We've covered why you need a blog, but ... what should you write about?
Blog
NounA regularly updated section of a website that is written in an informal or conversational style, roughly based around the topic of the website itself.
There's a big difference between a personal blog for an individual and a blog on your business website. Not only is there an added importance for a professional, tactful manner in your business blog but also the content needs to revolve around your overall niche for the website.
The core topic for your blog will be the business industry that you're in, and here are some top tips to come up with the specific topics you can write blogs about.
Here're some prompts that should help spark some topic ideas for your niche, including some really specific examples which will hopefully get your cogs whirring.
It could be that people usually buy your furniture for themselves, so you could highlight the gifting opportunities. If you make skincare products and sell a facial moisturiser, for example, which is so sensitive it's also used as a hand cream for those with delicate skin - write about the versatility of your product range.
It's important to sell things which have a purpose and a target market, but there's often a secondary market which you can explore. We build websites, but we also provide a huge range of digital marketing services exclusively for those who have websites on our platform (because we don't like to work on second-rate website platforms).
Your blog will give you the opportunity to show your customers that you are an expert in your niche. If you sell handmade cosmetics you can reassure your customers that you know what you're doing by blogging about the best ingredients. If you design escape rooms you can give teasers of some of the more complicated elements of the puzzles within them.
It's your time to shine, establish your authority on all matters pertaining to what you offer your customers or clients. You may not think you know that much, but once you sit down and think about what you do in detail I'm sure there will be a huge array of topics that you can write about with authority. Our top tip for this is to this really granularly about elements of your work. Step by step, what do you do and what about it is interesting? Then write in-depth about that particular aspect, anything from engraving to packaging.
Note: This is risky if you create something which people could easily do themselves with a little time and effort, in that case, we wouldn't recommend giving away your secrets.
Assuming your product is built with tools and skills that Joe Public doesn't have, then writing an ultimate guide on your product or service isn't going to reduce your sales, but instead offer further assurance to your customers that they are better off paying you than having a go themselves.
Anyone can buy some power tools and construct a seat with wood, but how well the final item will work and how good it'll look is questionable. If you sell garden furniture built by master craftsmen then showing the practised art of crafting something beautiful with all the required tools and expertise will elevate your level of authority, the perceived value of your products and reduce the chances they'll give it a whirl at home.
Your topic is your business or industry and there are tools which can help you research what people are interested in around that area.
Paid: SEMrush is a great tool, they have a topic research element which you can use to identify the subtopics around your topic, questions asked about that topic and the kind of headlines they would suggest to get organic traffic for that topic.
Free: Answer the Public gives you loads of questions, it mines auto-complete data from search engines for insight into what your customers want to know.
Whether you're a lone wolf or a team of 20, you can write about your experiences. We are a small team, we wrote a blog about working from home with 4 of us adding our own top tips to stay sane and productive. It adds a human element to your blog to bring comments from the team and photos of real people to your website.
If you are working alone, especially in a business which you have created from scratch, then your customers want to read about how you started and what drives you. Hopefully, as you've created a successful business with your bare hands, you'll have something inspirational to say!
Your service or product doesn't exist in a vacuum. There are always adjacent topics which will interest your target market. If you've had much contact with your customers it should be easy to sniff these out - here's a list of examples:
If there is another company or person who inspires you or complements your business then write about them. Avoid direct competition, but a new beautiful vase you've seen by an artisan glassblower would make a great blog for a florist, including the best way to arrange flowers in it or what flowers would work best in that setting.
Here are some lines of thought to find your related (but not too related) products and people:
Give customers something that they can really relate to by describing in detail the experience of some of your other customers.
Seeing that someone from a similar demographic has valued products or services from you adds social proof, like seeing their friends have already liked something on social media. It improves the likelihood they will convert into paying customers.
If case studies are likely to be a big part of your regular website updates it's worth considering separating this from your blog with its own section on the website.
There is plenty to write about for your business, but how are you set for actually sitting down and writing these blogs?
If you're keen to get writing and you have a website with us then you will either have the blog/news section available in the content management system or you can ask us to set that up for you.
If the idea of blogging regularly is just too much then get in touch, we're happy to chat over your options for us to do your copywriting and what sort of frequency, length and tone your blogs should take.
There's always more to learn, we recommend these blogs:
Posted on September 21st 2020