15 Copywriting Tips You Should Use While Creating Your Next Blog Post

70% of B2B marketers are planning to create more content in 2017 as compared to the previous year. With so much content being produced every day, it has become critical for brands to prepare articles that can drive more traffic and generate quality engagement.

Strengthening your content copy is the best way to get big wins from small changes. Here are 15 tips that can help you excel in the art of content copywriting:

 

1- Choose a Title That Serves as Click Bait

What happens when you read a title like:

“What Does Your Starbucks Order Say About You?”

OR

“If You Are a Professional SEO, You Need to Watch This.”

The human brain is activated and it instantly starts looking for an answer!

The title is the most critical component of your blog as it leaves the first impression on your readers.

In order to create a title that serves as clickbait, please keep the following points in mind:

• Think of consumer psychology, especially the words that will compel readers to take action. Have a mix of exaggerations like “Unbelievable,” “Life-changing,” “Jaw-dropping!”
• Include an element of shock in the title like “10 Insane Facts About Space You Didn’t Know Before.”
• Create personal stories having the word “You” and “I” like “7 New Books You Need to Read This June.”
• Talk of a new and unknown concept like “Life After Death – Mystery Revealed!”
• Create a big list of events or points that your audience will love to read and share like “Top 50 Places to Visit in California.”

Having a clickbait title will easily enable you to generate lots of clicks. Always remember that the title is just to grasp the attention of readers and once they are on your website, give them a strong reason to stay.

 

2- Use Short Paragraphs Instead of Long Ones

Shorter paragraphs are easier to read and understand. They encourage reading and minimize the chances of committing errors

(Neil Patel constantly uses shorter paras in his content to make it easier for readers to scan the content)

Here are some benefits of using short para in your content that will help improve the time on page:

• Shorter and easy to read sentences insists readers to read till the last.
• Content with proper bullet points helps readers to easily scan the text.
• It adds a dramatic tone to your content and urges readers to continue reading.
• Shorter paras automatically generate sufficient white space areas, thereby creating an illusion that the content is shorter and easier to read.
• You can highlight important sentences in your paragraphs which makes your content look more attractive.

 

3- Use Simple Language and Visuals in Blog

Always use simple language and check the readability score of your content. Moreover, use proper images to make it easier for readers to understand the content.

• Test your content with tools like io which allows you to check the readability score. Flesch readability score is probably the most popular among the available readability scoring formula. Aim for a grade of 8 or below to ensure your content is readable by 80% or more.
• Visuals help make your content attractive, so use images with text. You can easily find copyright free images on sites like CreativeCommons.

(Image showing content with text only vs. image with both text and image)

• Use tools like PicMonkey to create beautiful photos for your blog that are customized as per the needs of your audiences.
• Use an image above the fold so that it is able to attract readers immediately when they land on the webpage.
• Align images to the center or the right of your blog post so that it becomes easier for your readers to scan the content along with the images.
• Provide an alt tag for every image. This will help search engines understand its content.
• Optimize the images so that they load as fast as possible and brand your images with a proper logo to make it easier for readers to identify your business.

 

4- Make Content Error Free

Poor content is not treated well by readers.

If you want to leave the best impression, then the content needs to be flawless.

Blogs that are grammatically error-free are much easier for your audience to read.

A good strategy to use is to proofread your blog several times as your content might lose attention if the readers are able to locate silly mistakes in your content.

I would recommend using the below tools to check for any grammatical issues and fix them before you hit publish:

• Grammarly — Mistake free writing is easier when you check your contents with the help of Grammarly. It also comes as a Chrome plugin and highlights the grammatical errors in red.

• After the deadline — A tool that checks for grammar, spelling & any other issues.
• Ginger – A tool that integrates with your browser to make sure you do not make any spelling errors.

 

5- Inform Readers About Your Next Blog Post

Every webmaster wonders if their readers will visit the site again or not. If you want people to visit your site regularly, then inform and update them on what’s coming next.

You can give your blog a suspense look by dropping clues like, “I’ve got something new to release next week.

It is the final paragraph that provides an opportunity to inspire readers to visit your website again.

 

6- Grab Reader’s Attention by Using an Active Voice

A passive voice makes your content look awkward.

Hence, it is recommended to use an active voice in the content. The subject performs an action when you use an active voice and helps readers easily understand the concept.

An active voice helps identify the action and makes your content look stronger.

Have a look at the below example:

Clearly, content with an active voice is easy to understand. Hence, start using an active voice in your content pieces and notice the difference yourself.

