Transform Your Blog Posts: 6 Open-Ended Questions That’ll Help You Create Better Content

What role does an open-ended question play in helping you create the right blog posts and encouraging audience engagement? Not much, right? 

Well actually, open-ended questions will open up new opportunities for you when writing your blog posts.

In this blog post, you’ll learn how the right questions will trigger the right response in the subconscious mind of your readers and can also improve your content strategy and social media campaigns.

Creating valuable content and blog posts on a regular basis is a great way to attract a qualified audience, grow brand awareness and boost social media engagement. 

How do you blog the right way to improve your engagement strategy?

Trust me, there is no perfect answer to that question. Ultimately, you want to be there for your readers and to go that extra mile. You’ve got to listen to them attentively and become their friend to encourage brand loyalty. 

This is the reason why committing to blog posts is a long-term play. Those marketers who aren’t prepared to work and to nurture a loyal target audience over time can’t succeed at blogging. When you consistently identify the questions that your target audience is asking, it will open up a new opportunity to develop your own questions which is great for your content strategy.

The right questions will always generate the right answers. 

I’ll address these and many other questions in this in-depth article. It’s time to create top-notch blog posts on a regular basis that are data-driven, targeted and interesting and improve social engagement. Let these six open-ended questions guide you through a better method of content marketing:

Question #1: What are my readers worried about?

There is an art to writing about information that people want. Companies and marketers who understand the tenets of customer support will tell you that their success, ultimately, is based on their ability to, “listen attentively” to their target audience.

When you listen and attend to customers on a personal level you will improve your audience engagement levels, and you’ll reap the rewards because happy people spend more.

They can do this through email or blogging. But social media platforms are more versatile and more effective, from twitter engagement to Facebook status updates, and even Instagram accounts. 

Before you can successfully convert blog readers into customers, you have to know what they’re worried about. You have to go broad, not narrow when asking your readers questions. 

So instead of asking: 

Do you struggle to drive web traffic?

You should ask a more open-ended question that will help you learn what they’re worried about. For example:

In growing your site, what areas do you need help in?

You see, the first question is a closed-ended question and the response would either be “yes” or “no” – no further discussion.

But, in the second question, which is open-ended, the answer can’t be a simple “yes” or “no.” Instead, you have a chance to learn more about your target audience’s mindset and needs through their answer to that question. In short, you encourage a higher level of audience engagement.

The first and most important question that you need to ask is,

What are my readers worried about?

When you become aware of their problems, you’ll have the case studies you need to provide a better customer experience.

There are several ways to find out what your readers are worried about. Surveys tend to be the easiest especially on email and social media platforms.  They will also often yield the best results for you to work with when compiling your case studies and statistics.

Here are things a survey can help you accomplish:

• Grow your email list subscription and attract new leads.
• Create relationships or rapport with influencers and industry leaders across a range of media channels.
• Find a ton of new content and product ideas.
• Build your social media presence and authority with your audience.

You can use SurveyMonkey to set up a new survey questionnaire for your email subscribers, community members (e.g., LinkedIn group members) and blog post readers.

You can also tell what your readers are worried about through live chats on a regular basis. This will give your readers the opportunity to talk with you and get their questions answered. This is a very organic engagement strategy.

Shopify offers three unique audience engagement channels when you’re looking to contact them, but I always gravitate towards the live chat because it provides instant response, unlike the “send an email,” contact method.

See also:

• 10 Studies That Reveal What Customers Want You to Know About Them
• The Surprising Simple Secret to Knowing What Your Readers Want

Question #2: What level of competition is in my niche?

Statistics show that there are 31% more bloggers today than there were three years ago. That’s why you can no longer create blog posts, sit back and hope for a change.

You have to make that content marketing change happen.

A competitive audit is critical to your business. When you discover what your competitors are doing, it can guide your content strategy efforts.

You can then outsmart your competitors by creating exclusive valuable content that will stand the test of time, like the kind of content that has enabled Netflix to compete against Amazon in video streaming.

Having a deeper understanding of your competitors can help you create better blog posts that your target audience will benefit from.

The level of intensity may vary, but no industry, blog post creator or marketer is exempt from competition. So, the question is, what are you going to do about the competition in your niche? And how are you going to use this to inspire stronger audience engagement and better social media engagement?

