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How to Write a Good Blog Post: A Complete Step-by-Step Process

You pull up a blank document, ready to write a blog post, but the white emptiness stares back. How do you begin?

We’ve all been there, staring into that vast white space, wondering where to start. I’ve felt that subtle anxiety too. Yet, with the right approach, that daunting task can turn into a delightful journey. With an established process, writing becomes less about filling the space and more about connecting deeply with your readers.

Dive into the steps in this post and uncover the secrets to crafting a blog post that truly engages and resonates with your audience.

Table of Contents

How long does it take to write a great blog post?

Step 1: identify your topic, original research, topical research, competitive research, how-to guide, feature article, product review or comparison, link/article roundup, expert roundup, step 4: create an outline, introduction, body content, step 6: pen a headline, step 7: edit and proofread your content, step 8: add your meta data, step 9: publish your post, it’s all about practice.

As you get into writing blog posts, you might wonder how long you should take to write a good one. Are you taking too long? Should you spend more time?

Orbit Media Studios found that bloggers take an average of four hours and one minute to complete a blog post in their 2022 survey . For reference, these folks wrote an average of 1,416 words per blog post.

But think of this number as an estimate. It takes everyone a different amount of time to write a blog post based on factors like:

• Personal writing speed: All bloggers write at a different pace, and they’re all valid.
• Subject matter knowledge : It’s faster to write about a subject you know over one you don’t.
• Topic complexity: Most people will need more time to write about piezoelectric ceramics than how to blow a bubble with gum.
• Research requirements : It’ll take longer to put together a blog post that weaves together original interviews than one with a few online sources.

Plus, Orbit Media Studios discovered that bloggers who spend more time on their blog posts get more success. Thirty-three percent of respondents who spent six or more hours per blog post reported “strong results.” Compare that number to the 22% benchmark.

You’ll see that the first steps to writing a blog post involve careful preparation. Start by choosing a topic to write about.

Get as specific as possible when you pick your subject. Specificity lets you differentiate your content from blog posts on similar topics and helps you cover an idea in-depth. Let’s say you want to write about how to cook a steak — you could narrow that down to how to cook a T-bone steak on a grill.

After you decide on a topic, establish the angle you want to take. Going back to our example of how to cook a T-bone steak on a grill, you could come from a scientific angle. For your blog post, you could consult a scientist on why certain techniques make a better steak.

Step 2: Do your research

Now that you know what you want to write about, you can research your topic . Blog post research falls into three categories:

Original research comes from data you generate yourself by consulting other people. Not every blog post needs to have original research to have high-quality content, but it can contribute to truly unique writing.

Try these tactics to get one-of-a-kind sources for your post:

• Surveys: Use a free tool like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms to ask people questions on a large scale. Find people who know about your topic at your organization, subscribed to your mailing list on the subject, or in an online community.
• Polls: Polls work well for asking a broad audience a single question. Many social media and communication apps have built-in poll features, such as Twitter and Slack.
• Interviews: Ask experts on your subject for an interview over email, on a video call, or in person. Reach out to your colleagues and network to see if they know anyone. You can also use a service like Help a Reporter Out to get expert quotes.

Topical research is the research you conduct around the internet. Use your preferred search engine to find online sources with these traits:

• Authoritative: The author or website should have plenty of experience or credentials on the topic. When applicable, they should use solid research to back up their claims.
• Recent: Aim for resources written three or fewer years ago when possible.
• Helpful: When your reader clicks through to your source, they should get value out of it and understand how it connects to your article.

This type of research often flies under the radar for newer blog post writers. Competitive research involves evaluating other articles on your subject. By understanding the other content out there on your topic, you can find ways to improve upon it.

Don’t just look for what ideas the other blog posts include. Instead, think about what they’re missing. Maybe they don’t cover a point you feel is important, or you could format your content more clearly than them.

Step 3: Choose the type of blog post you’ll write

With knowledge of your topic on hand, it’s time to decide how you’ll present it. Some popular blog post genres include:

List blog posts organize information into a list with headings naming each item. They often come in the form of numbered lists with a title featuring the number of items, such as “5 Ways to Fold a Towel.”

When you write a list blog post, you don’t have to make your list the only content. HelpScout’s 13 Best Practices for Improving Online Customer Service introduces online customer service, then digs into its items.

A checklist blog post provides a checklist for readers to follow to perform a task.

These posts often provide a simplified checklist to follow and then provide more details for each item, like our blog post checklist .

A how-to guide walks the reader through the steps it takes to perform an action.

These blog posts rely heavily on lists and images to help readers understand each part of the process. Melly Sews’s how-to guide to sewing a flat-felled seam uses both.

An interview blog post showcases an interview the author has with someone who has insights to share about the article topic.

You can go about one of these blog posts in two ways. Either list out your questions and answers in a Q&A format or use your interview answers to tell a story. Notion did the latter in Three-time YC founder and first-time mom finds flow in Notion .

A feature article brings together original research and interviews to explore a subject. Since features often involve interviews, they can overlap with interview blog posts.

Some blogs take a feature-first approach to posting, such as Microsoft’s Unlocked blog. One example of one of their features is Can an alphabet save a culture?

In the context of blog posts, an essay presents the author’s argument or opinion. The writer uses research and evidence to back up their points.

Media Strategies Aren’t as Crazy as They Seem from the Animalz blog features real-life examples that back up a unique perspective.

News posts share news from your community or company.

On business blogs, a lot of news posts relate to company and product updates, like SparkToro Now Has 50% More Podcasts from SparkToro.

A case study tells a success story about a product or service. It generally focuses on one event or customer.

This type of blog post requires original interviews with the customer involved so you can get their perspective on your work. With some products, you can share the results of how you helped the customer. Take Buffer, a social media scheduling tool, sharing posts from its customer in this case study as an example.

Product reviews and comparisons evaluate the usefulness of products for the reader. Reviews focus on a single product, while comparisons compare the features of multiple products.

Some of these product posts come in the form of a list ranking the best products in a category, like Zapier’s email newsletter software roundup .

Link and article roundups bring together links to online resources or articles on a specific subject.

Some of these roundups are more purchase-focused, such as Good On You’s roundup of eco-friendly fashion deals .

Expert roundup blog posts present opinions on a topic from multiple subject matter experts.

This format can overlap with other formats, like in Databox’s blog posts that synthesize expert opinions into lists. The Heroes of Business Transparency is one example.

Many people skip or rush through this step even though it’s just as important as the actual writing. A detailed blog post outline gives your article structure and lets you evaluate your overall argument before you write out the full post.

It also helps combat writer’s block. At the outline stage, you only have to get a basic idea down, taking off the pressure of writing a complete idea. Then, when you get to the writing stage, you’ll have your outline to reference when you don’t know what sentence to write next.

Follow these steps to write an outline:

• List each section and subsection of your blog post. Each section could cover a list item, a point in your argument, a step in a process, etc.
• Add up to three main points per section. Here’s where you’ll start forming the ideas you’ll cover. As you practice making outlines, you might find it helpful to get even more detailed at this stage.
• Include any links and examples you want to include for your points. Place your sources where you plan to reference them so you can add them easily in the writing stage.

Here’s a hypothetical outline for a blog post by my cat on why I should feed her a second dinner:

You can go more in-depth with your points in your outline, but here’s how the formatting should look.

I recommend writing your outline in a separate document and copying any headers and links over to your draft document. It can be tempting to write your outline and fill out your draft from there, but your document will get disorganized quickly with this approach.

Step 5: Write your post

Onto the writing itself!

Make sure to follow web writing best practices when you write your content.

People read 25% slower onscreen, and they skim rather than read. Web text should be short, scannable, and structured as linked, topical pages. Nielsen Norman Group

Shortening or “chunking” your content helps readers skim, so try to keep your sentences to 25 words or fewer and paragraphs to three sentences or fewer. Make sure to follow the style guide for your blog if you have one as well.

A blog post consists of three main sections that require different approaches:

Integrate your blog post’s angle and an emotional hook into your introduction. This technique establishes what makes your post unique from the start and draws in the reader.

For example, in this blog post, I’m trying to provide a comprehensive process so you never feel lost when writing. I explained that angle in the second paragraph of my intro.

As for the emotional hook, try putting yourself in the reader’s shoes or telling a story. I used the example of staring at a blank page wondering what to do next because I’ve been there and know others have, too.

You could also use the Animalz technique of using an unexpected hook and referencing it throughout your blog post. This method takes practice and careful thought, but that hard work really pays off.

Whichever hook you use, keep your introduction concise — about three paragraphs or fewer. An intro that goes on too long can lose the reader’s interest.

A quick side note: You don’t have to write your introduction first if it comes easier to you after you write the rest of your post. Mark it for later and revisit it when you have more context to work with.

Your body content consists of all the words between the introduction and conclusion.

As you write this part of your post, try to cover all the information important for your reader to know. If you have a word limit to stay within, consider linking out to resources on complicated sub-topics.

Speaking of linking, include links to other posts on your blog and trusted sources throughout your body content. Search engines prioritize websites that link relevant pages to each other. Plus, it works as a way to cite your sources when you use outside information.

Just make sure that any site you link to is relevant to your post. Adding links for linking’s sake will make it harder to establish authority and search engine performance.

Lastly, make sure your writing is crisp, clear, and concise by keeping paragraphs three sentences or less, and each sentence 25 words or less .

Here’s an example of a well-structured post’s body content.

Time for the grand finale. You have multiple ways to go about writing a conclusion, such as:

• A summary: Summarize the key points you covered in your post.
• A takeaway: Provide a takeaway from the ideas you presented in your post. You could go back to the angle you established at the beginning, for example.
• A redirection: Connect your blog post to another post on your blog and direct your reader there for further reading.
• A bonus tip: Offer one final tip for the reader to use as they apply the knowledge in your post.

When it feels appropriate, you can also add a call to action to subscribe to your newsletter, try your product, or perform another transactional action. Connect your call to action back to the rest of your conclusion so it doesn’t feel pigeonholed.

After you finish writing your first draft, give it a headline . You can write the headline before your post if you like — there’s no hard and fast rule. For this blog post, we’re writing the headline after the content so you have your draft on hand to inspire your headline.

Follow these steps to craft a top-notch headline for your article:

• If you write blog posts with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind, grab the top keyword for your article. This keyword should have a direct relation to your subject.
• Write down 25 versions of your headline to give yourself plenty of choices to consider. Make sure your keyword feels like a natural part of each headline if you include it.
• Narrow those 25 options to your five favorites.
• Choose a “winner” from your five finalists.

CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer Studio can help you identify what headlines will hook readers and work for SEO. It has a Google Chrome extension and WordPress plugin. If you don’t have a plan that supports plugins, the extension provides a prompt alongside your WordPress headline.

Every blog post needs editing to shine, no matter how talented the writer is. Give your content plenty of this TLC to create quality results.

Start with a basic spelling and grammar check using your word processor’s tools. Then, you can use a tool like Grammarly or Hemingway for more in-depth fixes. While Grammarly performs an advanced spelling and grammar scan, Hemingway checks sentence structure, like so:

After you perform these checks, you should still read through your writing manually. Your human eyes will catch mistakes the computer misses. Plus, your editing should focus as much on the quality of your ideas as it does on your spelling and grammar.

We provided some tips to make the manual editing and proofreading process easier in an earlier WordPress blog post. I also suggest asking yourself these questions as you go through your content:

• Do my logic and arguments make sense?
• Did I use my SEO keywords? Did I insert them naturally?
• Do I notice any words being used frequently that I can mix up with adjectives?
• Did I vary my sentence structure for more dynamic reading?
• Will my blog post be readable for my average reader?
• Did I follow my blog’s style throughout the post?

Your blog post’s title tag, meta description, and URL all influence how people find and understand it.

The title tag and meta description are the title and description you see for a page in search results. By default, WordPress uses your headline as the title tag and your excerpt as the meta description. But, if they aren’t the proper length for search results, they can get cut off.

It’s best practice to write a separate title tag and meta description so you know they’ll look good. In WordPress, you can edit this data by changing your post’s code or using a plugin .

Yoast and All in One SEO are two popular plugin options. These plugins add a box below your content in the WordPress editor where you can manage your title tag and meta description. They also guide you through writing those search specs well.

Your URL slug is the unique string of words that appears at the end of your URL.

For example, this blog post’s URL is:

Its slug is:

That’s the part of the URL that’s different for each blog post.

WordPress pulls your URL slug from your headline, but that slug usually isn’t optimized for search results. According to Ahrefs , a good slug follows keywords and summarizes the essence of the blog post.

No need for a plugin or fancy coding to edit your URL slug. Go to the Block tab in the right-hand menu, then edit your URL using the URL option. Save your draft or update your blog post to save your new slug.

Now that you have your meta data set up, you can finalize your content for publishing. Copy and paste your blog post from your word processor to your WordPress post. The formatting will carry over to the block editor.

Or, you may have written your blog post within the blog post editor. I generally don’t recommend this approach in case you accidentally click “Publish,” but I know some writers get by just fine doing it. You do you.

If you paste your content from a Google Doc or another online text editor, go through your post and re-upload your images from your computer. The images you paste from another source are kept on your editor’s website, and you’ll want them on your WordPress site for safekeeping.

Once you establish a solid process for writing your blog posts, the next step to mastery is practice. As you adjust your system to your workflow, you’ll know what to do next instead of hoping words will magically appear on your blank page. And we’ll be with you as you practice. Just use this guide to help keep you on track.

Pair your airtight writing process with a good topic generation system , and you’ll become an unstoppable blogger. We can’t wait to see what you write!

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About the author, melissa king.

Melissa King writes actionable blog posts about content, marketing, and productivity for tech companies. Find more of her work at melissakingfreelance.com.

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How to write the perfect blog post

Social media is pretty simple: if you share great stuff, then people are likely to engage with it, and you’ll get more interaction, more followers and more leverage.

Image licensed via Adobe Stock

But if you’ve got nothing to talk about and put out there, how do you expect people to visit your site or find out more about you and your business?

Marketing is about content and conversation these days. Which is why blogs are so incredibly important and why you should be actively creating regular articles that your target audience will appreciate, find valuable and therefore want to interact with.

So how do you create great content? To craft the perfect blog post – one that both humans and search engines will love – you need several of the right key ingredients. A pinch of a catchy title. A delicious dose of an intro that emotionally connects with the audience. A sprinkling of imagery and bullet points to break up the text. All of these things add up to an excellent recipe for the perfect article for your website.

We’ll attempt to take you through the process of drafting your beautiful posts. But first, a quote from George Orwell:

“A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough?”

Thank you, George. Now here are Creative Boom’s top tips on how to write the perfect blog post.

Understand your audience

First of all, consider your audience. Who are you writing for? Put them in your mind and imagine you’re sat with them down the local pub. What language would you adopt to get on their level? Would you be formal? Informal? Friendly or strictly professional? What about a combination of all of the above? Before you start typing, consider the audience and craft a specific writing style to suit who you’re targeting.

Don’t overthink it

Often the thing that paralyses people from blogging is the fear that it won’t be good enough. That people will be ready to judge them, and not enjoy what they’ve got to say.

The beauty of blogging is that it should be as easy as a conversation. It should be light and flow smoothly from your brain onto your screen. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece that competes with the likes of Orwell or Hemingway. Just stop overthinking it and start typing. You’ll be surprised how easily the words flow when you stop worrying about what you write.

Pick a theme and an exciting topic

Great content, the kind that gets shared, again and again, comes in either one of the following key themes:

• information (what’s happened?)
• analysis (what does that mean to me?)
• advice (how do I do that?)
• entertainment (what on earth is that?)

Pick one of the above to get started. Are you going to inform your audience, or entertain them? Are you going to offer advice or offer an opinion? Choose a theme and then choose a topic to write about; one that will be valuable to your audience.

When it comes to topics, don’t make the mistake of narrowly defining what’s interesting or relevant to your audience. For instance, should cycling brand Rapha only talk about its bicycles? Of course not. It would be boring, and that won’t work on social media. Instead, Rapha understands that its audience is crazy, make that obsessed, about cycling and the whole lifestyle surrounding it. So they’ll blog about travel destinations, fitness tips and even design.

Remember, your audience isn’t so one-dimensional. They’re human, and they’re interested in a whole load of interesting topics. Keep that in mind when you pick your own to write about. If you're stuck, then read our tips on things to blog about when you run out of ideas .

Always keep your audience, theme and topic in mind

Now that you know who you’re writing for and what you’re writing about, stick a Post-it note to the top of your computer screen and write:

• Your audience
• Your topic and post headline

You’d be surprised how easy it is to go off-topic and lose sight of what you’re trying to write.

So, for example, if you’re writing an ‘advice’ piece for freelance photographers on how to protect their images online, write the following on a note:

• Freelance photographers
• How to protect your images online.

This simple technique will ensure you keep on track and write a successful blog post that speaks to your audience and satisfies their needs.

Pick your headline wisely

Once you’ve picked a theme and topic for your blog post, draft a headline. Headlines were always meant to be attention-grabbing, even before we had 140 character tweets to contend with. A headline has one goal, and one goal only - and that’s to encourage people to click and read.

In which case, draft a headline that you think will capture people’s attention. If you need inspiration for your ‘advice’ topic, consider picking and choosing from the following winning formulas:

• Smart strategies to…
• Questions you should ask before…
• [#] signs you might be…
• A complete guide to…
• [#] essential steps to…
• What no one tells you about…
• Where to find…
• How to beat…
• [#] rules for…

Don’t worry if you can’t craft the perfect headline before you’ve even started to draft the body of your blog post. You can always come back to it later, once you’ve finished your piece.

Write a strong intro

Your intro is your next chance to keep your audience engaged. If you lose them in the first few paragraphs, then you’re screwed. You can keep their attention in several ways: share an interesting quote or fact, tell a joke or give them something that immediately speaks to their needs. You could even try to emotionally connect with them by writing an opening paragraph that triggers an emotion. That way, they’re more likely to stick around and read more.

You should also write some copy that promises people precisely what they’ll learn from your blog post. Talk through some of the things you intend to cover. Define what value your audience will gain from reading your post.

