This was awhile ago but stuck around in my saved content from LinkedIn: Hughes Integrated | Hacks for Writing Emails People Want to Read
What made me want to read it was that it presented a reasonable number of specific solutions to improve something I do every day. Low commitment, specific, and relevant to me. I will read 90% of blogs that fit those three categories!
But take a moment and think about the last blog post you read. What made you want to read it?
It was relevant to what I was wanting to learn about, it was relatively short, there was plenty of white-space that provided some rest for my brain, the title drew me in, it was well written and engaging.
How did you feel after you finished? I felt as if I had gained something new and was enlightened about the topic. I did make it through to the end.
What makes a blog post compelling and engaging? All of the factors I listed above.
Blogs features are awesome.
I have written many blog posts and the best ones are easily digested amounts of pertinent information- top 5 lists are great - Top 5 Ways to Increase your SEO for example.
Whether I am interested in a topic or not, a well-structured, well researched and a well written article is a universal must. A blog must be interesting or insightful, don’t overshoot on the heading and underdeliver on the content.
A good blog post is a reference that one could totally relate, refer, and come back to. It is something that strucks readers’ attention to read more. On a personal note, I believe a good blog post is a combination of wise choice of words and a good visual representation.
A blog post should give information to the reader. This could be related to a project your organisation has worked on. Someone reading the post now could be a potential customer as he has reached this resource looking for a product or a sevice in a similar area.
is a blog i keep refering to
Images that are unique to the blog topic, truly offers advice needed, concise, and humor/creative touch.
Blogs that are very relevant with 100% quality content.
It should add value to the knowledgebase and business of your prospect
Engaging, relative topics to your audience and short.
In my line of work, we solve IT business problems. We provide so much value to companies and we feel like our message isn’t being heard. We want to show everyone how much time, money, and effort we can save your team by giving us a simple phone call. Once the Marketing team realized this we started creating blogs around common problems and not us. We wanted to focus on engaging the reader and giving them an “Ah Ha” moment. Relating pain and problems to readers and then saying we have the solution at the bottom (with a CTA) has started to really grasp more readers and fill in the top of the funnel
In the B2B software market, both users and technology software providers serving those users are seeking peer opinion, analyst metrics, use case details and generally any methodology to reduce risk and embrace an industry best practice.
A blog post should entertain, educate the ready, or solve a problem. A great blog post will do two or all three while avoiding the obvious sales pitch. A blog post should also add credibility to your brand and add value to your website.
An engaging blog title, photo and reputable blog author all make me want to read a blog post. After reading I feel well-informed and educated on the topic. I do sometimes skip sentences or paragraphs if they are full of marketing-speak or facts I already know.
The last blog I read I wanted to keep reading because it had something to do about a specific medical outbreak in europe a couple years ago. It was written by a european blogger who lived in germany. Upon finishing the blog I felt more informed and relieved to know there was medicine for said medical outbreak. what made her blog more compelling for me was that she was living in the midst of it all. It wasnt as if she was in american writing about it. She was literally in the middle of it all telling us all about it in detail.
Agreed!
A compelling blog post consists of quality information related to your business goals and marketing strategy. Therefore, sharing stories, developing a sense of expertise as well as sharing about your company are all strong ways to develop blog posts.
Blog posts need to be relevant to the reader and provide information they can reference or use while keeping them entertained/engaged. If I am reading about something useful, but it’s written in difficult-to-read language or on a funky background I wont’ finish it. There have also been instances where there were either so many ads I couldn’t read the article OR it required a subscription, but was posted on a public forum.