Engineering Copywriter Blog

Content marketing tips and insights to help grow your engineering audience

March 8, 2021

How to Write Awesome Blog Posts for Engineers

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Blog posts are among the most common types of content used by marketers in any industry. They allow brands to create content relevant to their target audience in the hopes of gaining loyal readers and eventually converting them into paying customers. Blog posts play an integral part in any online marketing strategy that helps drive traffic to your website, improve SEO, increase a brand’s authority, and develop a stronger customer relationship.

 

 

Today, blogging can be considered a business unto itself and has become one of the most saturated areas in content marketing. Writers for technical engineering blogs face the same difficulties as those in other niches, but the field presents unique challenges as well. Below are the biggest challenges consistently being faced by industrial content marketers and some techniques to overcome them:

  • – Topic formulation and keyword research. With the boundless competition from bloggers and brands the world over, millions of keywords get targeted throughout the internet. Instead of focusing on keywords, we suggest you focus on taking a new angle on an existing topic, develop a research study, or create your own keyword.
  • – Writing high-quality and long-form posts. Articles that have over 1,000 words generally rank better, have more links, and receive more traffic. According to statistics, the average word count from content on Google’s first page is 1,140-1,285 words. In another study, content with over 1,890 words are ranked on the first page as seen on the graph below. These long-content blog posts, however, sometimes have more filler than relevant information. To overcome that trap, you need to structure your content to match the SERP flow and user intent. Ensure that each section of your blog post answers queries and satisfies the user’s intent.
  • – Getting traffic from content. For some, creating content can be easy, especially if you have teams working on it. The tricky part, however, is ensuring that real people visit your website and read it. One vital tactic that you can take is that of outreach and promotion, such as email marketing and direct outreach for links.

In addition to the difficulties mentioned above, you’ll also be dealing with some more unique challenges: the engineers who read your blog. Engineers are often skeptical and impatient, especially when presented with information that does not provide value. Common marketing strategies don’t always win them over. Rather, you must focus on creating content that engineers care about and trust.

So, how can you create blog posts that will engage engineers?

1. Know your audience.

When writing blog posts for engineers, keep in mind the topics that they find interesting. Remember that you are not the reader and not everything that strikes your fancy will necessarily interest them. The development and understanding of your reader persona will help you create blog posts that matter to engineers.
When creating your reader persona, the following steps can help:

  • – Identify the demographics including location, age, gender, income, and educational level.
  • – Identify their psychographics, including values, attitudes, and preferences.
  • – Base your decisions on behavior such as how they consume content.
  • – Put your reader persona together and use it to develop a character.

2. Be specific when writing your blog post.

Be Specific When Writing Your Blog PostEngineers love working as efficiently as possible and this fact should be reflected in your blog’s writing style. Long, flowery intros will not only bore them but may leave them with a bad impression about your brand or your business. They can easily flag your brand as a waste of time and avoid your content in the future.

When you provide a snippet or summary of your post, the content needs to be delivered. Avoid giving empty promises for the sake of gaining extra clicks to your article. Articles exist to provide information and should not take the reader in circles. You have to create posts that get directly to the point and provide value.

3. Form stories with your data.

Though efficiency is very important, there’s a big difference between a blog post and a spreadsheet. Technical blog posts don’t have to be overstuffed with data and statistics. They work better when technical details such as the ‘what,’ the ‘how,’ and the ‘why’ are included. Engineers love learning the approach taken to a problem and the benefits that were reaped as a result, so that they can apply such techniques to their processes. A narrative is the best way to communicate these things.

Similarly, if you want engineers to trust your product and the services you offer, you have to share stories that illustrate your company’s capabilities. Data alone will not communicate the crucial context that your engineering readers need to connect all the information together. Case studies are a great way to do this and are a valuable asset. This type of content is useful in showcasing how your product or service was able to help solve a customer’s problem.

4. Focus on interesting, educational, and entertaining blog posts.

Focus on Interesting and Educational Blog PostsDon’t forget that engineers are human, and humans tend to think about their own particular needs. The focus of your content should not only be on your services or the products you sell. Instead, your writing should center around your readers and their needs. Always provide them with educational and entertaining articles that will interest them. Engineers who have found your posts organically and enjoyed reading them are more likely to return for more content in the future.

If you are short on topics, expand your posting across these three categories as they relate to your own company: relevant, semi-relevant, and non-relevant.

  • – Topics that are relevant to your profession. These are topics that are related to the core values of your company and the services or products that you offer. They can pertain to certain processes about your production or problems that you have recently solved using a specific technology.
  • – Topics that are semi-relevant. These are the topics that are indirectly related to you and your company. This can be about the industry to which you belong, certain engineering professions, or any other related subject.
  • – Topics that are not relevant. These are topics that are not directly relevant to your brand, but something that your readers may find interesting. Branch out; you might focus on productivity, offer a funny story, or even tell a joke you think your readers would find entertaining.

5. Get your technical terms right.

Engineers tend to be very particular about terms, acronyms, and other jargon and will notice if you use them incorrectly. If this happens, chances are, they’ll be turned off from your content and possibly your brand altogether. Engineers have certain expectations when they approach technical blog posts and among them is the expectation that you, as the writer, are an expert in the subject at hand. They love learning from experts and can generally intuit from the content of the author’s level of expertise.

Any time you are unsure of a term, look it up from the source. The web has a lot of resources to help you create the informative blog posts your engineering readers are after. It’s also a good idea to interview subject matter experts (SMEs) to elaborate on particularly complex topics, and add more value to your posts.

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