Mostly, you want to immediately get on their level by speaking to their needs and remembering why they might have clicked on your headline in the first place.

Get writing and organise your content

Once you’ve got your headline and intro sorted, you’ll need to start writing the main body of the post. It can sometimes seem overwhelming, so break the task down into manageable chunks by creating ‘sections’ and drafting sub-titles for each one. It will not only help you to focus on completing your blog post, one step at a time; it will make it simpler for your audience to read.

These sections should cover everything you want to say. Even better, when they’re all set out on your computer screen, you’ll be able to quickly and easily see the skeleton of your blog post coming together and understand whether anything needs to be changed or added. Spend this time getting each section right, and putting things in the right order.

Now that you have your template, you can fill in the blanks. So get writing. Write about what you already know and, if necessary, do some additional research to gather the information you need to complete your post. Don’t forget to provide proper attribution when mentioning external sources. It’s common courtesy to offer gratitude in this way, and your sources will be thankful for it.

Get the length right

In today’s digital world, people don’t have time to read through loads of copy. Keep things short and sweet by sticking to a total word count of between 500-1,000. It’ll keep humans happy, while still adhering to some old SEO rules of writing enough content for the hungry search engine bots to crawl through and gobble up.

Add some appealing imagery or break things up

The eye doesn’t like blocks of text. It can seem overwhelming and put the reader off. In which case, break up the text by adding in imagery, embedded videos or quotes to keep the blog post appealing and readable.

If you’re unable to break up the text with images, consider adding sections with sub-titles, more paragraphs or bullets where possible.

Wrap things up nicely

A conclusion isn’t just for those essays we used to write for our homework. It’s a a great way to repeat some of your key points and leave the reader with a great overall impression of your blog post. It’s also an excellent opportunity to insert a call-to-action, indicating what the reader should do next. Should they stay on your blog and read another article? Point them to it! Should they download a free e-book and subscribe to your newsletter? Whatever you choose, make sure you include something that adds further value.

If you want to encourage further engagement, why not ask people to leave a comment and share their thoughts on your article? It’s a great way to get your audience talking, and feeling as though they’re part of the conversation. Even better, it’s all part of your relationship building and might mean they come back for more.

Proofread your post and fix any issues

You’re so close to finishing, but you’re not quite there yet! The proofreading part is a crucial part of blogging and one that is often overlooked. Go through your entire post and check for spelling and grammatical errors, and ensure that everything makes sense. Print it out if necessary and run through it, highlighting any areas that need to change.

Hit publish and go

Once you’re happy with the final draft, hit ‘publish’, sit back and enjoy the traffic coming through to your blog. Congratulations, you’ve just followed the ideal recipe to create a perfect blog post.

Of course, that’s only one aspect of successful content marketing. If you’d like tips on how to activate that content and get it in front of your audience, watch this space! Another tips article will be coming your way soon.

In the meantime, check out our 20 top tips to get more readers to your blog or this helpful article on how to increase engagement on your blog .

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How to Start Blogging: A Definitive Guide for Authors

Note from Jane: This post was first published in 2012. I continue to update and expand it so that it remains relevant for today’s author.

This will be a strange way to begin a guide to blogging, but I want to save you time, trouble, and heartache.

The average author does not benefit much from blogging.jo

Yet blogging continues to interest authors, and be discussed, as a way to market and promote. Why? Because blogging does work, if certain conditions are met. The problem is that few authors meet those conditions. This post will delve into what it means to blog successfully and in a meaningful way for an author’s long-term platform and book marketing efforts.

For clarity: I define “blogging” as publishing material to a site that you own and control—usually your author website. Blogging is sometimes conflated with writing for other websites or blogs, but that’s not what I’m discussing in this post.

Another complication : “Blogging” has become a somewhat dated term. Some people use it to describe a practice that isn’t all that common now: keeping a rather personal “log” or diary of one’s thoughts and experiences. Blogging as discussed here is best described as online writing you do for free, or—better yet—an online content strategy where you create interesting articles, columns, interviews, etc. that get shared on social and discovered through search.

What it takes to become an effective blogger

If you approach blogging as something “lesser than” your book writing or published writing, you’re more likely to fail at it. While blogging can be less formal, less researched, and more geared for online skim-reading or social sharing, to do it well requires the same kind of practice and skill as crafting a novel. You get better at it the more you do it, but I see many authors give up before they’ve put in enough hours to understand the medium.

Furthermore, to stick with blogging long enough for it to pay off, you have to actually enjoy what it means to blog, and how online writing can be different from print.

If you treat the practice seriously, all the content that you generate for your blog can have another life, in another format or within another publication. For example, the best of my blog content is condensed into a book, Publishing 101 . That required a lot of editing and reformulation (online writing can’t be dumped into print without a lot of work), but it reflects the value and depth of what appears on my blog.

Blogging is often straightforward for nonfiction writers, less so for novelists

Nonfiction writers and experts have it easy: their subject matter lends itself to blogging, especially if they’re teaching workshops or regularly interacting with their target readers. Such writers probably know off the top of their head the questions that get asked most frequently, the topics that are most popular, and the problems that surface again and again. This is invaluable starting fodder for a successful blog:  knowledge of one’s audience . 

Fiction writers can have successful blogs as well, especially if they’re able to focus on a specific topic, theme, or subgenre. But it can be most difficult for unpublished novelists to gain traction with a blog; only  after the novelist has built a name for herself does a blog readership tend to develop. With nonfiction authors, the opposite is the case: blogging can help build a platform that leads to a book deal.

This is why advice about blogging can be so contradictory and confusing: much depends on what genre you’re writing in and who you’re writing for.

Consistency is critical for effective blogging

There are two types of consistency: frequency and subject matter.

Frequency: To gain any kind of momentum, you should commit to 2-4 posts a week. Some people may be able to get by on one post a week, but it’s a struggle to gain traction without volume. Ideally, starting out, you should shoot for several times per week. The longer you blog, and the more of an audience you build up, the more you can ease back on frequency.

Subject matter:  Think about this in terms of your headlines for your blog posts. If you look at a month’s worth of your blog headlines, they should convey a strong message about what you cover on your blog and who it’s for. A potential reader should be able to easily tell if they’re going to benefit from or enjoy reading your posts on an ongoing basis.

Unfortunately, authors have trouble staying focused and disciplined on one topic or subject matter, often because they get bored or they think readers will get bored. But again, it’s hard to gain traction if you’re switching it up all the time and not consistent in what you offer.

If you’re interested in blogging, but worry about the time commitment, then consider creating a multi-contributor blog, where several authors in the same genre (or targeting similar audiences) band together. That helps reduce the burden as well as increase the size of your audience starting out—since more people will be marketing and promoting the blog.

It takes patience to build a readership unless you’re already well-known

It may take people months before they even become aware that your blog exists. This isn’t necessarily through any fault of your own; there’s an incredible amount of noise around us, and enormous demands on everybody’s attention.

But if you make a continual series of impressions over a long period of time on the same topic, then it starts to click: “Oh, this person is blogging, and they’re regularly covering this topic.” Some writers assume, “Oh, everybody knows I’m blogging because I posted about it,” but no. That’s not the case, and that’s why consistency is so important.

Only about 10% of your readers (or even fewer) will make themselves known to you or engage with you on your blog, so it takes a while before you reach a tipping point, where there’s a concrete indication of growing activity or interest.

What should you blog about?

The chain of events goes something like this:

• An author’s book nears its publication date (or perhaps the author is attempting to secure a traditional book deal). She knows she needs to market and promote the book and/or build a platform.
• She finds (or hears) advice that blogging is a good way to accomplish #1.
• She wonders: What do I blog about?

My unproven theory: We have many authors blogging poorly because of this series of events.

So how does this answer the question, “What do I blog about?”

Well, if you have to ask, maybe you shouldn’t be blogging. In that, my position is somewhat stubbornly Zen: if the action is too forced or contrived, the blog may be doomed from the start. The best bloggers have rarely been told to go do it. It isn’t an activity authors should be dragged into, kicking and screaming. Nor should you feel like it’s a burden to come up with ideas; ideally, your problem is  too many ideas.

However, I don’t want to be totally defeatist here! I want to encourage experimentation. If you can approach blogging because it kind of does sound like fun, then let’s spark your imagination as to what you might blog about.

Here are several models to consider, based on how challenging I think they are (assuming you want your blog to “pay off”).

Easy: The literary citizenship model

If you’re not familiar with literary citizenship, you can read more about my views on it here . It basically means celebrating and bringing attention to authors, writing, and books—the things you presumably love and want to support. This model is ideal for unpublished novelists, memoirists, and poets.

Blogging with the intent to promote literary citizenship opens up a lot of post possibilities, including:

• Informal book recommendations or reviews
• Q&As or interviews with people in the community (usually authors)
• “What I’m Reading Now” types of posts and other “media consumption” lists where you talk about what stuff you’re watching, saving, listening to, collecting, etc.

Key benefits: You’re building a great network of contacts as you build some excellent content at your site. Every author loves to get attention (or find a new fan) for their work.

Where the difficulty lies: Lots of literary citizenship activity exists online, in many forms. To get a large readership will require a unique angle or spin—although this is true of any blogging effort.

Easy-Medium: Write for other writers

This is what I do. Many authors have considerable advice and insight for others in the field—and the audience of aspiring writers and established authors is massive. The downside: Connecting with other writers doesn’t necessarily grow your readership; you end up in an echo chamber with other writers.

Key benefits: If you already teach writing or mentor other writers, you probably have some content you can re-purpose to fuel your early blog posts. Initially, you’ll have no shortage of ideas, and your first readers will share your insightful advice on social media and help you build a traffic base.

Where the difficulty lies: In my experience, burn out. After a few years, it’s tough to keep things fresh and interesting. Your readers, as they advance, may also outgrow your blog.

Easy-Medium: Write in your field of expertise

This is the best option for anyone writing and publishing nonfiction. It works beautifully with how-to or prescriptive nonfiction categories, and it can also work with memoir as well. For example, if you’re writing a memoir about addiction or caring for aging parents, your blog can offer information and advice (and stories) for people going through the same thing.

Key benefits: You’ll likely be intimately aware of your readership’s needs and can quickly come up with content that interests them. If you teach or speak, you’ll also have content that can be readily repurposed for a blog.

Where the difficulty lies: Some categories are fiercely competitive, such as travel and cooking. You may have to do some work in coming up with an angle or voice that stands out.

Medium: Behind the scenes

You can write about the research, news stories, or current events that play a role in the construction of your books or other work. You might also develop competitions and events that focus on reader engagement, such as having readers name your novel’s characters, choose the best cover, etc. Presumably, readers will enjoy knowing more about the context and ideas that affect your writing and being involved in your future work.

Key benefits: For most writers, it feels natural to discuss the things that influence their work, and you will likely uncover and engage your most important fans.

Where the difficulty lies: You may run out of material quickly, or not have a very high frequency of posts. Or you may despise the idea of involving readers in your work. For unpublished novelists, this approach is challenging since people aren’t familiar with your work and may not care about your process (yet).

Difficult: Personal essay or daily life

Some writers are successful with informal missives that comment on what’s happening day to day or that reflect on their personal life. This could also involve regular posting of specific media, such as photos or videos.

Key benefits: It can be a good creative outlet or practice, especially if you’re committed to blogging on a schedule. Fans of your work may enjoy the intimacy (though some authors prefer to have an air of mystery).

Where the difficulty lies: Not everyone can write entertainingly about themselves (and some don’t want to). For writers who aren’t yet known, it will be hard (if not impossible) to interest other people in the details of your personal life, unless you’re a superlative writer.

This is not an exhaustive list of what you could blog about, but it gives you an idea of the most common options.

Do think through how can you bring your own voice  or perspective to a topic, theme, or subject matter without repeating what’s already out there. This is easier said than done. It took me 18 months to find the right angle—to realize I do best when I focus on business advice and digital media topics for authors.

The most successful blogs have a very focused angle and appeal to a very specific audience. This makes it easier to attract attention and build a community around common interests or perspectives.

No one should blog in a vacuum

Before you start a blog, identify the other key people already blogging in your area—the influencers. Start reading and sharing their content, and comment at their blog. Eventually, if possible, you should guest blog for them. See the other bloggers not as competitors, but as community members who may eventually become supporters of your work. If your blog is high-quality, and generates conversation, they’ll be likely to recommend you or send you traffic. So identify the notable community players, or the people who you’ll want to build relationships with over time.

Choose the right blogging platform

The best platform to use is whatever you use for your author website—do not be tempted to build your blog somewhere else. You want everything under the same umbrella for search engine optimization and long-term marketing strategy. So, for example, if you have an author website on SquareSpace, then start your blog there; don’t start one over at WordPress or Blogspot.

If your website platform does not support blogging, then it may be time to switch platforms. I talk about the basics of author websites here.

If you don’t have an author website, or if you’re doing a multi-contributor blog, then I recommend using WordPress. It’s well-supported, continually developed, and runs about 20% of all websites today. Here’s my  step-by-step guide to hosting your own website or blog , which doesn’t take longer than 10-15 minutes.

Before you launch the blog

Before you start, consider the following.

• Blog title and tagline.  There are no hard-and-fast rules here, but it should be clear to new visitors what your blog is about and what they’re going to get from it. If your blog title is metaphorical, clever, or not clear about the blog’s subject matter (or if it’s just under your name), add a tagline that tells and sells the angle. Even Michael Hyatt, who is very well-known at this point, has a tagline: “Your Leadership Mentor.”
• Readability. If your blog is meant to primarily be read, then don’t hamper readability by making the text too small, too tight or (worst of the worst) white type on a black background. Be aware that ads or a hard-to-navigate layout can also hamper readability and drive readers elsewhere.
• About page or bio. If your blog content is interesting, people will want to know more about the person behind it. Don’t make them search for this. Create a separate page, and be sure to include a way to contact you.
• Comments.  You should develop a policy for how you’ll handle or moderate discussions. Will you approve every comment before it goes live? Will comments be automatically published if they’re not spam? An open commenting policy that doesn’t require sign-in helps you get more comments, but you’ll want to make sure you’re receiving email alerts when new comments are posted, just in case you need to delete anything spammy or inappropriate that gets through. Fortunately, major blog platforms (like WordPress) help you streamline your comment system to automatically eliminate spam activity. If you have any trouble, then install  Akismet , the industry-standard plugin to eliminate spammy comments.

How to craft quality posts that get read and shared

Quality can be a squishy term; much depends on what your audience or readership considers “quality” or what kind of content is engaging to them. The better you know your audience, the better your posts will be.

However, here’s how to ensure that your posts are more likely to be engaged with and shared.

• Don’t be afraid of length. For some strange reason, people started thinking that ideal blog posts are 500 words, even less. That’s simply not true. In fact, when it comes to search ranking, Google looks at the substantive nature of the content and will rank your content lower if it appears shallow. Social media is typically better for quick shares, brief commentary, or short statements—or anything that doesn’t merit more than a few hundred words. The most successful posts at this site are regularly longer than 2,000 words. However, the longer the content, the more readable it needs to be, which brings us to the next point.
• Improve scannability.  Most people skim online content and make a very quick judgment call as to whether it merits closer attention. If so, your content may be saved for later, or readers will slow down and read the content from beginning to end. To make your content easily scanned, add subheads, plenty of paragraph breaks (one-line paragraphs are acceptable), bulleted lists or numbered lists, bold lead-ins—whatever it takes to make your posts more easy to grasp and see if it’s valuable.
• Add at least one image. You’ll notice that I always begin posts with an image. Psychologically, this typically improves the perceived value of the post—plus these images get pulled and used when the post is shared on social media. It’s OK if the image isn’t directly related to the content; it can be metaphorical, as long as it’s attention-grabbing or colorful. Blending in is the opposite of what you want.
• Ask a question at the end. If you want to get people active in the comments, you’ll do better if you end the post on a question, where you ask people to share something specific about their knowledge or experience. Active comments are generally seen as a good thing because it increases the time people spend on your content, which is a signal of engagement for search engines and thus contributes to better search ranking for your blog.

Your post headlines are critical

If people saw only your post headline (e.g., on Twitter), would they feel compelled to click on it? Remember, the headline is often the only thing people see when they’re surfing online and looking at search results, so it’s one of the biggest factors in whether your post gets read. Here are a few considerations:

• Is the headline specific and clear? There’s very little room to be clever, cute, or abstract with blog post headlines. Plus, for search engine optimization, you need to be thinking of keywords that belong in that headline that will help people find your post.
• Is the headline intriguing or provocative? I’m not advocating clickbait headlines, but it doesn’t hurt to create mystery, intrigue, or play on people’s curiosity. You cross the line into clickbait when the headline doesn’t deliver on the promise made, or if the headline is overly sensationalized to get clicks.
• Does the headline offer a benefit? All of us have limited time and energy to consume content online, so we’re always thinking WIIFM? (What’s in it for me?)

Here are some actual blog post headlines that I helped an author improve, to be more specific and attuned to keyword search.

• Original headline: Total Randomness, Mostly Related To Books That Aren’t Mine
• Improved headline: My Summer Reading List: Books I’ve Loved (and Books Still Waiting)
• Original headline: Turn, Turn, Turn
• Improved headline: What If You’re Dreading the Change of Seasons?
• Original headline:  Wanna Have Coffee?
• Improved headline: Overcoming the Obstacles That Prevent You From Meditating

Create cornerstone content

Cornerstone content refers to any article, post, or page at your site that draws new readers to your blog consistently, usually through search or by referral from other sites. Cornerstone content often is a comprehensive, definitive piece that tackles a frequently asked question, issue, or problem—or features a very popular author or  thing in popular culture that is searched for often.

The cornerstone content on this blog can be seen right under “Most Popular Posts”—each one points to my 101 posts on how to get published.

Sometimes, cornerstone content might be a manifesto or download in PDF form. Chris Guillebeau is well-known for 279 Days to Overnight Success that drew thousands (if not millions) to learn about his blog and his message.

If you’re a nonfiction writer, then this probably comes naturally: Put together a 101 guide, FAQ, or tutorial related to your topic or expertise—something people often ask you about. (My most visited resource on this site is Start Here: How to Get Your Book Published .)

