Exploring the Best Practices in Blog Writing

As an intern, copywriter or any other writing-focused professional in the corporate world, you may find yourself tasked with blog writing on an almost daily basis. Luckily for me, an intern at Verdin, blog writing is one of my favorite day-to-day assignments. However, once I’ve gotten in the rhythm of writing for a certain brand, it can become tricky to avoid sounding monotonous. I recently read some helpful blogs (oh, the irony!) that delved into best practices for blog writing, and I’ve compiled the best of the best here to share.

Catch your audience’s attention, right away

Do this is with a strong headline, as those are the first words your audience will read. As you scroll through the internet and come across intriguing and eye-catching headlines, save them for later! When it’s time to concoct your own blog post, you can play around with the wording, take out non-applicable phrases and whittle these headlines down to the appropriate framework.

In preparation for this blog, I wrote down a few phrases that stuck out to me in the past. After removing irrelevant words from these headlines, this is what I came up with:

• Easy, Breezy, Blogging

  • I have a particularly attentive reaction to alliteration, and this classic CovergirlⓇ tagline was begging for a (non-cosmetic) makeover. I prefer short and sweet headlines, so I knew this would work well for writing about a “letter B” topic like blogging.

• Exploring the Best Practices in Blog Writing

  • I’ve seen “Exploring the World of___” headlines all over the internet. One that especially stuck out to me was “Exploring the World of Astronomy,” mostly because I thought it was kind of funny to say “the World of Astronomy.” I find that “the World of” is overused and unnecessarily wordy, but “exploring” is a strong and visual verb, so I used it as my frame for this headline.

• Blogging for Dummies

  • You guessed it! This headline is inspired by the classic “dummies” how-to books. I like this headline simply because it is self-explanatory and capable of reaching an incredibly wide audience while maintaining a hint of comedic flair. Plus, nobody will have to second-guess the topic.

Keep your audience engaged with quality content

A good headline is important for audience engagement, but it will never matter if the content doesn’t maintain audience interest throughout. When writing a blog post, think about these three things:

1. WHY you are writing the post (What’s your end goal? What important information does your audience need to know? Why should they care?)

2. A PERSONAL STORY about the content. (Will your readers believe you truly care about this content? Will they sense your passion?)

3. DATA to provide a skeleton for your own words. (Who else has written about this? What are the facts about this subject?)

Your data may look wildly different depending on the type of blog you are writing. Whether writing in the realm of academics, public relations, news, or other fields, you’ll probably bounce back and forth between extensive research or simply promoting your company’s event and its cause. In any case, block off time to thoroughly research your topic before your deadline. Once compiling the necessary, relevant information, organize it in an outline for your blog. The research is the core, and the actual writing will flow in between as filler.

End on a high note

Finishing up your blog in a decisive manner might not seem important, but it’s crucial that you not let your blog fade off at the end. This is supposed to be the quintessential blog, for goodness sake! Rather than summarizing what you said already, try tying your research or information back into your product or event. In other words, remind your audience why they should care, and how it relates to you or your brand specifically.

At Verdin, we want our blogs to differ from blogs or press releases floating around on the internet. So I always ask myself, “Why should our audience get this information from Verdin, as opposed to another outlet?” Asked and answered.