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How to write a blog

08/19/202202/08/2021 by scmarketing

There are so many distractions these days from email through to social media or website pop-ups therefore if you have written a blog on your website how do you get people to stay on your website to read it? Here’s some of our tips for writing engaging blog content for your website to help with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

What should you write in a blog?

When you write a blog the first thing you, or your SEO agency, should always think about is who is your target audience. Therefore, thinking of that typical customer or client will help you tailor your content specifically to them. It also helps to make your content engaging and personable.

You then need to write about topics that will help your target audience. Solve their challenges for them. A great way to get ideas for this is to think about the questions that clients ask you. Then that simply becomes the title of your blog. This is a great SEO tactic as it tells search engines exactly what to expect on that page.

Keywords and phrases

We need to mention keywords and phrases – don’t be put off by thinking it’s some kind of jargon. It’s as simple as thinking about what your customers will search for to try and find your products or services. This will help you create a list that you can refer back to when you write about a topic. Check to see if you can add in relevant keywords to help with SEO campaigns.

While we can get technical and look into keyword volume of searches and keyword difficulty score (which Smart Cow can help with), an initial list created manually will also help in the long run.

Get your point across quickly

Once you have your topic and title established then it’s time to get to work with the content. You may find it easier to break your blogs up with subheadings. If you think of these first then you already have the structure of your blog.

With your opening paragraph, you need to get to the point fairly early on. By giving an indication of what is on your blog, this will give more reason for the website visitor to read on to get more of the details.

Blog content

Keeping your reader engaged is the most important thing as this is what keeps people on your website for longer. It also means visitors return and share articles on social media to help attract more people to your website.

Here’s a few tips to consider to help you write engaging content:

Pose a question to move the content along and in another direction
Use subheadings to break up content – it’s easier on the eye and makes for a more engaging web page
Make content topical by tapping into relevant national days
Reference relevant research and statistics – but don’t forget to reference your source

Call to action

Once you’ve drafted the blog, remember the point of it. Ultimately you want people to do something as a result. So, add a call to action in your final paragraph, for example:

Download our ebook
Contact us for more information, email us on…
Get involved by registering at….
If you want to attend the networking session, contact…
Get a free website review

Free resources to help you write your next blog

Digital marketing Croydon

We are a Croydon based digital marketing agency offering SEO services including blog writing, keyword research, local SEO, Google Ad campaigns to help improve your online presence and visibility online as your SEO experts.

Get in touch for a consultation or a free website review.

BNI Sutton Featured Presentation

08/19/202201/22/2021 by scmarketing

Growing your business in the 4th industrial revolution

Business Networking International (BNI) meetings each week have a featured presentation, where one business showcases its services in a 10 minute presentation with a Q&A.

Smart Cow presented the two core points to grow your business as we hit the 4th Industrial revolution of digital integration.

We focused on looking at getting cost efficient high quality leads and also how to attract, engage and convert those leads into clients.

10 minutes January 2021 BNI Sutton from Smart cow marketing

BNI Sutton

BNI Sutton meets every Thursday morning at 6:30 am. Currently online via Zoom, but normally at Oaks Park Golf Club in Sutton.

If you are interested in joining a networking group that shared over £4,000,000 of business last year then please get in touch: simon@smart-cow.com

Word in dictionary illustrating keywords

Get your website seen with a blog page

08/19/202212/17/2020 by scmarketing

If there’s one thing you do differently in 2021, we recommend you add a blog page to your website. For those that have a blog webpage already, then make sure you regularly update what you got.

The reason being is that your website is the centre of your digital world – all external links, such as from your social media channels, point potential leads back to your website. So, having a blog is a great page for you to add fresh content too. And, it’s this content which holds the secret to optimising your website in search engines results pages.

A blog provides a place to add timely news items about new products or services but most importantly a place to offer advice to answer the challenges faced by your potential customers. This is what your leads are really interested in. As you add this content to your website think about what people will be searching for in search engines, such as Google, as this will form the basis of your keywords research and what you will look to include moving forward. Read more about keywords here.

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Engaging blog content

You have less than 15 seconds to engage visitors and give them the information they want before they will bounce right off your website. So, make sure that the topics you choose are of interest to your target audience. Offering a free template to download or an ebook is another attractive offer.

