What is content writing?

Content writing is the process of writing, editing, and publishing content in a digital format.

That content can include blog posts, video or podcast scripts, ebooks or whitepapers, press releases, product
category descriptions, landing page or social media copy ... and more.

Simply put, content writers are the storytellers for their brand. They convey meaningful, helpful, and insightful
messages to inspire and move an audience to take action — that action being a final sale.

Nowadays, content creation is a critical component of most businesses marketing strategies — in fact, as of
2020, 70% of marketers now actively invest in content marketing.

This means the role of content writer is more in-demand than ever before. However, the role varies depending on
both industry and business needs.

For instance, some businesses might invest heavily in a social media strategy, while other companies prefer creating
content in the format of blog posts or e-books.

Regardless of format, a content writer is critical for creating high-quality content that represents and strengthens a
brand's voice, while attracting, engaging, and delighting the right audience.

When done right, content writing has the power to convert readers into prospects, and prospects into paying
customers. So it's undeniably important for your business' bottom-line that you're able to consistently create helpful,
engaging content.

But that's easier said than done. To help take your content to the next level, let's dive into some of my favorite
content writing tips (these have personally helped me, as well).

12 Content Writing Tips

1. Write unique and original content, and go above-and-beyond what you find online.
Whenever I start a new blog post, like this one, I start with plenty of online research — but that's not where it ends.

After Googling relevant topics, including "content writing tips", I begin creating an outline using some of the
information I find online.

However, your piece will never rank if you just copy-and-paste the same information that already exists online —
and, even if it does, when your readers catch on (and they will), they'll lose trust in your brand as an authority within
the industry.

Once I finish my rough outline (which will include about 60% of the information I found through online research), I
fill in the remaining 40% with unique, original insights. If I know about a topic personally (as is the case with
"content writing", since I'm a content writer myself), I'll fill in the outline with original anecdotes, tips, or personal
examples.

However, if I don't know much about the topic at-hand, that doesn't mean I simply use what's already online.
Instead, I'll reach out to internal HubSpotters who are experts on the topic or use other original internal-company
resources, or I'll conduct external outreach via my social networks to find a reputable source willing to provide tips,
quotes, or original examples to beef up my piece.
Additionally, I'll look for content regarding the topic across a wide range of sources — including YouTube,
LinkedIn, Reddit, Quora, as well as podcasts — to ensure when readers' come across my content, it's both
comprehensive and unique.

If they can find the same information elsewhere on Google, why should they stay on your page? As a good content
writer, it's your job to take your content to the next level, always.

2. Write a good hook to grab your reader's attention.

Sometimes, it's easy to write a good hook — particularly if the topic is intriguing or exciting to you, as the writer.

But what about more boring, mundane topics, like Rel=nofollow?

In certain cases, writing a good hook requires pulling back and looking at the bigger picture. For instance, while
rel=nofollow isn't the most fascinating topic (in my opinion), what is interesting to me is SEO, and how SEO can
directly impact a company's ability to reach new audiences — plus, how Google has needed to change regulations in
recent years due to an increase in illegitimate sites.
Which means, when I started writing 3 Reasons Why SEO's Are Upset About Google's Rel=nofollow
Announcement, I used that angle to inspire my hook, and painted a picture: Myself as a Wikipedia editor, writing
about zebras, and getting paid $500 to link to a fake news website.

My Creative Writing background helps in this case, and I'm willing to bet your own passion for writing will help
you create exciting hooks, as well.

Oftentimes, the introduction and hook is your best opportunity to use your writing skills to truly inspire, move,
surprise, and delight your readers from the get-go. Take advantage of that space by thinking: What would make me
and my friends want to keep reading?

3. SEO-optimize your content for search engines.

Your writing can be absolutely stunning, but if it's not SEO-optimized, no one will ever read it.

As a content writer, it's critical you become familiar with SEO when it comes to writing.

Being an SEO-savvy writer can help you ensure your content ranks on whichever platforms you're publishing,
including YouTube, Google, or even social sites like Instagram.

Plus, you can use SEO to ensure you're writing about the most popular topics related to your products or services,
and covering the right sub-topics when you're writing about a given topic.

For instance, "content writing tips" is a keyword phrase I found when conducting keyword research on the topic of
"content writing" as a whole — it's not necessarily a sub-topic I would've considered covering in this blog post had I
not done the research to recognize HubSpot readers are seeking out that information.

Ultimately, learning key SEO tactics will help you become a writer whose more attuned with your readers'
challenges, and ensure you create content that more accurately answers those challenges.

4. Consider how you can attract an audience across a wide variety of platforms.

While SEO is critical for ensuring your content ranks on search engines like Google, it's not the only opportunity for
distribution.

To reach a wider audience, it's helpful to learn how to write content that performs well on various platforms such as
Instagram, LinkedIn, or email.
Plus, you might be a content writer whose sole job is to write newsletter content or social media copy, depending on
your business' needs.

To ensure your content reaches and inspires audiences regardless of the platform they prefer, it's vital you
consistently consume content via email and social to pick up writing tips specific for those sources.

5. Incorporate multimedia components to break up the text.

Whenever possible, try to incorporate videos, images, graphs, or other multimedia content to break up the text and
make it easier for your readers' to consume — particularly if it's long-form content, like pillar pages or whitepapers.

