Having content focused on families would be a traffic magnet, but you cannot just write anything and expect them to show up, you need to personalize the content to appeal to both parents and children.
These content creation tips will show you some fool-proof ways to blog for families.
Focus on Popular Topics
Parents are concerned about many things that affect their families and they’ll do a lot of online research to answer questions regarding these concerns.
Popular family topics in 2020 will include:
Finding balance – Habits to counter stress, anxiety, and burnout
Working from home – Having a home office, telecommuting, and remote work trends
Conscious consumption – Being eco-friendly and all-natural is an ever-growing trend
Unisex topics – Focus is turning to unisex names, clothing, and toys.
Failsafe topics to write on include children’s health, craft how-tos, family travel, healthy and easy meals, family budgeting, and education issues.
Of course, you can’t just push out any topic, you still need to appear as an authority on that topic so parents will trust your content.
Address all “Families”
The meaning of “family” is changing these days, and no longer means a “nuclear family” of a mom, dad, and their kids. These days, a nuclear family comprises only about 37% of all American families and 26% of all American households.
Families also mean:
Single-parent families – A single mom or single dad raising kids alone or co-parenting
Extended families – Extended relatives living together in one household
Same-sex families – Having two dads or two moms families
Blended families – Stepparents and stepchildren blended in one household
Grandparents families – Grandparents raising grandkids
Adoptive and foster families – Raising children that are not biologically theirs
Writing personalized content that focuses on these families and the issues that arise in their special circumstances reflects closer to reality and everyday life in the United States.
Go All-Natural
More and more parents are focusing on organic, homemade, natural, and healthy options for their families. Statistics show that eight out of ten families bought organic products more than once for their households.
Going all-natural and being health-conscious has influenced many company marketing plans in recent years. For example, Chipotle has changed its motto to “food with integrity”, and Burger King recently came out with their vegetarian “Impossible Burger”.
Your blog content should also reflect this rising trend and go the organic, healthy route.
Short and Practical
Parents want useful how-tos and specific age-related answers to their concerns and don’t want to be scrolling long posts to find a tidbit of relatable information.
I know many content writing experts say that long-form posts are ideal for marketers, but we need to keep in mind our audience here – families.
Keeping your content short and practical is what parents prefer because they just don’t have the time to scroll long blocks of text for a tidbit of information.
Have you ever tried looking up a recipe online? If you’re a mom like me, you’d be scrolling past all the different photos and the background story and heading straight to the bottom of the page for the ingredients and instructions only.
You don’t want parents scrolling through your long posts, running the risk of them leaving your site in frustration, never to return.
Be Light-Hearted
Write your content in a light-hearted manner that speaks to both adults and kids without being over-simplistic.
Present your material and facts in an entertaining and even humorous way to keep everyone’s attention without overwhelming them with too much data.
A few useful tactics to lighten your material are to:
Write as you’re having a conversation with your family
Play with word choices, use unusual synonyms to relax your reading
Show humanity, yes the truth can be funny
Pair mix-matched ideas together and insist they work, like the popular Sprint commercial
Careful not to go overboard to where your information gets lost or you’ll lose credibility with your readers.
Hire Parents to Write
If you want your content to be authentic, you need to get parents to write these family blog posts.
Parents as writers give your content more advantages over your competitor’s copywriter that include:
Unfiltered truth – Parents tell it as it is, spit-up and all
Trust – Moms are more likely to trust other moms and what they say
Skill – Parents are skilled at keeping kids’ attention and how to “speak their language”
Users – Parents will actually be using the same products and advice that other parents are seeking
Getting parents to be your content writers, brand ambassadors, and product testers is just a smart way to go in blogging family content.
Final Thoughts
More and more parents and their children are online daily. Technology is very accessible to them according to Pew Research statistics 58% of families have two or more computers and 89% of families own several cellphones as well.
Creating viable content in 2020 is increasingly a challenge to stay competitive and writing for families is even trickier in an oversaturated market. But it doesn’t have to be complicated, just remember to write on favorite topics, address unique and alternate family issues, keep it short and practical and fun.