There’s nothing truer about being a public relations practitioner: it involves a great deal of writing. And it’s not enough to construct a grammatically sound sentence. You have to craft compelling content across the board—including press releases, media pitches, social media, and of course, blog posts. No pressure, though.
When it comes to writing blogs, you’ll see posts come in many forms: informative, persuasive, creative and more. The key to writing one well, though, is to incorporate all of these elements. It should be entertaining, yet revealing. Informative, and maybe a touch controversial. This approach will grab the reader’s attention and help them see things the way you do. Now you may ask, how do I do this? Well, here are seven quick tips to writing a captivating blog post:
1. Find your audience.
Who will be reading your blog? What information do they need to know? You must first determine who you will be writing for, then determine what you will be writing about.
2. Find the blog’s purpose.
What do you want to say and why? Is this piece meant to inform, persuade or empower? This is a big step in creating a blog post worthy of reading and sharing. It also helps you establish what points you need to touch on.
3. Find the facts.
Uncover supporting data points. These can come from previous research, surveys, blogs, articles and more. Take the time to search various sources and see what others have said about the topic. You might even find you have something completely unique to share—which attracts a lot of eyeballs.
4. Find an interesting title.
The first thing people see is a title and an image. You want to lure them in past the link preview and onto your site. It is imperative that your title is captivating and spikes curiosity. For example, people love a play on words or a cliffhanger.
5. Find your hook.
If the first couple of sentences aren’t enticing, readers will leave. Your intro must be attractive and entertaining. It must catch the reader’s attention and keep it.
6. Find your four points.
Be sure that you address the issue, cause, solution and action. Outlining your blog is a great way to organize your thoughts and determine what needs to be covered. Find a logical order, and stick to it to keep readers engaged until the end.
7. Find your ending.
End the piece like you started it, with the readers wanting more. You’ve informed the readers, while entertaining them with facts and humor, now conclude with something that has them agreeing with you.