Consider, for instance, the blog post I wrote: "How to Develop a Content Strategy: A Start-to-Finish Guide".
That blog post is long, with over 3,000 words. To break it up, I embedded videos and other multimedia elements
(like blockquotes), to keep the reader engaged throughout.

This is also a good opportunity to increase traffic to your company's various marketing materials. For instance, if
you have a new company podcast, try embedding episodes in relevant blog posts to drive listeners to the podcast
while providing additional value for your readers — a win, win.

6. Segue into appropriate and relevant calls-to-action.

As a content writer, your job isn't just to create good content (that's what novelists are for). It's also to ultimately
convert those readers, listeners, or viewers into prospects and customers.
As such, it's vital you learn how to appropriately include relevant CTAs throughout your content, particularly if
those CTAs can help your readers learn more about the topic at-hand.
Consider, for instance, the relevant CTAs embedded in the body text of HubSpot's YouTube video, "How to
Understand Facebook Video Insights (Guide)":

These in-text CTAs direct YouTube viewers to explore other HubSpot offerings, including HubSpot Academy social
media courses. The CTAs aren't jarring or off-putting — instead, the content writer did a good job ensuring the
CTAs were relevant and truly valuable for the viewer.

When you're creating your own content, it's important you ensure you're consistently directing your audience to
various business offerings to convert those viewers into prospects and, ultimately, consumers.

7. Edit, edit, edit.

Whenever I finish a first draft of a blog post, I take a few hours off and then return to it at the end of the day. With a
fresh perspective, I'm able to edit for small grammatical errors or fix structural issues.

Good content writing is impossible without good content editing.

We're all human and will continue to make mistakes in our writing: That's okay, as long as you remember to go back
and edit for those errors, later.

Additionally, small grammatical errors can ultimately make-or-break a readers' trust in your brand as a whole. If
they notice you've forgotten periods or misspelled words, they might make the judgment that your content isn't as
authoritative and clean as other content on the web, and look for future information elsewhere.

8. Jam-pack value into every sentence.

When I worked with an editor a few years ago, she consistently told me: "If your sentence isn't telling the reader
anything new, delete it."
This was a tough pill to swallow. That meant some of my most beautiful, moving sentences needed to be deleted.
But it's a fair point: In content creation, you need to move quickly onto your next point, or you'll lose your reader
entirely.

Most of your readers are busy people with plenty of distractions, including other businesses' social posts, blog
articles, or YouTube videos. Make it easy for them by making your point — and then moving on.
9. Play around with interesting angles.

Good content writers consistently test out new, surprising angles to keep readers engaged and coming back for more.

Consider, for instance, how often "consumer product" has been written about. I'm willing to bet if you've ever
researched the topic, you've already seen a wide variety of angles as different content writers try to make an old
topic feel new again.

But … have you ever seen consumer product compared to water, before?
Articles like "Be Like Water — A Guiding Principle for Consumer Product" do an excellent job at finding new
angles to pull readers' in, even if those readers have seen plenty of consumer product-related content before.

The more unique and surprising your angles are, the more likely you are to capture new audiences.

10. Incorporate original quotes from thought leaders or colleagues to paint a well-rounded
argument.
No matter how good my writing is, my readers still don't necessarily want to hear my advice on protecting your
mental health while working from home.

Which is why I didn't try to tackle the topic myself — instead, I found a psychologist to provide well-researched,
helpful tips to take my piece to the next level.

Even if you're an expert on a topic, consider how you might provide alternative opinions to create a more well-
rounded argument. If you're writing a blog post like, "Video vs. Podcast: Which Is Better For Your Business?", see
if you can get quotes from both podcasters and video producers (or your own internal colleagues who feel passionate
about the subject).

Expert quotes or original insights will impress readers and show them that what they're finding on your website,
they won't find elsewhere on the web. And that's powerful.

11. Tell the reader why what you're writing about matters to them and their daily lives.

Let's say you're creating an ebook: "A Comprehensive Guide to Excel".

Not exactly what excited you most when you majored in English, is it?

Imagine how your readers feel: Sure, they might download your ebook if they need the information to excel (ha, ha)
in their jobs, but they won't necessarily be excited about it.

Consider, however, how critical Excel is for certain functions. Excel can help a company's financial department
analyze year-over-year performance to determine how much budgeting a marketing team will receive in the
upcoming year.

That budget contributes to critical growth, and the business' ability to reach and convert new customers. Without it,
the marketing team won't be able to increase brand awareness as effectively as they'd like — and the business will
suffer, as a result.
 When you recognize that Excel can actually be tied to a person's job security, it suddenly becomes much more
fascinating, doesn't it?

Content writing isn't just about creating pretty sentences. It's also about telling a reader why a topic should matter to
them, and how your content can help them become better in certain areas of their lives — be it work, family, health,
or travel. Now that's purposeful.
12. Ground your advice with examples.

As I've covered these content writing tips, I've tried to include a few relevant examples (i.e. my Rel=nofollow blog
post).

Examples can help ground your advice and drive a message home — and they can also help demonstrate how
readers can apply your advice to their lives.

Particularly when you're writing about loftier, less tangible topics, it's critical you show your readers what you mean,
rather than just telling them.

But what better way to demonstrate the importance of examples than to … Show you some examples? (Great segue,
huh?)

