One of the most common objections that I hear from my clients on why they don’t want to “do a blog” is because they don’t know what to blog about. They seem to have nightmares about having to create new content from thin air daily and stress over where they’re going to come up with ideas for said content. In reality, it’s not nearly that complicated. Once you know what you’re looking for, you can easily come up with several content ideas each day and then the only challenge becomes which one to create first.
What's in this article?
1. Frequently Asked Questions
It used to be that almost every website had an FAQ page, which served as a home for answers for those oft-repeated questions that may not have been easy to address elsewhere in the content of your site. That’s not quite what I’m talking about here, so if your site doesn’t have one, don’t worry (too much) about it.
The questions I’m referring to here are the ones that you find yourself answering in some fashion with almost every client or customer, whether or not the question is specifically asked. For me, those questions tend to be “What is WordPress?“, “Why Should I use WordPress?“, “What’s the difference between a domain and hosting?” and things of that nature. These kinds of posts are great because the answers can be fairly keyword heavy without seeming fake, so they’re good for SEO, and they help to demonstrate your knowledge to your potential customers who may be reading the post. Question and answer posts can be the kind of content that gets frequently shared among a small community online if there happen to be a lot of people with similar questions, so this can get more eyes on your post/blog/site as well.
2. Problems and solutions
Customers make a purchase when they are looking for a solution to a problem they have – even if they didn’t know they had that problem, or that your solution existed for it. Make a list of some of the common problems that your customers have and how the products or services you offer can provide a solution for those problems. You don’t have to tell them how to accomplish the solution (that’s a different type of post that’s listed below) but you do need to show them how your solution solves their problem. If they know you have a solution to their problem, they’ll see you as an expert in that area and are more likely to remember you when they are ready to solve the problem. (Just because they’re looking for a solution doesn’t mean they are ready to purchase or start the process right away – they might just be looking for their options so that they are able to make an informed purchase instead of a panic purchase.)
3. Tutorials and demonstrations
Another way to help your potential customers feel more confident about your abilities to help them with their problem is to provide tutorials related to their problems. These tutorials can be about using your products or services (think of make up artists providing tutorials on how to get the perfect smoky eye, or a power tool manufacturer providing tutorials on projects that can be built using their tools.)
This is also a fantastic topic for existing customers, because it can help them learn about other products or services you offer that they weren’t aware of before.
Demonstrating one of your products will immediately appeal to anybody who either owns the product or is considering buying it. If you offer digital products, the principle stays the same and you can give them a virtual tour of what their experience should be like.
4. Product matchmaking
This could be done a couple of different ways – either by showing how several of your products or services can work together and complement each other, or how your products or services work with or complement other common products on the market. And if you are choosing the second option, it would be a great opportunity to reach out to the other company and work with them so you’re both producing content that mentions the other. Things like that are commonly referred to as JV or joint venture opportunities. An example of this would be a landscaping company working with a construction or home-improvement company, or a photographer and makeup artist collaborating to talk about the best makeup for different skin tones for different events or something like that.
5. Customer spotlight
Writing a feature post about one of your customers is a great way to build loyalty from your customers and encourage more sharing of your content since most customers love sharing when they are mentioned online. This can be done to include a bit of a case study sort of story, discussing the problem the customer had and how you helped them solve it. If you can include quotes from the customer about the different parts of the process of working with you, and a testimonial and/or stats about quantitative changes your solution affected, these can go a long way to building trust in your audience and potential customers.
6. Top 5 lists
For most problems, there is more than one solution, and the best one will depend on a number of factors. When your audience is looking for solutions to their problems, they will appreciate knowing what some of these options are so this a perfect fit for a “Top 5” post. List the top 5 tools or solutions for their problem (including your solution, of course) and review some of the top consideration points for helping them decide, typically things like price, time to complete, ease of use, etc.
Other examples are Top 5 reasons to use (a specific product), Top 5 tools to (solve a problem), Top 5 things to use with X, etc.
7. Content Curation
You don’t necessarily have to come up with all of the content on your own. You can use other people’s posts and share them with your community as a collection. If you’ve ever looked at recipes on Pinterest, you’ve probably come across a list like this. Think something like 100 Recipes for Chicken, which is actually a collection of articles that, when added up, equal 100 total recipes. Other examples might be X places to find home design inspiration, X resources for home organization printables, or X Office Organization Tips. If you have affiliate links for any items, this could be a good way to include those links in your content.
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