What to Write About On Your Blog
Consistently adding new quality content to your website is helpful to your visitors and to Google search engines. Writing blog articles is one of the most efficient ways to continuously add fresh content.
Have a Blog? Now What?
If you’re a business owner, you may be wondering what to write about on your blog. And, you may have heard a time or two (or more) that it’s really important to have a blog. This post isn’t about why you need one, but what to do once you have one.
Blogging has become an expected part of most businesses, but did you know it’s also a key component of your inbound marketing program (e.g., marketing that encourages people to seek you out for your expertise)? Yes, each blog post is an inexpensive piece of marketing that generates a better ROI than most outbound marketing techniques (e.g., postcard mailers) and helps to generate an audience.
When a new business blogger considers what to write about, it’s easy for well intentioned business-egos to step in and tell you what to write. You may hear it telling you to write about how great your company is, or what amazing products you offer, or how your staff is better than any other. The content you could write on those topics would most likely fill volumes and be fun to write — and we suspect you would lose readers shortly after “Hello”.
If you want to meet your objectives as a business, attract customers, and provide helpful content to potential customers, there are a few guidelines for creating a blog.
HAVE A PLAN: BE HELPFUL, NOT PUSHY
Have a plan. Think about what your overall mission is and what content will help get you there. Equally important, is what content will not.
For instance, if you own and operate a winery you may find an increase in sales if you educate potential customers about the history of the grapes, the health benefits of a certain type of wine, provide an overview of the flavor of each wine, make food pairing suggestions etc.
In the scenario above, not at any time will you be actively asking for a sale, or telling customers about sales or specials. What you would have done, however, is helped your customers to make an informed decision that gave them the confidence to purchase a wine they’ve never tried before.
Be helpful – not pushy. Know your goal, know your content, know your desired outcome (for your customers).
Blogging affects your ROI. No doubt about it!
WHAT SHOULD YOUR BLOG CONTENT DO? DELIGHT, GENERATE OR SAVE:
In the scenario above about a winery owner, those blog posts have the potential to delight customers and generate income.
An example of a blog post that might save time / money, is a post that addresses the most common reasons for 1) a return of your product, 2) a return of a service provider to a customer location, or 3) time spent explaining your product / service / software.
Imagine that you’re a Cable Service Provider. Your business has thousands of customers, many of which are not savvy in the ways of internet, cable boxes, wifi, routers, modems, remote controls etc. What if you directed people from your home page to your blog that describes how to fix their modem in three easy steps?
In this case, you’ve just saved your company money and time. You’ve potentially thwarted the call from the technically challenged requesting a visit from the person who installed the cable box, or saved your customer service representative from 15 minutes of time on the phone with the frantic home-office worker who can’t get an email to their boss because their internet isn’t working.
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Lastly, know who you’re trying to reach. Remember the saying by John Lydgate–
“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.
It’s important that businesses not try to sell to everyone. Not everyone needs, wants, or cares about what you offer. It becomes a waste of time and money, and is a “spray and pray” technique that yields little results, if any at all.
So how do you know Who you’re really selling to? Your business should have one, two or three target personas that your business is trying to reach.
Part of any marketing program starts with identifying— through a series of qualifiers and evaluators— who your audience (target personas) is.
WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT ON YOUR BLOG: CONCLUSION
So, if you’re wondering what to write about on your blog, keep your customers in mind and your business can be writing and generating some great blog posts that attract an audience.