If you’re a novelist, this strategy may take some creative thinking. Consider the following:

• If your book is strongly regional, create an insider’s guide or travel guide to that particular region. Or think about other themes in your work that could inspire something fun: a collection of recipes; a character’s favorite books, movies, or music; or what research and resources were essential for completing your work.
• Create a list of favorite reads by genre/category, by mood, or by occasion. Tie into current events or “look-alike” media whenever you can; for example, if you write romance and you know your readers love  The Bachelor , create a list of books that fans of the show would enjoy reading.
• If you have a strong avocational pursuit (or past profession) that influences your novels, create FAQs or guides for the curious.

Having even one piece of cornerstone content greatly reduces your burden to attract readers to your site through brand-new content. If it does its job, the cornerstone piece will bring a steady stream of new readers over a period of weeks and months, some of whom will become loyal followers.

If you’re very serious and strategic about this, I recommend reading How to Increase Website Traffic .

Make it easy to browse and share your posts

Some blogs have such a minimal design that it’s difficult to see the bigger picture of what the blog offers. Even though there are benefits to a minimalist design, I get more engagement by having a sidebar that offers tools to navigate the history of my blog and the hundreds of posts that live here.

• Calendar/archive. People new to your blog may want to dig around in your older posts. Make it easy for them to do so by offering a post calendar or archive.
• Category search.  Blog content should be organized into 5-10 different categories that are of high interest to your audience. For example, if people read an interview or book review on your site that interests them, they may want to browse all previous interviews or book reviews. Make this easy by categorizing the posts correctly and making the categories visible with posts.
• Most popular posts. For new readers of your blog, it’s helpful to have a consistent box or sidebar that tells readers what your most popular posts are.
• Sharing functionality. Make it easy for people to share your posts on Facebook, Twitter (or just about anywhere else) by adding sharing buttons to the bottom of your posts. This functionality is usually built-in to most blogs.

Improve your content’s discoverability through search engines (SEO)

Search engine optimization really requires its own post. However, you’ll be doing a good job with your SEO if:

• You use WordPress or Squarespace, which are already optimized for search.
• You make sure each post is categorized and tagged appropriately.
• You think about how readers would search for your content, and incorporate those search keywords into your post headline, post subheads, and more. If your site is self-hosted, then install WordPress SEO by Yoast , which will give you both the tools and education you need to optimize your content for search.

If your site is self-hosted , then you should have Google Analytics installed. If not, get started today—it’s a free service and easy to set up. After Google Analytics has collected at least 1 month of data, take a look at the following:

• How do people find your blog? Through search? Through your social media presence? Through other websites that link to you?
• What search words bring people to your site?
• What pages or posts are most popular on your site?

By knowing the answers to these questions, you can better decide which social media networks are worth your investment of time and energy (at least as far as blog promotion is concerned), who else on the web might be a good partner for you (who is sending you traffic and why?), and what content on your site is worth your time to continue developing (what content will bring you visitors over the long run?).

Create lists or round-ups on a regular basis

A very popular way to make people aware of your blog is to link to others’ blogs. If you can do this in a helpful way, it’s a win for you, for your readers, and for the sites you send traffic to.

In the writing and publishing community, weekly link round-ups are very common. (See  Elizabeth Craig for one example.) You can create such lists or round-ups on any theme or category that interests you enough to remain dedicated, enthusiastic, and consistent for the long haul—at least six months to a year, if you want to see a tangible benefit.

Run regular interviews with people who fascinate you

Believe it or not, it’s rare to come across an informed, thoughtful, and careful interviewer and interview series.

Think about themes, hooks, or angles for an interview series on your site, and run them on a regular basis—but only as frequently as you have time to invest in a well-researched and quality interview. Such series also offer you an excellent way to build your network and community relationships, which has a way of paying off in the long run.

Be a guest on other sites

Whenever you guest or appear on other websites, that’s an opportunity to have multiple links back to your own site and social network accounts.

A meaningful guest post means pitching sites that have a bigger audience than you, but they should also have a readership that’s a good match for your work. If you need a strong introduction to guest posting how-to, visit this excellent Copyblogger post.  If you’re not the type to write guest posts, then consider proactively offering yourself up to be interviewed as part of other bloggers’ interview series.

Whenever you make an appearance on another site, always promote the interview on your own social networks and create a permanent link to it from your own website.

Above all: You need patience

Here’s what my blog traffic looked like in its early years.

• December 2009. This is when I started using WordPress on this domain. I posted 3-4 times per month.
• Mid-2010.  This is when my traffic reached about 100 visits a day.
• January 2011:  I began a weekly series at my site, unrelated to writing and publishing, that featured mother-daughter interviews.
• July 2011:  This is when I began regularly blogging about writing and publishing at JaneFriedman.com (rather than at Writer’s Digest).

After about two years of consistency, I reached about 60,000 visits per month.

Jane Friedman has spent nearly 25 years working in the book publishing industry, with a focus on author education and trend reporting. She is the editor of The Hot Sheet , the essential publishing industry newsletter for authors, and was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World in 2023. Her latest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press), which received a starred review from Library Journal. In addition to serving on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund, she works with organizations such as The Authors Guild to bring transparency to the business of publishing.

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Great piece, Jane, and no surprise from such an experienced hand at this as you, thanks.

I’d like to add clarity of byline as something that’s far more important than many bloggers realize.

A blogger wants her or his work spread around the communities, per your smart comments above about sharing functionality and improving discoverability. But that blogger also deserves credit for that content. Some of us, in fact, work very hard to #CreditWriters (a Twitter hashtag), even in the tight confines of tweets, to be sure our authors get the recognition they deserve.

When you’re blogging, burying your identity in an “About” section is a mistake.

And making us search Twitter or click over to Twitter’s page on you simply to get your @Twitter handle (your @name in the code-language of Twitter) is also a mistake.

The smartest efforts I’ve seen so far, create a byline–always at the top of a post–that includes both the author’s name and @Twitter handle.  This gives “feeders” (people who use social media to move good content around) an immediate chance to credit a writer without wasting time digging around.

Some good examples of different name + @Twitter handle bylines: http://ow.ly/i/e184 http://ow.ly/i/e188 http://ow.ly/i/e18b  http://ow.ly/i/e18c http://ow.ly/i/eovq http://ow.ly/i/eouR

Professional journalists live by their bylines and they know how important it is to own their work, right up top, on every piece. Good bylines aren’t about bragging. They’re common courtesy and pragmatic communication. When you meet someone, you tell him or her your name, right? And in a world in which your Twitter presence is important, you offer your @Twitter handle, as well. Many of us add our @Twitter handles to our business cards. Bloggers, many of whom have no background in formal journalism, can miss out on recognition, distribution, and visibility on the assumption that “everybody knows who I am, it’s my blog.”

Awful lot of blogs. Awful lot of posts. The world really doesn’t know one from another, and we’re all busy. Bloggers who help us get their names and @Twitter handles at “electric speed” show us that they get what’s going on in the world of fast-twitch distribution, game on.

Thanks again-

Thanks for that great insight I’ll definitely apply that to my blog

[…] Get Started Guide: Blogging for Writers | Jane Friedman This post is for writers totally new to blogging, about to start a blog, and/or feeling dissatisfied with their current blog. Source: janefriedman.com […]

This is great. What I wish I’d had when I was starting out. I’ll spread the word. Thanks, Porter for the great idea of putting your twitter handle front and center on the blog!

Well, Anne, I bow to YOU in so many things related to blogging, so it’s really nice of you to pick up on the @Twitter handle issue. And thanks to Jane for getting us all sorted so well. I’ve been totally lucky to have met her early so I’ve had the benefit of her wisdom before getting too far in, myself. Cheers – 

Totally loved this post, Jane. I agree with Porter that one of the worst things a blogger can do is hide his/her identity and handles on other social networks. That’s why I always suggest using your name as a handle on other social networks (if not taken). In fact, I use you as THE example for why folks need to act now on claiming their name online.

🙂 Thanks, Robert! Means a lot coming from you.

Robert: Would you mind helping a fellow blogger? When I clicked on my name in my comment, instead of going to my blog, which for me is the point of having a profile, it took me to something called Yahoo Plus, which is less than useless for me. It gave my full name, my age and what state I live in, which I don’t want people to know, but didn’t go to the blog, which I did. When I clicked on your name, it went directly to your blog the way it’s suppose to. (By the way, it’s  a cool blog.) How do I get mine to do the same thing?

You can change these settings when you make the comment. There are all kinds of options for this “profile” info—e.g., you can offer just your name & URL, or use an established profile. In this case, it appears you chose the Yahoo-based profile (whether consciously or not).

Thanks, Robert — couldn’t agree more about the importance of using your name as your social-media handle (rather than blog title, etc.), if for no other reason so that you get continuity of community from one project to the next. I love how when we arrive at Jane’s page here, what’s right up top is JANE FRIEDMAN. Her wonderful McLuhan-powered “electric speed” line is the tag, not the center of her universe, which is excellent. I use her as my best example for folks, too. 🙂

I’ve had my blog for a couple of years but this has really helped focus my thoughts about it! 

[…] Get Started Guide: Blogging for Writers | Jane Friedman […]

Thank you for these great tips! My regret is that when I started my blog, I didn’t use my name. I’d change that if I could do it over again.

Shoot! Well, if you’re using Blogger, you could always (rather easily) import everything onto a new WordPress platform if/when you’re ready for a fresh start.

Thank you Jane (and Porter for your extremely helpful addendum) this is truly blogger gold! I’ve had my blog on my website for about a year and still feel as if I’m crawling through the trenches. To say I needed this post doesn’t even begin to cover how much I NEEDED this post 🙂

Awesome! Thanks for commenting.

My pleasure, Barbara, Jane did all the heavy lifting. 🙂 

This was a very informative post. Because I’m relatively new to blogging, I need all the help I can get and this article provided a lot of important information. Thanks, Jane! I’ve written two women’s mystery suspense novels and I’m in the early planning stages of a third. I’ve recently created my own writers forum, a blog for writers and avid readers. I’d like to invite everyone to visit my site. http://pat-writersforum.blogspot.com

This is just the kind of comprehensive information I was looking for a long time, forwarded to me by another fellow writer. I needed to learn more about WordPress, as I currently have a blog with Bloggers, and thanks to you, I can understand WordPress better now!

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for taking time to comment!

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Guides • Perfecting your Craft

Last updated on Dec 23, 2022

Creative Writing: 8 Fun Ways to Get Started

Creative writing is a written art form that uses the imagination to tell stories and compose essays, poetry, screenplays, novels, lyrics, and more. It can be defined in opposition to the dry and factual types of writing found in academic, technical, or journalistic texts.

Characterized by its ability to evoke emotion and engage readers, creative writing can tackle themes and ideas that one might struggle to discuss in cold, factual terms.

If you’re interested in the world of creative writing, we have eight fantastic exercises and activities to get you started.

1. Use writing prompts every week

Coming up with ideas for short stories can be challenging, which is why we created a directory of 1700+ creative writing prompts covering a wide range of genres and topics. Writing prompts are flexible in nature, they are meant to inspire you without being too constrictive. Overall, they are a great way to keep your creative muscles limber.

If you’re struggling for motivation, how does a hard deadline and a little prize money sound? Prompts-based writing contests are a fantastic way to dive into creative writing: the combination of due dates, friendly rivalries, prize money, and the potential to have your work published is often just what’s needed to propel you over the finish line. 

We run a weekly writing contest over on Reedsy Prompts, where hundreds of writers from all around the world challenge themselves weekly to write a short story between 1,000 and 3,000 words for a chance to win the $250 prize. Furthermore, the community is very active in providing constructive feedback, support, and accountability to each other 一 something that will make your efforts even more worthwhile.

Take a peek at our directory of writing contests which features some of the most prestigious open writing competitions in the world. 

2. Start journaling your days

Another easy way to get started with creative writing is to keep a journal. We’re not talking about an hour-by-hour account of your day, but journaling as a way to express yourself without filters and find your ‘voice in writing’. If you’re unsure what to journal about, think of any daily experiences that have had an impact on you, such as… 

Special moments . Did you lock yourself out of your house? Or did you catch a beautiful sunset on your way back from groceries? Capture those moments, and how you felt about them.

People . Did you have an unusual exchange with a stranger at the bar? Or did you reconnect with someone you haven’t seen in years? Share your thoughts about it.

World events . Is there something happening in the world right now that is triggering you? That’s understandable. You can reflect on it (and let some steam off) while journaling.

Memories . Did you go down memory lane after a glass of wine? Great, honor those memories by trying to recollect them in detail on paper so that they will always stay vivid in your mind.

Life decisions . Are you having an existential crisis about what to do with your life? Write down your thought process, and the pros and cons of the possible decisions in front of you. You’ll be surprised to discover that, not only is it a great creative writing exercise, but it can also actually help you sort your life out! 

If you struggle to write consistently, sign up for our How to Write a Novel course to finish a novel in just 3 months.  

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3. Create an anonymous social media account

Like anonymous blogging, an incognito Twitter account sidesteps the pressure that comes with attaching your name to your work. Anonymously putting tiny stories out into the ether gives you the freedom to create without worrying about the consequences — which is great, so long as you don’t use it as an opportunity to troll people or spread conspiracy theories. 

You could use the anonymous account in different ways. For example, you could…

• Tweet from unique points of view (e.g. a dog observing human behavior );
• Create a parody account of real or fictional people (e.g. an English poet from the Middle Ages );
• Challenge yourself to write tiny flash fiction stories that fit into Twitter threads.

Just remember, you’re not doing this to fool anyone into thinking that your account is real: be a good citizen and mark yourself a fiction account in your bio. 

But if you’re not really a social media kinda person, you may enjoy our next tip, which is a bit more on the analog side.

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4. Find an old photo and tell its story

Find a random old photo — maybe on the web, maybe from a photo album in a yard sale — and see what catches your attention. Look closely at it and try to imagine the story behind it. What was happening? Who are the people in it and how are they really feeling? Do they share a relationship, and of what kind? What are their goals and dreams?

In other words, bring the photo to life with your imagination. Don't be afraid to take artistic license with your story, as the goal is to be creative and have fun while writing. 

How do you know it’s creative writing?

5. Create a character from a random name

Just as our universe started from a few simple elements, you can create a character from a few basic information, like their name, culture, and gender. Reedsy’s handy character name generator can help you with that, offering random names based on archetypes, Medieval roots, fantasy traits and more. A few examples? A Celtic heroine named Fíona O'Keefe, a hero’s sidekick named Aderine, or a Korean track star named Park Kang-Dae.

Once you've chosen their name, begin to develop their personality. Set a timer for 5–10 minutes and write anything that comes to mind about them. It could be a page from their FBI dossier, a childhood diary entry, or simply a scene about them boiling an egg.

Just ‘go with the flow’ and don’t stop writing until your time is up. Repeat the process a few times to further hone the personality. If you like what you end up with, you can always go deeper later with our character profile template . 

If a stream-of-consciousness exercise is not your thing, you can try to imagine your character in a specific situation and write down how’d they respond to it. For example, what if they were betrayed by a friend? Or if they were elected in power? To help you imagine situations to put your character in, we made a free template that you can download below. 

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Reedsy’s Character Questionnaire

40 questions to help you develop memorable characters.

6. Construct a character by people-watching

People watching is “the action of spending time idly observing people in a public place.” In a non-creepy way, ideally. Sit on a bench on a public square or on a road-side table at your favorite café, and start observing the people around you. Pay attention to any interesting quirks or behaviors, and write it down. Then put on your detective’s hat and try to figure out what that tells you about them.

For example, the man at the table next to you at the restaurant is reading the newspaper. His jacket and hat are neatly arranged next to him. The pages make a whipping sound as he briskly turns them, and he grimaces every time he reads a new article. Try to imagine what he’s reading, and why he’s reacting the way he is. Then, try to build a character with the information you have. It’s a fun creative exercise that will also, hopefully, help you better empathize with strangers. 

7. “Map” something you feel strongly about into a new context

Placing your feelings into new contexts can be a powerful creative writing exercise. The idea is to start from something you feel strongly about, and frame it into a completely different context. 

For example, suppose your heart is torn apart after you divorce your life-long partner: instead of journaling or crafting an entire novel  about it, you could tell a story about a legendary trapeze duo whose partnership has come to an end. If you’re struggling with politicking and petty power dynamics at the office: what if you “mapped” your feelings onto an ant who resents being part of a colony? Directing your frustration at a queen ant can be a fun and cathartic writing experience (that won’t get you in trouble if your co-workers end up reading your story).   

8. Capture the moment with a haiku

Haikus are poems from the Japanese tradition that aim to capture, in a few words, daily moments of insight (usually inspired by nature). In a nutshell, it’s about becoming mindful of your surroundings, and notice if you can see something in a new or deeper way 一 then use contrasting imagery to express whatever you noticed. 

Here’s an example:

Bright orange bicycle

Speeding through the autumn leaves

A burst of color waves

It may sound a bit complicated, but it shouldn’t be 一 at least not for the purpose of this exercise. Learn the basics of haiku-writing , then challenge yourself to write one per day for a week or month. At the end, you’ll be able to look back at your collection of poems and 一 in the worst case scenario 一 revisit small but significant moments that you would have otherwise forgot about.   

Creative writing can be any writing you put your heart and soul into. It could be made for the purpose of expressing your feelings, exploring an idea, or simply entertaining your readers. As you can see there’s many paths to get involved with it, and hundreds of exercises you can use as a starting point. In the next post, we’ll look more in detail at some creative writing examples from some fellow authors. 

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Finding the Best Creative Writing Blogs on the Internet

Regardless how many books I’ve written or sold, if I’m not still educating myself about writing, I’m stagnating.

My late mother taught me the value of life-long learning. Not only was she a piano teacher into her eighties, but she was also a piano student. 

One of the most powerful learning tools today is the internet. But you could surf through endless writing blogs before finally finding which are the best for you and worthy of your time. 

So I asked my team to research what’s out there, and we’ve compiled a short list to get you started. But you also know how to search by specifying genres and areas of interest, so don’t stop here. Our list is by no means exhaustive, and I haven’t even included all the ones I enjoy. 