We need to Focus on three type of Content Writing in Digital Marketing:

1. Blog Post
2. Guest Post
3. Social Media Post

What is a blog post?

A blog post is any article, news piece, or guide that's published in the blog section of a website. A blog post
typically covers a specific topic or query, is educational in nature, ranges from 600 to 2,000+ words, and contains
other media types such as images, videos, infographics, and interactive charts.

Blog posts allow you and your business to publish insights, thoughts, and stories on your website about any topic.
They can help you boost brand awareness, credibility, conversions, and revenue. Most importantly, they can help
you drive traffic to your website.

But in order to begin making posts for a blog — you have to learn how to start one, first. Let’s dive in.

How to Start a Blog

1. Understand your audience.

2. Check out your competition.

3. Determine what topics you'll cover.

4. Identify your unique angle.

5. Name your blog.

 1. Understand your audience.

Before you start writing your blog post, make sure you have a clear understanding of your target audience.

Ask questions like: What do they want to know about? What will resonate with them?

This is where the process of creating buyer personas comes in handy. Consider what you know about your buyer
personas and their interests while you're coming up with a topic for your blog post.

For instance, if your readers are millennials looking to start a business, you probably don't need to provide them
with information about getting started on social media — most of them already have that down.

You might, however, want to give them information about how to adjust their social media approach (for example
— from what may be a casual, personal approach to a more business-savvy, networking-focused approach). That
kind of tweak is what helps you publish content about the topics your audience really wants and needs.

Don't have buyer personas in place for your business? Here are a few resources to help you get started:

 Create Buyer Personas for Your Business [Free Template]

 Guide: How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business
 [Free Tool] Make My Persona: Buyer Persona Generator
FEATURED RESOURCE

2. Check out your competition.

What better way to draw inspiration than to look at your well-established competition?

It’s worth taking a look at popular, highly reviewed blogs because their strategy and execution is what got them to
grow in credibility. The purpose of doing this isn’t to copy these elements, but to gain better insight into what
readers appreciate in a quality blog.

There are multiple angles you should look at when doing a competitive analysis:

 Visuals: Look at the blog’s branding, color palette, and theme.

 Copy: Analyze the tone and writing style of the competition to see what readers respond well to.
 Topics: See what subject matter their readers enjoy interacting with.
3. Determine what topics you’ll cover.
Before you write anything, pick a topic you’d like to write about. The topic can be pretty general to start as you find
your desired niche in blogging.

Some ways to choose topics to cover include asking yourself questions like:

 Who do I want to write to?

 How well do I understand this topic?
 Is this topic relevant?
4. Identify your unique angle.

What perspective do you bring that makes you stand out from the crowd? This is key to determining the trajectory of
your blog’s future and there’s many avenues to choose in the process.

 What unique experience makes you a trusted expert or thought leader on the topic?
 What problem will you solve for readers?

 Will you share your opinions on trending debates?

 Teach your readers how to do something?

 Compare or share original research?

It’s up to you to decide the unique angle you’ll take on topics.

5. Name your blog.

This is your opportunity to get creative and make a name that gives readers an idea of what to expect from your
blog. Some tips on how to choose your blog name include:

 Keep your blog name easy to say and spell.

 Link your blog name to your brand message.

 Consider what your target audience is looking for.

If you still need more assistance, try using a blog name generator.

Make sure the name you come up with isn’t already taken as it could lessen your visibility and confuse readers
looking for your content.

Writing Your First Blog Post

You’ve got the technical and practical tidbits down — now it’s time to write your very first blog post. And nope,
this isn’t the space to introduce yourself and your new blog (i.e. ―Welcome to my blog! This is the topic I’ll be
covering. Here are my social media handles. Will you please follow?‖).

Start with ―low-hanging fruit,‖ writing about a highly specific topic that serves a small segment of your target
audience.

That seems unintuitive, right? If more people are searching for a term or a topic, that should mean more readers for
you.

But that’s not true. If you choose a general and highly searched topic that’s been covered by major competitors or
more established brands, it’s unlikely that your post will rank on the first page of search engine results pages
(SERPs). Give your newly born blog a chance by choosing a topic that few bloggers have written about.

1. Choose a topic you’re passionate and knowledgeable about.

Before you write anything, pick a topic for your blog post. The topic can be pretty general to start. For example, if
you're a company that sells a CRM for small-to-enterprise businesses, your post might be about the importance of
using a single software to keep your marketing, sales, and service teams aligned.
Pro tip: You may not want to jump into a "how-to" article for your first blog post.

Why?
Your credibility hasn’t been established yet. Before teaching others how to do something, you’ll first want to show
that you’re a leader in your field and an authoritative source.
 For instance, if you're a plumber writing your first post, you won’t yet write a post titled ―How to Replace the Piping
System in your Bathroom.‖ First, you'd write about modern faucet setups, or tell a particular success story you had
rescuing a faucet before it flooded a customer's house.

Here are four other types of blog posts you could start with:
 List ("Listicle"): 5 ways to fix a leaky faucet
 Curated Collection: 10 faucet and sink brands to consider today
 SlideShare Presentation: 5 types of faucets to replace your old one (with pictures)
 News Piece: New study shows X% of people don't replace their faucet frequently enough
If you're having trouble coming up with topic ideas, a good topic brainstorming session should help. In the post I’ve
linked, my colleague walks you through a helpful process for turning one idea into many. Similar to the "leaky
faucet" examples above, you would "iterate off old topics to come up with unique and compelling new topics."

