Do you want to learn how to create blog posts that resonate with your customers? If so, you’re in the right place!
Blogging is one of the best ways to improve brand awareness, build customer loyalty, and win over new visitors. If you manage to impress people with well-written, entertaining, and valuable content, there’s a good chance visitors will continue engaging with your business and, eventually, become happy customers.
My goal today is to help you see these benefits by sharing some actionable strategies you can use to create eye-catching, helpful blog posts for your audience.
Let’s look at a few specific blogging benefits you ought to know:
- About 50% of people read 3-5 blog posts before buying from a new company.
- On average, blogging businesses generate 67% more leads and 11% more conversions.
- 60%f of marketers say their blog is crucial for building trust with first-time visitors and existing customers.
Now that you can see the advantages of maintaining a high-quality blog let’s dive in and talk about the first tip on my list.
Know Your Target Audience
Creating content that resonates with your target audience is much more than a guessing game. It’s a strategic approach built on understanding the goals, needs, and pain points of the people you’re trying to reach.
You don’t want to waste time, money, and resources on content that fails to spark engagement because it doesn’t matter to your readers, right?
That’s why it’s so important to get to know your readers. You’ll have a much easier time creating genuine connections and building rapport if your blog posts are relevant to the people landing on your site.
The key is to learn everything you can about your audience. You can do this in several ways. Here are some strategies that work well for us:
- Show feedback forms prominently on your website.
- Invite social media subscribers to participate in polls and surveys.
- Review your on-site analytics.
- Spend time in industry-specific communities so you can see what topics matter most.
I suggest building buyer personas based on what you learn. Buyer personas are essentially fictional profiles made from merging actual data that businesses use to better understand the motivations, interests, and roadblocks their visitors face.
If you know who is most likely to find value in your product, services, and content, you can make impactful changes and cover topics that matter to your readers.
Put Value Before Sales
One mistake I’ve seen business owners make when blogging is they focus too much on selling instead of providing their readers with value.
There’s no question a time and place to use your blog to promote products or services on your site. However, if every single article reads like a sales page instead of a helpful, approachable resource, most people will get overwhelmed and leave before they finish a single post.
This makes sense when you consider that between 40 and 70% of all leads are not ready to make a purchase. Instead, these people are usually interested in general knowledge, tips, and finding a community. They want to find a professional brand they can trust before they even think about pulling out their debit card.
My advice is to focus on solving problems, educating visitors, and providing resources that they can use after they leave your website. This content provides immediate value, which means there’s a pretty good chance they’ll become regular visitors.
The bottom line is publishing value-centric content will help you organically nurture leads, build credibility, and boost long-term engagement.
Tell Relatable Stories
Sharing stories from your own or your customers’ experiences is a great way to build rapport with readers. People connect with stories, so think about specific challenges or pain points your audiences face and use this as a springboard for your blog post.
Relatable stories allow you to connect with readers on a personal level since it should be something they are currently experiencing or anticipate experiencing in the future. A good story will stick in people’s minds and help them remember your brand when they have a question or need a solution in the future.
For the most impact, be sure to highlight obstacles, emotions, and other key details. This will help bring your story to life. By the end, readers should understand the problem, the challenges it posed, and how you (or a previous customer) were able to resolve it.
Take Advantage of Video Content
I can’t discuss creating engaging blog posts without mentioning video content. In the old days, blogs consisted of a wall of text with a few images. Now, more and more businesses are adding video content to this part of their website.
When you look at the statistics, it’s not hard to see why this is the case. We found that blog posts with videos are 53 times more likely to make it to one of the elusive top ten spots on Google. But that’s not all. We also learned that, on average, blog posts with videos get 83% more traffic than those without.
Shocking, right?
The neat part is creating video content for your blog is easier than you think. If you don’t want to come up with something from scratch, my advice is to start repurposing existing blog posts.
Start by checking your analytics account and identifying top-performing posts. Then, create videos that essentially go over the same content in the blog post but in video format. Finally, embed it at the top of the post so people can engage with your content however they want.
Not only will this make your article more interactive, which is crucial since 91% of people want to see more interactive content, but it will also make it easier for people to engage with your site.
For instance, people can choose to listen to your blog posts via video when they’re driving home from work.
I know creating video content seems daunting, so take it one step at a time. I suggest tackling existing posts and then slowly making it a normal part of your content marketing process.
Build a Strong Feedback Loop
My final tip for creating content that resonates with readers is to build a strong feedback loop. The needs, goals, and pain points of your audience will change over time. If you’re not actively listening to your customers and finding ways to meet their needs, you may lose touch, which isn’t good for building rapport or growing your business.
The best thing you can do is ask for feedback at vital engagement points. Here are instances where we go out of our way to ask readers, customers, and our general audience to share their thoughts:
- Send an email questionnaire
- We reach out to our email subscribers twice a year and use this opportunity to ask how they feel about our content, products, and brand as a whole.
- Monitor social media conversations
- Spend time in your comments section, in communities focused on your industry, and follow relevant hashtags. Pay attention to discussions and emerging trends.
- Use success surveys
- After a customer places an order, we send a follow-up email two weeks later where we ask if there’s anything we can do to improve their experience. We specifically ask if there’s anything we should write about on our site that would help them and future customers. We’ve published some of our most popular posts with this strategy.
The bottom line is feedback is an ongoing process. You’ll never know everything there is to know about your target audience. But by keeping your finger on the pulse of the community, you can publish content that matches their ever-evolving needs and interests.
Final Thoughts
There you have it! By implementing these actionable strategies, you can create blog posts that boost engagement, trust, and, ultimately, customer loyalty. Remember, it’s all about understanding your audience and providing genuine value. The tips presented today will help you build a strong foundation that you can use to create effective blog posts for years to come!