Here, then, are just suggestions of a few blogs you might want to check out to start your own list of writing resources —and we list them in alphabetical order:

• Become a Writer Today

Through his blog Become a Writer Today , Bryan Collins focuses on the needs of new writers. 

A non-fiction writer, blogger, and podcaster, Bryan writes on those genres, as well as on self-publishing . He’s written two 3-book series, “Become a Better Writer Today” and “The Power of Creativity.” 

A team of writers cover the business side of writing and such topics as writer’s block , formatting, and best practices. 

• The Creative Penn

A New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author, Joanna Penn is behind The Creative Penn . 

She also writes books for writers—her 21 titles have sold more than a half million copies. She’s a speaker, an entrepreneur, runs Curl Up Press, and has been named one of the top 100 Creative Professionals in the UK. 

Joanna’s blog focuses on self-publishing, marketing, and writing. The Creative Penn podcast offers more than 350 episodes on writing.

• Creative Writing Now

Founded by writing teacher Nancy Strauss, Creative Writing Now offers courses, tips , prompts, and information on writing contests. Writing teachers will find lesson plans as well.  

DIY MFA serves as a do-it-yourself manual for the equivalent of a Master of Fine Arts in writing without the expense. It centers on writing with focus, reading with purpose, building your writing community, and how to discover the writing tools available online and off.

Founded by author and podcaster Gabriela Pereira, the site posts on everything from playwriting to surviving rejection, travel writing, and many other writing topics. She offers a “ writer igniter ” that generates writing prompts. 

• Jane Friedman

A must read for writers and publishers, blogger Jane Friedman is one of the leading voices in the digital age of publishing.

She has more than 20 years’ experience in the industry, publishes The Hot Sheet (a newsletter for authors), is a columnist for Publishers Weekly , a professor with The Great Courses ( How to Publish Your Book ), and wrote The Business of Being a Writer . 

Jane’s blog offers how-to’s on publishing, writing a book proposal , finding a literary agent , and many other such topics. 

• Helping Writers Become Authors

Through her website Helping Writers Become Authors , K.M. Weiland has published more than 1,200 blog posts educating writers on the ins and outs and dos and don’ts of writing and publishing. 

She offers a bi-monthly e-letter, a podcast, and a vlog. She writes historical and speculative fiction, as well as how-to books, including Outlining Your Novel and Structuring Your Novel .

• Live Write Thrive

Novelist, copyeditor, and writing coach C.S. Lakin  created Live Write Thrive to help write your novel with posts like “ The Challenges of Believability in Writing Science Fiction ” and “ The 3 Ways to Show Emotion in Your Characters .” 

Bridget and Brendan McNulty and Dagmar Timler co-founded Now Novel , a platform designed to help you craft your story . 

The blog offers information for writers at every stage, a character writing hub, productivity tips, and help creating fantasy worlds. 

• Pro Writing Aid

Pro Writing Aid is a desktop app you can use with programs like Scrivener , Word, and Google Docs. It catches grammar errors, suggests style changes, and even checks your work for plagiarism.

Their blog covers which writing apps are best, the writing process, blogging and content writing, grammar rules , and business writing. 

• Write It Sideways

Founded by Suzannah Windsor, Write It Sideways is for aspiring and emerging writers . 

A team of writers answers questions budding writers ask, and blogs on things like writer’s intuition,“Confessions of a Writing Group Virgin,” and “Here’s the Type of Hate Mail Bloggers Get.” 

• Writers Helping Writers

Authors Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi created Writers Helping Writers for new writers, seasoned writers, editors, and writing teachers. The blog offers advice on technique and strategy, as well as “Navigating the Changing Face of Book Promotion with Smart, Effective Strategies” and “ How To Stop Self-Doubt From Holding You Back From Writing .” 

• The Write Practice

Joe Bunting started The Write Practice to help writers become better through practice. 

He offers writing prompts and provides a platform for fellow writers to offer feedback on what you’ve written. 

And of course you’re always welcome to visit me at JerryJenkins.com .

Over the last half century I’ve been an editor, a publisher, a nonfiction author, and a novelist—yet I’m still learning and growing like you. I offer a 20-Step Guide on How to Write a Book , How to Develop a Great Story Idea , Find the Right Writers Group and How to Write Dialogue . 

• Time to Get to Work

The best mentoring comes from seasoned writers proven in their fields. So dive into these blog sites and commit to life-long learning. 

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How to Write a Creative Brief in 11 Simple Steps [Examples + Template]

Updated: April 27, 2023

Published: April 26, 2023

The first step in any successful project is drawing up a game plan with a clear objective. It's one of the reasons marketers love creative briefs.

A creative brief acts as a roadmap that takes a project from ideation to completion. It ensures the scope, timeline, key stakeholders, and purpose of the project are communicated clearly. The creative brief is the single source of truth for everyone working on a project. If questions come up or tasks become unclear, the creative brief will steer things in the right direction.

What is a creative brief?

A creative brief is a short document that sums up marketing, advertising, or design project mission, goals, challenges, demographics, messaging, and other key details. It's often created by a consultant or a creative project manager. The goal of a brief is to achieve stakeholder alignment on a project before it begins.

The Purpose of a Creative Brief

Whether you’re a consultant pitching a creative brief to a client, or a project manager presenting a brief to your team, start by speaking with the project stakeholders. These discussions will help you understand the company's mission, project goals, and challenges your team faces. Then, you’ll have enough information to write a compelling brief that focuses on what’s really important to your company or client.

The idea of a creative brief sounds simple, but it can be hard to wrap a lot of important details into just a few pages. Therefore, a creative brief is typically comprised of eight sections that can fit on one to two pages.

Free Creative Brief Templates

Three customizable templates designed to serve as the blueprint for your next campaign.

• Campaign brief template.
• Video brief template.
• Client brief template.

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How a Creative Brief Works

Creative briefs are pretty standard documents within just about every marketing, advertising, or design team. For smaller projects that live in-house (like designs, templates, marketing assets, etc.) the brief is owned by the team who will be executing on the information in the brief. This is usually the creative team, but this team can fall within the brand department or even live within marketing.

For more advanced, long-term projects that involve an agency, the creative brief is owned by the creative team or agency who will be executing the work. This is because they'll work closely with the stakeholders on the project to understand what is needed, plus they'll bring their own expertise and competitive research to the brief that the internal team may not have access to.

These types of creative briefs aren't rare, but they are created infrequently due to the nature of the projects they support. So for this post, we'll focus mostly on the day-to-day creative briefs that you're likely to use often. Here's how they work.

Creative Brief Outline

• Project Name
• Company Background
• Project Objective
• Target Audience
• Competitors
• Key Message
• Key Consumer Benefit
• Call to Action
• Distribution

Step 1. The teams who need assistance from the creative team will retrieve the creative brief template from a repository like OneDrive, Google Drive, or an online form.

Step 2. The team that is requesting the project will complete the brief according to their team's needs and goals. The completion of the creative brief starts with the team requesting the project so that they can explain their vision and goals clearly to the creative team.

Step 3. From there, the brief is sent back to the creative team to review. They'll be looking for timelines, resources, and budget requirements.

Step 4. If they have any questions, they'll go back to the team who wrote the brief and finalize the details.

Step 5. After that, the project is kicked off, sometimes with the help of a project manager, who will check-in with stakeholders on the project and keep everything on schedule, within scope, and within budget.

Step 6. Once the project is complete, both teams will review the deliverables against the creative brief to ensure everything is completed correctly.

The format of every company's creative brief might vary slightly to suit the needs of the project or client. Below is a simple outline that will be the foundation of your creative brief. It includes the most important steps in the creative process and information that'll be relevant to stakeholders involved in the project.

Once you’re fully informed and ready to write, use the following steps to draft yours. To make it even easier, I've included a fill-in-the-blank template in the last step.

How to Write a Creative Brief

• Decide on a name for the project.
• Write about the brand and summarize the project’s background.
• Highlight the project objective.
• Describe the target audience.
• Interpret the competitive landscape.
• Prepare the key message.
• Choose the key consumer benefit.
• Select an attitude.
• Determine the best call to action.
• Draft the distribution plan.
• Share the creative brief with stakeholders.

1. Decide on a name for the project.

The first step in developing a creative brief is deciding on a project name. This might sound simple, but it's one of the most critical components of a creative brief. If you're building a campaign around a brand new product or service, the campaign name will be the first time many members of your team will be introduced to it. Referring to the campaign (and therefore product or service) by the correct name prevents the game of telephone from happening. Without a specific and clear campaign name, people will make up their own terminology which can alter the intent of the campaign .

To create a project or campaign name for your creative brief, keep it creative and brief. A few words or a short sentence should work just fine. If you're launching a product, identify what the call to action will be for the target audience, then center the name around that. Here are a few examples of fictional campaign names:

• The Search for Adventure Campaign- A scavenger hunt-themed amusement park.
• The Don't Forget Your Memories Campaign - A photo frame company.
• The "What's hotter than Pepperco hot sauce?" Campaign - A hot sauce brand.

2. Write about the brand and summarize the project’s background.

Another simple, yet essential section is the company background. If you work in an agency setting, this is non-negotiable as your team is likely handling several client campaigns at once. However, if you're developing a creative brief for an in-house project, you'll still want to include this part. New hires on your team, freelancers, and vendors will appreciate the background that your internal team is already privy to.

The company background shouldn't be a general history of the company or a copied and pasted paragraph from the about page. Instead, tailor this to the project at hand. Set the scene with one or two sentences that sum up the brand’s mission. Follow this with a few sentences that give background on the brand and what led to the development of the project.

While some creatives have put this information all together in a quick paragraph, others separate it with headers like “Brand Statement” and “Background.”

Here are some questions to consider when writing a company background for your creative brief:

• Has the company launched a campaign like this before?
• Why is the company choosing to launch this campaign right now?
• What's happening in the market and how will this campaign respond to it?

3. Highlight the project objective.

Here is where the creative brief gets more specific. The project objective should briefly explain the purpose of the project, the timeline, and the audience it'll target. This can be done in a sentence or two, but you can get creative and stylize it in sections.

This part of the creative brief will be helpful in emphasizing why the project needs to happen. The goal aspects will help you and your team align on the project’s expectations. If the company or client hasn’t identified any major challenges, you can focus this section on goals and objectives. Explain what a successful project looks like and how it will benefit the company.

Pro Tip: Writing a project objective is very similar to writing a goal, so take a look at this blog post for more detail on goal and objective writing.

Here’s an example of a sample creative brief for PayPal that offers separate sections for “The Problem” and “The Goal”:

4. Describe the target audience.

Next, it's time to define the target audience for the project. This is the segment of your market that will directly benefit from the product or service being launched. You can take audience segmentation a step further by identifying a primary and secondary audience. Doing so will give your team more freedom to explore creative ideas that might resonate with one group more than the other.

When crafting the target audience section, be sure to include the following:

• Demographics - Simple demographic information gives your team insight into exactly who the audience is. This includes data points like age, income, education, ethnicity, and occupation.
• Behaviors - Buying behaviors, trends, and other customer history make up the target audience behaviors. These provide important context to the creative brief because they explain where the customer is in their buyer journey.
• Psychographics - This is how the audience thinks and feels about your brand and the product or service you sell, in general.
• Geographics - Digital, physical, and hybrid campaigns will benefit from having geographics stated explicitly in the creative brief so that media buyers can price ad slots in each market.

Pro Tip: Your creative brief shouldn't be too long, and this section can take up quite a bit of space. To make this section more digestible, consider using buyer personas .

Here’s how the sample brief for PayPal noted above thoughtfully explains a new product’s target audience:

5. Interpret the competitive landscape.

Knowing what your competitors are doing is advantageous for the whole team. You can use competitive data to come up with ideas that haven’t been tried yet, learn from their failed projects, or build a project that improves on a strategy they’ve used in the past.

Include a quick list of competitors with similar product or service offerings. Briefly list a few things your company has in common with them, how your brand has differentiated itself already, and a few areas where this project can help you get ahead.Get Your Free Templates

6. Prepare the key message.

The key message can be the most difficult part of the creative brief to develop because just about every stakeholder will have a different opinion of what it should be. To get buy-in faster, try this simple trick. Ask yourself "We're launching this project, so what?" The "so what?" is your key message. It explains why your target audience should stop what they're doing and pay attention to your campaign.

The key message includes the pain point, what the audience's experience might be like without the pain point, and the benefit they'll receive as a result of your company's solution. This framework places the customer in the spotlight of the campaign. Instead of telling them what this product or service could do for them, it positions them as the main character in the journey from problem to solution.

7. Choose the key consumer benefit.

If you're launching a new product, there are likely several features and benefits that the target audience will experience when they decide to purchase it. However, it's very difficult to structure a campaign around several different features. That's why marketers and creatives use something called a key consumer benefit (KCB) in the creative brief to keep everyone aligned on the primary benefit being communicated. To choose the right KCB, you'll want to get input from the project stakeholders and rely on consumer data to guide the decision.

Pro Tip: Your KCB won't always be the fanciest feature of your product. The benefit that solves the biggest problem for your audience is a great choice for the KCB.

8. Select an attitude.

The tone and voice of your campaign create the overall attitude and that should be consistent throughout every creative element that's being developed. Identifying a few adjectives that describe the attitude of the campaign can help copywriters draft copy that sends the correct message within the right context. Graphic designers can use colors and techniques to portray the tone and voice as well.

In this section of the brief, you should also note the appropriate voice for your audience. While some audiences, like those in the business world, prefer more formal language, others might engage more with a casual, relatable tone. To substantiate your decision to choose a particular brand voice and tone, you could write something like, “Our brand voice is a casual and carefree tone because it speaks to younger Gen-Z audiences.”

Pro tip: Use a thesaurus to find specific words that evoke nuanced emotions and attitudes for a hyper-targeted campaign.

9. Determine the best call to action.

Finally, your audience needs something to do once they see your campaign. The good thing about CTAs is that they don't have to be physical actions. A CTA could have a goal to change thoughts and perceptions about your brand which doesn't require the audience to do anything at all.

Your creative brief might include several different CTAs, especially if you have a primary and secondary target audience. But it's a good idea to have one primary CTA that drives the project objective we talked about earlier.

10. Draft the distribution plan.

When the project is done, you’ll need to make sure your audience actually sees it. List a few channels or platforms on which you plan to announce the launch, as well as any promotional content you plan to create.

When drafting this section, think about your target audience. Don’t waste time on a promotional strategy that they won’t see. For example, if you’re promoting a project to Gen-Z, you’ll want to invest in social media rather than billboards or newspaper ads.

11. Share the creative brief with stakeholders.

Once you’ve drafted a creative brief, share it with the team you’ll be working with. You’ll also want to circulate it around the company via Slack, email, or presentations. If you’re a consultant working outside of a client’s company, encourage your clients to share the brief internally.

As you or your clients spread awareness, you should be open to answering questions or taking feedback from colleagues in case they have any great ideas. This strategy will improve team alignment , increase support of the project, and ensure that all of your colleagues are on the same page.

Follow Along with HubSpot's Free Creative Brief Templates

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Creative Brief Template

Having trouble with the flow and organization of your brief? Here’s a simple template that could help. Copy and paste it into a document and fill in the blanks. You can also add to it or adjust it as needed for your project.

Download More Creative Brief Templates

[Inset company or client logo at the top along with the project name.]

COMPANY BACKGROUND:

For ___ years, ______ [Brand Name] has been serving customers in the ____________ [group/job field/geographical area] with ____________________ [product or service].

[Brand Name] has made achievements including __________,__________, and ___________. We have also launched marketing campaigns that have touched on ____________,________, and ____________. With the launch of _________ [project name] they hope to ___________.

PROJECT OBJECTIVE:

With this project, the company aims to solve problems related to ____________________, while also expanding on ___________ and improving on _____________.

TARGET AUDIENCE:

Our target audience is ____ [gender], in the age range of _ and _, and live areas like ____, _____, and ______. They enjoy _____, dislike ______, and might work in fields like _____, _____, and _____. They want more of ________ and their daily pain points include ________.

Their favorite products might include _______ and ______. They learn about these products through channels including ________, _________, and _______.

COMPETITORS:

Our three biggest competitors [are/will be] ________, ________, and _______. These competitors offer _____, ______, and ______. We are ahead of them in _____ and ______, but we are behind when it comes to product offerings like __________ and _________.

KEY MESSAGE:

The target audience is experiencing __________ [pain point], but with our newest project ___________, they'll get to experience _________ [new experience without the pain point]. That's what makes ______ [solution] an unrivaled solution within the market.

KEY CONSUMER BENEFIT:

________ [feature] is the best way for our target audience to experience _____ [benefit].

[Include three to five adjectives that describe the tone and voice of the project.]

CALL TO ACTION:

When the target audience sees our campaign, they will [feel/think/do] _________.

DISTRIBUTION:

We will promote the launch on platforms and channels that our demographic regularly engages with. These will include ________, ________, and _______.

We will also release content including _______, _______, and ________ to gain attention from our audience and inform them of the project.

Below are a few messages we will use:

• _________________________________________________.

Types of Creative Briefs

Creative briefs serve several purposes in the communications field. Marketers, designers, and advertisers use them differently. Depending on your role, your team, and the project you're working on, one might be more effective than the other. Below are some of the most common types of creative briefs used across industries today plus examples of what they might look like.

1. Marketing Creative Briefs

A marketing creative brief is most commonly used to bring campaigns to market. This type of creative brief can be used for both new and existing campaigns. Broad business goals and strategies to accomplish them are usually included in this type of creative brief. It's also not uncommon to see revenue goals and a budget included in a marketing creative brief.

Simple Marketing Creative Brief Example

2. Product Design Creative Briefs

Product design creative briefs outline the go-to-market strategy for a new product or feature launch. Product marketers are responsible for developing this type of brief. Developed in conjunction with the product manager, the product design creative brief will describe the features and benefits of the product and how the audience will benefit from them. Unique features of this type of creative brief include product documentation and product descriptions.