This can be done by:

 Changing the topic scope

 Adjusting your time frame

 Choosing a new audience

 Taking a positive/negative approach

 Introducing a new format

And if you’re still stuck, let’s take a look at some first blog post idea examples.

First Blog Post Ideas

The Difference Between [Niche Topic] and [Niche Topic], Explained by a [Niche Expert]

 The Difference Between SEM and SEO, Explained by a Marketing Expert

 The Difference Between Sedans and Coupes, Explained by a Car Mechanic

 The Difference Between Baking and Broiling, Explained by a Professional Baker

The 10 Best and Worst [Niche Tools] for [Niche Activity]

 The 10 Best and Worst Writing Software for Fiction Writing

 The 10 Best and Worst CRMs for Nurturing Prospects

 The 10 Best and Worst Family Cars for Cross-Country Roadtrips

8 [Niche Activity] Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)

 8 Non-Fiction Writing Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)

 8 Salmon Broiling Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)

 8 Car Maintenance Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)

 9 Proven Tips for [Niche Activity]

 9 Proven Tips for Checking Plumbing Problems under Your Kitchen Sink

 9 Proven Tips for Writing a Non-Fiction Bestseller

 9 Proven Tips for Doing DIY Car Maintenance

Why We/I Switched from [Niche Tool] to [Niche Tool] (Comparison)

 Why We Switched from Pipedrive to HubSpot (Comparison)

 Why I Switched from Microsoft Word to Scrivener (Comparison)

 Why We Switched from iMacs to Surface Studio (Comparison)

[Niche Tool] vs [Niche Tool]: Which [Tool] is Best for You?

 Zendesk vs Freshcaller: Which Call Software is Best for You?

 Air Fryer vs Convection Oven: Which One is Best for You?

 Mazda Miata vs Toyota Supra: Which Sports Car is Best for You?

The Ultimate Roundup of [Niche Activity] Tips and Tricks

 The Ultimate Roundup of Novel Writing Tips and Tricks

 The Ultimate Roundup of Macaroon Baking Tips and Tricks

 The Ultimate Roundup of Solo Traveling Tips and Tricks

Want some real examples of blog posts? See what your first blog post can look like based on the topic you choose
and the audience you're targeting.

2. Target a low-volume keyword to optimize around.

Finding a keyword with low searches in Google (we recommend sticking to about 10 to 150 monthly searches).
These topics offer less competition and should therefore allow your new blog post to rank more easily.

To choose a topic, you can either do a traditional brainstorming session or carry out keyword research. We suggest
the latter because you can actually see how many people are looking for that topic.

Now, don’t be intimidated by the term ―keyword research.‖ It’s not just for marketers, but for new bloggers, too.
And it’s really easy to do.

To jumpstart your keyword research, first begin by identifying the general topic of your blog.

Say you’re a plumber. Your general, high-level topic might be ―plumbing‖ (67K monthly searches).
 Next, put this term into a keyword research tool such as:

 Ahrefs
 Moz
 Ubersuggest
 Wordtracker

When you run this term through the tool, a list of related keywords will appear. Scan the list and choose one with a
lower search volume. For this example, we’ll use ―under sink plumbing‖ (1.4K monthly searches).

Run that keyword in the keyword research tool again. Look at the related keywords. Find one with a lower search
volume. Do that again.

For this example, we’ll settle on ―plumbing problems under kitchen sink‖ (10 monthly searches). That’s the topic for
our first post.

TLDR; Choose a low-volume, low-competition keyword that will ensure your first post ranks.

For more help on keyword research, here are more resources you can use:

 How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: A Beginner's Guide

 How to Perform Keyword Research and Rank
 Top Tools For Finding Long-Tail Keywords
3. Google the term to understand your audience’s search intent.

You’ve got your topic — now, you need to check that the user’s search intent would be fulfilled by a blog post.

What does that mean?

If someone is looking for ―plumbing problems under a kitchen sink,‖ they might be looking for a tutorial, a diagram,
an article, or a product that can fix the issue. If they’re looking for the first three, you’re good — that can be covered
in a blog post. A product, however, is different, and your blog post won’t rank.

How do you double-check search intent?

Google the term and look at the results. If other articles and blog posts rank for that term, you’re good to go. If you
only find product pages or listicles from major publications, then find a new topic to cover in your first post.

Consider the term ―under sink plumbing bathroom‖ (30 monthly searches). It seemed like a perfect fit because it had
low monthly searches.

Upon Googling the term, we found product carousels, product pages from Home Depot and Lowes, and guides
written by major publications. (You’ll also want to avoid topics that have been covered by major publications, at
least for now.)

TLDR; Before writing your first blog post about a low-volume topic, double-check the user intent by Googling the
keyword. Also, don’t forget to take a look at who’s written about that topic so far. If you see a major brand, consider
writing about another topic.
4. Find questions and terms related to that topic.

You’ve got a highly unique topic that’s been covered by just a few people so far. It’s time to flesh it out by covering
related or adjacent topics.
 Use the following tools:

 Answer the Public: When you place your keyword into this tool, it will give you a list of questions related to that
term.
 Google: Google is your best friend. Search for the term and look under ―People also ask‖ and ―People also search
for.‖ Be sure to touch upon those topics in the post.

