Like a series of art, a thematic blog series can help to effectively engage or entertain an audience, deconstruct complex topics and grow your recognition.
The type and length of your blog series depends entirely on your brand and your content marketing goals – planning, structure and execution are what make it successful.
The first step is to choose a topic that aligns with the theme of your website or is related to your brand. If you’re a gardening website or business, you could do an indefinite, weekly series on DIY garden supplies.
Tony Haile, CEO of Chartbeat, a web analytics company, reported in 2014 that 55% of people spend less than 15 seconds on a web page. If you’re writing posts upwards of 1,000 words, many users won’t make it past the first couple paragraphs. Breaking up a large post into smaller chunks will keep your reader’s attention. For example, if you’re a political website, you could write an in-depth, month-long weekly series deconstructing a recent bill or movement, as opposed to cramming all the information in a single post.
Once you’ve decided on your topic and run-time, you’ll want to plan out possible post topics and their publish dates and, if you’re series is limited, plan out the number of posts. Organize this information in a spreadsheet and make note of the key points you want to address. You might also want to consider any additional voices you can add to your blog posts – incorporating interviews and guest writers can help you to access their audience.
Each post should follow more-or-less the same structure. The format you choose is entirely up to you, although there are some tips to keep in mind:
The last tip is important. Your readers will appreciate consistency as this will allow them to connect each post, despite time having passed.
Post your blogs on a schedule, and at times where you know you’ll have peak interest from your audience. You can find out this information by performing analytics on your site traffic. As well, posting blogs earlier in the week as opposed to later will draw in more interest.
Writing a thematic blog series takes work, but the payoff in terms of readership is worth it. Using the proper planning, structure and execution will help you to access a new audience and engage current readers.
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