Get in Formation: the format for writing an excellent post

As email marketers, you probably already know how important it is for you to have excellent content to offer your website visitors and subscribers.

An American study has found that marketers who gave their blogs high priority achieved a 13-times-higher ROI (Return on Investment) (Stateofinbound).

The best way to distribute the content you write in the blog is, of course, in the newsletter you send out, which most of the time will be a sort of introduction to the article that appears in your blog.  The content you refer him to via links in the newsletter has to be of high quality so your recipients will love your emails and, of course, your brand.

How do you write a great post for the blog?

writing

In the following post, we’ll give you the winning format for writing a great post for your blog.  Once you have the right format, the rest is up to you.  Of course, you can play around a little with the format, but these are the main points you should stick to for creating your next excellent post that will bring you traffic and rake in leads for you.

Main Header

The header is the most important part of your post.  That’s what will make your recipients open the post and read it.  In spite of the fact that the header is the first thing you read, it’s the last thing you write.  Of course, if before writing the post you came up with a brilliant header, by all means write it down right away so you won’t forget it, but when you finish writing your post check again to make sure that the header is appropriate and right.  Think up a few possible ideas for headers and if you have someone to consult, consult them; a header that may seem foolish to you could sound wonderful to your team members and in the worst case, the opposite will be true.

Don’t hesitate to invest time in writing the header; there are those who claim that you should invest more time in thinking up the header than you do in writing the post. We’re not sure about that, but there’s no doubt that you should devote a good amount of time to that, too.  The header has to be intriguing and to relate in a few words what the post is about.  In your emails, you can also do AB testing or even use a number of headers for the same newsletter, but in a post find the balance between a header that reveals too much and a header that conceals too much.

One last tip about the header is to think up an idea for the header in unlikely places. I came up with the idea for the best header I’ve written so far in the shower.  According to research, the most creative ideas are thought up in the shower, because your brain is empty and you’re not under pressure.  Usually, when you’re trying really, really, really hard you just don’t succeed – that’s how it is with Murphy’s law, so if you don’t have an idea for a terrific header, simply move on and go back to it later.

There are all kinds of formulas for writing a great header; headers with numbers generally work well and it’s a good idea to use descriptions with ‘strong’ words.  In addition, there are all kinds of tools that can help you think of a header, like Portent’s content idea generator.

Opening paragraph

The opening paragraph also has to be attractive and intriguing, but also descriptive and to the point.  In the opening paragraph, you can tell a personal story or an anecdote, give a point of information or an interesting fact, and then explain what the post will be about.  The paragraph doesn’t need to be long; a short on-the-mark opening paragraph can be excellent, since it’s only the opening.  You can also think of some theme or a story that will begin in the opening paragraph and that you’ll continue to refer to throughout the article.

Image

After the opening paragraph, it’s a good idea to put in a nice image, which could be a humorous image or a GIF, that’s directly related to the subject of the post or the opening paragraph.  If you’re distributing your post through the social media as well, you should use an image that will also suit you later for those purposes.

Be careful about copyrights and look for a suitable image in the image banks.  There are all kinds of free image banks, like ABSFreePic, pixabay, and others, and image banks that you can use for a fee like shutterstock, bigstockphoto, 123trf, and more.

The body of the text

We’ve come to the main part, the content of your post.  Whether your content is good or not depends mostly on the subject and the level of knowledge and depth you invest in it.

The length of the text generally runs from 500 to 1500 words, but there are long discussions and arguments on the net about the optimal length of a post.  There are those who claim the longer the better, and they like writing carefully worded posts of up to 3000 words.  In contrast, there are those who like to write posts in small, on-the-mark portions and that way, for instance, they can write a whole series of a number of posts on the same subject, with each post running between 400-700 words.

The subject of the post is of course tied to the field you write about, however the most popular subjects for posts, the subjects that work the best, are, among others: mistakes in the field, various types of lists, How-to guides, and in general, tips, tricks, and advice.

What’s important is for you to write about a topic you have something to say about, that can benefit your target audience and your customers, and that’s within your field of interest and expertise.  Write text you’d be interested in reading, the kind you would enjoy.  Edit the text, go over it at least once or twice, and proofread carefully – even the smallest mistakes can tarnish your professionalism in the eyes of the readers.

Subheads

Use the subheads to highlight the subjects you’re dealing with in the article and to divide the text into sections.  The subheads make reading your article easier both visually and textually and they make your article accessible to people with disabilities. In addition, they allow you to highlight certain topics, so if a certain reader is only interested in reading about one subtopic you’ve written about and he doesn’t have the patience to read the entire article, he can find that topic easily.

Additional visual aids

If your article touches on subjects you can demonstrate, it’s a good idea to add an image or two or even more between paragraphs. Besides images, you can also add suitable infographics, GIFs, or videos that can spice up the text and upgrade your post.

Call to Action and sign-up buttons

Finished the post? Invite your readers to read additional posts that you’ve written or to sign up for your newsletter/service.  Whether it’s a short button or a whole line, write a call to action and sign-up that’s inviting and clear, and explains to the readers what they’re going to receive.

If you like, there are also tools and plug-ins of additional reading that will allow you to put a banner on your post’s page with offers of additional articles for your readers.

In addition, don’t forget to add the possibility of sharing your content in the social media.  Choose the social media that are the most relevant for sharing your content and put in prominent and easy-to-use buttons so your readers can share it easily.

One last tip before we wind it up, about links and keywords

Decide ahead of time on the keywords you’re going to use in the article that are directly related to the subject, and integrate them organically into your text and in the subheads, so that someone who’s looking for good articles on the topic you’ve written about, will find your article.  Add links to other articles you’ve written and to other content you have to offer your readers.

Now the article is ready and you have a structured format for writing an excellent post!

Be patient.  Creating traffic to your website or your service through good content doesn’t happen overnight.  Good content brings in leads and traffic, but it won’t happen with one great post or two.  Be consistent in writing your content and after a while, you’ll see how you blossom and grow.

Download our beautiful infographic to make sure all your posts are excellent:

infographic blog post

 

You’re invited to get tips for newsletter subject line here

Read more tips in our blog