You can also use these keyword research tools we mentioned above in step one.

5. Come up with a working title.

You might come up with a few different working titles — in other words, iterations of approaching that topic to help
you focus your writing.

For example, you may decide to narrow your topic to "Tools for Fixing Leaky Faucets" or "Common Causes of
Leaky Faucets." A working title is specific and will guide your post so you can start writing.

Let's take a real post as an example: "How to Choose a Solid Topic for Your Next Blog Post."

Appropriate, right? The topic, in this case, was probably "blogging." Then the working title may have been
something like, "The Process for Selecting a Blog Post Topic." And the final title ended up being "How to Choose a
Solid Topic for Your Next Blog Post."

See that evolution from topic, to working title, to final title? Even though the working title may not end up being the
final title (more on that in a moment), it still provides enough information so you can focus your blog post on
something more specific than a generic, overwhelming topic.

6. Create an outline.

Sometimes, blog posts can have an overwhelming amount of information — for the reader and the writer. The trick
is to organize the info in a way so readers aren't intimidated by length or amount of content. This organization can
take multiple forms — sections, lists, tips — whatever's most appropriate. But it must be organized!

Let's take a look at the post, "How to Use Snapchat: A Detailed Look Into HubSpot’s Snapchat Strategy." There's a
lot of content in the piece, so it's broken up into a few sections using descriptive headers. The major sections are
separated into subsections that go into more detail, making the content easier to read.
To complete this step, all you really need to do is outline your post. This way, before you start writing, you'll know
which points you want to cover and the best order to do so. And to make things even easier, you can download and
use our free blog post templates, which are pre-organized for six of the most common blogs. Just fill in the blanks!
7. Write an intro (and make it captivating).
We've written more specifically about writing captivating introductions in the post "How to Write an Introduction,"
but let's review, shall we?

First, grab the reader's attention. If you lose the reader in the first few paragraphs — or even sentences — of the
introduction, they'll stop reading (even before they've given your post a fair shake). You can do this in a number of
ways: tell a story or a joke, be empathetic, or grip the reader with an interesting fact or statistic.

Then, describe the purpose of your post and explain how it will address a problem the reader may be experiencing.
This will give the reader a reason to continue reading and show them how the post will help them improve their
work or lives.

Here's an example of an intro we think does a good job of attracting a reader's attention right away:
 “Blink. Blink. Blink. It's the dreaded cursor-on-a-blank-screen experience that all writers — amateur or
professional, aspiring or experienced — know and dread. And of all times for it to occur, it seems to plague us the
most when trying to write an introduction.”
8. Build out each section of your outline.

The next step — but not the last — is actually writing the content. We can't forget about that, of course.

Now that you have your outline or template, you're ready to fill in the blanks. Use your outline as a guide and
expand on all points as needed. Write about what you already know, and if necessary, conduct additional research to
gather more information, examples, and data to back up your points, while providing proper attribution when
incorporating external sources. When you do, always try to find accurate and compelling data to use in your post.
If you're having trouble stringing sentences together, you're not alone. Finding your "flow" can be challenging for a
lot of folks. Luckily, there are a ton of tools you can lean on to help you improve your writing. Here are a few to get
you started:
 Power Thesaurus: Stuck on a word? Power Thesaurus is a crowdsourced tool that provides users with a number of
alternative word choices from a community of writers.
 ZenPen: If you're having trouble staying focused, check out this distraction-free writing tool. ZenPen creates a
minimalist "writing zone" designed to help you get words down without having to fuss with formatting right away.
 Cliché Finder: Feeling like your writing might be coming off a little cheesy? Identify instances where you can be
more specific using this handy cliché tool.
You can also refer to our complete list of tools for improving your writing skills. And if you're looking for more
direction, the following resources are chock-full of valuable writing advice:
9. Publish and promote your first post any way you can.
As a new blogger, you likely don’t have a social media following yet. Thankfully, you don’t need a huge following
before you can create a promotion strategy.

A promotion strategy is your master plan for how you create, post, and engage with your social media content. It
helps you take advantage of social and digital technologies to share your business, or in this case, your content.
Having a solid promotional strategy offers your audience from different marketing channels more ways to find your
blog posts.

Here are more blog post promotion resources:

 12 Tried-and-True Ways to Promote Your Blog Posts

 10 Sites You Can Use for Free Blog Promotion
 9 Link Building Email Outreach Templates That Actually Work
 Inbound Link Building 101: 34 Ways to Build Backlinks for SEO
 11 Creative (But 100% White Hat!) Ways to Earn Backlinks

Blog Format Guidelines

1. Include H2s to arrange ideas.

2. Center your Images.

3. Add alt text.

4. Keep your sentences clear and concise.

5. Use media with purpose.

1. Include H2s to arrange ideas.

When you begin typing your blog content, it’s important that you divide paragraphs into sections that make it easier
for the reader to find what they need.

If you’re just starting out, then focus on the overarching H2s you want to talk about, and you’ll be able to branch off
into subheaders and more naturally as you continue.

2. Center your images.

This is a simple practice that can help your content look more professional with little effort. Centering your images
keeps the reader’s attention drawn to the subject — not searching for elsewhere.

Centering also looks better when translating from PC to mobile devices. As formatting transitions to small screens
or windows, a centered image will remain the focal point.

