Producing useful content is a marketing staple for many financial planning businesses. To get the most out of it, the task isn’t done when you’ve finished the blog; other steps could boost its success.

The good news is that people find value in blogs and seek them out. Indeed, according to Wix, 4 in 5 internet users regularly read blogs.

The bad news is you’re competing with a huge amount of content. It’s estimated that a staggering 7.5 million new blogs are published every day! So, after going to the effort of writing a blog, taking steps to improve its chances of success is worthwhile.

Remember, a successful blog post isn’t just about the number of views. Fewer readers who are the right fit for your business could be more valuable than a greater number who won’t be tempted to get in touch to discuss your services.

Read on to discover five things the Yardstick content team do before they tick off a blog on their to-do list.

1. Find an appropriate image

Saying images are important might seem strange when it comes from a team of copywriters, but it’s true.

An image can make your content more interesting and memorable. If you’re writing about how a good financial plan could help readers to see the world when they retire, an image showing a retiree doing just that could be compelling and reinforce the importance of your words.

So, once you’ve finished a blog, search for the right image. You want to find an image that reflects your audience and their aspirations. There are plenty of resources for free stock photos, such as Unsplash and Age Without Limits, to search.

2. Check the format of the blog

No one wants to click on a blog and be greeted with a wall of text. That doesn’t automatically mean you need to cut down your content. Rather, think about the format of your blog so that it’s easy to read.

Make sure there are regular subheadings that break up the text and highlight where readers can skip to if they’re looking for particular information.

If it’s suitable for your content, consider adding bullet points, tables, graphs, and graphics to create variety and keep readers engaged.

A quick scan of your blog when you’ve finished could lead to layout improvements that mean visitors stay on your website for longer and read your content to the end.

3. Link to sources

For some blogs, you’re likely to use statistics, quotes, or insights from other sources. As well as mentioning where it’s from, link to the appropriate page.

This can improve your blog’s credibility in the eyes of the readers and search engines.

If you have more than one option, consider which source has greater authority. A link to the BBC or Office for National Statistics will be more powerful than one to a blog with a handful of visitors.

4. Optimise the content for search engines

If you receive Yardstick content, you might have noticed sections for “keywords”, “meta description”, and “alt image text”. These are short pieces of text that could improve your search engine rankings, help you reach the right people, and may be valuable for your readers.

• Keywords – These help search engines understand the key topics of your content. You should ideally use your keyword in the title, opening paragraph, and throughout the blog.
• Meta description – This is the snippet of text that appears below the title on search pages. So, take the opportunity to grab the attention of potential readers by highlighting why they should click through to your page.
• Alt image text – This is a short description added to an image or graphic. It’s useful for helping search engines understand images, but it’s also important for accessibility as it can help visually impaired visitors understand the visual element of your content.

After you’ve finished writing your blog, spend 10 minutes optimising it for search engines to improve its reach.

5. Post it on social media

Social media is a great tool for letting people know you’ve posted new content. Once your blog is live, share a snippet and link.

If you take a look at Yardstick’s LinkedIn page, you’ll see we share all the blog posts that appear on our website.

It can feel nerve-wrecking putting your content out there, and you might worry about bothering people. Remember, they’ve chosen to follow you because they find your insights useful. If you focus on writing content that is relevant and interesting to your audience, your social posts linking to the latest content can be genuinely valuable.

Our social media team can work with the content team to ensure your social media channels are providing regular updates and links to your blogs, as well as team updates and more.

Need some tips for making the most of your social media? Make sure you read Abi’s blog: 8 powerful LinkedIn tips from our latest workshop

Bonus tip: Post content consistently

If your goal is to get more people to read your content, write blogs consistently.

If your audience knows you share useful content every month, they’ll start to keep an eye out for it. What’s more, if they have questions or are seeking information, they’re more likely to turn to your resources because they know they’re up to date.

Consistency can help when you’re trying to reach new prospects as well. Regular updates are one of the areas search engines consider when ranking your website. So, consistent posting could improve your search results and, in turn, boost traffic.

It’s not just posting regular content that’s important if you want to get the most out of your marketing efforts; your newsletter schedule is essential. Find out more in Kayleigh’s blog, where she explains why consistency matters and seven reasons to send a regular newsletter.

Get in touch

If you want to find out more about how our content team could help you create consistent, tailored blogs for your audience, please get in touch.

Email hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk or call 0115 8965 300 to speak to us today.