Remember that a blog is about being informative and about your brand becoming a thought leader in its field.

Cover topics which highlight your expertise. A case study is a great way to illustrate this.

Keep content clear and concise.

The aim is to add value to help people solve a very specific problem.

Write blogs that answer their questions. The goal is to optimise that post to appear in related searches by including keywords.

Without regular, new and relevant content your website is less engaging. Your target audience is less likely to stay on your website or revisit in the future.

There’s also some backend tactics to get used to when you upload a blog. Make sure you add a meta description, image alt tag and H1 headings for starters. Get into that routine and you’re really helping with ongoing search engine optimisation. Read more about SEO and why you should consider it here.

Link building

Once you have posted your blog live then repurpose the content to create loads of social media posts. Remember to add the link to the blog or a relevant page on your website as this helps guide leads back to your website and it’s also highly regarded by search engines.

Free website review

Why not take advantage of our FREE website review so you can kick start the new year with the goal of updating your website to get it truly optimised. Then you can simply concentrate on adding regular blogs to your website to keep it engaging and help to generate leads.

SEO agency Croydon

If you would like to discuss SEO services incorporating content marketing as part of a wider long term digital marketing strategy for your business then book a consultation with us.

Part 2: Digital marketing trends 2021

08/19/202212/10/2020 by scmarketing

Here we look ahead to 2021 and the marketing trends to consider to help with your business growth strategy to attract quality leads. We’ve already discussed agile marketing, personalisation and video in our previous Digital Marketing Trends 2021 instalment. Here we have a few further thoughts that you should look to consider in your marketing plan.

Webinar growth

There is no doubt that the way we work and live our daily lives has changed. Exhibitions and events were non existent in 2020 but everyone adapted with a significant boom in online conferences and regular webinars. This has opened doors to many businesses across sectors to reach out to their target audience in a way that would have been unimaginable before. Therefore, factoring in a webinar into your marketing plan could be a great way to reach potential new clients.

Partnering with another local business that complements your services could be a great way to reach more people. What’s key is getting the right theme for your event, make sure you are giving advice that will encourage people to sign up.

If you don’t feel confident in running your own webinar then tap into local networking groups as many have started up monthly webinars. You can then pitch yourself forward as a panellist or provide an idea for a webinar.

Content marketing plan

So, this is not quite a trend as such but it’s a big tip to help you create a marketing strategy. The goal is to be consistent with messaging and to reach people at the right time. It’s really important to have insightful content as this is not just about brand awareness it’s about building trust with your target audience. What we mean by this is people don’t want to be sold to. They want to trust that what they hear from you will help them with their own challenges. They want to read insightful blogs that mean that time and again they click on your social media posts or open your emails over any other business. The potential customer knows that they are going to read or download something useful for them.

So, with this in mind, create a calendar for the year and month on month plot out what messages you will push out there. Plan what blogs you will write and time these with product launches, events, relevant awareness days and any other occasion relevant to your business and message at that time. This will help form structure and avoid a scatter gun approach.

SEO spotlight

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is at the core of a successful digital marketing strategy. Again, not a trend as such, however the reason we have a spotlight on SEO is that digital transformation has accelerated this year, therefore understanding how you can get the best from your website is vital as it’s your shop front to the world.

If you already have a website then start to think how can you make it better or optimise it in other words!

SEO will tie into your content marketing plan too. Every blog you write will need to be engaging and include keywords or rather long-tail keywords. Keywords refer to those phrases that you type into a search engine. Think about what a customer might type in to discover your services or products? Think like that and you are a step towards developing keywords for your content.

How to improve onsite SEO with keywords has some useful tips for keyword development.

Free digital marketing resources

We’re a digital marketing agency in Croydon and we have the following resources you can tap into.

Free website review: Find out how to improve your website’s performance.

Free digital marketing consultation: Our free consultation should be between 15 and 30 minutes. The goal is to provide you with thoughts on how to start an effective marketing campaign and for us both to see if it would benefit your firm. No obligation at all, we just want the best for you.

Get in touch with us today to talk through your digital marketing campaign requirements whether email marketing, SEO, Social media marketing, video content or Pay Per Click.