3. Add alt text.

So those images you centered earlier, make sure you have descriptive alt text for them, too.

Image alt text allows search engines, like Google, to crawl and rank your blog post better than pages lacking the
element. It also leads readers to your blog post if the keywords included are what they searched for in the first place.

Besides SERP features, image alt text is beneficial to readers by providing more accessibility. Image alt text allows
people to better visualize images when they can’t see them, and with assistive technology, can be auditorially read
aloud for people to enjoy.

4. Keep your sentences short and concise.

When you begin working on the body of your blog post, make sure readers can clearly understand what you’re
trying to accomplish.

You shouldn’t feel pressure to elongate your post with unnecessary details, and chances are that if you keep it
concise, readers will derive more value from your work.

5. Use media with a purpose.

Break up the monotony of your blog post with some multimedia content where seen fit.

Your reader will enjoy visiting a blog page with images, videos, polls, audio or slideshows as opposed to a page of
black and white text.

It also makes it more interactive and improves your on-page search engine optimization (SEO).

Now, do you want some real examples of blog posts? See what your first blog post can look like based on the topic
you choose and the audience you're targeting.

What is Guest Blogging?

Guest blogging, also called ―guest posting,‖ is the act of writing content for another company’s website. Generally,
guest bloggers write for similar blogs within their industry in order to:
  Attract traffic back to their website
 Boost their domain authority using external links to high-authority domains
 Increase their brand credibility and awareness, and
 Build relationships with peers in their industry.

Almost always, guest blogging offers mutual benefits for both the guest blogger and the website hosting the guest
content. In other words, guest blogging is a two-way street — so when you decide to hop on the guest blogging
bandwagon, you should consider featuring posts by guest bloggers on your own website, too.

Why Is Guest Blogging Important For Your Business?

Guest blogging offers a number of benefits for any business. By sharing your expertise on other companies’
websites, you can establish yourself as an authority figure within your market, build relationships with other thought
leaders in your field and expose your brand to an entirely new audience.

Additionally, featuring guest posts on your own blog will help you deliver new perspectives and fresh content to
your audience. We’re all guilty of falling victim to a routine and growing tired of the same old stuff, so featuring
guest posts is a great way to keep readers engaged — not to mention the promotional boost that occurs when your
guest bloggers share their blogs with their personal networks.

Some blogs, like OpenView, source the majority of their content from other leaders in their industry. Even if you
don’t have the resources to stick to a robust blogging cadence, guest bloggers can help you offer new content to
your readers without much additional time and effort needed by your team.

How Do I Get Started With Guest Blogging?

Before you get started with guest blogging, make sure you’re clear about what you’re looking to get out of the guest
blogging experience. Look for industry blogs by non-competitor companies where you can deliver real insight to
readers.

Guest blogging for your partners is a great place to start. At New Breed, we write guest blogs primarily for
our partners as part of our co-marketing strategy. We also tend to use guest blogging as a way to develop
relationships with companies we hope to partner with in the future.

Regardless, research is essential for successful guest blogging.

It’s no secret that there is a lot of spam surfacing the web. It’s your job to make sure you’re not posting to these
types of blogs — or publishing any spammy content on your own blog.

Focus on finding writers within your niche, within your market, and from a respected business or background. You
should also agree with what they’re saying in their post and ensure that the message aligns with your personas’
interests. If the content doesn’t align with your business, personas, or brand voice, guest blogging can have a swift
and negative impact on your company.

Here are a few things to look for before offering to guest blog or vice-versa:

 Does this blog or blogger have a slew of followers who are actively posting comments, sharing blogs with
their networks, and otherwise engaging with content?
 Do they have a Facebook or Twitter account where they share their own blog posts regularly?
 Do they have high domain authority that would amplify my own SEO ranking?
 Is their industry and expertise complementary to my own?
Pro tip: When searching for blogs to publish on, search for a relevant industry keyword + ―guest post,‖ ―write for
us‖ or something similar. For example, if you wanted to write about inbound marketing, you could Google:

 Inbound marketing guest post

 Inbound marketing guest post guidelines
 Inbound marketing seeking guest posts
 Inbound marketing write for us
 Inbound marketing guest post submissions

… and so on. This will help you find relevant industry blogs that are interested in the topic you’re writing about and
currently accepting submissions from guest bloggers.

How Does Guest Blogging Impact SEO?

The short answer is: As long as you’re careful and considerate about creating high-value guest blogs for legitimate
websites, guest blogging can be a great tool for building your domain authority and moving up in SEO rankings.

It’s understandable, though, why many have questioned whether or not guest blogging will hurt their business. With
the risk of ―spam bloggers‖ who try to bribe blog owners into letting them post low-quality content for their own
link-building and SEO benefit, many marketers have decided to opt against it entirely.

Ultimately, developing an SEO-boosting guest blogging strategy comes down to providing genuine, helpful
and relevant content to educate readers — not low-quality content used as a mere container for links to your
website.

So as long as your content is of high quality, guest blogging is a great way to increase your site rankings. The way
Google sees it, if other people are linking back to your blog on their own websites, then the content on your blog
must be relevant and interesting. When individuals comment, share, like, or link to your blog, it moves up in
Google’s PageRank — that means, it’s much more likely to pop up first when someone googles a similar topic.

