You’ve realised that setting up a blog for your small business is a valuable addition to your digital marketing strategy. And you’re well aware that it’ll help to generate and convert leads, drive traffic to your website, increase your search engine ranking, build brand loyalty and much more.
But here’s the problem. You’re entirely stumped about what to blog about.
It can be tricky to come up with enough ideas to generate regular content. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of 10 blog ideas which are suitable for any industry, which you can turn to again and again.
How-to posts
Readers are always hungry for valuable information that provides an actionable step-to-step guide to help them accomplish something. No matter what business you run or what industry you’re part of, we can guarantee there’s something you know how to do that the average person won’t.
For example, if you sell cosmetics, you can write about how to create a simple smokey eye. If you’re in recruitment, you could tell your audience how to ace their next interview. If you sell flowers, you could teach your readers how to keep their flowers fresh for longer.
Meet the staff
A great way to build trust in your brand and allow your readers to relate to your business on a more personal level is to write blogs about your staff. You could interview each member of your team for a series of blog posts – asking them questions about the business, their favourite part of the job, and whatever you feel is appropriate. Starbucks is an excellent example of this – they regularly feature baristas on their blog and Instagram pages.
Weekly news roundups
Easy, consistent content. No matter what industry you’re in, we can bet there’s a lot of news. Try to do a weekly roundup of the most relevant news for your audience. If there’s a particularly big industry story, it’s worth writing a single post about that, too – it shows you’re always on top of what’s going on.
Talk about your product or service
While you should try and keep ‘sales orientated’ posts to a minimum on your blog, there’s no harm in informing your audience about a new product or service which is in the pipeline. Your blog is the best place to share snippets of what’s to come and spark your audience’s interest. You could also create a ‘how to use…’ or ‘top 10 uses for…’ blog for any product you sell.
Use the season as your inspiration
It’s essential to create evergreen content (content that’s relevant forever), but occasional seasonal content can help you draw in more readers at that specific time. Try to find a way to relate the season or holiday to your business. For example, we (as marketing consultants) created a blog titled ‘Spring Clean Your Marketing Strategy’ last Spring.
Highlight a client or customer success story
Do you have a customer or client who you made a particular difference to? Show it off! Interview them or tell their story. If you provide a service, write a post about a specific client, go through the project process and highlight what they liked about your service, including any useful feedback you received. If you sell a product, interview one of your most regular customers – ask them why they keep returning to you and what they like about the product.
Go behind the scenes
Give your audience an insight into how your business runs behind the scenes. This could be a day-in-the-life or an insight of how you make your product. Include lots of photos of your office or even a video tour – this could make for a really engaging post. There’s also potential to make it into a series by creating a ‘day in the life’ of every single member of staff.
Invite guest bloggers
It doesn’t always have to be you who writes the content on your website or blog. Aim to invite a guest blogger onto your site once a month or a few times a year. You could do this by asking your customers to become contributors, or reaching out to experts within your industry who your audience would find interesting.
Answer questions
Do you get lots of questions from customers or even friends about your industry? Use them as inspiration for blog posts. For example, as a marketing agency, we receive lots of questions along the lines of “How do I get more followers on social media?” or “How do I set up a Facebook ad?” – and they create perfect topics for blogs. If people are asking, it’s likely people are searching for the answer on the internet, too.
Get personal
Now and then, it’s nice to share a personal experience or write about something unrelated to your business – this could be about your family, something you’re passionate about, or something you love. Sometimes, it’s just lovely to add a human side to your business and make yourself much more personable to your audience.
By providing exciting, relevant and interesting content, you’re sure to keep your audience hooked. If you’re looking for advice on how to set up a blog or another aspect of digital marketing, contact 3twelve today. We can even set up and manage a blog on your behalf if you’re strapped for time.