Do you have a documented content strategy that will help you thrive? 

One of the ways to develop a results-producing content strategy is to understand the level of competition that you are up against on a regular basis and to build a more active engagement strategy to counteract that.

As someone who made an intentional decision to embrace content marketing and even created one of the most useful and detailed content marketing guides in the entire world, talking to you about competition makes me feel a little weird, because “content marketing and content strategy” itself is competitive.

The competition out there is intense.

The ease of starting an online business has made it possible for millions of people to come aboard with everyone vying for higher numbers of twitter engagement, social media engagement, and audience engagement across all platforms.

On the flip side, be careful not to be too worried about your competition. Instead, recognize that the presence of many competitors is an indication that your niche is hot and profitable. Forbes agrees that competition is good, because of these five reasons:

• It leads to content marketing innovation.
• It improves business to audience engagement.
• It eliminates complacency.
• It helps you to understand your core market and connect with your target audience.
• It educates you, because seeing what others are doing on a regular basis will teach you how to do better.

With all the benefits that competition brings, you might not reap any of them if you don’t know your competitors and you don’t even consider their content marketing plans or their engagement strategy. Let’s begin by finding sites that are similar to yours because there’s every chance that your web pages will be competing against theirs in the search engines. For example, here are the major video sites that YouTube is up against:

So, what if your niche is “search engine marketing?”

What are the top sites that are competing against you for search traffic? You may guess one or two offhand, but there’s a free tool that can help you.

Simply follow these steps:

Step #1: Go to similarsites.com. On the homepage, plug your blog URL in the search box. Then, click the “search icon.”

 

Step #2: Analyze the competitors. In the screenshot below, you’ll find a few sites that write blog posts related to similar topics in search engine marketing, such as SEO, SEO news, search algorithm updates and more. There are over 100 of them on the page, if you scroll down.

Having found your key competitors, it’s now time to find out which of their blog posts and pages are ranking better than yours in Google. In the process, you’ll likely find other competing pages and sites that you didn’t find when you used similarsites.com.

Go to Google.com. Plugin your primary keyword (i.e., search engine marketing), and find the competing web pages. 

Interestingly, Wikipedia.com and WordStream.com are also your competitors for the keyword “search engine marketing.”

The next step is to plug wordstream.com—a leading search engine marketing blog—into Buzzsumo to find its most shared content from the past six months. 

Six months is ideal when you’re looking for recent content that is written with fresh perspectives on the Google algorithm updates because a lot has changed in the past twelve months.

Next, check the “past six months” filter on the left side:

Buzzsumo then pulls together the high-quality content and blog posts that have generated the most social media engagement and shares within the last six months.

So, why did an article go viral?

Is it because of the headline, the topic, the domain authority of the blog or the promotion that went into it?

All those factors played a key role in why a particular blog post went viral. That’s why you’ve got to also consider the social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter engagement) that generated the most shares.

From Wordstream’s most shared content, you can tell that topics such as online marketing tools, the average cost per click by country, the future of AdWords and Google+ performed fairly well for the company.

In other words, people love to read and know more about these topics that are closely related to search engine marketing.

So, how will the data from your competitor (wordstream.com) help you in transforming your blog posts? There are two ways to go about it: content strategy curation and headline hacking.

Curate content: For some marketers, content curation is something of a magic bullet, because it saves you time and resources while simultaneously expanding your marketing horizon. 

Content curation is a simple, but effective, content marketing practice whereby you find content that addresses a particular topic from your competitors’ blogs, compile it and add your own unique flavor so the content becomes exclusive and highly valuable. When you have valuable content – your target audience will share it on their social media platforms, and your social media engagement will go up.

Here’s the definition of content curation that Google prefers:

The benefits of content curation are many. For example, those who curate content (share third party content) on a regular basis are able to gain traction online and improve company visibility.

For example, if you wanted to curate content related to “starting a blog,” you would head to Google and plug the keyword into the search box. The top ten organic result pages are your best starting point.

Why start with the top ten organic results? It’s because the major ranking factors are now centered around the user and post engagement. If the users are happy or find particular content useful, they’ll click the headline, then stay put to read the blog and share it.

Google also tracks the amount of time search users spend on your site. If they stay longer and don’t bounce off or click the back button to return to the search (also known as pogo-sticking), you know it’s because of valuable content.

