How to Make Your Blog Posts More Engaging
High levels of engagement are the cardinal sign of a successful blog. If readers are, well, reading your blog, chances are they’ll share your latest post with friends, make comments and maybe even buy something! This interaction is one of the best things that can happen to your blog and to your business.
The way to create and raise engagement is to publish great content – any business or marketer who puts a lot of time and effort into a blog will see a much greater ROI than someone who’s less gung-ho about it.
When faced with the tyranny of the empty page, however, even the bloggiest of bloggers can feel lost and daunted. So, here are six tips to help you craft engaging posts that will get out there and work for you.
Target a niche audience
No matter how witty and informative your latest post is, if it’s about baby slings and you’ve published it on a site frequented by recent retirees, it’s not going to fly. Work out who’s going to read about baby slings and aim your content at this audience.
You present an action plan
Your content should give customers ideas, or a plan of action; things that they can do themselves, be it ways to wear a baby sling or a mention of the fact that your sling-selling business has a 25% discount offer. After your readers have read the post, they should want to get up and do something about it.
Make sure there’s a video or two
Blog posts with videos get three times more links than text-only ones. You don’t have to make your own vids if you don’t want to; you can find lots of video content from other (non-competitor) sources that’ll help your cause.
If you can make and edit your own vids, however, it’ll set you up as an expert, especially if you offer walkthroughs.
Have a comment section and use it
Don’t neglect or disable your comments section just because you’re worried about negative comments, especially if you’re a business. Responding to bad reviews is one of the best ways to build trust and if you’re known for fast responses, people will keep coming back.
Use the best photos you can
There’s no doubt that visuals make for more engagement and the better their quality the better the engagement. Readers remember more about your content if there’s a photo, too.
Try to avoid stock images – use your own or invest in photos from a decent professional. In some ways, your slightly imperfect photos will perform better than an impersonal stock image.
Learn how to write headlines and sub-headings
It’s an awkward art, but once you’ve got it, you’ll be away! Your traffic will depend heavily on your headline, so experiment and make it as catchy as possible. Then work on your first paragraph – if you can reel the readers in, you’ve got it made.
