You probably already know how important the blogging process is for the success of your marketing efforts, which is why it is so important to learn how to start and manage a blog effectively in a way that supports your school.
Without blogging, you’ll find that your school will have some issues, such as search engine optimization (SEO), lack of advertising content for social networks, little influence with your parents and customers, and fewer pages you can use to share results and calls to action (CTA).
In this post, Digithrive For School will help you write a great blog post that your audience will actually want to read. Just follow our four simple steps below.
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Step 1: Plan, Plan, Plan
- Before you even sit down to start your blog you need to make sure you have everything need. Doing your homework first will save you time in the long run. Make sure you know what you want to blog about and how you choose a topic that will interest both you and your school’s audience, research your topic and check your facts
Step 2: Come up with a great title
- Creating good content is of course important if you intend to utilise a school blog, but people won’t want to read the content you create unless you have a great title to firstly draw them in.
- Blog titles are the first part of the blog that your readers will see and the part that is responsible for getting them to click and continue to read through. These are often what people use when they share your blog post, which means that when a reader likes your content enough to share it with their social network, it’s the part of the blog that their followers will see.
- The success of your blog post very much depends on creating a great title in the first instance.
Step 3: Your Content
- So now you need to actually start writing your content. Start with your Introduction, then the main body, and end with a conclusion and call to action.
- First, grab the reader’s attention. If you lose the reader in the first few sentences of your introduction, they’ll stop reading. Then, describe the purpose of your post and explain how it will address a problem your reader may be experiencing, giving the reader a reason to continue reading. If you struggle to write your introduction do this last. Once you have the body of your blog you may find the introduction easier to write.
- Write down everything you already know and, if necessary, do further research to gather additional information, examples and data to support your points, provide appropriate satisfaction and including external sources. In doing so, always try to find accurate and reliable data to use in your work
- Use bullet points. Many readers like to skim blogs before they decide if they wish to continue reading them. Bullet point keeps sentences and paragraphs short making it easier for your audience to read.
- Conclusions should be kept short and sweet. Mostly you will have said all you need in the main content of your blog piece so a paragraph is all you need here. Don’t forget to include your Call to Action
Step 4: Edit and Proofread
- Of course you will check your spelling and grammar but it’s good practice to ask a colleague to check your work also. Often a fresh set of eyes will see your work differently. Ask for their thoughts on the flow of the piece and whether it makes sense.
- Read your blog out loud to yourself or get Google to do this for you. This can help you check the flow of your blog. If you find yourself struggling with the flow of a sentence when you read aloud this most likely means the reader will also.
- Check for repetition. Once you have read through your blog piece check for any repetition of words or phrases and replace where necessary.
Now you’ve spent time creating your blog it’s time to get posting. Don’t forget to ask your audience to share and comment on your piece.
Like most skills, writing your school’s blogs will become easier and feel natural the more you do it. When you first start it may seem like a long process, but with practice, you’ll be blogging like a pro in no time. Great blog posts have a long life span, so the extra effort you put in will pay for itself several times over
If you would like more professional tips on marketing your schools do get in touch with the Digithrive For School’s team who are always happy to help. contact us here