Stephanie Donelson

Ready to try something new in 2020? Why not play around with your blog’s style?

There are many formats to write your brand’s blog in and you never know what could be a winner with your readers until you try it! If you want to play around with your blog’s content next year and try some new writing styles, here are 11 you should definitely give a shot!

1. Lists

Lists are popular (ahem, see this blog post) and an easy blog format for both the blogger and the reader. Lists are a fun go-to and make it supremely easy to get your content across through the use of headers, subheads, and bulleted sections of text. 

Examples of lists:

• Top 10 things to do in Denver
• 5 ways you’re ruining your conversion rate
• 4 easy tricks to improve email open rates

2. Evergreen

Evergreen content are posts that have a nice, long shelf life and stay “fresh” longer than timely or date-relevant posts. Think of how-tos or the background on a brand or product. 

Examples of evergreen content:

• History or timelines
• Recipes
• Fun facts or trivia
• Reviews
• How-tos
• FAQs
• Thought leadership, interviews, and essays

3. Personal essay

Speaking of essays, these can make for fun pieces to break up your lists and provide that human element to your brand. Maybe it’s an essay from your CEO on the current state of the industry, or an essay from your account managers on how they got to where they are in their career, or it’s an essay from an HR manager about lessons they’ve learned over the last 10 years. 

These pieces are very informal and meant to be personal, but can still tie back to your brand and your industry. 

4. Interviews

You can definitely share blogs where you interview your own staff or leadership team, but you could also interview clients (perfect place for a link to your case studies!), industry influencers,  or other professionals in your space.  

This style of blog shows that you’re not only interested in sharing your brand’s information but inviting the opinions of others, and if you interview third parties, I’d be willing to bet they’ll be excited to share that with their following and improving your brand’s recognition. 

5. News roundup

These pieces can be fun when you’re in a bind or don’t feel like making a giant blog from scratch. Round up the top five articles from your industry over the last month and do a little review or summary of why you think they’re such good reads. 

6. Industry trends and reports

Download a great report or have some fun stats to share? Turn it into a blog! Infographics work really well here, but you could also take out the top three key takeaways from the report and talk about the numbers and emerging trends and what it means for the future of your industry. People love being ahead of the curve and knowing what to plan for, and your brand could be the one setting the trends. 

7. Rebuttal 

Maybe you read an interview or op ed in a magazine or newsletter and strongly disagree with the points made in it. Write about it!

Now, I’m not suggesting verbally attacking others in your industry or putting them down, but write out why you disagree with them in a respectable manner and provide counterpoints. Not only does this cause a controversy, but people will be eager to see both sides and passionately defend their stance. 

8. Hyperlocal 

Share insider information about your brand or headquarter’s city in your blog for a fun twist to your posts. I could do this by writing about my favorite wineries and wine bars in Denver, tips for attending Oktoberfest, or what to do with a weekend in the city. 

Find a way to show some love to your city or offices. Maybe you interview your staff and ask them why they love the city you’re headquartered in, what they’d recommend for a visitor to check out, as well as why they love working for your brand!

9.  Seasonal

Everyone loves the holidays and the changing seasons, so capitalize on this in your blogs. With some holidays and seasonal festivals, you’ll want to plan for these to be live ahead of the event so you have enough time to drive traffic to the post. 

Examples of seasonal blogs:

• 14 fun and flirty things to do in San Francisco this Valentine’s Day
• 10 tips for a family spring break in DisneyWorld
• Best road trips in Upstate New York for the fall foliage

10. Related topics

Ever feel like you’ve exhausted your topic ideas related directly to your industry? Take a step back and look at the next layer of related topics. Let’s say you run a hotel and you’ve talked about local events or the best things to do in your city already. Step back and look at travel as a bigger topic cluster.

This opens the door to talking about vacation and travel tips in general, how to pack, ways to save money, etc. Or, you run a boutique clothes shop and you’ve interviewed your designers and written posts on how to expertly put together a signature look. Step  back and look at the fashion industry as a whole. Do a profile of a designer you admire, upcoming fashion trends, fashion throwbacks, the best looks from a current TV show. 

Google Analytics, Twitter, and Pinterest all offer great insight into topics your audience and followers are into so use that data to find other relevant topics you can still cover to draw people to your blog. Another great way to generate topics is to look at industry trade publications to see what other topics you could tie to your brand in your blog. 

11. Vlogs and podcasts

I know vlogs and podcasts generally aren’t written, but they still count as a blog style – especially if you copy Moz’s Whiteboard Friday format where you have the video and a transcript below for people who prefer to scan and read. 

Vlogs can take any of the styles above and recreate them in a video or podcast format. Keep in mind that vlogs and podcasts require much more time, both in up-front preparation and then post-production time, so your posting frequency may take a hit.  

What style of blog do you use most frequently? Tell me in the comments below or over on Twitter!