But Google PageRank is only an algorithm, so it can’t tell the difference between dynamic content and
spam! So while cramming your guest blog posts with links and keywords will push you farther up in the ranking, it
probably won’t generate any new, high-fit traffic, and it definitely won’t establish you as an authority in your field.

What Does High-Quality Guest Blogging Look Like?

The key to writing a high-quality guest blog is to think of it as a value-add for your audience — not as an
advertisement!

As with any type of inbound content, your guest blogs should be intended to educate your reader, not promote your
own product or service. If the topic is relevant to your product or service, then of course there’s no harm in featuring
it in your blog. But there’s a big difference between selling yourself and offering helpful, actionable information to
your readers.

Instead, write guest blogs with the purpose of establishing yourself as an authority figure in your field, introducing
your name to a new audience and building genuine relationships with other bloggers or businesses.

Here are a few other quick tips to help you enhance your guest blogging strategy:
 1. Write a clear, concise author bio. Although some companies allow you to include links back to your
website within the main body of your blog, many prohibit it or change the links over time. Your bio, then,
is likely the only place in your guest post that will include a permanent link back to your website.
2. Try to include at least one relevant internal link back to one of the company’s previous blog posts within
your guest post. They’ll appreciate the research you’ve done and this small act helps increase their own
authority and traffic.
3. Conclude each post with a call-to-action that asks readers to leave comments. Remember, the more people
comment on and share your blog, the more popular your post will become in an SEO search.
4. Promote your guest blog post on your own social media networks. This is a nice gesture that will also
generate more traffic back to your guest blogger and their business. By now, it should be second nature for
you to share your content — and it’s a good way to say ―thank you‖ for publishing your guest post. The
team behind the classic gaming site Solitaired takes their guest post promotion to one more level. When
they post high-quality solitaire or game-related content on other sites, they also actively market and drive
links to those articles. It’s great for their publishing partner, and it improves the strength of their backlinks.
5. Use Google Analytics to track how much traffic your guest post is generating. This will give you a broader
idea of what readers want to hear about and see what is working for your business.

Following these tips will help you avoid writing or accepting spammy content and, in turn, reap the true benefits of
guest blogging. To increase your SEO rankings, boost the credibility of your brand and reach new audiences in your
industry, follow our recommended steps and only associate your business blog and posts with well-respected
marketers.

What is Social Media Post

Many social media marketers manage and share social media posts across multiple social platforms. However, social
media marketing is NO ―one size fits all‖.There are 3.7 billion people worldwide who are actively using social
media. They are using it for personal relationships and entertainment, for work and research, and business
communication. For corporate communications strategy, social media has grown from a ―nice to have‖ to a ―must-
have‖ discipline.But, the world of social media is fast and highly diversified. Social platforms and technologies are
developing at breakneck speed. New social networks arise while other loose members and significance. You don’t
need to jump on every bandwagon to reach out to your targets. However, it is wise not to capitalize on just one
social platform for promoting your brand.

For corporate communication, social media marketing has grown from a ―nice-to-have‖ to a ―must-have‖ discipline,
and social media skills are no longer considered as a ―niche competence‖.With the growing number of marketing
channels, cross-media marketing has become another task for most social media workers. However, each social
network has particular features and a specific community. Things that work fine on Twitter might be ignored on
Facebook, and vice versa. Business contacts in LinkedIn might need to be addressed in a different way to Twitter or
Instagram followers. So, blowing out the same content in the same way across multiple social channels, might not be
a good idea.Don’t get me wrong. If you have something to share that concerns and benefits all your social
communities, you can cross-post your content on all networks and across all your communities.

7 Tips and Tools to Create Perfect Social Media Posts

1. Tailor your social media posts for each network
Each social network offers different options for presenting your content. Social platforms not only differ in the
number of characters, image formats and sizes they provide for your posts. Also, communities engage differently
with content and post formats. The better you know your audience and know the way they are engaging on each
social platform, the better you can address them.Tailor the message for your posts to fit each social media platform
and audience:

 Adapt your comment to the number of characters allowed on each platform. Take a look at the number of
characters displayed in the preview to make your meaning come through.
  Make sure your images correspond to the images sizes the networks provide. Consider adapting your
images to create specific images for Pinterest and Instagram to make sure your message will be presented
in the best way to fit these platforms.
 Share your posts to your social media profiles and pages with different comments for your message that
will hit the language use of the respective community and focusses on their topics and interests.
 Share your posts on different days and at different times of the days. Networks and communities have
specific rush hours for traffic and engagement.
 You can also share your post in relevant groups and communities on Facebook and LinkedIn but share
them on different days and times and use different messages tailored to each group and audience. Make
sure to follow the community rules of each group and only share content that will benefit the audience of
the respective group.

2. Content is still king

Don’t post everything everywhere. Only share quality content that will benefit the audience of the respective social
platform. Capitalize on content that converts best for each of your communities:

 Share content that hits the interests of your target audience.

 Create and share tips to make your customers’ lives easier.
 Share content that will make your readers remember you as a useful resource for valuable information on
your topic.
 Provide tips, strategies, how-to articles or entertaining content for your specific audience and topic.

Tools to help you to find top-performing content for your social media posts:
 The WordPress plugin Easy Blog Ideas and the content marketing tool Buzzsumo help you to identify top-
performing content on social media.

