Capture your Readers: 7 Tips to Writing Engaging Blog Posts
“Anyone can write a blog post, but only the fearless bloggers can be great.”
See, a good idea or topic, decent spelling and grammar, and a strong mastery of the essay form are enough for a good blog post. But if you want to write a great blog post or one that makes your audience go “Wow! I’ll share this!” ~ you have to delve deeper than the essentials.
1. Choose a Strong Title
Reader engagement begins here, as an audience will respond well to thought-provoking titles, something that will get them interested in your blog post. Once you have a strong title, the first sentence of your post should be able to reel in the reader, i.e. get your readers to automatically move to the rest of the post to find out what your ideas are or your perspective on that topic. Bear in mind that it is equally important to have every phrase, sentence, and even punctuation mark add value to your piece because you still need to deliver on what your headline says, or else you lose credibility to your audience.
2. Get Them Hooked
Remember, engaging content hooks people in at every step of the way. The first paragraph of your blog post decides whether your readers will stay or leave. Getting them to read your entire post should be your fundamental objective and it must happen right from the first paragraph. Depending on your style and the personality of your blog, you can choose any number of ways to begin your blog post. You may try one of these styles:
• Start with a question. One that will want them to read further for answers. A question that will open up their minds and get them interested in what you are going to talk about.
• Begin with a short story. If you like to personalise your blog post, a funny story or a real-life incident can be very helpful in garnering the attention of your readers.
• Analogies are great when you want to explain something complex. They are especially beneficial for an audience that is largely unaware of the terms that you may be using in the blog post and will give them the chance to ease into the topic.
• If you happen to be at a loss for words, use a quote for a powerful beginning.
3. Choose Your Vocabulary According to Your Target Audience
Every blog post has a specific audience that the post is targeted towards. The problem is that sometimes, the post may sound too generic and it may not make the audience feel engaged enough. An IT solutions company will have a completely different vocabulary than a hotelier’s. Both of them address two different groups of people and while the IT solutions company would favour technical jargon, the hotelier would choose eloquent words.
Understand that your readers find a connection when they feel that you are writing in words that they are familiar with. If through your blog post you can establish yourself as a resource that brings the information, and insights that will help them or enhance their lives, they’ll keep coming back for more.
4. Voice Your Opinions and Stay Inclined Towards Originality
What is the point of writing a blog if you are not free to voice your opinions? People read blogs to know the writer’s viewpoint about a subject. If you think diplomacy has got you covered, and you can write without expressing an opinion, then your blog may not be considered striking enough by your readers.
Your readers want your sincere thoughts. They want you to be original. Remember, you want your audience to value what you have to offer. Take advantage of the buzz of {non-controversial} current events to create your own spark. You can often creatively tweak your story so it winds its way back to your brand or industry.
5. Do Not Compromise the Quality of Your Blog Post for Optimisation
Optimising your blog post is important; I know how important it is for people to be able to find your post and read it. By trying to use keywords, you may often end up reducing the quality of words and sentences so that it is easily searchable on the search engine. But if you want your blog post to be engaging so that people talk about it, share it, and comment on it, then it is important to build up the quality of your content. Write your article by focusing on the topic and the facts around it. Once your article is complete, you can tweak it for optimisation so that the quality of your article remains relatively higher ensuring a better reader experience.
6. Keep it Simple
The majority of your audience will enjoy reading a blog that is crisp and to the point. Are you adding too many adverbs, adjectives, and unambiguous words that add very little value to your sentences? You may want to reduce the use of these words to make your piece more readable. Audiences like to read articles that are easy for their brains to comprehend. Too many flashy words in one blog post may make you sound too pretentious. In a world where minimalism and sensibility are getting popular, give your readers a dose of your good sense by writing a clean piece.
7. Add Punch to Your Conclusion
Just the way you got your target audience hooked with your first paragraph, give them a reason to think about your blog post by concluding by restating your main point or with a thought-provoking question. You can ask them to leave their answers in the comments section of your blog. And, depending on how persuasive your writing is, your readers may even have reason to scroll down to find out what others are saying before responding to your question. This increases user engagement and helps you build a healthy relationship with your readers by finding out what their thoughts are about your post.
