We know that not everyone is on the blogging bandwagon. We get it. However, blogging should be an integral part of your marketing strategy IF you:
Want to show couples you’re working (by sharing your best work)
Have things you want to share with your couples that go beyond the initial consultation
Want to share your expertise and better prepare your couples for working with you
You plan to use Pinterest
Want to increase your SEO
Want to drive traffic to your website (and keep people viewing instead of bouncing)
Now we’re going to walk you through the flow of your blog posts and what should be included in each.
Each post should include:
Title (your category + location + details- example: Alex + Jordan’s Charlotte XYZ Venue Wedding | Charlotte Wedding Planner)
Copy (body text)
Images (at least 1, up to 50ish)
Inbound + Outbound Links (linking to additional blog posts, links to participating vendors)
Tags/Categories (such as “real wedding” + “spring” “ballroom” “boho style”)
Customized hyperlink (the address of the blog)
We recommend drafting you text, loading your images, adding credits/backlinks THEN formatting at the very end.
Not sure what to write? We hear you! When sharing about a real wedding, a simple formula to follow:
Tell your readers about the venue or location (and what you love about it)
Tell your readers about the style
Share something personal about the couple
Tell them about what service or product of yours they used
Next up, think about how the content flows.
Vary your formatting.
Use the “headlines” to highlight important content and key search terms/words. Below is an example of how that to use each format type.
Your most important text should be a headline 1 (ex: titles within the post, top search terms).
Your secondary text, which is also important but not your “main” keyword should be headline 2. Think about the venue name, wedding style, the educational topic, etc.
Headline 3 is our favorite for lists, bullet points and other important content (such as vendor credits/back-links)
Quote style is for something you want people to really remember!
Headline 1
Headline 2
Headline 3
Quote
Aside from varying formatting, all blogs should also include images. There are so many fun ways to use images to break up the text. From collages (our favorite tool is BlogStomp) to sliders to galleries. If you don’t have many images to work with, or are focusing on a topic versus a real wedding, Pops of Pretty images are perfect fillers!
This image below is a collage style (long form are great for especially great for Pinterest).
This is the carousel style (also known as a slider).
This is a gallery style. This can be formatted in a variety of ways. This is considered a grid. If you love Instagram, this is the style that most closely mimics the platform. Thumbnails are great for a “clean” format, but be sure to add a lightbox feature (the option to click and make the image larger) to enhance the viewer’s experience.
Of course, having a consistent format is ideal, but switching things up keeps it interesting. So test a few and see what works best for your viewers and for you (tip- posts that include galleries tend to be faster to create than stacking single images).
Now that you know how to format your blog, let’s talk about pictures!
The most common thing you may miss is naming and adding alt text to your images.
When it comes to naming your images, the quickest “fix” is to add your business name + type of work (ie: California Wedding Planner - XYZ Wedding).
If you have an Apple computer, THIS is a quick tutorial for renaming multiple images at a time.
You can also do this in Blogstomp using the batch or freestyle feature.
Download this blog checklist to make sure you’re hitting all the steps and join Pops of Pretty to help you fill the imagery gaps!
Once you’re in a groove with producing regular content, Search Engine Optimizing your blog is key for getting it seen by a new audience. Because SEO is a beast on it’s own, we’re super excited that Sara Dunn with Sara Does SEO wrote THIS guest blog for us with loads of actionable image SEO tips!