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Making the Most of How-To Content Marketing Blogs

How Can You Master How-To Content Marketing Blogs? A classic, existing since the very beginning of blogging, the how-to post is one of the most popular types of content marketing blogs. HubSpot, for instance, reports that they receive, on average, 55 percent more views on their how-to posts than any other type of content in their Hubspot blog. However, to harness this potential, you need to master the skills of writing a great how-to.

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1. Decide On Content Marketing Blog Topics

Every great blog post focuses on a single topic that marketers are confident their readers will find interesting or useful, and how-to posts should be no different. As a part of your website content strategy, a how-to must also relate back to your products or services and lead prospects closer to a sale.

If you are stuck for content marketing blog ideas, sit down with your team and generate a list of potential blog topics. You may be able to find inspiration in many places, including ideas from offer employees and customers. If you are lucky, you may even brainstorm more ideas than you need right now, which you can then add to your editorial calendar for later. There is no need to decide on a title just yet; simply note down topics or outcomes.

2. Work Through Steps Methodically

The next stage of your blog content strategy is to outline the steps your readers will need to take to achieve their desired outcome. Creating a plan, rather than jumping straight into writing, will ensure that you neglect nothing and help you develop a post that is easy for your audience to follow.

It may be that there is more than one way of ordering the steps. In this case, Daily Blog Tips recommends either using the most logical order or starting with the simplest stages and progressing through to the more challenging. You may even like to end the post with a few optional steps. Once you have decided on an order, note down each step using either a subheading or an overview.

Related: What is a Digital Content Strategy? And Why You Need One

3. Create an Introduction and Write the Steps

Now you are ready to start writing your first draft of your content marketing blogs. Depending on your personal preferences, you may like to begin with the introduction or with the body.

Introduction

The introduction needs to tell readers why it would be beneficial for them to read your how-to content marketing blogs and specifically what they can expect to achieve after completion. It may be that your audience are already convinced that they need to learn the instructions, in which case a few sentences is sufficient. Otherwise, write a longer explanation and back up your opinions with statistics or facts from a reputable source.

Body

You already have a map to create the body of your post, but take these tips into consideration when developing points into instructions to ensure your post is effective:

  • Address your audience directly in the second person voice and with imperative verbs.
  • Provide readers with alternatives that will enable them to adapt the instructions to meet their needs.
  • Always be very specific; if readers get lost or confused, they may give up on your post, which could lose you a potential lead. Cut the jargon and explain everything in detail.
  • Include links to related instructions, either from your own blog or another site. This will allow you to keep the post to a reasonable length but enable beginners to the subject stay on track. Furthermore, links will help optimize your content.

3. Enhance Your Post with Illustrations

Visuals break up the monotony of a solid piece of text and aid your readers in understanding the instructions. Use diagrams that guide your audience through a particular step, charts that display relevant information, or any other images that otherwise demonstrate the task at hand.

4. End How-To Content Marketing Blogs with a Conclusion

Finish your post with a conclusion, that allows you to tie everything mentioned in the post together, and a call-to-action (CTA) — for instance, your CTA could detail how your products or services can help readers get more out of the how-to. However, your CTA can be just about anything that leads prospects further down the sales funnel.

5. Rewrite the Title

Up until this point, you still have a working title, probably something descriptive but none too engaging. As you will know from your experience writing content, a good title is essential for the success of your post. Now you are able to examine the content, you can finalize its title.

How-to content marketing blogs have a great potential for success. Master the format and you may be able to bring a great deal of traffic to your blog. To learn more about why content marketing blogs are so crucial to your success, check out our white paper for content marketing tips, "What is Content Marketing? And Why It's So Important!"

Topics: Content Format

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