One of the questions I get so often from my corporate clients has to do with what to write about on a business blogs (blog post ideas).
I think this is a serious issue to deal with because you don’t have to write about everything on your business blog.
First, I want to establish the key difference between business blogging and blogging business so that we do not get confused along the line.
Business blogging is simply when blogging becomes your business promotion strategy. That’s essentially what will be looking at more closely below.
Blogging business is when Blogging is your main business. I blog full time and make money from blogging. So it is correct to think that I’m into blogging business.
WordPress or something else?
I don’t want to pour out details about blogging platforms. At this junction, I just want to throw some light on what you may use to power your blog.
WordPress blogging script is by far the most solicited, powering over 30% of websites on the Internet.
It is the most dominant CMS on the market and a global phenomenon that has come a long way since the release of the first version in 2003.
But here is the other side of the puzzle…
In a Website Hack Trend Report by Sucuri, 90% of all websites infected and cleaned in 2018 were powered by WordPress. Does this mean we should completely shun the blogging tool?
Well, having used it for over 10 years, I think if over 30% of the web trusts it despite some scary stats, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
There are many other blogging platforms you may want to consider:
- Wix
- jekyllrb
- Blogger
- Squarespace
- Ghost
- Medium
- Etc
Note that there are two WordPress platforms for blogging:
- WordPress.com which is a hosting service run by the company
- WordPress.org, the blogging script to download and install on your local or remote server. Fortunately for many, this script is available with many webhosting services.
If you are new to WordPress, you may want to check out this document written for WordPress beginners.
Now let’s deal with the core of this post, which is about the different blog post ideas you may need to develop the most appropriate content for your business blog.
5 Blog post ideas for your business blogging
Now, you are running a business of any type (offline or online) and someone told you to create a blog to promote your business. For complete newbies in the content marketing industry, their next question would be – What is a blog and how do I create one?
While this question is not what I will be dealing with in this post, I would recommend you check out this article on how to start a blog
Here is the point!
If you’ve added a blog to your business website, your focus should be on driving traffic from your different channels to the blog and then from the blog to your product/services pages. You may want your readers to follow a simple yet interesting logical path:
Without a well mapped out funnel, you may end up with poor results from your business blog. Every new reader on your blog is a potential customer. But that also depends on the type of content you create for your blog and your blog promotion strategy.
While you may be focusing on directing traffic to your email list (which is a great strategy to boost conversion), you should have Call-To-Action elements calling your readers’ attention to the product/service pages.
Here are some ideas to guide you on the type of content to create on your business blog to take your business to the next level.
1. Product updates for customers
Competition is fierce and every passing second, someone is working on strategies to take over your market share. This is true in any industry. To maintain your leadership position or move to the next level, you must be competitive.
Constantly update your product/services and keep your customers in the loop. A blog post is the most efficient way to give your market complete information about product and service changes. How often you create this post type depends on the frequency of updating your product.
2. “How-To” blog post type
Whether you like it or not, your customers always have questions about how to do this or that using your product.
Creating short-form FAQ pages is outdated especially for web-based products. Take advantage of the power of content marketing for your blog, create comprehensive and educative documents/ blog posts to help your customers with necessary steps to manipulate your product.
While this will be easily accessed by your customers, it gives Google and other search engines a chance to drive more readers to your website through search.
Here are some basic ideas to write a product-based how-to article that ranks on Search Engines:
- Bring out details how your product works
- Help your readers know the problems your product solves
- Show your readers how and why your product is the best choice in the industry
- Share results how your product has helped other users
- Don’t make unrealistic claims and promises
3. Company news affecting your customers
Your consumers are definitely interested in knowing what’s happening within the company. While not every information should be made public, your institution should from time to time publish some material of general interest.
Anniversaries and some other social activities should constantly animate the social atmosphere of your company. Your blog is the most appropriate channel to publish details including graphics and embedded videos.
4. Industry related content
To keep your business blog more active, constantly publish articles that will rank on search engines and drive more natural traffic.
Scout the net for latest development in the industry. Develop and publish the information on your blog to keep your customers informed. Why some business blogs are scanty and skeletal is because the owners focus on providing tiny articles based on their product.
