I know what you’re thinking: a blog post written about blogging? So meta.

In all seriousness, blogging for your business is extremely important. Not only is it an easy way to boost the SEO value of your website (better SEO = higher rankings in Google = better exposure), it positions your brand as a trusted source of useful information for your existing audience, provided you’re writing about relevant, attention-grabbing topics.

Think of blogging as a two-for-one special—you’re attracting and nurturing both new and existing clients, all in one fell swoop:

1. Boosts SEO → Attracts New Clients
2. Provides Useful Content → Nurtures Existing Clients

Oh, not to mention, blogging is an extremely inexpensive way to drive traffic to your site, especially if you’re DIYing it (then, it’s free!). But the cherry on top of all that sweet, delicious free marketing? Blogging creates the opportunity to be shared by others via Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or even just a direct link to a friend. Your wallet thanks you!

If I haven’t convinced you yet, I’ll hit you with some numbers:

• One in ten blog posts are what’s known as “compounding,” meaning organic search increases their traffic over time. (source)
• Websites with a blog tend to have 434% more indexed pages. (source)
• Marketers who prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to achieve a positive ROI on their efforts. (source)

See? Blogging is not messing around. In fact, it’s ready and willing to help your business show off in a not-so-gross kind of way.

“Okay! I’m on board. So, do I just write a couple paragraphs and call it a day, or…?”

Sadly, in order to nurture existing clients and attract new clients, your blog efforts require, well, a little bit of effort. And I get it, long-form content might sound a little scary, but I promise, it’s not as daunting as you think. With a little bit of practice and a few new tricks up your sleeve, you’ll be a blogging master in no time. Speaking of which…

5 Tips to Write a Blog Post That Converts

Simply writing a blog post is one thing, but writing a blog post that converts is everything. Don’t let fear keep you from writing, though! Follow these five blogging tips, and you’ll be on your way to more amazing clients! Psst…feel free to bookmark this page if you need to revisit.

1. Choose Your Topic Wisely

This one might be a no-brainer, but your content should be relevant to your brand. In other words, if you’re a tax accountant, you probably don’t want to blog about the latest fashion trends to try in 2019 (unless you can relate this to taxes, in which case, I want to meet you in person and shake your hand). That’s not to say your blog posts always have to be about taxes—but they should somehow relate to your brand’s value statement and what your audience needs from you, specifically.

For example, The Wonder Jam’s client, Otto Skin Goods, is a skincare line focused on simple, healthy plant-based ingredients and efficacy as its first priority. Recently, I helped write a blog post for Otto about Vitamin C, aka the most coveted ingredient in the skincare world (you can read it here!).

Makes sense as a topic for the brand, right?

But just because Otto is a skincare company doesn’t mean all of their blog posts need to focus on ingredients. In fact, a few weeks ago, Otto’s founder, Sarah, wrote a post titled The Busy Girl’s Guide to Self-Care. Since Sarah’s products are often used by busy moms, she wanted to provide content to help her audience outside of the skincare arena (now, that’s some good nurturing!).

The moral of the story? Before you dive into writing a blog post, be sure you a) get to know your audience and their needs, b) write about what you do best and c) mix it up with content related to your brand’s values.

2. Create Compelling Headlines

Believe it or not, creating a compelling headline might be the trickiest part of writing your blog post. If you can nail this down, you’re golden.

Hate to say it, but as humans, we’re shallow. If something doesn’t grab our attention in two seconds or less, we’re over it. Your headline should be irresistible. But more importantly, it should help by improving your search ranking.

Okay, so quick recap: your headline should be attention-grabbing, use relevant keywords, elicit emotion, interest, curiosity, all in 60-100 characters. Easy, right?

Don’t panic. I’ve been writing blog posts for a while and I still struggle with this one. But have no fear! I found this nifty tool to help you get started (think: fill-in-the-blank headline options that are super eye-catching).

But don’t let this list of headlines limit you—you’re better at this than you think! And if you’re constantly copying what other bloggers are doing, you’ll miss out on something fun you came up with all on your own.