Product Design Creative Brief Example

3. Advertising Agency Creative Briefs

Advertising agencies develop creative briefs often for the various clients they serve. These briefs are concise and include the client's brand guidelines as well as the specific project guidelines. A budget may also be included in the brief so that all teams can make wise decisions about the tactics they recommend for the client. An account manager or supervisor develops the creative brief and shares it with client stakeholders before the agency begins working on the project.

Advertising Agency Creative Brief Example

Creative Brief Examples

1. creative request template.

For the day-to-day management of creative projects, using a creative request template in Asana acts as a dynamic take on a traditionally static creative brief. With a few tweaks to suit your business's needs, this template flows through each stage of the project while specifying tasks, deliverables, and key points that need to be included in the project. Moreover, Asana provides several types of views that make this template easy to look at from a calendar view, list view, board view, and timeline view so you'll always know the progress of your project in relation to the creative brief.

When to Use This Creative Brief:

This creative brief example is great for marketing, brand, creative, and design teams who handle a large backlog of projects with stakeholders on many different teams. Use this brief for both ad-hoc and regularly occurring projects.

2. Creative Brief Presentation Template

This creative brief example was designed by TemplateForest. It's a visual-forward example of a brief that works well for long-term projects like building a business or refreshing a brand. This longer brief includes a variety of information from internal brand insights to an external competitive analysis.

Use this creative brief when you're partnering with a creative agency on bigger projects. They can use this layout to inspire a creative brief that fits the needs of your business.

Streamline Projects with a Creative Brief

Scope creep happens to the best of us. Projects get bigger, stakeholders are added, and the objective of the project seems to morph as time goes on. Streamline your next product launch or marketing and advertising campaign with a creative brief. As a result, you'll find that your team is more aligned with the project's goals. We've even provided free creative brief templates to get you started — download them below.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in July 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy in 9 Easy Steps [Free Template]

Creating your social media marketing strategy doesn’t need to be painful. Create an effective plan for your business in 9 simple steps.

A social media marketing strategy is a summary of everything you plan to do and hope to achieve on social media. It guides your actions and lets you know whether you’re succeeding or failing.

The more specific your plan is, the more effective it will be. Keep it concise. Don’t make it so lofty and broad that it’s unattainable or impossible to measure.

In this post, we’ll walk you through a nine-step plan to create a winning social media strategy of your own. We’ve even got expert insights from Amanda Wood, Hootsuite’s Senior Manager of Social Marketing.

How to create a social media strategy:

Bonus: Get a free social media strategy template   to quickly and easily plan your own strategy. Also use it to track results and present the plan to your boss, teammates, and clients.

What is a social media marketing strategy?

A social media strategy is a document outlining your social media goals, the tactics you will use to achieve them and the metrics you will track to measure your progress.

Your social media marketing strategy should also list all of your existing and planned social media accounts along with goals specific to each platform you’re active on. These goals should align with your business’s larger digital marketing strategy.

Finally, a good social media plan should define the roles and responsibilities within your team and outline your reporting cadence.

Create. Schedule. Publish. Engage. Measure. Win.

Creating your own social media marketing strategy (video guide)

No time to read the whole article? Let Amanda, Hootsuite’s own Senior Manager of Social Media Marketing, guide you through our free social media marketing strategy template in less than 10 minutes:

How to create a social media marketing strategy in 9 steps

Step 1. choose goals that align to business objectives, set s.m.a.r.t. goals.

The first step to creating a winning social media strategy is to establish clear objectives and goals. Without goals, you have no way to measure success and return on investment (ROI) .

Each of your social media marketing goals should be SMART : s pecific, m easurable, a ttainable, r elevant and t ime-bound.

Psst: Need help getting started? We’ve got social strategy guides for small businesses , financial services , government , higher education , healthcare , real estate , law firms , and non-profits .

Oh, and if you need examples of smart social media goals , we’ve got you covered there too.

Once you’ve decided on your goals, track them in a social media strategy doc — grab our free template if you don’t have one already.

Track meaningful metrics

Vanity metrics like number of followers and likes are easy to track, but it’s hard to prove their real value. Instead, focus on things like engagement, click-through, and conversion rates.

For inspiration, take a look at these 19 essential social media metrics .

You may want to track different goals for different social media networks, or even different uses for each network.

For example, if you use LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website, you would measure click-throughs. If Instagram is for brand awareness, you might track the number of Instagram Story views. And if you advertise on Facebook, cost-per-click (CPC) is a common success metric.

Social media goals should align with your overall marketing objectives. This makes it easier to show the value of your work and secure buy-in from your boss.

Start developing a successful social media marketing plan by writing down at least three goals for social media.

“ It’s easy to get overwhelmed by deciding what to post and which metrics to track, but you need to focus on what you want to get out of social media to begin with,” says Amanda Wood, Hootsuite’s Senior Manager of Social Marketing. “Don’t just start posting and tracking everything: match your goals to your business, and your metrics to your goals.”

Step 2. Learn everything you can about your audience

Get to know your fans, followers, and customers as real people with real wants and needs, and you will know how to target and engage them on social media.

When it comes to your ideal customer, you should know things like:

• Average income
• Typical job title or industry

Here’s a simple guide and template for creating audience/buyer personas .

Don’t forget to document this information in your strategy doc!

Social media analytics can also provide a ton of valuable information about who your followers are, where they live, and how they interact with your brand on social media. These insights allow you to refine your strategy and better target your audience.

Jugnoo, an Uber-like service for auto-rickshaws in India, used Facebook Analytics to learn that 90% of their users who referred other customers were between 18- and 34-years-old, and 65% of that group was using Android. They used that information to target their ads, resulting in a 40% lower cost per referral.

Check out our guide to using social media analytics and the tools you need to track them .

Step 3. Get to know your competition

Odds are your competitors are already using social media, and that means you can learn from what they’re doing.

Conduct a competitive analysis

A competitive analysis allows you to understand who the competition is and what they’re doing well (and not so well). You’ll get a good sense of what’s expected in your industry, which will help you set social media targets of your own.

It will also help you spot opportunities and weaknesses you can document in your social strategy doc.

Maybe one of your competitors is dominant on Facebook, for example, but has put little effort into X (Twitter) or Instagram. You might want to focus on the social media platforms where your audience is underserved, rather than trying to win fans away from a dominant player.

Use social media listening

Social listening is another way to keep an eye on your competitors.

Do searches of the competition’s company name, account handles, and other relevant keywords on social media. Find out what they’re sharing and what other people are saying about them. If they’re using influencer marketing, how much engagement do those campaigns earn them?

Pro tip : Use Hootsuite Streams to monitor relevant keywords, hashtags and accounts in real-time.

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As you track, you may notice shifts in how your competitors and industry leaders are using social media. You may come across new, exciting trends. You might even spot specific social content or a campaign that really hits the mark—or totally bombs.

Use this kind of intel to optimize and inform your own social media marketing strategy.

Just don’t go overboard on the spy tactics, Amanda advises. “ Make sure you aren’t ALWAYS comparing yourself to the competition — it can be a distraction. I’d say checking in on a monthly basis is healthy. Otherwise, focus on your own strategy and results.”

Step 4. Do a social media audit

If you’re already using social media, take stock of your efforts so far. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What’s working, and what’s not?
• Who is engaging with you?
• What are your most valuable partnerships?
• Which networks does your target audience use?
• How does your social media presence compare to the competition?

Once you collect that information, you’ll be ready to start thinking about ways to improve.

We’ve created an easy-to-follow social media audit guide and template to walk you through each step of this process.

Your audit should give you a clear picture of what purpose each of your social accounts serves. If the purpose of an account isn’t clear, think about whether it’s worth keeping.

To help you decide, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is my audience here?
• If so, how are they using this platform?
• Can I use this account to help achieve my goals?

Asking these tough questions will keep your social media strategy focused.

Look for impostor accounts

During the audit, you may discover fake accounts using your business name or the names of your products.

These imposters can be harmful to your brand—never mind that they’re capturing followers that should be yours.

You may want to get your accounts verified too to ensure your fans know they are dealing with the real you.

Here’s how to get verified on:

• X (Twitter)

Step 5. Set up accounts and improve profiles

Decide which networks to use.

As you decide which social networks to use, you will also need to define your strategy for each.

Benefit Cosmetics’ social media manager, Angela Purcaro, told eMarketer : “For our makeup tutorials … we’re all about Snapchat and Instagram Stories. [X], on the other hand, is designated for customer service.”

Hootsuite’s own social team even designates different purposes for formats within networks. On Instagram, for example, they use the feed to post high-quality educational infographics and product announcements and Stories to cover live events or quick social media updates.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hootsuite 🦉 (@hootsuite)

Pro tip : Write out a mission statement for each network. A one-sentence declaration to keep you focused on a specific goal.

Example: “We will use X for customer support to keep email and call volumes down.”

Or: “We will use LinkedIn for promoting and sharing our company culture to help with recruitment and employee advocacy.”

One more: “We will use Instagram to highlight new products and repost quality content from influencers.”

If you can’t create a solid mission statement for a particular social media channel, you may want to ask yourself if it’s worth it.

Note : While larger businesses can and do tackle every platform, small businesses may not be able to — and that’s ok! Prioritize social platforms that will have the most impact on your business and make sure your marketing team has the resources to handle content for those networks. If you need help focusing your efforts, check out our 18-minute social media plan .

Set up your profiles

Once you’ve decided which networks to focus on, it’s time to create your profiles. Or improve existing ones so they align with your strategy.

• Make sure you fill out all profile fields
• Include keywords people would use to search for your business
• Use consistent branding (logos, images, etc.) across networks so your profiles are easily recognizable

Pro tip : Use high-quality images that follow the recommended dimensions for each network. Check out our always-up-to-date social media image size cheat sheet for quick reference.

We’ve also got step-by-step guides for each network to walk you through the process:

• Create a Facebook business page
• Create an Instagram business account
• Create a TikTok account
• Create a X (Twitter) business account
• Create a Snapchat account
• Create a LinkedIn Company Page
• Create a Pinterest business account
• Create a YouTube channel

Don’t let this list overwhelm you. Remember, it’s better to use fewer channels well than to stretch yourself thin trying to maintain a presence on every network.

Optimize your profiles (and content) for search

Never heard of social SEO ? It’s time to learn.

44% of Gen Z consumers use social platforms to research their purchase decisions, which means it’s extra critical that your channels are optimized for social search.

That means making sure your profile names are clear and descriptive, you’re including relevant hashtags and keywords in your bio and on every post, and you’re using features like alt text and captions to include your target keywords as naturally as possible.

Step 6. Find inspiration

While it’s important that your brand be unique, you can still draw inspiration from other businesses that are great on social.

“ I consider it my job to stay active on social: to know what’s trending, which campaigns are winning, what’s new with the platforms, who’s going above and beyond,” says Amanda. “This might be the most fun step for you, or the hardest one, but it’s just as crucial as the rest of them.”

Social media success stories

You can usually find these on the business section of the social network’s website. ( Here’s Facebook’s , for example.)

Case studies can offer valuable insights that you can apply to your own social media plan.

Award-winning accounts and campaigns

You could also check out the winners of The Facebook Awards or The Shorty Awards for examples of brands that are at the top of their social media game.

For learning and a laugh, check out Fridge-Worthy, Hootsuite’s bi-weekly awards show highlighting brands doing smart and clever things on social media.

Your favorite brands on social media

Who do you enjoy following on social media? What do they do that compels people to engage and share their content?

National Geographic, for example, is one of the best on Instagram, combining stunning visuals with compelling captions.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by National Geographic (@natgeo)

Then there’s Shopify. The ecommerce brand uses Facebook to sell themselves by showcasing customer stories and case studies.

And Lush Cosmetics is a great example of superior customer service on X. They use their 280 characters to answer questions and solve problems in an extremely charming and on-brand way.

Source: lushcosmetics on X

Notice that each of these accounts has a consistent voice, tone, and style. That’s key to letting people know what to expect from your feed. That is, why should they follow you? What’s in it for them?

Consistency also helps keep your content on-brand even if you have multiple people on your social media team.

For more on this, read our guide on establishing a compelling brand voice on social media .

Ask your followers

Consumers can also offer social media inspiration.

What are your target customers talking about online? What can you learn about their wants and needs?

If you have existing social channels, you could also ask your followers what they want from you. Just make sure that you follow through and deliver what they ask for.

Step 7. Create a social media content calendar

Sharing great content is essential, of course, but it’s equally important to have a plan in place for when you’ll share content to get the maximum impact.

Your social media content calendar also needs to account for the time you spend interacting with the audience (although you need to allow for some spontaneous engagement as well).

Set your posting schedule

Your social media content calendar lists the dates and times at which you will publish types of content on each channel. It’s the perfect place to plan all of your social media activities—from images, link sharing, and re-shares of user-generated content to blog posts and videos. It includes both your day-to-day posting and content for social media campaigns.

Your calendar also ensures your posts are spaced out appropriately and published at the best times to post .

Pro tip: You can plan your whole content calendar and get recommended best times to post on every network based on your past engagement rate, impressions, or link click data in Hootsuite.

Hootsuite’s Best Time to Publish feature

Determine the right content mix

Make sure your content strategy and calendar reflect the mission statement you’ve assigned to each social profile, so that everything you post is working to support your business goals.

(We know, it’s tempting to jump on every meme, but there should always be a strategy behind your social media marketing efforts!)

You might decide that:

• 50% of content will drive traffic back to your website
• 25% of content will be curated from other sources
• 20% of content will support lead-generation goals (newsletter sign-ups, ebook downloads, etc.)
• 5% of content will be about your company culture

Placing these different post types in your content calendar will ensure you maintain the right mix.

If you’re starting from scratch and you’re not sure what types of content to post, try the 80-20 rule :

• 80% of your posts should inform, educate, or entertain your audience
• 20% can directly promote your brand.

You could also try the social media content marketing rule of thirds :

• One-third of your content promotes your business, converts readers, and generates profit.
• One-third of your content shares ideas and stories from thought leaders in your industry or like-minded businesses.
• One-third of your content is personal interactions with your audience

Whatever you decide on, be sure to document it in your strategy doc.

Don’t post too much or too little

If you’re starting a social media marketing strategy from scratch, you may not have figured out how often to post to each network for maximum engagement yet.

Post too frequently and you risk annoying your audience. But, if you post too little, you risk looking like you’re not worth following.

Start with these posting frequency recommendations:

• Instagram (feed): 3-7 times per week
• TikTok: 3-5 times per week
• Facebook: 1-2 times per day
• X (Twitter): 1-5 times per day
• LinkedIn: 1-5 times per day

Pro tip : Once you have your social media content calendar planned out, use a scheduling tool to prepare messages in advance rather than updating constantly throughout the day.

We might be biased, but we think Hootsuite is the best social media management tool. You can schedule social media posts to every network and the intuitive calendar view gives you a full picture of all your social activity each week.

Try It Free

Step 8. Create compelling content

Remember those mission statements you created for each channel in Step 5? Well, it’s time to go a bit deeper, a.k.a. provide some examples of the type of content you’ll post to fulfill your mission on each network.

If you’re not sure what to post, here’s a long list of social media content ideas to get you started. Or (to make it even easier) you can use an AI tool like OwlyWriter to generate on-brand content in a flash.

The idea here is to:

• Keep your content aligned with the purpose of each network;
• Show other stakeholders (if applicable) what kind of content they can expect to see on each network.

This last point especially will help you avoid any tension when your colleagues want to know why you haven’t posted their case study/whitepaper/blog post to TikTok yet. It’s not in the strategy, Linda!

Ideally, you will generate content types that are both suited to the network and the purpose you’ve set out for that network.

For example, you wouldn’t want to waste time posting brand awareness tweets if you’ve designated X/Twitter for primarily customer support. And you wouldn’t want to post super polished corporate video ads to TikTok, as users expect to see short, unpolished videos on that platform.

It might take some testing over time to figure out which type of content works best on which type of network, so prepare to update this section frequently.

We won’t lie: content creation isn’t as easy as everyone not on the social team seems to think. But if you’re struggling, Amanda suggests going back to basics.

The first question to ask is: is there cohesion between your content types? Is your content providing value? Do you have a good mix of entertaining, or educational content? What does it offer that makes a person stop and spend time? Creating a few different content pillars or categories that encompass different aspects of storytelling for your brand, and what you can offer your audience is a good start.

This brings us to Step 9.

Step 9. Track performance and make adjustments

Your social media marketing strategy is a hugely important document for your business, and you can’t assume you’ll get it exactly right on the first try.

As you start to implement your plan and track your results, you may find that some strategies don’t work as well as you’d anticipated, while others are working even better than expected.

That’s why it’s important to document your progress along the way.

Look at performance metrics

In addition to the analytics within each social network (see Step 2), you can use UTM parameters to track social visitors as they move through your website, so you can see exactly which social posts drive the most traffic to your website.

Benchmark your results

You’ve got your numbers, but how do they stack up to the competition in your industry? Industry benchmarks are a great way to evaluate your performance against other businesses in your category.

If you’ve got Hootsuite Analytics , you can use our built-in social media benchmarking tool to compare the performance of your social accounts against the average of brands in your industry with just a couple of clicks.

You can set up custom timeframes, switch between networks — Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and TikTok — and look up benchmarks for metrics like followers, audience growth rate, engagement rate, clicks, shares, and much more.

You’ll also find resources to improve your performance  right in the summary section:

Re-evaluate, test, and do it all again

Once this data starts coming in, use it to re-evaluate your strategy regularly. You can also use this information to test different posts, social marketing campaigns, and strategies against one another. Constant testing allows you to understand what works and what doesn’t, so you can refine your social media marketing strategy in real time.

You’ll want to check the performance of all your channels at least once a week and get to know the basics of social media reporting so you can track your growth over time.

Pro tip: If you use Hootsuite, you can review the performance of all your posts on every network in one place. Once you get the hang of checking your analytics, you may even want to customize different reports to show specific metrics over a variety of different time periods.

Surveys can also be a great way to find out how well your social media strategy is working. Ask your followers, email list, and website visitors whether you’re meeting their needs and expectations, and what they’d like to see more of. Then make sure to deliver on what they tell you.

Finalizing your social media strategy

Spoiler alert: nothing is final.

