At a time when a kitten in a bath tub gets more views and social shares than businesses solving multi-million dollar problems, it’s no wonder companies find it difficult to produce content that resonates with people on the Web—especially when it comes to blogging. But through an internal analysis of 745 blog posts dating back to September 2009, we have determined five consistently successful strategies that will make your content more contagious than kittens.
For this analysis, each post was classified by one of 10 strategies listed in the Blog Post Optimization Guide. The top-performing quartile (185 posts) was examined and the findings for the top five strategies have been summarized in the table below.
[Bracket] Title
This strategy conveys to your audience that you are offering a valuable content asset along with your blog post, such as a [Video], [Infographic], [Template] or [Guide]. This value proposition situated within your post’s title is perhaps the most effective to get your content viewed and shared, but the hard part is creating enough of these assets to offer on a regular basis. As seen in the table above, this strategy consistently drives the most views and also provides a premium conversion rate at nearly twice the percentage of most other approaches. It also resulted in the highest average engagement with the audience.
Thought Leadership
Out of our 185 best-performing blog posts, 51 of them (28 percent) were written with a strategic thought leadership approach. The purpose of thought leadership is to use facts and well-articulated language to position the author as an expert in the industry and educate the audience, thus lending credibility to his or her organization. This is often done by providing commentary on industry trends based on specific learning experiences. There are few things more valuable than showing your audience that you’re willing to share what you’ve discovered with them—and this is the reason for the high call-to-action conversion rate as well.
How-To
This strategy is the simplest way to show your audience that you want to help them solve a problem. As told by digital marketing strategist Jay Baer, “Sell something and you make a customer today. Help someone and you make a customer for life.” This approach has proved to be true, and your blog can be the most cost-effective way to help as many people as possible.
Bold/Controversial Statement
Controversial topics and bold declarations are a surefire way to get eyes on your blog posts. In order to be effective, you must offer a new position or perspective on a well-known matter in your industry. For example, Why Most Marketers Have Online Demand Generation All Wrong. The controversial nature of this strategy often produces quality feedback and interaction with your blog—and this engagement opportunity with your audience is a huge bonus.
Top X List
Viewers know exactly what they’re getting themselves into when they click on this link. For example, Top 10 2013 First World Marketing Problems. This is a blogging strategy that relies on the crucial importance of getting the initial impulse click from your viewer. This approach lays out the value proposition of your blog post in a way that effectively portrays convenience and is inherently enticing to humans.
The most effective blog posts keep your target audience coming back for more—whether for entertainment, education or simply help with a problem. The five strategies listed above can be your best weapons when it comes to doing what blogs are supposed to do – and that’s getting your content in front of qualified sets of eyeballs to fill the top of your inbound funnel. In particular, usage of the [Bracket] Title strategy when applicable is essential for getting your blog the attention it deserves in the digital space. You’ll find that these posts tend to get shared most often via social media as well.
Can you tell which blog strategies I used for this post? Theoretically, this one could be a high performer! Feel free to learn more about effective blogging strategies by downloading the Blog Post Optimization Guide today.
Read more: