As well as having a featured image to represent your blog, images can also be useful to include within your blog post too. They’re super useful to break up the text and help readers condense the information.
Some examples include:
- Infographics or diagrams
- How Tos or Step by Steps
- Before and Afters
- New product images
It’s important to ensure that your featured image is as captivating and eye catching as it can be, as this is likely to be what draws your reader to click in the first place!
Lists and Bullets
As well as images, design features like lists and bullets break up the text and make blog posts much easier for readers to take in and understand.
We use bullet points a lot in our posts, as they’re ideal for short bursts of information, showcasing data, and presenting lists. By separating your content into short lines it also makes the information easier for the reader to understand while also drawing attention to each line so it’s easier to pick out at a glance. This is especially helpful when you have information that users are likely to skim read, and they can be useful to guide your writing too and keeping your content on topic.
Try using other design features too like emboldening text, underlining and italics as well as headings to highlight important information and segment or signpost the piece.
Interactive Content
An interesting way to differentiate your blog post from your competitors’ and get readers to take action is by making your blog posts interactive. Don’t just take our word for it either, studies show that interactive content can drive double the conversions that static content can!
Although our last instalment in this series talked about the importance of writing engaging and captivating copy, it doesn’t end there. You also have to look past the writing and the images for a moment, and feature some interactive content within your blog too - not only to interest the reader but to offer them more value, increase their time spent on your site and encourage them to convert.
Now, it’s not as scary or as tricky as it sounds, and can even be as simple as a hyperlinked call to action, or your social share buttons! Interactive content is any content that requires and encourages users to actively engage with it rather than passively consume it - it’s a little extra something to make your post more memorable!
Some examples that you could try include:
- Calculators
- Interactive maps
- Before and after sliders (like the one Maisy used in this post!)
- Countdowns
- Surveys and polls
- Embedded videos
- Virtual tours
Links
Another way to encourage interaction from your blog readers is by including links throughout your content. This could be links to similar articles on your blog, other pages on your site such as Contact or About, or links to other relevant information and sources.
Both internal links and outbound links are integral to blogging; outbound links to external sites, such as data sources, help to build trust and credibility, add depth to your topic, and even facilitate building relationships with other businesses, while internal links to other pages on your site help to keep people on your site and teach them more about you.