How to define strong blog writing guidelines with ghostwriters
Brands with a solid blog publication strategy get 67 percent more leads than businesses that don't blog. For today's audience, informative content is the way to go!
However, it takes an average of 3.5 hours to write a single blog post. If you're trying to publish multiple blogs per day or week, there may not be enough hours in the day.
That's why blog ghostwriters and guest bloggers are invaluable, and they add a fresh voice to your blog process while still championing your main message.
However, it's natural to worry about handing your content plan or blog process over to ghostwriters. What can you do?
Start by finessing your blog writing guidelines. By aligning goals and expectations, you can ensure that all blog submissions match your brand voice and goals.
We've assembled a guide to blog writing guidelines. You'll have guest blogging guidelines or ghostwriting rules prepared to further your content strategy. Let's get started!
1. Set standards
When it comes to blog writing guidelines, you need to pick a style to hold your blog writers to. Many brands prefer AP style, but Chicago, MLA, or APA are valid options.
Once you pick a style, all your writers will know how you expect their articles to be cited, formatted, and stylized. You won't have to field questions about the placement of Oxford commas anymore!
You can also expand your standards beyond where periods and commas go. You can also set standards for introductions—maybe for your blogs, the AIDA format is best.
2. What are your content goals?
When establishing blog writing guidelines, it's essential to develop some goals that help inform your editorial calendar.
The first question is: why are you creating content in the first place? Once you have the answer to this question, you'll be able to figure out whether certain pieces fit into your overall content strategy.
You can have lots of different goals for your content, including:
Building rapport with your audience
Inform your audience about pressing issues or headlines in your industry
Connect with customers and demonstrate empathy
Raise awareness regarding different issues
Generate or collect leads
Generate publicity surrounding your products
When you know what goals you have for each piece of content, you can ensure that your editorial calendar is balanced. One piece can focus on building rapport and connections, while another is focused on a hard sell for your products.
3. What strategies are you leveraging?
To succeed in the content world, you need to have a well-defined content plan. For instance, are you leveraging SEO strategies?
For comprehensive blog writing guidelines, you'll need to provide writers with critical pieces of information that play into SEO strategy.
How long your content should be
Keyword matrixes that help writers include SEO-friendly keywords
Ensuring that any images have alt text
Internal and external linking strategies
And more
Once you communicate what strategies you're leveraging, it's time to ensure that your blog submissions reflect your audience's priorities.
4. Who is your audience?
If you haven't yet created buyer personas to nail down your audience, now is the time. If your content is laser-targeted to your audience, you will be able to generate more leads, connections, and revenue.
Buyer persons need to include the following information:
Job title
Gender
Age
Income
Industry
Pain points
Fears
Challenges
Goals
Perceived barriers
And more
Once you know the practical facets of your target audience's life, then you will be able to serve them much better. After you dig into the psychological nitty-gritty of their fears and dreams, you'll be able to help them laser-focused content.
5. What are your editorial values?
Being able to provide value to your audience is critical to successful content. But you also need editorial values that guide each blog submission.
Start by naming the key concepts that govern your brand and messaging. Is your brand earth-shaking, planet-saving, game-changing? While these are big words to claim, it's time for your copy to aspire to more!
Once you've established value-oriented vital concepts, it's time to pick your core topics. These will be dictated by the industry you find yourself in.
For instance, you might work within real estate. Your core topics could involve moving tips, the home buying process, industry and market forecasts, real estate agent interviews, home renovations, mortgages, etc.
This will help you decide on individual pieces of content. If they fall outside your core topics, they may not be as valuable as you initially thought.
5. What Types of Content Do You Publish?
Different brands will prioritize different types of content. While blog writing guidelines are obviously for blogs, there are various forms of content.
Perhaps you prioritize listicle-style blog articles, complete with gifs that mimic a casual Buzzfeed style. Or, you may prefer to have authors ghostwrite content for thought leaders within your company. Or, you might choose to include case studies.
Nailing down the best content types is crucial if you are having ghostwriters or guest bloggers pitch to you. This will help save time for everyone and ensure that all the blog submissions you receive are on point.
6. Set the bar
When you start accepting blog submissions, there may be a learning curve for your blog process. After all, you may need to tweak guidelines to help ghostwriters and guest bloggers nail your brand voice.
It's essential to stick to your guns once you've set the bar with your blog writing guidelines. Don't accept articles with lots of fluff, meandering introductions, or poorly researched information.
This will help weed out poor blog submissions and ensure that every piece of your content plan is top-notch.
Setting blog writing guidelines
Now you're setting blog writing guidelines, congratulations! This will help your ghostwriters or guest bloggers produce top-notch blog submissions.
If you're interested in getting help with crafting the best content available, reach out to us today! We're excited to tackle your content goals.
