Have you read the 2021 Orbit Media survey on blog content strategies? Orbit Media has conducted this annual survey for nearly a decade so they have enough data to identify trends. This year’s results show some interesting shifts but the data supports my perspective: good writing wins out over SEO every time.
My Take-Aways
- Blogging is most successful when you have a well thought out blog content strategy, know what metrics are important to you, then track them.
- Wondering whether blogging is worth the work? The answer is indisputably yes. Seventy-seven percent of the 1,067 survey respondents agree blogging drives results; 20% say it delivers strong marketing results.
- How-to blogs are the most common yet least read format. Content round-ups are much less popular with bloggers but much more appealing to readers. Good news: round-ups are easy to write once you have a process in place. (For a great example of content round-up, see NextDraft by Dave Pell.)
- Blog length isn’t as important as content relevance and (ahem) good writing. The survey found the average blog runs a bit more than 1,400 words. That’s not a magic number that guarantees success; blog length should be driven by the content.
In sum, have a content strategy; implement it with well-written text that your audience cares about. If you need inspiration, curate content from relevant sources.
Don’t Let Blog Content Strategies Scare You
Creating a realistic blog content strategy that works for you takes a bit of thought. However, once in place, you’ll find it cuts down on the effort of creating a blog on a regular basis. I wrote a blog on this that will get you started. If you need more help, let me know.