How to Write a Blog Post: 6 Steps + Tips

What is a blog post?

A blog post is an informational article that’s published on a website. A blog post can include written content, photos, videos, or a combination of the three. These pieces of content typically range in length from several hundred words to a few thousand words. In a blog post, a writer will share their views on a particular subject to entertain and inform their readers.

Depending on the topic and your brand, the content may be more fact- or opinion-based.

Why are blog posts important for your business?

• Providing value to your audience: The blog posts on your website should be catered to your target audience. For example, if you have a healthcare business, you want your blog posts to focus on health and wellness. The goal of a blog post is to provide value to your audience so they want to keep coming back to learn more.
• Building trust with your readers: Writing a blog with relevant content proves to your audience that you’re a knowledgeable resource on the subject. Blogging is a way to connect with your customers beyond a basic level and build trust. The content in your blog posts should be helpful and informational as that shows your customers you understand them and want to help them.
• Driving website traffic: Having a blog on your company’s website is also a great way to drive traffic. To optimize blog posts, you need to implement SEO strategies. Using the right SEO strategies for your blog, like keywords and meta descriptions, can increase visibility for your business and drive website traffic.
• Attracting new potential customers: If people trust your blog and become loyal followers, they’re also more likely to support your business. Plus, there’s usually an opportunity to direct your customers toward your products or services or highlight your company within the article. As such, having a blog is a great way to attract new potential customers and even increase revenue.
• Promoting specific products or services: Rather than creating a campaign that very obviously promotes a product or service, a blog is a much more lowkey way to promote your business. You can include a couple of target URLs in your blog post as a way to encourage people to learn more about your products or services, or potentially even convert to a customer.
• Creating content that can be repurposed: The lifespan of a blog post usually isn’t very long, as new content is being created on a daily basis. But, if you create content that can be repurposed, this can extend the lifespan of your blog post and reach new people. Repurposing an older but relevant blog post is an easy way to bring it back to life and use it to continue to grow your business.

How to write a blog post: Step by step

Knowing how to write a blog post is a skill that has to be learned. Follow this step-by-step process to get started:

Step 1: Choose a topic & research

Before you can write a blog post, you need to figure out what you’re going to write about. The topic should be relevant to your business and your target audience. And once you’ve decided on an interesting topic, you then need to conduct some research. Your blog posts should contain accurate information, so it’s important that you have a good understanding of what you’re writing about.

Step 2: Choose an attention-grabbing title

Having a good title for your blog post is crucial. With an attention-grabbing title for your blog post, it’s much easier to entice people to read it.

Blog post titles should:

• Spark curiosity
• Be straightforward
• Address the main query
• Accurately reflect the contents

Step 3: Outline your blog post

Once you’ve decided on a topic, conducted enough research, and chosen a good title, then you need to outline your blog post. Having an outline will make the writing process go more smoothly. Your outline should highlight all the main topics you’re going to address and in what order. It’s important to break up your content into smaller sections so they’re easier to digest. Make sure you include descriptive headers for each section as well.

Step 4: Fill in the details

After the outline is created, now it’s time to write the blog post. You want to fill in the sections of the outline with accurate and interesting content. You have a lot of flexibility when it comes to writing the blog post, but as with any other written content, your blog post should have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

Your introduction should be captivating right off the bat and entice people to keep reading. The body of the blog post is when you’ll get into the details of the subject, but you don’t want to make it too long and confusing. Stick to the topic and avoid unnecessary fluff. The conclusion should tie all your points together and ends the blog post on a positive note. Usually, the conclusion is just a few sentences or one to two short paragraphs.

Step 5: Add imagery that compliments the copy

Every blog post should have some sort of imagery within it that compliments the copy. A big wall of text can be intimidating, so it’s a good idea to break up your copy. When the copy is broken up by eye-catching visuals that match the subject, it can keep the reader engaged. When you use images in your blog posts, make sure they match the topic and tone of the copy.

Step 6: Edit your blog post

Once all the copy in your blog post is written and you’ve added a couple of images, then you need to edit your blog post. Check for grammatical errors, incorrect links, or any information that can be cut out. Editing your blog post is critical so that you can deliver the best content to your audience.

Blog post examples

There are various types of blog posts that you can write. It’s a good idea to change up your blog post format from time to time to keep things interesting. Here are some common blog post examples:

How-to’s

How-to’s are a very popular type of blog post because they’re simple and straight to the point. A how-to blog post is pretty self-explanatory. It explains to a reader how to do a specific task. Sharing information in the form of a how-to blog post is a great way to build credibility with your customers because it shows them that you know what you’re talking about and that you’re here to help.

Lists

Lists are often very popular because they have great readability and are well-organized. In fact, you probably come across list blog posts on a daily basis. A list blog post is a very easy and effective way to get your information across to your audience. It's definitely a good idea to throw in a couple of list blog posts on your website from time to time. And when you do, make sure to put the number of items in the blog post title, it’s a great way to catch a reader’s eye.

Infographics

If you want to switch things up when it comes to the visuals of your blog posts, infographics are the way to go. Rather than writing all your content in a blog post, an infographic gets the same message across but uses graphic elements instead. Infographics can be visually stimulating and are a great way to present data or numerical information like statistics.

Plus, infographics are highly shareable, which means your business can get in front of more eyes.

Conversational

A conversational blog post is a great way to connect with your customers. A conversational blog post connects the reader with the writer and helps to build a relationship between the two. A conversational blog post should be casual, relatable, and genuine.

Interviews

An interview-style blog post is an easy way to gather relevant information about a topic, especially if you don’t have the time to conduct the research yourself. To write an interview blog post, pick a topic that you want to discuss with the interviewee and write down a series of questions you’re going to ask. Then once the interview is finished, all you have to do is turn those questions and answers into a blog post format.

Blog post format FAQs

When you’re first starting out, you’ll likely have a lot of questions about managing and writing a blog. The FAQs below should answer some of the most pressing questions you need to have addressed so you can take the next steps.

How to start a blog post

To start a blog post, you just need to pick a topic that you’re interested in, conduct research, choose a descriptive blog name, and then write it. You can write a blog post about virtually any topic, as long as it’s relevant and interesting.

What do you include in a blog post?

There are various components that you should include in a blog post, such as:

• A captivating title
• An interesting lead paragraph
• Good supporting points
• A conclusion with a call to action (CTA)

How long should a blog post be?

There is no requirement for how long a blog post should be, but as a general rule of thumb. In order to help you rank in search engines, you should see how long your competitors’ blog posts are as a starting point. Your blog posts on the same topic should be as long, if not longer.

Your blog post should be long enough that it includes all the necessary information that you want to get across, but not too lengthy that it becomes cumbersome.

Using Mailchimp to promote your blog posts

You can write the best blog posts out there, but the key is promoting them correctly to reach the biggest audience possible. That’s where Mailchimp can help. You can use Mailchimp to promote your blog posts in an effective way that attracts new customers and expands your audience.

Leverage your blog to build your business

Having a blog is important for any business, which is why it’s so important to have a solid understanding of how to write a blog post. Having a blog for your business can help you build trust with your audience, drive website traffic, attract new customers, and promote your business. And if you need help with writing and sharing your blog posts, you can use Mailchimp.

Mailchimp is an all-in-one marketing platform that you can use to share your blog posts and manage your website. Mailchimp can help with everything from creating a blog post to adding blog posts to email campaigns, so you can write successful content that you’re proud to share with your readers and prospective customers.