Writing a blog post is all fun and games, but it becomes a little more complex when you need your engineering content to actually work for you.
Of course, you’re writing content that offers value to your readers, but you also need it to act as a marketing tool. It needs to attract customers and build audience trust so that you’re in a better position to leverage the value of your engineering blog for your digital marketing success.
So how can you ensure your engineering content remains attractive to your audience and serves you and your company?
And how do you even begin writing this engineering content?
Below, I’ll share a step-by-step outline to guide you through the writing process, ensuring you have everything you need to craft top-notch engineering content that works for you.
1. Choose great engineering topics to write about
This may seem obvious, but of course the first step to writing engineering content that attracts the right audience is choosing a great engineering topic to write about.
While there is a world of engineering content ideas to go through, it’s worth remembering that your customers turn to search engines when they’re looking for solutions.
So, your blog content should solve their problem in a way that compels them to further engage with your company.
2. Choose a blogging format that best fits your post
You don’t have to stick to the same format for every single post you write. In fact, it can be beneficial to mix things up a bit, always keeping your content fresh and exciting.
So, before you begin writing a post, decide on which format will best suit the current topic. This will help you organize your thoughts more clearly and help you get started.
Here are a few format suggestions:
- Question-based blog posts: These blog posts answer the What, Who, and Why questions. Here, every post will pose a question and then proceed to answer that question in detail. For example: “What 3D Printing Technology Is Best For Functional Prototypes?”
- Listicles: Listicles are easy-to-read articles that are simply formatted as a list with a common theme. For example: “Ten Replaceable Parts Of An Automobile”
- How-to guides: How-to guides are very popular, and they take readers through a step-by-step process of how to achieve something (this is a how-to guide). Some how-tos will be very specific, while others will be a little more generalized, but readers should always walk away with a better understanding of how to do something. For example: “How To Fix Broken Car Brakes”
- Infographics: As the name suggests, these are informational graphics – i.e., graphics that contain all the information you’d usually write in a blog post. They can be quite visual and a great way to understand more complex information. However, they’re not the best in terms of SEO if used on their own, so I’d recommend using infographics together with long-form articles so you still have the chance to get your keywords in.
- Narratives: For these, you’ll rely on a more personal story to grab the attention of your target audience. Staff or engineer profiles can also fit into this category.
Technically, one blog idea may fit into multiple formats, so you’ll need to decide which would work best for you and your content needs.
3. Create a strong outline
By creating a strong outline before you start writing, you can ensure your efforts are focused and on topic. It’ll also help guide you to see which research you still need to do.
Start off with a main heading and then add in a few subheadings to denote your main sections, based on your keyword research.
You may have to do some research before you can come up with a good outline, particularly if you’re not too familiar with the topic.
But you can also ask an engineer in your company to go over your outline to see if it makes sense or ask AI to develop a good outline for you. ChatGPT, for example, is really great at providing draft outlines on certain topics, which you can then use to craft your final outline.
You can even ask ChatGPT for keyword information – or feed it keywords – that should be used in the outline.
Getting started on an outline can be difficult, but AI tools can really help to give you a basic draft you can then work from.
4. Research
This is perhaps the most important part of your engineering content creation process.
You may do your research together with your outline, depending on how well you know the topic.
It’s worth remembering that most of your readers will be professionals in the engineering industry, so you’ll need to understand the topic you’re presenting well. Working with a strong engineering technical writer can be helpful here.
While general engineering research is a must, you can also get great information from research papers, industry experts, and government websites. Remember to reference your sources, if applicable.
If you get this research and writing stage right, you’ll end up with high-value content that builds trust among your readers.
5. Create a thought-provoking headline
Your headline is the first thing potential readers see, regardless of whether they’re seeing it on social media, in an email advertising your post, or in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
So your headline really has to entice your target audience, drawing them in to not only click on your post in the first place but also leaving them excited about the upcoming read.
A good headline is so vital that I’ve put together separate guides on the importance of titles and key tips on writing a great headline.