One of my favorite headlines is from The W Nail Bar. Recently, The W’s co-owner Lauren and I wrote a blog post about sanitization and how 1 in 4 guests leave nail salons with a bacterial or fungal infection (gross, right?). I titled it: Let’s Talk Dirty: As In, Your Nail Salon Might Be Putting You at Risk. “Let’s talk dirty” catches your attention, “nail salon” is a key term that will help The W show up in Google searches, and “putting you at risk” is a sign of urgency (because, let’s face it, the public should know!).

The moral of the story? More than anything else, your headline should coincide with your blog post’s main idea. Add a catchy adjective or two, and you’ll be just fine!

3. Add Some Images

Fact: blog articles with images get 94% more views (source). And we’re not just talking about that blurry image of your cat from a few days ago (you can DM those to me, instead). We’re talking about good photography. My go-to is Unsplash—it’s free! But you can also use premium stock photo sites like Shutterstock.

At the very least, make sure you’re using a photo for your featured image. Otherwise, feel free to include photos or graphics throughout your post, too! These can be funny memes or gifs, helpful infographics and other relevant photos. Just make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Recently, we helped a local suit shop, Pursuit, get their blog up and running again (woo-hoo!). We recently interviewed one of Pursuit’s customers, Bradley, after his wedding. In our post, we featured professional photos of he and his wife after they tied the knot, making sure we gave credit to their photographer, Ashley Rene Photography. A simple callout with a link to their site is more than enough! Bonus points if you’re able to reach out for their permission ahead of time.

The moral of the story? Always use at least one photo for your blog post, even if it’s just the featured image. For free stock photos—and without worrying about using the photographer’s permission—use Unsplash. If you’re using someone else’s work, give them credit in a link under the photo.

4. Give SEO Some (Not All!) of Your Attention

Search Engine Optimization (aka: SEO) is important for blogging, but it’s not that important. In other words, I’ll never recommend writing solely for SEO, but I also don’t recommend writing without considering SEO, either.

Here’s a quick rundown:

“Google (or any search engine you’re using) has a crawler that goes out and gathers information about all the content they can find on the Internet. The crawlers bring all those 1s and 0s back to the search engine to build an index. That index is then fed through an algorithm that tries to match all that data with your query.” (source)

By blogging weekly or bi-weekly, you’re providing fresh, relevant content for all of the major search engines to index (they love this).

Think about yourself as a consumer for a second. Now, think of a time you had to search for something on Google. Let’s say you needed to find a shoe store in the area. So, you probably typed in something along the lines of “shoe store near me” or “shoe store + (your location).” These are what’s known as “keywords,” and as a business, you’ll want to think about what your own keywords might be.

The moral of the story? Listen, I’m not going to sit here and bore you with SEO. There’s a lot to unpack. As long as you include relevant words that have something to do with your topic here and there, you’re in a good place.

5. Don’t Leave Them Hanging

Last but certainly not least, you want to invite your audience to engage with your post.

Think of it this way: let’s say you’re out to eat with a friend, and she asks you for dating advice. You’ve totally got this. You spend about five to ten minutes giving your friend the run-down—how to find someone who aligns with her interests, how to be themselves, when to tell if the guy is playing you, etc. At the end of your speech, you wouldn’t just flag down the waiter, pay for your check, give your friend the finger guns and walk out of the restaurant without her reaction, would you? Heck no! You’d stay and listen to her feedback, answer any follow-up questions, have some freakin’ cheesecake, for crying out loud.

Same goes for your blog post. You’ve just given your audience a lot of useful information. Now it’s time to sit back and listen to their questions, comments and feedback. Invite them to stay for a while! Let them know you’re here for them. Give them another way to reach you if they don’t want to publicize their comment. You’re a wealth of information, but you’re not perfect. You might’ve missed something important that you’ll need to clarify in the comments section.

Who knows? Your engagement in the comments section might just lead to a potential customer for life.

WOAH. We just covered a lot of information on blogging. But I know you’ve totally got this. If you have any questions, I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below—or if you’d like to keep things private, you can DM me on Instagram (see what I did there?).