Most business owners I speak to love the idea of starting a blog. But many lose momentum – or put off starting one altogether – because they’re worried they’ll run out of ideas.
When I started my PR blog, I had exactly the same concerns. But as I was keen to build up a bank of content, I made a commitment to publish a daily post for three months.
Here are my tips to make sure you never run out of content ideas for your blog:
Make a list of helpful suggestions
One of the most common mistakes people make with business blogs is creating content that’s all about them. If you want to engage existing and prospective customers, you need to create helpful content that solves their problems or makes their life easier in some way.
A great way to generate ideas for your blog is to write a list of the questions you get asked regularly by your customers. Let’s say you sell garden offices, for example. You probably get asked about planning permission, the best way to heat a garden office and how to make sure it’s waterproof. Create blogposts around these topics – things people who want to buy or build a garden office would type into a search engine – and you’ll attract prospective customers to your site.
If you want to understand your customers’ problems in more detail, asking a simple question like “what are you struggling with at the moment?” can provide some really useful information. I do this every few months, and not only has it helped me create some really useful content for my audience, it’s also helped me improve my overall service.
If you want to dig a bit deeper, you can use a free tool like SurveyMonkey or Wufoo to create a simple online survey.
Teach people something
Whether you run an IT consulting firm, a coaching business or a microbrewery, you’re an expert in something. So don’t tell people how brilliant you are – show them.
If you run a hair and beauty salon, creating videos that demonstrate how to straighten hair like the professionals or create a simple “up do” could be a smart move.
Or if you run a copywriting business, you could create content on how to write effective web copy or compelling social media updates.
People often worry that giving content away for free will lose them customers but it doesn’t work that way. Not everyone has the need – or budget – to buy from you right now. Providing free content is a way of keeping them warm until they’re ready. And even if some people never buy from you, if you create useful content they won’t be able to resist sharing it with their friends.
Be a copycat
Ripping off other people’s content isn’t on, but there’s nothing wrong with taking an idea and adapting it for your audience.
I regularly scour Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, other people’s blogs, podcasts, and magazines and newspapers for ideas. In fact, some of my most successful content ideas were sparked by other people’s work.
The good thing about copycatting is if it’s worked for someone else, there’s a good chance it will work for you. Research shows that list posts (including numbered lists), questions, unexpected statements and putting contrasting ideas together (why using big words can make you look stupid for example) all perform well as blogposts.
Content idea generators like Portent’s title maker can be useful too. Simply enter the subject you want to write about and you’ll get hundreds of ideas for blogpost titles (based on research on what performs best in search engines, and on social media).
Create a content schedule
It doesn’t matter how creative you are, there will be times when you’re stuck for ideas. That’s why creating a content schedule (which can be a simple spreadsheet) can be a lifesaver. If you’ve got a title and a commitment to post on a particular day, you’re less likely to procrastinate.
This doesn’t mean you can’t be flexible; my content schedule is a large month-by-month calendar stuck to the back of my office door, marked up with details of my speaking commitments and the title of each blogpost on a sticky note, on the date I plan to publish it.
Not only does this help me create more relevant content (if I’m speaking at an event, or launching a new product, I often publish a blogpost on a similar topic around the same time), it also means I can easily move things around if I need to.
Janet Murray is a writer and media trainer. Her blog can be found at www.janetmurray.co.uk
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