Blogging, writing ads, creating offers and emails for your salon all take a bit of planning and skill.

It’s not an easy task to get right, but content and copy tell your story to your customer and lets them know how you can help them.

It develops the ‘like, know and trust’ factor. This in turn draws them in and creates customers from your website, email recipients and Facebook visitors.

You can hire someone to do the writing and copy for you or…  master a few skills for yourself.

Try this along with our Blogging & Branding Checklists to really accelerate your skills. Join the Social Hub and get your copy here…

Blogging Basics.

Engage your readers and stop them scrolling or bouncing off to somewhere more interesting. Use this checklist to get your message across without missing the essential elements.

Writing a good blog post for your website takes a bit of planning. Creating content for your business website and social platforms is a cornerstone of digital marketing.

Why?
Creates authority
Builds relationships
Gets potential customers to your website and social platforms

You can also create audiences for re-targeting, furthering relationship building, building trust, and turning LIKES into real buyers.

How do you make sure the time you spend doing this is worthwhile and profitable?

Elements of a good blog post

• Compelling Headline
• Engaging Introduction
• Easy Readability
• Goal/CTA
• Media
• Close
• SEO
• Consistency

HEADLINE

What is a great headline?
A clear, “tightly-written” promise is made using as many words as necessary.
The promise made in the headline is delivered upon in the body of the post.
The headline is compelling without being misleading or “hype-y.”

These are good…

• How to Treat the Most Frustrating Hair Styling Problems.
• Are You Making This Common Mistake with your Hair Straightener?
• 5 Common Hair Washing Mistakes That Cause Lank Hair.
• 3 Tips for using your Hairstyling Brush without damaging your hair.

INTRODUCTION

A good introduction is…

Copy that is extremely easy to consume and develops a rhythm for the post.
Draws the reader in and compels them to read the entire article.

The idea here is to open with a simple sentence that is easy to read and that builds curiosity.

Here are a few examples of this type of opening line:

• You’ve finally found it.
• Here’s the big misconception…
• Stop me if you’ve heard this before.

READABILITY

Get this one right otherwise, the readers will just keep on scrolling and bounce to somewhere more interesting. This is where you deliver your promise, tell your information and build trust with the reader.

Your post needs to be easy to consume. Content should just flow and answer the questions posed in the introduction and back up the promise made in the headline.

Formatting is easy on the reader and delivers the content with no jarring.
Transitions between ideas is congruent with the content.
Use of white space, headings, fonts and bullet points etc. is optimised to break up the text.
A story is told with a definite path.

GOAL/CTA

Blog copy must have a goal. That means…

A clear call-to-action ‘CTA’ is made that is relevant to the content in the blog or ad.
CTA is compelling so your potential customer takes the desired action goal.
Located in one or more prominent positions within the post or on the ad.

With Facebook, this can be the appropriate button. But remember, using the ‘Shop Now’ with customers who don’t know you so well has limited success. In a post on your website, this could be a way to get them to look at an offer page you have created.

CLOSE

VERY Important!

No point getting all the info across and then not telling your readers what to do next.

Elements of an exceptional blog post close:

The close effectively concludes and summarises the post.
The reader is encouraged and feels the desire to like, comment and share the information. Social share buttons work well here.

The closing of the article can often take it from good to great.

Remember this is where the reader will decide to share the post, comment, click on your CTA, dive deeper into your site.

Ultimately this is the desired action and what you want your reader to do next to engage in your customer journey. You have got them to read this far. They like your content, so make use the faith they have put in you and close with a great next step.

Like this one…

Take the hard work out of writing your emails, posts and ads with our handy Blogging & Branding Checklists. Join the Social Hub and get your copy here…

SEO

Now the engine tasks that make your post fly… SEO.

Search engine optimisation is how you get your content found on the internet. This is not so applicable to a Facebook ad and Instagram copy, but very relevant for Pinterest and Google.

Now you can optimise all the hard work you have done by making the post searchable and easy to find. It is a once over check, however, you will get better results if you plan this out from the beginning.

Focus keywords help you frame up the content, decide on your headline and headings and understand if your content is something people want to know enough about to search for.

‘Hairstyles for a Mature woman with Grey Hair’

‘Balayage Hair Colour Trends’

‘Latest Pixie Cuts’

All have relevant keywords that your customers could be searching for.

Make sure

Use internal links to other content where relevant.
All 5 areas are optimised for the focus keyword. URL, body, text, images, title tag and meta description.
Tags and categories are completed.

Start with the end in mind

Next, it’s your turn.

We say start with the end in mind.

So start with the problems your customer’s face and find a keyword that relates. What journey do you want your customer to take after they click on an ad or read a post or blog? Plan the CTA you want someone to make before you create your ad or post.

Run these checks

• Does the post deliver on the opening promise?
• Is the post on brand? Check fonts, headlines, images
• Is the post relevant to the image of the business?
• Does the blog have a customer success path?
• Is it clear what you want your reader to do next?
• Are you clear on what you want your reader to do next?