3. Create multiple visuals for your content

Visual content is more likely to get shares, likes, and comments than pure text messages. Content with relevant
images gets 94 % more views than content without relevant images. Visuals will increase click-through-rates (CTR)
about 47 %. Infographics grow 12 % more traffic, and 200% more shares than posts without images.

Why visuals are important for social media posts

Create multiple visuals for your content, such as photos, images, infographics, gifs, and videos. Capitalize on all
your visuals to share, reshare and repurpose your content. For instance, if you share content that contains more than
one image, share all your images – one at a time – to repurpose your content. This will extend the lifetime of your
content and allows you to reshare your content without repeating yourself.

Tools to help to create visuals for your social media posts:

 Canva helps you to create visuals and infographics super fast and easy. Canva offers a huge variety of
templates, layouts, photos and icons you can use to create professional-looking images.
 Pixabay, Pexels or Unsplash offer a huge collection of stock photos you can even upload to your Canva
designs.
 Movely and iSpring Free Cam enable you to create animated videos and professional-looking screencasts.
 With the Internet Marketing Ninjas Tool you can resize your images for each social network quite easily.

4. Use hashtags in your social media posts

Hashtags have become essential parameters for linking your posts with current discussions (trending hashtags) or
turning your social media posts into searchable content. However, hashtags don’t work equally well on all social
networks. They work well for Twitter and Instagram, but they perform less on LinkedIn and Facebook. Also, the
character and number of hashtags work differently per network.For instance, Tweets using more than two
hashtags see a significant drop in engagement. Whereas on Instagram, the more hashtags you use, the more
engagement you see.
  Use hashtags only on posts relevant to the topic. Using mismatched hashtags just for getting attention,
won’t do you any favors since people easily get annoyed if they don’t find what they are looking for.
 Only use relevant keywords and phrases for typical search words on your topics.
 Don’t #spam #with #hashtags. Over-tagging a single post or adding them to every word will make your
post illegible.

Tools to help you find the right hashtags for your posts and communities
 Check out Hashtagify search for popular hashtags on Twitter and Top-Hashtags for
Instagram. Tagdef helps you to look up the meaning of trending hashtags or add your own.

5. Harness the power of emojis for your social media posts

There are currently 2,666 emojis in the Unicode Standard. In fact, emoji-based marketing messages have increased
by 775% year-over-year. Emojis not only work for private conversation but can also be used for corporate
communication to connect with your audiences. Emojis provide a global storytelling language and the can support
brand building if applied correctly. Emojis in a Facebook post can lead to 57% more likes, 33% more comments,
and 33% more shares.

 Make sure your emojis make sense to complement your message. Don’t jump on the emojis bandwagon
just to have them.
 There are so many emojis around and some of them can be easily misinterpreted. Only use emojis that will
be understood by your followers. Always make sure the meaning is clear.
 Stick with your brand messaging. Don’t blow kisses to your audience for promoting a serious business
service.

Tools to help you harness Emoji power for your social media posts:
 Check out Emojipedia to look up the meaning of specific emojis if you are not sure what they are meant
for. GetEmojis to simply cut and paste the emoji you are looking for.

6. Choose the right post format for your social media posts
Some networks, like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn offer two general post formats: link post format and image
post format.

Social media post formats: image post vs. link post

When you share a standard link post, the preview will display and share your featured image as defined in the meta
tags of your post (Open Graph / Twitter Card parameters).When you share content that consists of multiple visuals,
for instance, a blog post with statistics and infographics, or a tutorial with multiple screenshots, then also try image
post format for your visuals – one at a time – to re-share your post. Use a different comment with each visual and
refer to the content the image conveys. Schedule them at different times and days. This will bring even more
variations to your posts and allows you to reshare your content multiple times without repeating your post.
Sometimes, image posts work much better for engagement than link posts, so try out both formats and analyze your
results.Selecting different post formats will bring your content in front of more eyeballs and extend the lifetime of
your content.

Tools to help you with selecting the best post format for your social media posts:
 Check out Blog2Social for selecting different post formats for sharing, tailoring and scheduling your social
media posts across multiple social media networks and accounts.

7. Share your social media posts at the best times for each social network and community
Whenever you post on social media, only a fraction of your followers will actually see your post. Your reach also
depends on the level of activity in your community at the time you publish your post. Make sure to hit the rush hours
of each network and the best time to post for maximum visibility on social media.While Twitter is busy throughout
the day, other networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are especially crowded during the afternoon and
in the evening. LinkedIn is most frequented during the morning hours when most people are on their way to work
and in the afternoon right before they leave the office. So, before you set up your social media posting schedule, take
a look at the best times for each network.

Social Media Posts FAQs

What should a social media post include?
Here are the important items a social media post should include:

1. Headline
1. Sub-headline
3. Relevant images
4. Brand’s social media accounts
5. Hashtags
6. Engaging caption

What are the different types of social media posts?

The different types of social media posts are:

1. Blog articles
2. Infographics
3. Videos
4. Reviews
5. Giveaways

What is the purpose of social media posts?

The main purpose of social media posts is to increase brand awareness and visibility. The more people know about
your social media presence, the more people you can potentially turn into customers. Social media posts also help in
building relationships with your audience when they engage with your posts.

What are the types of posts?

The types of posts you can use for your social media are:

1. Infographics
2. Videos
3. Product Posts
4. Polls
5. Quotes
6. Blog Posts