No matter the scope of your product or service, the industry is definitely larger. Make use of relevant information around the world and give your readers reasons to become your repeat visitors.
Advantages of going larger and covering your industry
Here are a couple of advantages you get by publishing industry-based materials on your blog:
- Your blog will gradually become information power-house for your customers
- You will hardly run out of blog post ideas
- Your blog will constantly have fresh content which is what search engines want
- Constant publication may drive more natural traffic thereby opening up for more customers
- Industry coverage opens up avenues for new clients who would have been caught by competitors
- It renews trust in your customers and strengthens your leadership role.
- Constant industry content means related and diversified information on your blog and social media channels.
- Covering your industry gives you a wider spectrum of content ideas.
5. Infographics
Infographic is a visual content type with a particular attraction. While this has grown to a serious height of popularity in recent times, colored visuals have the ability to increase people’s willingness to read a piece of content by 80% – xerox.com
This and many more infographic stats are just clear evidence that creating and publishing them on your business blog will boost engagement and conversion.
I know creating compelling infographics is daunting. You don’t have to remind me about this. But we have tools online that simplify the task. An impressive document I read recently was this infographic design guide by Visme.
There are a number of articles on this blog as well that can help you with infographics creation, such as:
If you are still frightened by the complexity of this content type, you may want to hire infographic designers from freelance website occasionally.
How do I create content for my business blog?
Now we’ve dealt with the question of coming up with consumable blog post ideas for your blog. The next question will have to do with being able to transform these ideas into shareable and engaging content.
I agree with the fact that writing is not for everyone. If you don’t have the skills and you are busy with other tasks in your business, here are some ideas to get the content you want for your blog:
a. Employ full time content marketers
This may not be cost effective. However, if you want a dedicated content marketing team, you may want to employ full-time content marketers with the sole mission to develop and grow the company blog.
Note that the term ‘Content Marketer’ applies to much more than just blogging. But in our context, it refers to your staff whose core activity is to monitor the blog for technical irregularities, propose blog post ideas, develop the content and insure promotion to get results.
What do you think about an in-house blogger who is on a permanent salary? Let me know in the comment.
b. Hire part time writers
Contrary to the point above, you may want to hire part time experienced writers whose main activity is to develop your idea into full-blown articles and get paid piece rate. You may have 4 writers who will each create and submit an article per week based on keywords you provide.
The problem with this is that you will still need someone to maintain the blog, handle the article publication, engagements and promotion.
c. Outsource content creation to agencies
There is a difference between hiring individual writers and outsourcing your blog and content management to an agency. Content writing companies are more reliable and consistent.
Individual writers may drop out for some personal reasons. But institutions will always have your job done by someone reliable because they function in a team.
d. Open up to guest authors
One of the ways to get free and useful content on your blog is to open up for guest contributors. These are content creators who are able to create relevant content for you for free.
While this may sound like a quick bridge, it is always difficult to recruit experienced authors to guest post for a new blog. This is because guest bloggers don’t just want to publish for pleasure. There are a couple of things they want:
- Backlinks from your website for their SEO. So if your Domain Authority is weak, you may have it tough to get experts to write for you
- Branding
- Direct Traffic
- Business deals
- Connections
- Etc
Convert your blog traffic to customers
It’s one thing to drive traffic to your blog. Converting this traffic to customers/client is a big point. As mentioned above, you may be:
- Driving traffic straight to the product/service sales pages.
- Use lead capture forms to get your readers on your lists.
In any of these, the objective is to turn these readers to paying customers and clients. Here are some useful tips to get this done:
- Avoid distractions and necessary ads on your blog and website
- Make it simple for readers to know what you offer them
- Create high converting landing pages for your products. I recommend you check out this landing page guide by the folks at Moosend.
- Optimize your checkout page to reduce abandonment. Include Paypal and Credit card payments. Remove unnecessary and time wasting form fields from your order form.
Conclusion
It’s not just enough to have a website for your business. Blogging for your business gives you more room to expand and acquire new customers. I hope these tips have helped with exciting blog post ideas for your business blog.