 

7- Use Keywords

Try using keywords multiple times in your content to get the best results.

It will become easier for your audience to find your post if you use keywords in your content.

I encourage you to look for long tail keywords as they are much easier to use within the content and can even boost your sales.

Long tail keywords generate 70% of search volume traffic. They are more specific and also have less competition.

You can find long tail keywords with Wordstream’s free keyword research tool by just entering your main keyword whose long tail variations you wish to find.

 

 

8- Choose a Perfect Length for Your Blog

Keeping your blog to a suitable length is important. Here are some perfectly acceptable blog post lengths that your audiences will love.

• For generating discussions, 75-300 words is best.
• For blogs to be published in newspapers, 750 words is the standard length that you can use.
• If your blog is related to problem-solving then you can use up to 1000-1500
• For social shares, longer articles are better. Recommended article length is around 1500-1800
• If you are looking to gain higher rankings in search results with evergreen content, 2000 words of content should be your ideal length. The below graph from SerpIQ proves this.

 

9-  Use Emotion

People make decisions based on emotions.

Emotions are generally used by big brands in their content as it has the capability of making your marketing campaigns memorable.

Developing a durable emotional connection between your brand and target audience helps create value and long lasting customers.

• It’s always good to meet the emotional needs of the people rather than insisting on them to buy something from you.
• Your main goal is to convince readers that the value of your product or service is greater than the price you are selling for it.
• Try encouraging social interactions on your site.
• Images evoke emotions faster than text.
• Short, concise and simple words are emotionally more effective.

Also, try to use power words like:

• Amazing
• Fearless
• Hope
• Courage
• Sinful
• Underhanded

All these power words leave an emotional impact on people.

 

10- Sentences Needs to be Focused

You all know that everything you write, whether it be a blog post, email, short story, or ad copy, it starts and ends with a sentence. It’s important that your sentences are engaging.

So, use one subject per sentence and try avoiding the run on sentences.

A run on sentence is a sentence which covers more than one topic in a single line, which will lose your reader’s credibility.

So, if you need more sentences, try making more paragraphs.

Try to use a sentence that contains emotion, logic, image, and promise.

 

11- Prepare a List If You Have Multiple Things to Talk About

 Dividing a large sentence into small lists increases the viewability of your content.

• Break sentences by using a bullet list. It creates white spaces in your blog and makes it easier to read.
• Keep the list concise and don’t try to experiment too much.

(Having lists in your content increases the readability of your content)

 

12- Remember AIDA While Writing Blog

AIDA is a simple formula that you must follow in order to grab your reader’s attention. It stands for:

A- Attention

I- Interest

D- Desire

A- Action

AIDA helps to:                  

• Capture your readers’ attention by leveraging powerful and attractive headlines.
• Build interest by telling your readers an exciting story.
• Create desire by exploring the benefits of your products and services.
• Tell your audience what they need to do next.

Utilizing AIDA components in your blog will not only attract readers but also improve the overall user engagement.

 

13- Prefer Positive Frames While Describing Information

Negative frames indicate things that are not actually happening while positive frames describe something in a more real way.

You can use negative frames rarely, but it is recommended to use positive frames for a majority of your sentences.

Negative: Don’t be late from Monday

Positive: Reach on time

• Using a positive frame helps to describe the benefits that your product offers.
• It allows people to remember your brand.
• It tends to elicit positive feelings and result in risk-taking and proactive behavior.

Positive frames create a sort of expectation effect and help generate better ROI.

 

14- Describe your Content Drawbacks

Many copywriters have a fear of mentioning drawbacks in their content copy.

But research shows that arguments which are two-sided are more convincing.

A big brand like Amazon shows both positive and negative reviews.

People perceive you to be more logical when you present both the views on your blog.

You can see the below image clearly indicates this.

 

15- Talk About Benefits Not Features

Do you know why features don’t sell? It’s because customers don’t care about them. People always look for benefits.

“Theodore Levitt” a famous professor at Harvard Business School, has summarized this concept with the following example:

“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!”

Suppose you went to a store and suddenly sales advisor bounced towards you and says:

“Oh, that LED Tv is great. It’s a 120Hz HD LED TV”

Now, see this sentence:

“It’s a 120Hz HD LED TV. Every second, the pixels refresh themselves 60 times.“

Did you notice the difference in the above two sentences?

Features matter, yet benefits resound more with buyers. Readers are more interested in seeing a clear picture.

Start following the above mentioned copywriting tips and it will definitely help you grab your audience’s attention. You must write your content in such a way so that it informs, delivers value and inspires readers to take action.