If you’re reading this, you’re probably aware of how big the world of business blogging has become over the last couple of years. This post isn’t about the benefits reaped by a business that runs a good blog (although I will note that down for a later post); rather, this post aims to help those businesses already on the bandwagon who might be experiencing a touch of bloggers-fatigue when it comes to thinking up interesting subject matter for their posts.
Step One: Understand what ‘Good Content’ is.
The golden rule of blogging is to create content that people will actually want to read. That means that all posts need to be at least one of the following: interesting, funny or useful. When coming up with ideas, make sure that they all have the potential to deliver within one or more of these categories.
Step Two: Think Ahead
Your mind isn’t always at a steady level of creativity and, therefore, won’t supply premium post ideas for your blog on demand. However, there will be times when inspiration hits and you’ll find yourself churning out great concepts. Make sure you write them all down! I’m very aware of the limitations of my memory, so I take care to always carry a pad and pencil around with me in case one of those moments should hit while I’m away from my desk (which, to be honest, is when they usually occur!).
When you’re grabbing these ideas out the ether, don’t worry too much about what the post will eventually look like, just don’t let the potential get away.
Step Three: Ask your clients
Clients, potential or existing, are probably the main audience you’re trying to reach with your blog, so make the effort to ask them what they’d like to read about. It pays to get a bit creative in the asking; rather than just sticking a line in your latest post about welcoming ideas, go out and get them! Try contacting individual customers that you know are engaged with your brand and find out what excites or frustrates them about their dealings with you.
Step Four: Stay in the loop
Set up a Google Alert for a few keywords closely related to your business. Not only will you then receive any mainstream news related to your industry, you’ll also stay up to date with bloggers writing within the same area as you. Other blogs can be a great place to find inspiration for your posts, but be careful not to pinch ideas.
Step Five: Keep Your Eye In
One of the best ways to come up with fresh ideas is to start writing. Obviously, if you don’t have any ideas to begin with, this is a bit of a non-starter! To get round this, try and come up with some sort of regular post, either daily or weekly, that you can reliably write without too much hassle. Here are a few ideas for a series of posts: a weekly summary of industry news, a tip or trick, a summary of your favourite online reading that week, a fuller explanation of your FAQs one by one, a feature on a customer or employee, an analogy that compares your industry to something in popular culture.
As with most things, the more you practice coming up with fresh ideas, the more accomplished you’ll become. Why not start today by writing a post inspired by this one: for example, How I Come Up With Ideas for my Business Blog.
The spread of search-engine-optimised copy on the web has led to many acts of atrocity against the written word. If the owner of a website is told, “these are your keywords and they need to appear x number of times on this page”, chances are the copy will suffer.
