a contraction is the better choice — maybe when you need to emphasise an important point. But don’t overdo the formality. Use your ear and write what sounds and feels best for each sentence.
Use the second person
Using the pronouns ‘you’ and ‘your’ throughout your blog content will help you create a stronger connection with your audience.
And to create the connection you need, you must make your writing personal.
Writing in the second person will make your reader feel like you’re speaking directly to them. And will help your content seem focused on their needs and not on your own.
Unfortunately, your reader doesn’t give two hoots about you or your business (I know, how rude!); they only care about how you can help them.
So avoid too much content in the first person — ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘we’, ‘our’, etc. — as this will bore the socks off your reader, make you seem like a selfish business and see them searching for content elsewhere.
Writing a blog post? Remember:
• Use contractions
• Shorten your sentences
• Shorten your paragraphs
• Use simple language
• Be clear & concise
• Use ‘you’ & ‘your’
• Use the active voice
• Remove fluffy words
• Avoid jargon
Consider these points when writing your business blog, and your reader is much more likely to stick with you. And if you keep writing useful content in the form of engaging blog articles, there’s a strong chance they’ll become a customer when they need your products or services.
I hope you’ve found this blog useful and if you have any comments, please feel free to pop them in the box below.
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If you know how brilliant blogging is for business, how it can help you soar up Google’s search engine results pages and how it will help you connect with your customers, but you simply don’t have the time to write, let us take care of your blog content writing for you.
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