Useful tips for writing a great blog post
Your blog is a valuable marketing tool for your business so it’s important to get your posts right with good structure, quality content and images. Doing so will help to build trust with your customers, build awareness around your business and what you do and hopefully bring traffic to your website and result in more bookings.
You want people to read what you write… the whole point of blogging is to get yourself, your knowledge, or your business out into the world –
It’s your blog and your opinion counts, so offer your views and insights based on your experiences. Maybe review a product or a new service and add humour and other elements of your personality which will stand you apart from others.
- Tell your story – why do you do what you do?
- Share a patient’s experience
- How do you differ from the competition
- Create buzz around a new product or service
- Give your opinion on industry news and developments in your field
Know your audience – who are you writing for?
Plan your blog, choose a topic, do research, check facts, create an outline
Put yourself in the shoes of your reader and think about what they want to know and what questions they might have regarding this particular piece of information you are sharing. If you’ve already got a blog and readers – have a look at their comments and you might discover some things that they are keen to know about or issues they have that need solving.
A simple tool to find out what your audience is interested in is to take a poll on social media – Facebook for example. Thing of a couple of topics and ask your readers what they want to see next… This could be something you do once a month or every other month… and then you will have some ideas on what to write next for your audience.
Have a headline that grabs attention
Your headline has to make the reader want to click and read the post so you need to make sure it’s a good one.
“According to CopyBlogger’s How to Write Magnetic Headlines ebook, only about 20% of readers actually read a post’s full content. That means you only have a few moments to convince your visitors to look at your content”
A good headline will tell the reader how to benefit from the content in your post…
| Benefit to the reader | Headline suggestion |
| Pain relief | Is heal pain affecting your lifestyle? |
| Save money | Why buying in bulk will save you money |
| Preventing diabetes | The importance of podiatry for diabetes |
| Helping your kids | The Ultimate Kids Foot Health Checklist |
| Spinal health | How your Physio can keep you moving |
| Healthy living | How your Physio can keep you moving |
Draft an outline / structure and content for your post
Creating an outline of your post is always a good start. Ask yourself a couple of questions that will help…
- What it is you are hoping to get across in your post? List some dot points.
- How will you order these dot points to make sure the post reads well and impact the reader most?
- Do you have research or evidence to support your argument or discussion?
- What do you want your reader to do when they read your post? Buy something? Book an appointment?
Make sure your post is formatted well
How you format your post is as important and what you write about.
- Put the most relevant information towards the beginning of your post. Your reader’s attention may wane if they are forced to read pages of text before getting to the ‘important content’ in your post.
- One big block of text will turn readers away or have them drifting off and losing interest. To keep the attention of the reader – break up content with subheadings. This can help readers to scan an article and skip to the section or point that interests them most.
- Use bullet points and numbering – Breaking up text with numbered lists and bullet points can make your post even more readable. So don’t write overly long paragraphs – if you can get your point across in list or point form – do so.
- Images can help keep your reader engaged and assist with remembering what they’ve read. You should aim to use a few images throughout your post – they can improve flow, add humour and help to explain things.
- Use keywords that will make your blog easy to find in search engines
- Proofread your work. Read and re-read to make sure your post is perfect.
Conclusion and call to action
In your final paragraphs, summarise what your post is all about. Now think about what you want your reader to do. Did you want them to sign up to your newsletter? Like you on Facebook? Share your post? Did you want them to buy your book? Or to book an appointment with you?
Some content ideas for your next blog post
| What I’ve learned | 5 things I wish my clients knew about Something you have learnt in the last year The one thing people don’t tell you about 3 unexpected lessons I learnt from 5 tips I learnt from treating My best advice for |
| Ideas and tips | 5 simple ideas to…
How to get a great outcome with … 3 things you can do at home to assist with … Fact sheet / brochure Learn how to… Case studies
|
| Favourite things / offers for clients | Book recommendations
Favourite podcasts Motivational quotes Exercise advice Contests or promotions
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| Things about your Practice | Why I love what I do
A day in the life of my practice 5 behind the scenes facts about us The most important thing to know about us Webinars / tutorial videos
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| Developments in your industry | The top 3 new products on the market
My review of … Industry trend updates Workshops coming up / what you learned at…
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