I hear it so often, the reason many of my small business friends don’t blog, content ideas. They literally have no idea what to write about. Which to me sounds INSANE! I am able to list off loads of topics for all my friends and they look at me dumbfounded. What is their problem? I think the main issue is overthinking. That overthinking of what essentially is an easy task “write something about my business” into a complex equation in their heads. X + Y = Twenty billion. My advice (are you ready it’s mighty profound) the best way to overcome this overthinking is to write. Yup, that’s it just get on with some writing!
9 Content Ideas To Get You Blogging:
- Pain-points: Think about your customer/clients potential pain-points and how your small business can rectify/alleviate them.
- Topical: What is happening currently in your industry or nationwide/worldwide that everyone is talking about and you have an opinion on or your business offers services for.
- Seasonal: I have several Christmas blog posts which I update every year to make sure they are still relevant, no broken links, up to date offers etc… Seasonal content is a great way to develop evergreen content (content that is always relevant, if you use the Yoast plugin it’s called cornerstone content so make sure you tick the box) as seasons happen every year and any tips and/or activities will always be useful.
- Skills: Write about what you can do, it’s not always obvious to potential customers what you can do for them. Sometimes you have to spell it out. In industries such as virtual assistants (VA’s), you may know you need a VA but you may have no idea what jobs you can delegate to a VA. Not all VA’s will offer the same skills. Use your blog content as a FAQ section where you can show off your skills and services.
- Interview Someone in Your Niche: Working with other people whether that be interviews or guest posts, opens you up to a whole new audience. You also get to work with someone new, develop relationships and grow your network. It’s a win-win.
- Case Studies: Use your current client workload to develop a case study, that shows off your skills and is great PR for your client too.
- Guest Posts: Ask others to write content for you and do the same for them. This not only populates your own blog, like interviews it opens you up to a new audience but guest posts also increase your “expert” standing within your genre.
- Share Your Successes: Turn your latest success into a blog post, if you have written a press release use this as a blog too. Award wins, publications in magazines, a significant sales target. People buy from people, don’t forget to use your blog to add personality and real-life to your small business.
- Create Listicles: A listicle (it’s a real word I swear!) is an article in the form of a list that are incredibly popular due to the bitesize nature of the information shared. Hey, this blog post is a perfect listicle example.
Bonus Blogging Tips :
- Ensure your posts are over 500 words.
- Spend time adding meta tags, meta descriptions, and alt tags to help with SEO.
- Use headers and bullet points to break up the text, make it easy to read and using keywords in headers is also good for SEO.
- Reshare content. You don’t have to keep writing something new, reshare and remind your audience or repurpose content on LinkedIn.
Hopefully, this post has left you feeling inspired to get on a write a blog post! If not and you are still unsure of how to go about planning your blog content or even what to write about? Then check out my Blogging Content Planner to get you started.
There are some great tips for blogger-block in here. Seasonal content is definitely saving me right now.
C x
Charli recently posted..How to wear denim this Autumn/Winter
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Thank you, seasonal content is a lifesaver.
Now I am back at work I have to admit I am starting to struggle with content ideas – I have loads in my head but for confidentiality reasons I cannot actually write about them
It’s like you’re in my head, nagging me! Great tips, just need to put them into action!
Trisha Reece recently posted..Reasons to Hire a VA
Thanks for these fab tips!
I really need to get back into ‘blogging’ again. Life is just so busy right now but I still have the urge to do it! I can definitely take some tips away from this and need to work on my evergreen content for sure.
Thankfully I am never short of content for my blog but I keep a list of potential blog posts I could write about if needed.
Hi Joanne, love your blog – fun and informative! You’re so right that lots of small businesses seem afraid to start blogging! I think a lot of small business owners have the fear that people will be super critical of their writing when normally feedback on blogs is really positive.
Alison Wright recently posted..Blogging Best Practices To Prosper In 2020
Some really good tips and I love a good brain dump of ideas for blog posts, I usually write them in notebook or I use notes on my phone!
I used to like doing topical blog posts, I may start these again. Some great ideas here Joanne. We all need some inspiration sometimes
Mellissa Williams recently posted..Willerby Skye Holiday Home Review At Holiday Resort Unity Brean Sands
I am really struggling with content ideas at the moment, so thank you for this post
Anne Davies recently posted..Journey To The Web – Starting The Journey Of Your Web Presence
I love listicles! Once you have a few points to write about, an intro and conclusion, then you’ve got a 500 word blog post in no time! Great article making it easier for people to come up with blog ideas 🙂
Really loved your post gave me a lot of post ideas for my blog
All fantastic points which are super-easy to implement, and I am glad to now have the word Listicle in my vocabulary!
Some really awesome tips here. Thanks so much for sharing.