So, start with those content pages that you found on the homepage for your target keyword.

As a rule of thumb, you should only curate useful content that’s been proven by both users and the search engine spiders.

An example of a high-value curated blog post is Brian Dean’s Link Building Guide:

Headline hacking: The second most powerful way to use competitors’ data to transform your blog posts is to hack their headlines. What does this mean? First, the word “hack” simply means to cut through the noise, leverage available tools and grow.

Headlines are the most important element to your content – whether its blog posts, social media posts or whatever it may be. According to Copyblogger, 8 out of 10 people will click your headline.

They’ll make 73% of their buying decisions the moment they come in contact with your headline, says Ted Nicholas.

As such, you have to spend adequate time and resources and be creative when writing your headlines if you want that audience engagement.

If you spend two hours writing and rewriting your headline, it’s rarely a waste, in fact, its a useful engagement strategy.

When you hack your competitors’ best performing headlines, you’ll find headline ideas that have gone viral in the past. Then, with a tweak, you can craft more powerful headlines for your blog posts. 

Question #3: Does my audience trust my brand?

Trust is the master key that unlocks every content marketing door. Once the door is open, you’ll see deeper social media engagement, generate quality leads, attract clients and increase sales.

Many things can improve the trust of your target audience. Interestingly, Norton’s badge seal gave users a 35.6% greater sense of trust when paying online.

In order to achieve all of these goals, you have to work on building brand awareness You have to streamline your efforts and drive trust to your brand. When your blog posts are useful, it’ll lead to customer satisfaction and greater brand loyalty.

At that point, you’ll no longer struggle to persuade your readers. 

When you add a personal touch to your blog posts and content, people will appreciate it. Whether you’re writing a blog post, status update, twitter handle, an article, a press release or product reviews, understand that you’re writing to human beings.

Relate to their pain and provide answers. Be positive. They’ll trust you.

These customer satisfaction statistics explain it better:

In his book, The Trust Edge: How Top Leaders Gain Faster Results, Deeper Relationships, and a Stronger Bottom Line, author David Horsager teaches people how to build the eight pillars of trust:

• Clarity: People trust the clear and mistrust the ambiguous. So, be clear in your headline, subheadings and bullet points. Use words that your readers are familiar with.
• Compassion: If you demonstrate compassion and reach out to help others, people will put their faith in you.
• Character: Your character builds you. Your brand is the accumulation of habits that form your character. Your readers will trust your brand if you do what is right instead of what is easy.
• Competency: People have confidence in marketers, blog post writers, leaders and entrepreneurs who stay fresh, relevant and capable.
• Commitment: In the face of adversity, when the competition is fierce and you stick around and do your best work, people will believe in you.
• Connection: People want to follow, buy from and be around friends.
• Contribution: Without a doubt, people will respond to results and be challenged by your success.
• Consistency: People love to see the little things done on a regular basis. It’s the same thing with your blog posts. This is a wake-up call for you to create more content that’ll help your readers.

If you follow the eight pillars of trust above and apply the complementary advice when creating your blog posts, you’ll establish a strong brand with your target audience and transform your blog posts to build a greater engagement strategy that works.

Question #4: How do I get my posts shared?

According to Dash Burst,

While 78% of companies now have a dedicated social media marketing team, only 26% integrate social media fully into their business strategies.

Facebook and Twitter tend to inspire more social shares.

How do I boost my twitter engagement and get my posts shared across the social media platforms?

This open-ended question is of utmost importance. It’s all about integrating social media into your blogging business.

If your blog posts are not shared, it doesn’t matter how much time you spent to research and write them.

Increasing your social media shares aren’t reserved for top digital marketing brands like HubSpot, Entrepreneur, and Forbes.  If you’re a small business owner, it applies to you as well. Hardcastle Social Media has this tip for you:

First, if you want people to share your blog post or social media post, then you have to make it easy.

You’ll make sure that your social share buttons are visible and easy to click. Notice how visible, well-positioned and enticing the social share buttons on my blog are:

If your social share buttons are visible and compelling, the next thing you have to do is offer valuable content in your post.

Yes, you can offer value with a 300-word article or even visual content, but it’s going to be extremely difficult, even for an experienced copywriter.