Social media moves fast. New networks emerge, others go through demographic shifts.

Your business will go through periods of change as well.

All of this means that your social media marketing strategy should be a living document that you review and adjust as needed. Refer to it often to stay on track, but don’t be afraid to make changes so that it better reflects new goals, tools, or plans.

When you update your social strategy, make sure to watch our 5-step video on how to updating your social media strategy for 2024:

Social media strategy template

Ready to start documenting? Grab your free social media strategy template below!

What’s next? When you’re ready to put your plan into action, we’re here to help…

Save time managing your social media marketing strategy with Hootsuite. From a single dashboard you can easily:

• Plan, create, and schedule posts to every network
• Track relevant keywords, topics, and accounts
• Stay on top of engagement with a universal inbox
• Get easy-to-understand performance reports and improve your strategy as needed

Try Hootsuite for Free

With files from Shannon Tien .

Do it better with Hootsuite , the all-in-one social media tool. Stay on top of things, grow, and beat the competition.

Become a better social marketer.

Get expert social media advice delivered straight to your inbox.

Christina Newberry is an award-winning writer and editor whose greatest passions include food, travel, urban gardening, and the Oxford comma—not necessarily in that order.

Amanda Wood is a senior social marketing professional who combines analytical and creative thinking to build brands.

As head of social at Hootsuite, Amanda oversees the global social strategy encompassing organic and paid social on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn, a social engagement and listening strategy, and an employee advocacy program.

As the leader of a high-performing social team, she has extensive experience collaborating with creatives to bring campaigns to life on social and drive business results.

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• Writing Prompts

56 Dystopian Writing Prompts

Escape to a dark, disheartened world with these 56 dystopian writing prompts .

Mass poverty, cruelty and fear cover a dystopian world. From the shelter-like homes to the dark, broken streets. Life is hard. When writing a story set in a dystopian world you need to describe the harsh reality of this world in great detail. Make the reader fear this world. Think about the leaders who have control. This control might be significant, where harsh rules are made to keep the peace. Alternatively, there could be a rebellion, where leaders have no control and civilians are running havoc. See our master list of world-building questions to help develop a believable dystopian world.

A dystopian world is a world in shatters and ruins. How did it become this way? What rules and regimes do civilians follow, if any? What type of crime is most prominent in this world? These questions will help you create a realistic and powerful dystopian world for your readers.

Looking for some name ideas for your new world? Check out this world name generator . You might also find this list of Earth day writing prompts and this list of over 110 sci-fi writing prompts .

Dystopian writing prompts

To help you create a powerful story about a society in crisis, here are our 56 dystopian writing prompts:

• In the year 2,121, sea levels have risen at an extreme rate. 98% of the Earth is now underwater. The remaining 2% is made of small islands scattered across the Earth. With resources at a scarcity, the islands must work together if they are to survive.
• A virus has wiped out 95% of humanity in the future. The only survivors are machines and a group of secret underground warriors who rebelled against technology for centuries.
• In the future, a virus has caused some humans to mutate into ravenous troll-like beasts. While the remaining humans have to learn to survive in the world with these beasts.
• The life expectancy of people has dropped drastically in the future. At the age of 18, humans start to deteriorate and slowly pass away. The ruler is an arrogant 14-year-old kid.
• Scientists have combined robotics with human tissue to increase the life expectancy of humans. Apart from the vital organs, such as lungs and heart, as well as parts of the brain, humans are mostly robotic. Eventually, humans start losing control of their bodies to machines. 
• From the moment a human is born to the day they die, humans are connected to the internet. Everything they need to know about life is on a screen to which they are connected. One day, a technology outbreak completely wipes the internet. Humans are switched off. What happens next?
• Scientists have found the secret to endless happiness. They create a new pill that needs to be taken once a day to remain happy. But is this new pill all as it seems?
• To promote equality in the future, humans have to dress the same and talk the same. Any inappropriate English and slang words are banned. All around the world, everyone must speak English. If these rules are broken, the rule breaker will be sentenced to prison or even death.
• With the brand new Cloner 3000, cloning is just a button press away. Clone your cat, your dog and even yourself if you dare. What are the potential dangers of cloning yourself too many times? 
• Law and order is destroyed in the future. People are free to do whatever they want without any consequences. Until a group of vigilante heroes decide to recreate the law.
• There are two types of people, the rich and the poor. The rich have an extreme amount of money and power. And the poor are living on the streets and undergrounds, struggling to get by. A poor orphan girl is adopted by a rich family and discovers a deadly secret about how the rich become rich. 
• The excessive use of technology and social media has meant that 95% of the world suffers from extreme social phobia. The slightest human interaction results in mass panic attacks. One brave human decides to create a group where people can meet face to face regularly to help them overcome this fear.
• Crime has become such a huge issue in the future, that every home in the world has become a prison cell. Prison guards patrol the streets and provide prisoners with the essentials. One guard feeling guilty that his family is locked behind bars, tries freeing them, and soon things get out of control. 
• Oxygen is the new currency in the future. Instead of money people buy, earn and sell little canisters of oxygen. Continue this dystopian story…
• Desperate to create the perfect world, the government provides every person with a free virtual reality headset. Once worn, the person is transported to a tranquil utopia. Meanwhile, the government secretly has other plans in the real world. 
• A virus has turned every tree, plant and flower on earth into flesh-eating monsters. The only way to survive is to kill all plant life on Earth, but how will the planet survive?
• A new mobile app in the future tells people when to eat, sleep, drink and essentially live. Without the app, humans would be lost, confused and clueless. A group of cyber hackers, hack this app to gain control of all humans. 
• Being the main cause of social disorders and suicides, the internet is banned in the year 2,098. With the ban of the internet, people slowly resort to the old ways of living before the internet ever existed. Until a group of individuals find a way to bring back the net. 
• Bored of old-style video gaming, humans resort to sticking chips inside prisoners. Once a prisoner is chipped, they can be controlled like a video game character. 
• Desperate to be beautiful and young, rich people resort to stealing the actual skin and facial features of ordinary people. These extreme surgeries soon start to have a weird effect on humans.
• The Earth has been destroyed by a huge asteroid. A few humans that survived by living underground finally emerge to start a new life on Earth. 
• With the Earth’s population at an all-time high, it’s time for every human to prove their worth. After the age of 16, humans must take a test every year. If they fail the test, they are killed immediately. One young adult scores incredibly high on the test making them the ‘chosen one’. 
• Due to the lack of resources on Earth, all luxury items have been banned. People survive on basic rations of bread, rice and beans each month. No vanity items, such as jewellery or make-up are allowed. One day a group of civilians discover that luxury items do exist, but only the leaders can use them. 
• For the sake of human evolution, scientists have turned the small town of Whitefish into a huge science experiment. No one is allowed to enter or leave the city unless they are told so. Every now and then, a new stimulus is introduced, so that scientists can record the human reactions for a research paper. 
• Write a story about the aftermath of World War 5. Who was at war and who lost it? What devastation did the war create on Earth?
• In the far future, robots are responsible for creating human life. They carefully program each human when they are born to do certain tasks in life. One human realizes that they don’t need to follow the orders programmed in them and fights for freedom.
• After a huge asteroid hits Earth, the last two survivors have to find a way to recreate life. It’s a modern, dystopian Adam and Eve story.
• World leaders ban religion and talk of God in the future. A man discovers a secret church up in the mountains where people secretly believe in God. 
• Due to animal cruelty, people are no longer allowed to have animals as pets in the future. All pets live out in the wild without any human masters. One homeless teenager finds a hurt dog in the wild and takes care of it. Eventually, authorities find out about this forbidden friendship.
• A bored scientist dedicates his whole life to recreating popular monsters like vampires, werewolves and Frankenstein’s monster in real life. He finally masters the procedure and offers it to rich people at a price.
• Tired of the rat race and busy city-living, people move to the country to live a peaceful and calm life. Eventually, cities like New York City become a playground for criminals and runaways.
• When the human population on land reaches an all-time high. One man goes on a quest to create the ultimate underwater city for humans. Continue this story.
• In the year 2,121, 100% of the population becomes vegan. Eating any sort of animal product is considered cannibalism. Farm animals realize that humans will no longer eat them, so decide to plan their revenge.
• Cyber-pets become a huge thing in the future. Technology advances so much that people would rather buy robotic pets inside of real ones. This results in more stray animals on the streets. With no human love, the pets turn into savages attacking both humans and the cyber-pets.
• Humans have left Earth for a better life on Mars. One day, thousands of years later, a space astronaut from Mars lands on Earth to find…
• In the future, the majority of jobs have been taken over by robots. The only way to earn money is to take part in a series of games and challenges created by the rich for their entertainment.
• Everyone on Earth has experienced some sort of mutation in the future. This mutation has made humans powerful and troll-like. As the only pure human (with no mutations), your character’s daughter is kidnapped by a group of mutants who want to use her blood to make humans human-like again. 
• Imagine you are the last human survivor on Earth. What would you do alone on Earth?
• Describe a future where all humans are either deaf or blind.
• You and your family live underground away from all the technology. Write a series of diary entries about life underground.
• Sugar is banned completely in the future. Even fruits that taste sugary are no longer available. You are the leader of a secret underground group that creates your own homemade sugar. However since humans haven’t tasted sugar in a long time, the results become very dangerous.
• Since Earth has been destroyed, every family lives in their own spaceship homes floating around the galaxy. Every now and then you need to protect your home from space invaders, pirates and of course black holes.
• Write a story about one boy, his dog and a group of robots living on Earth as the only survivors. 
• Lying dormant deep at the core of the Earth, dragons finally awake. After a series of powerful earthquakes, they burst through the ground one by one. 
• With surveillance cameras watching everyone. A new TV show called, ‘Did They Really Do That’ airs across the nation showing the most embarrassing moments of civilians living in your area. You then go on a mission to destroy all surveillance and destroy the TV show.
• One man’s dream to swim with the dolphins is taken to extremes, as he genetically modifies a group of humans, so that they can swim underwater. Unknowingly these humans turn into monstrous mermaid-like creatures.
• Huge floating islands are created all over Earth to cope with the increase in the human population. These floating islands become new countries on the map with their own rules and way of life. 
• In the year 3,021 world peace is finally achieved. Everyone lives in perfect harmony. But how was this world peace achieved? One curious civilian makes a shocking discovery.
• Write a news article about the latest riot happening in your town in the year 2,899. Why did this riot happen? Who was involved? Where did it happen? What exactly happened before and during the riot?
• You are a lab assistant for a company that creates genetic make-up for humans. The make-up keeps humans looking young for their entire lifespan of 180 years. One day you discover something shocking…
• Cats and dogs have evolved into human-shaped beings. They now rule Earth and treat humans like pets. 
• Due to natural extinction and the threat of disease, all animals are gone in the future. You and your family have created a secret underground zoo, which holds the last remaining animals on Earth.
• Write a story from the perspective of a servant robot who wants to be the mayor of the city. 
• Scientists have learned to extract emotions from humans and contain them in jars. At a price, you can remove negative emotions like anger, sadness and fear. You can also sell and buy positive emotions like happiness. To obtain a new emotion, you simply inhale the emotion directly from the jar. In a special clinic, over 10,000 jars of emotions are contained, until one day…
• The Earth is a massive video game for advanced aliens living on a distant planet. They randomly spawn monsters whenever they feel like, and can control any human they like. One day the aliens are so bored that they create a big scary boss monster for a town of people to fight.
• In an effort to create a better world, all humans must take a personality test. If your personality does not meet the criteria set by the government, then you are sent to work camps. People at the work camps live a horrible life of abuse, torture and endless hard work for 18 hours a day. Imagine that your main character fails the personality test, and is sent to one of these camps.

For more gritty ideas, check out our guide on what is dieselpunk plus story ideas .

What do you think of these dystopian writing prompts? Which one is your favourite? Let us know in the comments below.

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

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WEBSITE ESSENTIALS

How to write catchy blog titles: 12 tips and examples

• Jenna Romano
• 12 min read

When you decided to how to make a website and start a blog , you probably weren’t thinking about the intricacies involved in writing blog titles. But the reality is that blog post titles are the gateway to your content and an important part of your blog format . They play an important role in capturing your readers’ attention and helping your content to stand out from the sea of content amongst all the other type of websites that exist today.

However, coming up with the perfect blog title can be a challenge. Not only does your title have to be catchy, but it has to be informative and succinct. In this article, we’ll explore how to craft engaging blog titles that draw in readers. We’ll look at creative examples, as well as tips for improving your blog headlines and making them click-worthy.

Looking to design a unique blog? Learn how to create a blog with a blog maker like Wix.

Why are blog titles important?

Blog titles have the power to shape a reader’s first impression of your article. They’re often the first thing readers see on Google or a social media post promoting your content—and often what convinces them (or scare them away) from clicking into your site. It goes without saying that if you don’t get clicks, then your posts don’t get read.

Aside from this, the right blog title can encourage more social media shares and help you rank better in search engine result pages (SERPs). That’s why it’s important to put thought into crafting the best blog title that takes into consideration your target keyword, core audience and overall message.

How to write a good blog post title: 12 tips

When it comes to creating engaging titles, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Different types of blogs require different approaches. For instance, a news site needs titles that clearly communicate the story headlined by their post, while a food blog needs catchy titles that make readers salivate just with the words alone.

Whatever genre you write in, though, there are some tips and tricks you can use to create captivating headlines that will draw readers into your post:

Browse other blogs for inspiration

Research your competitors

Learn the basic blog title formulas

Use a name generator for ideas

Know your audience

Cater to emotions

Experiment with alliteration and other techniques

Avoid clickbait

Get specific

Incorporate a focus keyword

Draft multiple titles

Conduct A/B tests

01. Browse other blogs for ideas

Start your blog journey by perusing your favorite blog examples for inspiration. Take a close look into the blogosphere at the titles used within these blogs. Check the posts that gain the most attention (judging by comments, social shares and other indicators) and think about what makes them so appealing from the reader’s perspective.

As you do your research, you’ll notice that there are certain words that can make the headline stand out. In addition, you’ll notice that certain types of title formats and content are more compelling than others—for instance, listicles and how-to posts tend to generate interest by immediately satisfying the reader’s need.

On the flip side, try to identify blog title formats that don’t seem to resonate, and explore why that might be. Does it have to do with the nature of the piece? Or, does the title make the posts seem uninteresting?

Take note of which title formats are your least and most favorite, and use these as a guiding set of principles when crafting your own blog post titles.

02. Research your competitors

Take a magnifying glass to your competitors’ content. Browse the titles that seem to be resonating most with your shared audiences. Consider signing up for your competitors’ newsletter and checking out their social media accounts to see how their approach to title might vary from channel to channel.

Keep in mind that your business competitors are not necessarily your SEO competitors. The former consists of websites that rank high for your target keywords on search engines. You can discover your SEO competitors using tools like Semrush of Ahrefs. Or, simply google a keyword and look at the first page of results.

For example, let’s say you're starting a fashion blog and want to write a post about the best joggers for women. When you search your keyword in Google, here’s what you see.

There’s a good mix of titles here:

“The Best Joggers for Women 2020” (which links to a best-of roundup)

“10 Best Joggers” (listicle)

“Best Joggers For Women That Are Soft, Stylish, & Chic” (best-of roundup that highlights specific characteristics)

“The 22 Best Joggers for Women That Are Outselling Jeans…” (listicle with big promises)

“20 Best Sweatpants for Women 2020 - Stylish Joggers for…” (combination of a listicle and annual roundup)

From looking at these results, you might decide that a title promising even more ideas (e.g., “50 best joggers”) than competitors is the way to go. Alternatively, you might choose to experiment with a more descriptive title that hones in a specific point that competitors don’t address (e.g., “Best joggers for women who work from home and just can’t be bothered”).

Of course, you don’t want to copy the competitions’ blog post titles too closely, but you do want to make sure your own blogs capture a similar intent. Make sure that your readers know what to expect when clicking onto your page.

03. Learn the basic blog title formulas

Now that you know some of the main principles of writing great blog titles, let’s get into the specifics about the basic structure of your headline. There are six title structures that have proven highly effective in getting clicks and shares:

Numbers: Numbers give readers a clear idea of what they’re about to get from a post and have long been used to break up text and deliver a catchy headline (e.g., “12 Things to Stop Doing at Work If You Want a Raise”).

Superlatives: Unlike school superlatives which were often tongue-in-cheek, blog superlatives are genuinely useful for consumers and often aim to introduce a certain category of content (e.g., “50 Greatest Bands to See in Concert” or “The Ultimate Guide to Dating in Your 50s”).

Questions: One of the issues that may arise when writing a blog is that it comes off sounding too one-sided—but when you introduce a question in the title, it sets the tone that the content is going to be conversational versus lecture-like (e.g., “Why Does Your Dog Sneeze When They’re Playing?” or “What’s the Best Accounting Software for Freelancers?”).

How-tos: “How to” queries are still one of the most frequently searched phrases on Google, making “how to” a mainstay of high-performing headlines (e.g., “How to Build a Website for Less Than $250”).

Bracketed descriptors: This kind of blog post title includes a descriptor within a set of brackets, which tend to be visually engaging. You could always include content descriptors without using brackets, but the brackets call extra attention to your descriptors (e.g., “Tips for Planning Your Content Calendar like a Pro [Free Templates]” or “How to Make Old World-Style Pizza [Video]”).

The big reveal: Many of the headline types above are contingent on readers actually knowing what their problem is and being able to articulate it. The big reveal title, however, is used when you have something to share that few others can (e.g., “5 Secrets I Learned While Working for Pee-wee Herman”).

04. Use a name generator tool for inspiration and ideas

Writer’s block happens to the best of us. When this happens, there’s no better friend to turn to than a blog name generator or a blog post title generator . These tools can be extremely useful when crafting title ideas, since they offer a range of potentially catchy titles to consider in a matter of seconds.

Simply input elements such as keywords, genre and even emotions that you want to capture with your title to retrieve a list of ideas. A name generator can usually deliver hundreds of potential title ideas to choose from, so it’s an efficient way to get fresh ideas fast—cutting out much of the manual research.

05. Know your audience

Knowing your audience is about more than just identifying their age, demographics and interests. In order to let them guide the blog titles you choose, you’ll want to take your research one step further and learn how to speak in their everyday language.

For example, let’s say you have a photography blog that serves as an inspirational resource for hobbyists. You write roundups on photography trends while also providing brief tutorials. If you’re writing a post for an audience of beginners, you’ll want to keep industry jargon to a minimum.

So, rather than using a blog post title like “7 HDR photography tips,” consider something like “WTF is high dynamic range (HDR)?” or “What is dynamic range in photography, and how do you use it?”

The “what is” format might seem plain in comparison to the previous example, but it’s much more straightforward and makes the topic feel less intimidating to beginners.

06. Cater to the emotions of readers

It’s no surprise that emotions are powerful drivers of behavior. Using emotional modifiers (like "heartwarming”—or even “free” and “best”) in your titles can create a more engaging experience for viewers by letting readers know in advance how they should expect to feel after reading your post.

Alternatively, you can play into your audiences’ emotions without being as explicit about it. For example, instead of “5 of the Scariest Video Games of All Time” you could say “5 of the Best Horror Video Games to Play in the Dark.”

Sometimes, creating the emotional setting in your title is more engaging than actually spelling out the emotion. So, when you craft your blog titles, don’t automatically rush for ones that sound edgy or sexy. Pinpoint the emotions you want to evoke with your article, as well as what your readers might be feeling before they click in.

07. Experiment with alliteration and other techniques

Not every blog post title needs to be a zinger. However, you might find that there are times when a clever headline is more effective at capturing a reader’s attention than a straightforward one, especially if you’re looking to promote your blog on social media

But what, exactly, makes a title catchy? Alliteration is one popular strategy.

For example, rather than using the title “13 Superstitions in the U.S.,” consider a zestier title like “13 Silly Superstitions Still in Circulation Today.”

Similarly, a play on words or a witty joke could help to grab attention. Some examples:

“From Bored Room to Boardroom: Tips for Corporate Success”

“The Write Stuff: Tips and Tricks for Creative Writing”

“Recipes and Kitchen Tips That’ll Help You Cook up a Storm This Thanksgiving”

08. Avoid clickbait

The best blog post titles are click-worthy without being clickbait-y. What’s the difference, you ask?

Click-worthy titles capture attention while setting the right expectations about what the reader is about to see. Clickbait headlines , on the other hand, use shock, fear and/or exaggeration to draw in as many readers as possible. They’re often misleading and hyperbolize the contents of an article.

The danger with this is that readers may walk away feeling disappointed or duped by your article. Furthermore, your click-through rate becomes nothing more than a vanity metric at this point.

To ensure that you’re not simply relying on clickbait-y titles, check your click-through rate against other important data like:

How much time the average reader spends on your post

How many blog posts they read during their session

What other actions they take after reading your posts

Comments and other reader feedback

Rather than shocking your readers or exaggerating your main points, create honest, meaningful titles that promise real value to your audience.

09. Get specific

Today’s consumers have very short attention spans, thanks to all the distractions and choices they’re bombarded with on a daily basis. With that in mind, your blog title isn’t the place to be mysterious or abstract.

To captivate your readers, make sure that your title clearly tells readers what they’re going to get out of the post. This also helps set the tone for how detailed or serious your post will be, and ensures that your content matches their expectations.

10. Incorporate a focus keyword

You don’t only need to impress your readers with your headlines. You also need to impress Google—or, more accurately, make it easy for Google’s bots to read and understand what your post is about.

By including your focus keyword in the H1 (or title) of your post, you can help inform search engines about the purpose of your blog. Note: your H1 isn’t the same as your title tag , it’s best practice to keep these consistent for SEO and user experience purposes.

Let’s say you're starting a food blog that helps to promote your meal delivery business. Using Semrush, you can see that “healthy food subscription box” gets around 260 searches a month. While this is a low-volume keyword, it attracts people with the right intent. Therefore, you write your blog and title with this keyword in mind.

Read Also: Blogging for Business —Why It Can Make a Difference

You come up with the title “25 Healthy Food Subscription Boxes to Check Out.”

As a general rule of thumb, you’ll want to place your primary keyword as close to the front of your title as possible. By placing it upfront, you let both Google and readers know this is the main focus of the post.

Make sure you use this keyword technique in conjunction with other blog SEO strategies—choosing the right keyword is just one piece of the puzzle.

11. Draft multiple titles

Chances are you won’t come up with the perfect blog title right away, and that’s okay. In fact, it’s best to come up with about five to 10 titles for each post before landing on your final title.

Why? The more you practice, the better you’ll get at writing the perfect headline.

What’s more, creating multiple versions of the same title gives you workable options that you can use to promote your content across your newsletter, social media and other channels.

Lastly, this will give you ideas for A/B testing multiple titles (see below).

12. Conduct A/B tests

A/B testing is a scientific experiment that you might run for a variety of reasons—be it web design, copy, headlines, images, colors and more. You can essentially run A/B tests on any marketing channel that you use. This could be your blog, newsletter, social media posts and/or ads. Here’s are some simple steps for achieving this:

Choose a single element that you want to test. In this case, it’s your blog post headline.

Come up with a hypothesis. For instance, “If I write this title using a superlative, it’ll get more clicks than if I write it as a question.”

Create at least two variations of your title: one (or more) with a superlative, and another that serves as your control.

Run the test, splitting your traffic evenly between your different variants. Traffic should be randomly split by your A/B testing tool.

Check the test results for a set period of time or until statistical significance is achieved. Analyze the results to determine which variant is the winner.

Update your blog with the winning title. Apply your learnings to your blog and consider running additional A/B tests.

This method is useful for creating the best blog titles and identifying trends in the types of headlines that your readers prefer. It’ll take some of the guesswork out of title creation in the future.

5 inspiring blog headlines to model your own after

Once you've gone over these tips for creating blog titles, you may find it helpful to look at successful blogs to help illustrate what you’ve learned. Let’s have a look.

01. Olivia + Laura

Olivia + Laura is a blogging platform discussing all things fashion and lifestyle. Take a look at how their most recent titles capture the attention of readers while providing a preview of what they can expect from the post. "How to Style Cardigans" is a detailed title, drawing in fashionistas curious about improving their style, while an article on "Spring 2023 Trends" is sure to captivate audiences looking for the expertise of these trendsetters.

02. Zion Adventure Photography Blog

If you're looking to travel through Zion National Park, look no further for advice an inspiration than Zion Adventure Photography Blog . The team of nature enthusiasts and photographers specialize in capturing special moments experienced by visitors and providing tips to travelers. Whether it's general information about the park or an article on "The 10 Best Spots to Catch Sunrise or Sunset in Zion National Park," their blog post titles are clever, informative and well-thought out.

03. All the Food

Foodies living in or visiting Dublin will go head-over-heals for All The Food Blog , a complete guide to restaurants in the vibrant city. Blog posts and food guides cover everything from local restaurant reviews, the best spots by neighborhood and new spots to check out. For example, a blog title like "8 New Openings In Dublin And 4 Coming Soon" is a straightforward and exciting way to draw in blog visitors look to change things up for their tastebuds.

04. Suvelle Cuisine

Susana Machado’s Suvelle Cuisine blog has a plethora of cool content dedicated to classy and fashionable lifestyles. From fashion advice to recipes and beauty tips, the blog's clever titles reflect the personality of its target audience while offering a succinct summary of the post, and hitting on trendy keywords. With headlines like "5 Rituals to a fresh start" and "French Outfit Formulas," Suvelle Cuisine will have intrigued readers saying "ooh lala" before they open up a fresh post.

05. Mekome Hebrew

Mekome Hebrew offers tailor-made Hebrew language lessons for a wide range of levers and learners. Part of its holistic learning philosophy is that language should connect to the inner world of the learner—a blog that focuses on curious Hebrew topics, Israeli culture and personal experiences is a great way to inspire students and bring this method to life. Not only are the topics enriching, the blog title's are fun, personal and tap into the emotions of someone learning a new language and culture.

How to write blog titles FAQ

Should i italicize my blog titles.

You can italicize blog titles to make them stand out and adhere to a consistent style. It may help readers quickly identify the titles within your content but bolding titles can also have the same impact.

What's the ideal length for a blog title?

Should i use keywords in my blog titles, related posts.

How to write a blog post: a step-by-step guide

17 ways to promote your blog and attract more readers

How to start a blog in 10 steps: a beginners guide

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Update on the Recall preview feature for Copilot+ PCs

• Pavan Davuluri – Corporate Vice President, Windows + Devices

Today, we are sharing an update on the Recall (preview) feature for Copilot+ PCs, including more information on the set-up experience, privacy controls and additional details on our approach to security.

On May 20, we introduced Copilot+ PCs , our fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever. Copilot+ PCs have been reimagined from the inside out to deliver better performance and all new AI experiences to help you be more productive, creative and communicate more effectively. One of the new experiences exclusive to Copilot+ PCs is Recall, a new way to instantly find something you’ve previously seen on your PC. To create an explorable visual timeline, Recall periodically takes a snapshot of what appears on your screen. These images are encrypted, stored and analyzed locally, using on-device AI capabilities to understand their context. When logged into your Copilot+ PC, you can easily retrace your steps visually using Recall to find things from apps, websites, images and documents that you’ve seen, operating like your own virtual and completely private “photographic memory.” You are always in control of what’s saved. You can disable saving snapshots, pause temporarily, filter applications and delete your snapshots at any time.

As AI becomes more prevalent, we are rearchitecting Windows to give customers and developers more choice to leverage both the cloud and the power of local processing on the device made possible by the neural processing unit (NPU). This distributed computing model offers choice for both privacy and security. All of this work will continue to be guided by our Secure Future Initiative (SFI) .

Our team is driven by a relentless desire to empower people through the transformative potential of AI and we see great utility in Recall and the problem it can solve. We also know for people to get the full value out of experiences like Recall, they have to trust it. That’s why we are launching Recall in preview on Copilot+ PCs – to give customers a choice to engage with the feature early, or not, and to give us an opportunity to learn from the types of real world scenario s customers and the Windows community finds most useful.

Listening to and acting on customer feedback

Even before making Recall available to customers, we have heard a clear signal that we can make it easier for people to choose to enable Recall on their Copilot+ PC and improve privacy and security safeguards. With that in mind we are announcing updates that will go into effect before Recall (preview) ships to customers on June 18.

• Third, we are adding additional layers of data protection including “just in time” decryption protected by Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS) so Recall snapshots will only be decrypted and accessible when the user authenticates. In addition, we encrypted the search index database.

Secure by design and secure by default

In line with Microsoft’s SFI principles, before the preview release of Recall to customers, we are taking steps to increase data protection. Copilot+ PCs will launch with “just in time” decryption protected by Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS), so Recall snapshots will only be decrypted and accessible when the user authenticates. This gives an additional layer of protection to Recall data in addition to other default enabled Window Security features like SmartScreen and Defender which use advanced AI techniques to help prevent malware from accessing data like Recall.

We also know the best way to secure information on a PC is to secure the whole PC itself. We want to reinforce what has previously been shared from David Weston, vice president of Enterprise and OS Security, about how Copilot+ PCs have been designed to be secure by default and share additional details about our security approach. Some notable examples of security enhancements include:

• All Copilot+ PCs will be Secured-core PCs, bringing advanced security to both commercial and consumer devices. In addition to the layers of protection in Windows 11, Secured-core PCs provide advanced firmware safeguards and dynamic root-of-trust measurement to help protect from chip to cloud.
• Microsoft Pluton security processor will be enabled by default on all Copilot+ PCs. Pluton is a chip-to-cloud security technology – designed by Microsoft and built by silicon partners – with  Zero Trust  principles at the core. This helps protect credentials, identities, personal data and encryption keys, making them significantly harder to remove from the device, even if a user is tricked into installing malware or an attacker has physical possession of the PC.
• All Copilot+ PCs will ship with  Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS) . This provides more secure biometric sign ins and eliminates the need for a password.

Protecting your privacy on Copilot+ PCs

In our early internal testing, we have seen different people use Recall in the way that works best for them. Some love the way it makes remembering what they’ve seen across the web so much easier to find than reviewing their browser history. Others like the way it allows them to better review an online course or find a PowerPoint. And people are taking advantage of the controls to exclude apps they don’t want captured in snapshots, from communication apps or Teams calls, or to delete some or all their snapshots. This is why we built Recall with fine-grained controls to allow each person to customize the experience to their comfort level, ensuring your information is protected and that you are in control of when, what and how it is captured.

• Snapshots are stored locally. Copilot+ PCs have powerful AI that works on your device itself. No internet or cloud connections are used to store and process snapshots. Recall’s AI processing happens exclusively on your device, and your snapshots are kept safely on your local device only. Your snapshots are yours and they are not used to train the AI on Copilot+ PCs.
• Snapshots are not shared. Recall does not send your snapshots to Microsoft. Snapshots are not shared with any other companies or applications. Recall doesn’t share snapshots with other users who are signed into the same device, and per-user encryption ensures even administrators cannot view other users’ snapshots.
• You will know when Recall is saving snapshots. You’ll see Recall pinned to the taskbar when you reach your desktop. You’ll have a Recall snapshot icon on the system tray letting you know when Windows is saving snapshots.
• Digital rights managed or InPrivate browsing snapshots are not saved. Recall does not save snapshots of digital rights managed content or InPrivate browsing in supported web browsers .
• You can pause, filter and delete what’s saved at any time. You’re always in control of what’s saved as a snapshot. You can disable saving snapshots, pause them temporarily, filter applications and websites from being in snapshots, and delete your snapshots at any time.
• Enterprise and customer choice. For customers using managed work devices, your IT administrator is provided the control to disable the ability to save snapshots. However, your IT administrator cannot enable saving snapshots on your behalf. The choice to enable saving snapshots is solely yours.

Empowering people with experiences they can trust

We are on a journey to build products and experiences that live up to our company mission to empower people and organizations to achieve more, and are driven by the critical importance of maintaining our customers’ privacy, security and trust. As we always do, we will continue to listen to and learn from our customers, including consumers, developers and enterprises, to evolve our experiences in ways that are meaningful to them.

We are excited for the upcoming launch of Copilot+ PCs on June 18 and for the innovative new features and benefits this entirely new category of PCs will bring. We will continue to build these new capabilities and experiences for our customers by prioritizing privacy, safety and security first. We remain grateful for the vibrant community of customers who continue to share their feedback with us.

Blog Writing Services

Your blog is your brand.

At least, that’s how a first-time visitor sees it.

Our expert writing team can produce the high-quality, SEO-driven content your site needs and your audience deserves.

By entering your email address, you agree to receive emails from Brafton in accordance with our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time.

How We Make SEO Content That Delivers Results

We have more than 10 years of experience as the leading content marketing agency in North America, the UK and Australia. That’s given us ample time to develop and perfect an expert model of in-house content creation and blog writing services built on proprietary software, creative storytellers and hard metrics.

A typical Brafton blog post starts with data. Through analytics tracking, competitive analyses and industry conversations, we review what is currently performing and what has historically shown sustained results. We uncover searcher intent and collaborate with your team of business experts to scope out the topics that need to be written at that moment.

From there, we formulate campaigns centered on your core themes, marketing goals and target audience. We get the right eyes on the right content at the right moment.  Our stance on blog content is simple: If it doesn’t serve a purpose, we don’t write it.

But our content services don’t only include blog writing. Our team of versatile writers can easily shift gears to create an informational article or thought leadership piece on your behalf. Blogs can contain opinion-based criteria and tend to be on the shorter side. Article writing, on the other hand, can be more complex, as it tends to involve SME interviews and data-driven research — resulting in a long-form piece of content that helps you establish thought leadership in your industry.

The bottom line:  Whether it’s a blog based on keyword research or an in-depth article, our team can handle it.

Content Strategy Meets Commercial Goals

Blog articles are top-of-funnel assets intended to capture web traffic, define your brand and address customer pain points.   Think of it this way:  Your prospects have questions, so your blogs should answer them.

A strong blog management and distribution strategy is the entry point to your sales funnel. That’s why our creation process maps every asset to your commercial goals.

There’s a dollar amount attached to every blog post, and we aim to prove it.

Before we put pen to paper, we get to know the industry, the trends, the topics, the keywords, the audiences, the angles, the experts and the perspectives. Our content writers utilize SEMrush, BuzzSumo, Moz, Google Analytics, MarketMuse and other SEO tools to lay the foundation for their content.

View Success Stories

We’ve helped thousands of clients get results through blogging. See for yourself:

Brafton Ramps up FFVA Mutual’s Digital Marketing Program

Brafton Achieves Consistent YoY Increases in Blog Sessions for Lightning Labels

How We Helped eSpatial Get on Page 1 of Search Results

Flexible, customizable blogging packages.

We’re a full-service digital marketing agency, which means our services go well above and beyond blog content creation. By partnering with a professional blog writing company, you receive marketing guidance every step of the way to ensure your efforts are successful.

First, working with Brafton means you’ll have direct access to a Content Marketing Strategist, an SEO expert who knows their way around a solid digital marketing strategy. This person will help you develop a plan that incorporates blog posts and leverages them alongside other collateral like video, social media, paid ads and more. Essentially, your Content Marketing Strategist ensures your blog gets seen by the people who matter most to your brand.

With Brafton, you also get to partner with our team of talented and experienced content writers. Our writers take the time to understand your brand and generate content that sparks the results you’re looking for. Brafton’s writers work hard to create high-quality, professional and polished blogs for audiences across all industries. 

Best of all, our blogging packages aren’t rigid, unforgiving contracts. A powerful digital marketing strategy adapts and evolves alongside industry trends and audience needs. That’s why we work with flexible statements of work, which can include any of the following (and much more):

Custom Content

Fill your blog with engaging content that your audience is already searching for. Every blog article begins with a content mapping process, for which your professional writer will first answer questions like:

• What is the purpose of this article?
• Who will read it?
• What do the best performing articles on this topic include?
• What do they leave out that your brand can answer?

Carefully planning the direction, purpose and tone of each blog article means each deliverable has a place in your marketing strategy and will provide meaningful information to blog visitors.

