Often the conversation starts out as “What Do I Blog About?” Then I do what most people hate… I answer a question with a question… “What Do You Have to Say?”
Content marketing for your business is as critical as ever in the internet marketing world. And I get that question at least weekly from business owners. These are not just people who want to have a blog just to get a following or because they are starting a fan club.
These are people who have very limited time, specific needs, and sometimes little capital. They need traffic to their sites and they need people to call their business.
But they sit down at their computer and stare blankly at the screen wondering what to write about. Then they eventually get around to asking me again… What can I blog about?
I always come back to start with the same things. “What are your clients/customers most asked questions?” Start there!
Every business has at least 10 questions that they are asked on a constant basis. Whether they are already listed in a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page or not, they are always the same questions. I used tell people if you get the same question asked 3 times or more, it should be on your website is an FAQ page. Now I tell them that not only should it be in an FAQ page, but make a blog post about it.
Now don’t just start re-posting the same questions and answers. Go into more detail in your blog post. Give specific examples of problems that previous clients had and how you helped solve them. Put that exact blog post into a web video and post that as well.
I have a client who is a hypnotist. Now part of her business is breaking down the barriers that most people have of hypnotists and that they believe if they get hypnotized they will all start clucking like chickens (or something else that they saw in a movie or during a stage show). So, she uses these questions and examples to her advantage.
Each week she posts a question and calls it her weekly “Mythbuster”. She will start out with a question that she gets from a client (or several) and talks about the answer. She also will put in a specific example of when a client had a problem like that, the solution that she provided, and then ends with an outcome.
She will type them out as I’m writing this blog post right now, then she will record (actually read them) into her webcam on her computer, and then post not only the video to her site (through YouTube), but also the transcription of the video below it (since she already had it typed out).
Blogging Creates Multiple Types of Content
You see, search engines LOVE new content and they are especially loving video right now as well. But she is killing three birds with one stone.
- She is adding new content to her website on a regular basis by blogging (Content Marketing)
- She is recording that content into a video, posting it on YouTube (for additional traffic), and putting it on her site (Video Marketing)
- She is posting a link to that page to her social media accounts to get additional traffic and some social signals from the search engines
Blog Answers to Popular Questions
All of this works together… and it works well.
What to Blog About
So when sitting down and wondering what to blog about, here are some tips:
- Start with frequently asked questions you get from clients / customers.
- Once you’ve gone through those, turn to product (or service) questions that you might get like: New products coming down the pipeline, why does everyone do it a certain way, how does your business differ from all the others
- Turn to Google. When running dry of ideas, turn to your search engine for blogging ideas. Enter in your industry like: Plumbing (and then add the word “Questions” to the end of it). You will get more question ideas from more sources than you can possibly imagine.
- Talk about past client problems, solutions that you provided, and then the outcomes. Potential clients or customers want to hear about how you solved a problem or your customer service practices. Giving them TRUE experiences will help show them that you know how to address their problem.
So take these blogging ideas and turn them into customers for your business. Because the more you can educate a potential client about what you know, how you can solve a problem, or how you can help them… the more business you will receive.
What good topics have you found to blog about in your industry that would translate to other business owners? Leave your comments or suggestions in the comments below. Also, if you would like to get more great digital marketing tips for your business, just enter your email address in the email box below.
Now you never have to ask the question again…”What Do I Blog About?”