24 Jan Writing a Blog that Captivates your Audience

What makes a good blog that captures the attention of your audience? What is it that your audience wants to hear, and how can you provide them with information that they need? Blog writing is a skill that requires lots of practice, research and planning. With content that constantly engages your target audience, you can gain benefits ranging from better Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) performance, to higher traffic to your business website. As your audience reads your blogs, they might be interested to find out more about your brand and the products and services that your brand offers. 

Hence, blogs need to provide content that is engaging and credible. Here are some must-haves in a blog that will help to generate interest among your readers.

Knowledge about your Audience 

An experienced blogger considers the perspectives of his or her readers. While planning for the blog’s content, it is important to factor in the relatability of the blog’s content to target readers. Researching on the kind of content that your target audience reads can be helpful for you to understand them better. 

For example, if you are a nursery business that sells plants and gardening tools online, your target audience might be interested in knowing more about plants, their unique characteristics, and the best ways to take care of them. Having content that revolves around their interests can help to boost engagement levels. In the blogs that will go on your website, you can provide content ranging from tips and tricks on taking care of plants, to advice on gardening maintenance, to advice on choosing the perfect plant as a housewarming gift to others. 

Writing Techniques to Captivate your Audience  

Once the content of the blog is decided on and a rough content outline has been covered, you can start to plan on the execution of the blog. 

Tone of Voice

From the tone of voice to the way that information is categorised, your blog should adopt a writing style that resonates well with your target audience. What kind of tone should you employ in your writing? A friendly tone allows you to use more 1st person pronouns such as ‘we’, and 2nd person pronouns such as ‘you’. If the focus of your blog is to establish a relationship with your audience, your blog content can be written out in a more casual approach. If you are in an industry that requires you to portray your brand more formally, adopting a serious voice might be more suitable. For example, if your business is in the banking and finance industry, employing a more declarative tone that informs on best practices to save can provide more credibility to your brand.     

Headings and Subheadings 

A good heading or subheading should capture the audience’s attention at first glance. It should be short, concise and straight to the point since it summarises the content that follows. Headings are the first thing that your target audience reads, so it has to be engaging. Studies show that humans have an attention span of 8 seconds, thus it’s important to grab their attention within this time span. A headline needs to be easy to digest. Including numbers is a great way to summarise the number of points that you plan to make in your blog. For example, when providing your audience with tips on exercising, you can sum up your content in one phrase, ’5 Ways to Exercise within Your Capacity’. Remember to include keywords in your title and have them repeated throughout the text bodies, this will help with improved SEO performance. 

To captivate your audience, your headline can also indicate information that dispels myths, addresses misconceptions, or provides a different perspective from what people are normally used to when they perceive a particular topic. This helps to pique interest. Your audience would be intrigued to find out more. 

When it comes to subheadings, make sure that your information is categorised in a way that is easy for your readers to process. Writing long paragraphs covering different points will not help to keep your audience engaged. Remember to break down your information into smaller paragraphs to bring across key points that you would like your audience to take away from your blog post. If it is a step-by-step guide, make sure that your content is also presented in chronological order. 

Links and Call-to-Actions

As you write your blog, find opportunities where you can include internal links in your content. These internal links create easy access to other blog articles that you might have on your business website, or other pages on your website that you might want your readers to explore. Including internal links helps you to drive SEO performance and improve page ranking. 

Besides including links in keywords or key phrases throughout your blog, you can also include them in your call-to-action at the end of the article. It could be directions for viewers to explore the products and services on your page, or a simple line to encourage viewers to sign up and subscribe for exclusive content such as white papers, newsletters, or other supplementary reading material that can add value for your audience. Depending on the purpose of your blog, you can explore different links to include in your content and different call-to-actions for your readers. 

Images

Give your readers’ eyes a break with captivating images that explain the information in your text bodies. You can also use images as an opportunity to publicise your brand with your products and services. For example, if you are a photography studio, including some pictures from your portfolio can help to boost credibility and publicise your photography services. If you are a nursery business sharing tips and tricks on taking care of plants, you can include pictures of some of the plants that are on sale. 

A stellar blog involves detailed planning, market research, and good writing skills. As you roll out your blogs on your business website, remember to schedule your postings so that your readers will know when to expect your next blog release. Keep them anticipative of your next blog’s content by varying the kinds of topics and subjects that will be discussed in each article. It all boils down to whether your blog informs and engages your audience effectively, and whether they will read on to the end of the article. If you are looking for experienced content writers to produce blogs for you, check out Pivot Tree’s content writing services here.