To conclude: Remember, the purpose of each line of your content is to get your readers to dive deeper into what you are sharing, and hook them into reading your post. Your blog is a drop in a very big pool, so the more you can do to be engaging, create a buzz, and network with your peers ~ the more exposure your posts will enjoy.
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The tips and strategies you have shared in this post are really helpful, Tanya. I must say however that your writing is beautiful even by itself, and while I thoroughly enjoyed the images you’ve included, even without them I would’ve read the post top to bottom. Cheers!
Thank you so much, Gaurav. You’re such an incredibly thoughtful person!
I love how you told this story! If the above tips are rigorously followed then one can create compelling content writing. Well done! 🙂
Thanks much, Payal. Quite reassuring really.
Superb post, Tanya! Sometimes it is very important to start thinking about what you want, and focus on the goals you want to achieve both personally and professionally. xx
Thank you, Vijaydan. So happy you liked it!
As always, your work encourages me to become more disciplined with my writing and develop my own signature style in the way that you have, Tanya. xoxo
Thank you, Jyoti. I truly treasure your love and appreciation!
Your content is currently “the thing” that give me thrills! There’s no doubt that blog posts are an important part of content marketing and digital marketing in general.
Thank you for reading my blog, Apoorva, and sharing your kind thoughts.
Very good points in this post. And, how great it is to see such an honestly written blog, compared to the content that has saturated the internet!
Thanks so much friend. You’re the best ever!
Nicely written. Writing a blog post is a little like driving; you can study the traffic code for months, but nothing can prepare you for the real thing like getting behind the wheel and hitting the open road! Haha!!
Never thought of it that way! Thank you for sharing, Soma.
Cheers for taking the time to compose this. It’s really a great article for bloggers who are beginners ~ I especially liked the part about keeping it simple.
My pleasure, Anukanksha. So happy you enjoyed it!
I must say you have a gift, Tanya. This is a long post, but the way you have written it – there was no way one could skip any part till the end. Bookmarking it.
Oh, so sweet! Thank you very much, Madhu.
Thanks for the tips. 🙂 They are very well explained, detailed, easy to read and understand. I should like to put them to practice soon…
That’s great! Glad to hear it, Yogendra.
Great post, Tanya! The detailed explanation is really helpful. Crazy thing is there are some blog-sites that have literally thousands of blog posts, so if you choose a popular niche, your options are unlimited in how many blogs you can write!
Absolutely right you are! Thank you for sharing, Ruth.
With the right training and use of keywords and key phrases, the sky is the limit as to how successful your blog can become. Great read!
Thank you for sharing, Kanchan. Have a beautiful day!
This is a very detailed and helpful tutorial, Tanya. I haven’t started my blog yet. I have just started brainstorming ideas I want to write about. Thank you for sharing.
My pleasure, Tavleen. Here’s wishing you the very best!
Thanks for these tips. They are the things which impact the readers’s mind tremendously. I wrote the headline of my first blog and then started to read your post ~ it has surely helped me. 🙂
You are welcome, Rajiv. Thank you for believing in me!
Thank you so much for this. Blogging is more important then ever, so following a solid strategy is a big help.
My pleasure, Subramanian. Glad you found it helpful!
Thanks for sharing valuable insight here. These are really useful tips for blogging. I’m not a writer but now have a need to develop content for my readers… I believe this will help me get started.
Glad to hear it, Tarek. Thank you for reading my blog!
I have written about 20 blog articles, and still struggle with it. Your points are all valid from what I know, so thank you for putting them down. Have a nice day, Tanya. 🙂
Glad to be of help, Ranjan. Have a lovely day!
Thank you for such essential tips. I think the first point hit the nail firmly on the head – write about something that interests you and the rest will follow. You’ll certainly be more enthusiastic to get the job done!
Thank you for reading through and appreciating, Rajdeep. I value it so.
I imagine a lot of writers, if asked later in their career, if there was one mentor that influenced their course more than any other… I think mine will be you and this post. And, I’m glad that I came across this so early in my blogging. Thank you, Tanya.
That’s high praise, Mohandas. Thank you for giving me the inspiration to give it a whirl again!
I feel like where you’re at with the mastery of language is a place that I couldn’t come close to in this life time. But Tanya, I’m going to try so hard to join you in the sun. Thank you. xx
Oh Rana, what a beautiful and sensitive soul you are. Thank you very much for your kind thoughts!