Do you want to become a blogging star in your niche? These days, we are witnessing a blogging revolution but as more people blog, the quality of content is becoming more important. Creating a successful blog is not easy and it takes a lot of time, effort, patience and strategy. A blog content strategy is a necessity if you want to see good results. It will save you time, drive more traffic, and increase your chances to achieve success.

Wondering how to create a blogging strategy that works? Keep reading to find out.

Define your goals

You should clearly determine the purpose of your blog and decide what objectives you want to accomplish. This will help you stay focused on your topic and prevent you from cluttering your blog posts with unnecessary content. You may want to build a brand, educate your customers and prospects on what you do, generate leads, increase sales, drive traffic to your website etc. You should set realistic goals and be specific.

When you have a good understanding why you do it, it’s time to start thinking what kind of content you need. To do that, you should perform some target market research.

Define your target audience

You should establish the target audience for your blog and publish content that would entertain your readers. You need to narrow your audience down to an exact group of people. Then it will be easier for you to focus on creating content that appeals to them and reach them with your advertising and marketing messages. For example, you may create a blog for people that learn English as the second language and post articles devoted to different aspects of the English language, grammar quizzes, give advice on effective language learning strategies etc.

You can use multiple criteria to identify your target audience such as age, occupation, education, geographic area, level of income, hobbies etc.

Develop a content strategy

Think about topic ideas and keywords you are going to target. If you don’t know where to start, conduct a content audit of 5-10 of your closest competitors. Find out what information they provide their audience and identify the keywords they are targeting. Try to write better content for those keywords and present your information in a more unique and memorable way.

Make a list of keywords you want to rank (high volume and their associated long-tail keywords) and include them in your blog posts. Keep in mind that Google is constantly changing its algorithms and that the old tactic of keyword stuffing won’t do. You should create impressive content that will engage your readers and only after that take into account search engines.

Consider different types of content you can post on your blog:

• guides
• how-to’s
• infographics
• interviews
• e-books
• case studies
• surveys
• videos
• quizzes
• photos, and more

If you want to set your blog apart from your competitors, you need to demonstrate that you as a blogger have a unique personality and your own voice. You can incorporate your own ideas or expertise into all your blog entries or publish proprietary information such as timely facts or research.

Include a lot of high-quality relevant images and format your content for skimming (use headers, sub-headers, bulleted lists etc.). Keep the overall look of your blog professional and make your posts easy to read and to understand.

Create a schedule

Consistency is crucial here. Your task is to build and maintain a steady audience so the more you post, the more successful your blog will be. Create a calendar and post regularly – once a day or at least 2-3 times a week. But if you have a great idea for your post, publish it immediately. Don’t delay because of your schedule.

Promote your content

Don’t miss this step. No matter how amazing your posts are, you are missing a great opportunity to attract your audience’s attention if you don’t promote your content. Encourage your readers to post comments and interact with each other. Include a “Share” button and make it easy for your readers to share your blog entries on social media. You may also use paid advertising.

Of course, it may be tempting to create your blog posts as they come to your mind but developing a blog content strategy will increase your chances to achieve success.