It’s better to write an in-depth article.  The more detailed your blog posts are the more social shares and social media engagement they’ll generate.

When it comes to content types, remember that list posts (e.g., “25 Ways to Increase Facebook Traffic”), and infographics get the most shares when it comes to social media marketing.

Until your readers and customers share your blog post, it’s possible that you haven’t been helping them. Sure, most people never read blog posts, let alone share them. But, it’s all good. Don’t worry about those people.

The real concern should arise when people read your blog posts and don’t share them on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. There are so many factors that will affect your social media shares and whether or not you’ll drive tons of targeted traffic to your blog posts. Take a look:

Timing is equally important. You may follow all the rules above when it comes and provide the right content, but if you miss out on the perfect timing, you may still struggle to get the most shares and to boost your social media engagement.

Question #5: Are there experts who will be interested in my posts?

It’s not about what you write – it’s about who you know.

We’re living in an age of advocacy and influence when it comes to a killer engagement strategy. Experts can become your brand advocates. 

Imagine how much impact you’d have if, for example, experts such as Guy Kawasaki, Pat Flynn, and Lewis Howes tweeted your blog post to their fans. That would lead to tens of thousands of visitors to your blog in a day and an enormous boost in audience engagement.

Research by Branderati revealed that brand advocates are 70% more likely to be seen as a good source of information by the people around them.

Where else can you promote your brand, if not on social media networks? When you connect with experts, they can promote your content on the top social media networks, thereby driving quality traffic to your blog and leads to your business.  They’ll also help you sell more of your products in the process.

As a blogger and content marketer, you have to recognize that there are experts who will be interested in your blog posts. But, before you write any post that you intend to cross-promote for better social media engagement or send to an influencer, you have to plan it out.

Often, you’ll need the assistance of an expert to reach these new customers. Experts have influence when it comes to content strategy. They can advocate for you and cause their fans to do the same thing.

Question #6: What is my value proposition?

Don’t just start writing blog posts. You have to blend your content with your value proposition if you want to stand out from the crowd and thrive in your business.

Value proposition, in simple terms, is a promise of value to be delivered. 

Having a clear value proposition can help you deliver your message to a wider and better audience. Even top brands can’t succeed without developing one.

How to create a top-notch value proposition:

Place a priority on your point of difference: This is the easiest way to develop a value proposition that will stand the test of time. No matter what your niche is, you have to find the weaknesses of other products and use them in your blog posts, product creation, content strategy, and business decisions.

When creating yours, you’ve got to fully understand that your value proposition is the intersection between your offers, the marketplace offerings and what the customer needs.

If you and I are in the same industry and offer the same service, what makes your business better than mine? That’s your edge and the core of your value proposition.

Synthesis doesn’t just tout its publishing tools – it also incorporates them into writing blog posts and making podcasts at Rainmaker.fm.

As a content marketer, blogger or consultant, once you discover what makes you tick and that others lack, don’t hold back. Use it to create powerful headlines and blog posts.

Communicate value instantly: 

What am I doing here?

That would probably be the first question in the minds of your visitors once they come to your blog. Eye-tracking studies usually point us to the fact that people tend to look at the headline first. If the headline doesn’t catch their attention, they’ll simply leave and your bounce rate will go up.

Above all, you’ve got to test your value proposition.

Testing will unearth new opportunities for delivering your message, becoming a better writer and building influence with your blog posts.

When you creatively write a blog post around your goal or value proposition, you’ll get a lot of email subscribers, because people will watch you, learn from you and follow your advice, it’s great for audience engagement.

Conclusion

Writers are those who change the status quo. To be a better blogger, you have to understand how to write for the web. Of course, you may decide to outsource your content creation to a professional, but it will cost you money instead of time.

The bottom line is this: nurture your creativity because writing is an art and will naturally improve your engagement strategy.

Writing is also a science because you have to carry out experiments, study other people’s experiments and come up with an analysis that will help others.

If you want to transform your blog posts, you have to adopt a mindset that puts other people first. If your readers ever ask for your resume, then provide it. But, overall, focus on their ultimate objective and solve their problems.

That’s the simple content marketing plan that will grow your leads, increase your social media engagement, generate more comments for your posts and give potential clients a good reason to purchase your products and/or retain your services.

What other open-ended questions do you think will help transform your blog posts into a masterpiece?