You may want content for a multitude of channels outside of your own site as well. Our professional writers can also draft guest posts to help your brand reach wider audiences and build relationships, ghostwrite LinkedIn bios to optimize your team’s social media presence and more.

Search Performance Briefs

Supercharge your custom content with our proprietary Search Performance Briefs. These are SEO-targeted roadmaps that reverse-engineer the top results for a particular keyword or phrase.

SPBs take an analytical approach to the content planning process, and involves:

• Evaluating the target keyword to determine which topics to address and which semantically related keywords to include throughout the piece.
• Identifying searcher intent through SERP analysis.
• Using SEO tools like SEMrush, MarketMuse and more to determine the appropriate content depth for the topic.
• Competitive analysis to ensure your content serves a purpose to your audience.

These documents have helped our clients rank for thousands of keywords across hundreds of industries, driving interest, traffic and ROI.

Promotion & Distribution

A blog content strategy doesn’t stop with content creation. Once you have high-quality content on your blog, you need to ensure your target audience knows about it. That’s where promotion and distribution come in.

Your dedicated CMS and project manager can help you discover the most lucrative channels on which to share your articles. That may include building out an email marketing strategy, organic and paid social media posts, content syndication and more.

No matter what plans you have to promote and distribute your content, we can help. Between our professional social media team, consulting experts, technical integration specialists and more, we can make sure your content is found easily by the people who need it most.

Copy Refreshes

Just like anything else, good content ages.

Trends change. New information is uncovered. Plus, your brand is not the only one speaking to your target audience, and eventually, someone else will aim to knock your content down the SERP.

We’re here to protect your positioning with a copy refresh. We will update your content with current information and ensure it covers all the necessary subtopics. An effective content upgrade can improve your ranking, drive more traffic and, most importantly, ensure that your site has the most up-to-date, relevant information.

Blog UX Redesign

Your blog articles might be excellent, but how is your blog homepage? The usability and appearance of your blog and website significantly impact your reader’s experience and impression of your brand.

Our experts will evaluate your website and ensure users can find and navigate the blog easily, and that it reflects your brand’s look and feel. Additionally, we can help ensure your site is accessible, responsive and fast-loading—all critical components to top-tier SEO and UX standards today.

Branded Imagery & Illustrations

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We organize our editorial team so that each of our blog writers develops subject matter expertise in a range of business sectors. Common verticals include:

Technology.

Financial Services.

Healthcare.

Manufacturing.

Our goal is to connect your company with a professional blog writer who already has years of experience creating web content for your industry and your audience. This shortens the learning curve and empowers our writers to produce authentic, high-quality content for clients across all types of industries. 

But blog writing is only half complete if it isn’t personalized with your company’s expert opinion. Our professional blog writing services include conducting interviews with your staff, gathering intel from your sales team and integrating your brand mentality into everything we produce.

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Every day, search engines become more human—they’ve actually outsmarted the engineers who built them. You need blogs that make a human impact.

Why Your Blog is Your Brand

Today, your customers have more content options than ever. While having so much information available at our fingertips is exciting, it also makes it harder for brands to cut through the noise and capture their target audience’s attention. That’s why things like custom blog content, search engine optimization and topical authority are  paramount  to your blog strategy. To outrank competitors, your business blog should follow a few creative content writing guidelines:

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• Be 100% relevant to users.

The bottom line:  When done right, blog posts can help businesses reach their marketing and growth goals. But because blogs are often the first touchpoint with prospects, you have only one opportunity to make the interaction count. Therefore, it becomes critical that your blog posts capture your target audience’s attention right off the bat and keep them engaged until the final call-to-action.

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Written by Jesse Sumrak | February 27, 2024

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Setting your consultation fees is the best and worst part of running a consulting business. It’s the best because you get to decide your worth (not management or HR)—and it’s the worst because you likely hate talking money with your clients.

We get it. It’s not easy.

Yet, setting your consulting rates doesn’t need to be an anxiety-inducing experience that keeps you up at night. Done right, it should be a downright rewarding experience for both you and the client. Let’s show you how it’s done.

Table of Contents

5 Must-Know Tips on Pricing

Calculating Your Consulting Rates

How to Calculate Average Hourly Rates

How to Calculate Per-Project Rates

How to Charge Retainer Fees

Communicating Your Consulting Rates

Reminder: Revenue Is Vanity

Consulting fees faqs.

Whether you’re brand-new to consulting or looking at signing a new client, you’re probably wondering, “How much should I charge for my services?”

Well, it depends.

Pricing is relative. If you came looking for a golden number for us to tell you, we’re sorry to disappoint, but price is just a perception of value—not a hard and fast number.

While we’ll get into average consultant salaries and consulting rates by industry later, these are just averages. They can influence your decision-making, but your ultimate price point is entirely up to you.

Don’t worry—we won’t leave you hanging at that. Let’s look at a few tips to help you dial in your price.

1. Estimate Your Value

Estimating your value isn’t quite the same as playing the game The Price Is Right. Your value isn’t just an end product like an article, podcast episode, research insights, or 1:1 training—it’s much more than that.

Your value is long-term financial gain, removing annoying roadblocks, revealing business-changing insights, creating ongoing traffic, and more. It’s not just the time you put into consulting—it’s the results of the consulting.

Imagine the US Declaration of Independence, for example. It’s only a 1,458-word document, which is almost half the length of this article. Yet, as much as we love this piece, we’d argue the Declaration of Independence is worth approximately 2.5 billion times more. The end value is different from the input—and your consulting fees should reflect that.

Think of why your client may be hiring you. It could be for several reasons, but most likely it’s because:

• You have the expertise or a skillset that your clients need.
• It’s more cost-efficient for you to do the work.
• Your client doesn’t have the time to do it.

All these reasons have value beyond the actual work to complete, and they should be factored into your price. Here are a few additional factors to consider when estimating your value:

• Size of client
• Time constraints
• Resources available
• Availability of substitute consultants

Have a Salary In Mind

You’re most likely transitioning to a consultant career from a previous job, business, or corporation. How much you made there might contribute to going off on your own, but it can help provide a baseline of what you need to hit. Ask these questions to ensure your aspirational salary can pay your bills and be realistic.

• What salary do I need to support my lifestyle?
• What salary would support my ideal lifestyle?
• What is the value of the perks from my previous job that I need to include in my salary (healthcare, insurance, company car)?

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2. Predict the Amount of Work

The scope of work should be a large determinant of your rates, but pricing per hour or project is challenging to estimate. For example, it may be quicker for you to write a 2,000-word article for a company than to help produce a 5-minute podcast episode.

It’s all relative. Don’t get stuck doing massive amounts of work for less than you’re worth—it’ll impact your work, happiness, and your client’s future expectations.

Before you set a price, ensure you understand everything that the project entails. If you’re offering a 1-hour consulting session, consider the amount of prep work necessary and if your client will be able to send any post-consultation follow-up questions. These might seem like small additions, but they can start to add up quickly.

For example, if a client offers you a massive sum for a big project, you may dissect the work and find it’s taking you twice as much time and effort to make what a smaller project with a smaller budget rewards you.

Once you have a better grasp of the amount of work required, you’ll be better able to set your rates.

3. Establish Your Client’s Perceptions

You get what you pay for. A free steak at a friend’s house is never going to taste quite as good as the $60 steak you bought at an acclaimed restaurant—and that has nothing to do with the actual food or cooking.

If you set your rates too low, then clients may perceive the work as amateur or low-quality—before they even see it!

Because your fee is an expression of value, low consulting rates don’t necessarily lead to work or respect. If your clients have regularly hired consultants or freelancers, they’ll be familiar with average consulting market rates. Pitching yourself on the low end simply to undercut competitors won’t always serve you well.

However, if you set your rates too high, you may alienate yourself from the client and out price yourself out of the project. Clients may perceive you as the high-end of the consulting or freelance market, and they may decide to settle for a less experienced but more affordable alternative.

When you’re starting out, finding the right rate is tricky. If you don’t have much experience, find an initial client and offer to do work for a discounted price or free. Focus on delivering the best results possible, which means don’t try and get additional clients. Once you’ve shown the results, create a case study from that first client. Repeat this step and start scaling your rates up from there until you find a comfortable cost for your clients.

Finding the Goldilocks-approved consultation rate is easier said than done, but know it exists somewhere in the middle ground.

4. Manage Your Cash Flow

Set rates that make sense for your business and personal expenses. This tip goes beyond value, the scope of work, and client perceptions—you have to set prices that’ll lead to adequate quality of life and profitability for your business.

Look at your expenses. What rate do you need to set to cover your costs, make a profit, and live the life you want to live? This answer varies for everyone, so you’re not going to find a golden number anywhere.

While you’re at it, start looking at your future. What are your goals for your business and yourself? Don’t discount your ambitions as a consultant and business owner. You have a right to live comfortably and thrive financially, too.

5. Find Baseline Expectations

This is a tricky tip. Proceed with caution. Many consultants and freelancers make the mistake of confusing average consultant rates with standard pricing—that’s not the case. Averages don’t take into account your value, the scope of work, client perceptions, or even your cash flow.

Feel free to look at consulting rates by industry, but don’t use them as your bible to pricing—use them as another data point to reference.

However, remember that your client is likely going to be looking for these same numbers. They’ll want to know how much they should be charging a consultant, so they don’t get duped. If your rates vary from industry benchmarks, be prepared to back it up.

How to Calculate Your Consulting Fees Based on Different Payment Methods

Your pricing methods won’t always be the same. Some clients will prefer to pay consultants per hour, while others may want to pay per project or retainer. Rather than putting your foot down on one single method, it’s best to flexibly price yourself so that you’re earning what you’re worth—regardless of the systems and processes.

The tips above paired with the processes below should help you settle on what to charge for your consulting services and formulate a consulting business price guide.

Note that your pricing structure should be under consistent review, especially as you grow your skills and attempt to expand your consultancy. Your rates should change (preferably upwards) every year as you gain experience, build your portfolio, and prove your worth. Return to these steps as you scale your business .

How to Calculate Average Hourly Rates for Consulting Services

We don’t necessarily recommend charging by the hour, but you may want to structure your pricing this way if your consulting work involves meetings and a lot of in-person work. Determining an hourly rate is also an important part of calculating per-project or retainer rates, allowing you a baseline to work from. So whether you want to use the 3 x hourly method for like-for-like rates or the more complicated 52 week, your starting rate is critical to the long-term viability of your consultancy.

3 x Hourly Method

A quick and simple way to calculate your consulting rates is the 3 x hourly method. This method is best if you’re transitioning from a similar agency role or consulting as a side hustle. Using 3 x hourly, you can accurately match your current or previous rate without undercutting or overcharging your clients.

To calculate your rate using the 3 x hourly method follow these steps:

• Take your current hourly rate
• Multiply it by 3

Example: $30 per hour x 3 = $90 per hour consultancy rate.

52-Week Method

The 52-week method is a bit more complicated. This should be used if you’re looking to make a full transition from a corporate job to running a full-time consultancy. To calculate your hourly consulting rate from your working week salary follow these steps:

• Determine what salary you’d like to make.
• Take that number and divide it by 52 (number of working weeks), then again by 40 (number of hours each week).
• Take that number and mark it up by 25% to 50%.

For example, let’s say you wanted to make a gross salary of $60,000 per year. To calculate your hourly rate, you’d divide $60,000 by 52 (which is roughly $1,154), then divide that by 40 (which is $28.85). Then, mark that up 40%, which results in an hourly rate of about $40.

That 40% markup would cover the cost of your expertise and business expenses like overhead, benefits, taxes, and more. These costs are different for everyone, depending on tax status and type of business.

When making your calculations, feel free to play with the numbers to satisfy the lifestyle you want. As a consultant, you’re not getting paid for vacation or maternity leave, so you’ll need to factor this time into your rates.

For example, you may want to divide your gross salary goal by 49 (instead of 52) to compensate yourself for 3 weeks of “paid time off.” Or you may want to work just 4 days a week instead of 5—in that case, you might divide your weekly rate by 32 hours instead of 40.

That’s the beauty of consulting and freelancing—you get to play with the numbers to make them work for you.

How to Calculate Per-Project Consultant Rates

Charging by the project is more aligned with the value-based pricing model we’ve been discussing. Fixed fees create a more straightforward workflow (as you don’t have to be worried about tracking hours), but this structure can be tricky due to scope creep and the natural tendency to underestimate how long a job will take.

Defining and reinforcing a predetermined scope of work is crucial when charging by the project. The best way to determine your per-project rate is to figure out how many hours you estimate the job will take. You can make an educated guess based on your knowledge of the subject and how long it’s taken you to complete certain tasks in the past.

This step can be tricky for new consultants, so this is where industry averages come in handy.

For example, let’s say you were hired to write a feature article for a magazine. The first thing to do is figure out how many hours the project will take:

• Research: 1 hour
• Review of interview transcript: 2 hours
• First draft: 5 hours
• Two rounds of edits: 2 hours

In total, the project will take about 10 hours. Multiply that by your hourly rate and then add a 10-20% markup for unexpected contingencies, and voila—you have a rough estimate for a per-project consultant rate.

However, remember that this kind of pricing still excludes the true value of your work. Think back to the Declaration of Independence example. If you’re performing business-altering work, that has a financial price tag to it, as well.

How to Charge Consulting Retainer Fees

Working “on retainer” means you receive a monthly fee for working a certain number of hours or performing routine tasks. Retainer fees can be wonderful for your consulting business as it’s income that you can rely on and plan for (a rare commodity in the freelancing world).

It’s hard to charge a retainer fee from the get-go since you’ll only have an estimate of the scope of work. It’s best to switch from a per-project or per-hour basis to a retainer fee once you have nailed down expectations for both you and the client. Plus, some clients aren’t sure what exactly they need, and you don’t want to get locked into a rate that doesn’t cover the entire scope.

Calculate your consulting retainer fee the same way you’d do your project rates—it’s essentially a comprehensive monthly project rather than smaller one-off assignments. Some consultants offer discounts for retainer fees as they’d prefer consistent income over hourly or per-project invoices. The choice is up to you.

Communicating Your Consulting Rates Without Crumbling

Knowing how much to charge for your consulting fees is just half the battle. Now, it’s time to learn how to communicate your prices with clarity and confidence.

The conversation about rates happens with every client, sometimes more than once. Sometimes it’s pleasant, sometimes it’s awkward, and sometimes it’s ugly. Here are a few tips to make it as smooth as possible.

Remember That Every Client Is Different

Some clients will start the conversation by proposing their standard rates , while others will ask what you charge. And some might not even know where to begin.

Every client is different. They have different needs, processes, and expectations. Be patient, and don’t expect them to know exactly what they want from the get-go.

Do your research and prepare yourself with the rates we outlined above, and you’ll be ready and adaptable going into any conversation.

Don’t Talk Numbers Until You Understand the Scope

Understanding what the client needs (and how well they understand it themselves) play a major role in how you price or whether you want to move forward at all. Toss out a number too early, and it might be hard to change it later if the project evolves.

If a client asks, “How much do you charge for consulting?” right out the gate, try to guide the conversation towards the project details. For example, you can say, “I’d like to get a good idea of the scope of work before discussing rates.”

Be Confident, But Be Willing to Compromise

Confidence goes a long way. Your client wants a consultant they can trust, and that trust is established throughout negotiations and working together.

When asked, don’t present your rates as a question. State your prices and be prepared to stand your ground. If the client accepts your rate, congratulations! However, that doesn’t always happen.

Sometimes, you’ll need to compromise. For example, a client’s budget might not be able to afford you. Instead of altogether rejecting the client (or the client rejecting you), steer the client towards negotiation.

You may convince your client to cut out some of the scope to meet your pricing constraints, or you may insert a clause into the agreement to raise your rates after 2 to 3 months of satisfactory work.

It’s invigorating when your client pays your invoice, and those dollar figures spring up in your bank account. But remember, revenue builds momentum, but profitability keeps your business alive.

That’s why if you’re starting as a consultant, attempt to build your business as lean as possible. That means no wild spending on conferences or CRMs. The leaner you run, the more profits you’ll make.

And with those profits, you can reinvest into your consulting business by making a rainy day fund, ideally three months of operating expenses. Then, you can hire extra help or upgrade your laptop. We suggest your first hire be a part-time bookkeeper to ensure your business runs smoothly in the black.

So, remember that how much you charge for consulting trickles down to what makes your business run and remain profitable and secure.

What do you charge for consulting when starting out?

Find a client and offer to do work pro bono. Don't get distracted by adding new clients or branding your business—just do your best possible work. Then, create a case study on your results. Rinse and repeat, slowly raising your prices with each new client.

What type of consultants makes the highest fees?

The consultants who charge the highest fees are lawyers, finance, and tax professionals. Why? Because they have unique and specific expertise that is rare. So, you might not be a copyright lawyer or investment consultant, but think about where your expertise is rare in your field. By differentiating your skillset and developing a niche, you'll become more valuable as a consultant.

Should I charge consulting fees under an LLC?

We suggest talking to a tax professional before going into the consulting world. If you're consulting as a side hustle to help some friends with their marketing, it might be OK just to claim the income as an independent contractor. But the more you consult, especially B2B, the greater your risk of being liable for legal action. Forming an LLC for your consulting business will protect your personal assets.

Keep Learning: Statement of Work Templates and Examples for Consultants

Believe in Your Value and the Right Price Will Follow

It’s natural to dislike the process of setting your consulting rates, but you shouldn’t have to give up money or sleep because of it. With a bit of know-how and practice, you can become confident in your value as a consultant and ensure your pricing reflects that.

Now that you know your consulting fees, you’re ready for launch—let us help get you across the finish line. Sign up for foundr+ for $1 to learn how to start a consulting agency. We’ll walk you through our proven roadmap for turning your talent into income.

About Jesse Sumrak

Jesse Sumrak is a writing zealot focused on creating killer content. He’s spent almost a decade writing about startup, marketing, and entrepreneurship topics, having built and sold his own post-apocalyptic fitness bootstrapped business. A writer by day and a peak bagger by night (and early early morning), you can usually find Jesse preparing for the apocalypse on a precipitous peak somewhere in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

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