Developing a unique blogging style that effectively communicates your message and resonates with your target audience is crucial for blogging success. Your writing style represents your brand voice and sets the tone for your blog. When done right, it creates an emotional connection with your readers, keeps them engaged, and has them coming back for more.
With so many successful blogs out there, it can be tempting to emulate other writing styles. However, the most effective styles are authentic and personalized. Finding your own distinct blogging voice involves experimentation, feedback, and refining your approach. Follow these steps to discover your ideal blogging style:
Establish Your Content Goals
Before settling on a style you need to understand what you want to achieve with your blog content. Some key questions to ask yourself include
-
What is the purpose of my blog? Is it to entertain. inform inspire or educate readers?
-
Who is my target audience? What do they want and need from my content?
-
What topics and themes align with my blog niche and areas of expertise?
-
What calls-to-action do I want to drive through my content e.g. subscribe, share, purchase etc?
Once you identify your content goals and intended outcomes, you can tailor your writing style accordingly. For instance, an informative blog requires a knowledgeable yet accessible style, while an entertaining style should be witty, humorous or quirky.
Evaluate Your Target Audience
The next step is gaining insight into your ideal reader. Invest time understanding their:
-
Demographics – location, age brackets, gender, income levels etc. This indicates topics and styles they may relate to.
-
Pain points & goals – what challenges do they face? How can your content help address these?
-
Interests & values – what do they care about? What content format and tone would appeal to them?
-
Reading habits – when, where and how do they consume content? This affects aspects like post length and visual elements.
Really get to know your audience and what makes them tick. Their preferences should directly inform your blogging voice and style choices.
Review Your Brand Image
Your blogging style should align with your overall brand image rather than work against it.
-
Analyze your brand values, mission statement, visual identity, logo, slogan, and other marketing. Extract keywords that describe your brand’s personality e.g. sophisticated, rebellious, helpful etc.
-
Study brands with a similar image to yours. What aspects of their content style resonate with your values?
-
If your brand lacks a defined image, establish one first before developing your blogging style.
Matching your content voice with your brand image creates cohesion across channels. Readers come to expect and appreciate your unique style.
Discover a Unique Angle
With your goals, audience and brand in mind, brainstorm how you can put a fresh spin on topics in your niche.
-
Use your experiences – inject your blog with interesting anecdotes and insights from your own life. This creates a personal, relatable voice.
-
Take a stance – if you have a strong opinion on a topic, use your blog to take a stand. Passion is compelling for readers.
-
Provide uncommon solutions – offer alternatives to standard advice others commonly suggest.
-
Leverage your quirks – let your weirdness and humor shine through. Quirky blogs like Marc and Angel Hack Life attract loyal followings.
Determine what makes you uniquely qualified to discuss certain subjects. Then translate this into an engaging point of view or approach on your blog.
Review Grammar Rules
No matter your blogging style, you need a strong grasp of grammar rules like:
-
Proper punctuation – for example, knowing when to use commas, periods, semicolons etc.
-
Correct sentence structure – avoid run-on sentences, fragments, improper syntax.
-
Subject-verb agreement – subjects and verbs should properly align in number and person.
-
Appropriate tense use – stick to past, present or future tense as needed within sentences.
-
Spelling and capitalization – avoid words spelled incorrectly or inconsistent capitalization.
If grammar is not your forte, use tools like Grammarly to fix errors. Proper grammar bolsters your credibility with readers.
Select Your Formatting Guidelines
Nail down standards for formatting elements like:
-
Headings – typically utilize an H1 for the title, H2’s for key sections, and H3’s for subsections. Stick to a hierarchy.
-
Paragraphs – keep paragraphs short and scannable, around 2-5 sentences each.
-
Lists – break up blocks of text with bulleted or numbered lists when possible.
-
Links – hyperlink keywords to necessary external resources. Don’t overdo links.
-
Images – incorporate visuals that complement your posts. Optimize them for style, size and alt text.
-
Emphasis – use italics, bolding and underlining judiciously to highlight key points.
Consistent formatting is part of your unique style. It also enhances readability for your audience.
