You Can Blog Like a Boss

By Carrie Cousins

Thank you to Valley Business FRONT for featuring our Director of Digital Marketing, Carrie Cousins, in their May 2024 issue.

After writing some 1,500-plus posts for a variety of clients, I can almost claim to be an expert blogger.

I’ve written about nonprofit fundraising, retail business, website design, a variety of tools, outdoors and tourism, photography, and plenty of other things. Some posts were better than others but they all served a common purpose – to help users find the website for which they were written while telling a good brand story.

I recently spoke on this topic with AAF Roanoke and a class at Virginia Tech and thanks to their feedback, I’m sharing it with you.

Blogging and storytelling plays a huge role in your website’s search engine optimization strategy and even business success. And while there’s not a one-size-fits all solution, I have learned a few things that you can replicate if you want to blog like a boss.

First and foremost, a solid blogging strategy is rooted in good storytelling. As you continue to tell your story over time, that content creates a strong foundation for your website and helps search engines better understand your brand.

This doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s not necessarily easy. But blogging can be rewarding in the long run and can be a vital part of a long-term digital marketing strategy.

Here’s how you do it:

• Do Your Homework: What story do you need to tell? What should readers do after they engage with your content? You need to do some legwork and set a goal for every piece of content you plan to create. Know who you want to talk to, what keywords are important, why they should care, and what users should do next.
  
• Tell a Story That Humans Want to Read: Every story has a formula – it has a beginning, middle, and end often with conflict and resolution – and you’ve crafted something people want to read. AI also has a pretty distinct formula that can’t get close to the authenticity of human copywriting. (Plus, using AI could lead to duplicate content issues online!) Margaret Atwood said it best: “You’re never going to kill storytelling, because it’s built in the human plan. We come with it.”
  
• Think Keyword Times Three: Every keyword needs to be used a minimum of three times in a blog post – in the title, in the first paragraph, and in a subhead. You can use it more, depending on the length of the post, but not more times than feels like natural reading. (When it feels natural delete one instance and then you should be safe.)
  
• Write Short Paragraphs with One Thought Each: Themed paragraphs should be short and sweet, with just a couple of sentences each. Consider this formula for blog paragraphs: Statement of fact for what this paragraph is about. Supporting facts, metrics, or information to solidify the thought. Finish with a strong statement or quote to support the idea.
  
• Optimize Blog Post Length: Google recommends a blog post length of at least 300 words. That’s a realistic minimum to say something meaningful. What’s more interesting is that most of the top-ranking blog posts in Google search can actually top 2,000 words! That doesn’t mean you have to wax poetic every time; write to the length that your story needs to be effective. Then check the word count. If your story is super short, you might not have enough content right now and should come back to the idea later. If it is exceptionally long, is all of the content valuable as a single post or would it make sense to break it into multiple, shorter posts? It’s ok to incorporate and interchange short-form and long-form content in your blog strategy.

This is just the tip of the iceberg; you can download the rest of the slide deck with the more technical tips at leadpointdigital.com/aafroa. I hope it tells a story that resonates with you.

Carrie Cousins is the Director of Digital Marketing at LeadPoint Digital in Roanoke. For 15+ years, she has helped businesses tell their stories and get better results online with practical digital marketing strategies. She also an active leader in AAF, serving on the local and district boards, and is an adjunct professor at Virginia Tech.