You can even use a tool like the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer for feedback on how effective your headline is if you’re not sure.
6. Write a strong introduction
If you’ve managed to capture someone’s attention through the headline, it’s only fair that you invoke a reader’s interest further with the first bit of your introduction.
After all, if you don’t, they’d simply click away from your article, and all your hard work will have been for nothing.
You can follow something like the AIDA marketing model to help you craft compelling introductions, but it’s also worth remembering that starting with intriguing information, brief statistics, or a question generally works quite well.
7. Craft great content
Not only does your content need to be accurate, insightful, and thought-provoking, but it should also be presented in a way that allows you to communicate effectively, following great web copy suggestions.
Pay attention to the following:
- Stick to a fantastic structure that makes your content more digestible
- Keep sentences and paragraphs short and to the point
- Keep your tone professional yet conversational
- Add in text enhancements and visual aids like bolds, italics, and bullet points to draw attention to certain bits
- Include text breaks like graphics, photographs, or videos to break up long chunks of text
- Make your content easily scannable
Unfortunately, modern-day attention spans are quite short, and most online readers tend to skim-read content, so you should craft your content in a way that it’s easily digestible for modern audiences.
8. Add great images or visuals
Adding great visuals to your engineering content allows you to not only make use of text breaks, but it also helps you present more difficult-to-understand information in a simpler way.
Often, images can turn complex data into something much more easily digestible.
Readers are also more likely to jump from image to image in your text, making them crucial landing points within your content.
Remember that your images should be relevant to your content. You can add graphics to showcase complex concepts, but you can also use free stock images or embed images from other sources to show more generalized ideas.
9. Optimize your engineering content for SEO
It’s likely that you’re already doing this while writing, especially if you’re working with great keyword research, but it is also worth giving your content another glance to ensure you’re search-engine optimized.
Scan your list of keywords and ensure you’ve placed a good handful into your content (in a natural way, without keyword stuffing). Also ensure your blog post actually answers the search intent, and that you’re not missing any valuable information.
You’ll also need to ensure that your images, metadata, titles, and URLs are optimized. I go through a full list of on-page SEO essentials in a separate guide, so be sure to check that out if you feel you might be missing something.
10. Write a powerful conclusion
Conclusions in books or articles are vital, but blog post conclusions often don’t carry as much weight.
That said, a powerful conclusion is just what you need to end a strong post, so ensure that your conclusion emphasizes your point, summarizes your content, and aligns with your introduction.
You can even effectively use your conclusion to add in a CTA (call-to-action), guiding your reader to the next step – regardless of whether that’s filling out a form, making an appointment, signing up for a newsletter, or simply clicking over to the next article.
11. Edit your content
Even if you’ve worked through multiple drafts, you’ll still have to spend some time editing your content.
This includes fixing spelling and grammar errors, of course, but it also includes looking at your post as a whole, ensuring information flows smoothly from one topic to the next.
You may find yourself having to delete or add in sections, rewrite unnecessarily long or complex paragraphs, or rethink the images you’ve chosen to include.
Now you’re ready to get started
This step-by-step guide has hopefully given you the tools you need to write strong engineering content.
While you’ll need to fill in the gaps and do the hard work, at least you know that this outline will get you from no content to great content.
Engineering Blog Content FAQs
Since you’re writing for engineers, you have to double-check all facts using reliable references. You could also ask engineers in your company to look over the work to weed out any technical inaccuracies.
You should definitely be using grammar and spell check tools like Grammarly to help you eliminate any errors. However, it’s worth keeping in mind that not all Grammarly suggestions will work well, and it’s worth being particularly mindful of newer AI suggestions, as these often change the meaning of what you’re trying to say.
You’ll follow a similar structure when updating your content, but this will largely depend on how in-depth your update needs to be. If there are only smaller parts that need to be changed – some statistics, for example – you can easily just update those text bits and other relevant graphics. But if you’re doing a complete content refresh, it’s often worth going back to your keyword research and assessing if you’re still answering the search intent in the best way possible.