Update Your Style Based on Feedback
Treat your blogging style as a work in progress. Use reader feedback and analytics to gauge what resonates and what falls flat.
-
Comments – which posts or elements generate the most comments? Take note of content your audience interacts with.
-
Shares – increased social shares can indicate your style strikes a chord with readers. Pay attention to your hits.
-
Pageviews and traffic sources – posts with more traction likely have an appealing style. Review your analytics to identify these.
-
Emails and surveys – directly ask your subscribers what they love and want more of. Incorporate suggestions to refine your approach.
-
Reviews and testimonials – positive reviews with style-related feedback are useful for improvement. Complaints also provide valuable insight.
Keep evolving your blogging style based on what works. Be authentic, take risks and your unique voice will develop over time.
Are there different blogger voices?
Yes! One can adopt a few different types of blogger voices when writing. Best Writers Online, a writing services reviewer, says there is a division of informative, opinionated, personal, instructional, and conversational bloggers. Let’s dive into these notions!
Informative bloggers focus on providing accurate, factual information to their readers and often use research-based evidence to support their claims. They tend to have a more formal writing style and avoid giving any personal opinion or insight into the topic they’re discussing.
Opinionated bloggers take an active stance on the topics they discuss, sharing their viewpoints and offering counterarguments from others who hold opposing views. Their writing is typically more passionate than informational blogging because it involves expressing solid beliefs about a particular subject.
Personal bloggers write about their own lives and experiences, often in a diary-like format. These blogs are usually written from a first-person perspective and can be used as an outlet for the writer to share their thoughts and feelings on any given topic.
Instructional bloggers focus on teaching readers how to do something, such as cooking a recipe or building furniture. They employ step-by-step instructions, helpful tips, visuals, and other resources so readers can follow along and apply what they’ve learned.
Conversational bloggers use dialogue or storytelling techniques to create an informal atmosphere encouraging readers to engage with the content. This style is often employed by lifestyle bloggers and can be used to develop a sense of community among readers.
Each type of blogger’s voice has unique qualities and benefits, so it’s essential to figure out which works best for you when writing your blog posts. By understanding the different types of blogger voices, you can craft content that resonates with your audience and conveys the message you’re trying to share.
How To Find Your Unique Blogging Voice & Style Of Writing
It’s easy to get caught up in writing posts that everyone else likes or overthinking what other people want instead of letting your authentic voice come through in your blog posts.
Creators may have the fear that readers can tell that something needs to be corrected with the content and tend to engage less with the post. But it is not what happens. Instead, readers search for creative and fresh bloggers. But how to find out the authentic voice for your blog?
What is a blogging voice, and why is it essential?
Blogging voice is a unique style and approaches you to bring to your blog posts. Your blogging voice makes your writing stand out, sets you apart from other bloggers, and helps readers relate to what you’re saying. Developing a solid blogging voice requires practice, but there are some fundamental techniques you can use to help find yours.
Blog Post Topics: How to Get Endless Ideas for Blogging
What is your blog style?
Let’s do it. What Exactly is Your Blog Style? Your blog’s style is how you present your content. It can include visual aspects of your brand (like color palettes, font choices & layout elements )—but in this guide, we’re focusing primarily on developing your blog writing style, tone, formatting and the like.
Does your blog have a style guide?
Every great blog has a style guide. All of your favorite blogs likely are consistent in tone and imagery. But you’ve never really put pen to paper and articulated your style — it’s just something you make up as you go along, selecting the parts and pieces that seem to fit who you are and how you write.
How do I develop my blog writing style?
The best things you can do to develop your blog writing style are to read lots of other blogs in your niche and to write plenty of posts for your own blog. Pay attention to what you like and what works—in other people’s writing and in your own—and you’ll soon find yourself getting a good handle on your personal writing style.
How long should a blog style guide be?
Think four or five pages. In crafting a style guide, the most important part is knowing your blog inside and out. Know the types of phrases you use, the colors you like, and the audience you’re serving, that way you can articulate them clearly. Ultimately, a style guide is the key to creating a blog that’s consistent, credible, and impactful.
