Finding An Engaging Blog Topic

Blogging can be fun, but often the hardest part is knowing where to start or possibly what to start with when writing a post. Finding a topic that is both new and interesting can be hard and stressful. Creativity doesn’t always strike in sync with deadlines. Since content marketing such as blogging is so important to a business, we have come up with some helpful suggestions to get you started.

The most important thing when trying to find a topic is remembering or deciding what the goal of your blog is. Is your blog meant to inform your audience about your products, industry, etc? Is it meant to help or educate your audience on options and alternatives? Is it to persuade your audience to act? Your blog can do all of these things or just a few of these things, but it is up to you. A good blog topic comes from having a good purpose for you blog. By taking a moment to remember why you a writing, you will produce better content for you audience.

Ask questions. The number one way to come up with topics is to think back to the questions you are most frequently asked by customers. Think about the information that could be added to your website to make your job easier. For instance, if you are a gardner frequently asked why hydrangeas can be different colors, write a blog post explaining why. If you have a new patient portal on your website, write a post with images showing them how to use it. You can answer these questions post by post. You can also do FAQ posts where perhaps you do the top ten FAQ about frost resistant plants.

Explain your business. As a business owner, you know more specialized information about your field that your audience. That knowledge that may seem mundane and obvious to you is interesting to others. A post explaining the difference between a cold sore and a canker sore is valuable information for your customers if you are a dentist. You may think it is boring, but they will find it informative and useful.

Try a How To Post. While this may seem overdone, when done right this can be extremely powerful. We live in a world where more and more we want a way to do it yourself. Instead of messing up and making it up along the way, we like to google our life advice from everything about how to buy your first home to how to get over that lousy ex-boyfriend. If you write about a topic that is relevant to your audience, it will be relatable and thus, powerful.

Look at your calendar. There are more holidays and special events out there than you can imagine. Even if you work in a dental office, you can find a fun way to post about christmas time with a fun list of dental stocking stuffers. If you think about it, there is plenty of content sitting out there waiting for you.

Make lists. People love lists, especially checklist or short bullet points. We don’t need lengthy blog posts. We want shot and to the point. If you can list out helpful tips or tricks for you audience they would love it. Imagine if I just gave you here a list of 45 blog ideas. You would love it. The only problem is you wouldn’t be learning how to come up with topics on your own, which is the goal of this post.

Finally, go explore other blogs. It is okay to take inspiration from other people or write a post that has already been written. If you have a unique perspective or information to add, your audience will find it engaging. Get out there and look at other blogs from businesses like yours. Which ones do you like? Which ones do you hate? The ones you like are probably the ones that you should try to emulate on your blog.

Benefits of Blogging

It seems every business these days has a blog on their company website. Even your local dentist is featuring a blog on his website with weekly tips and how to’s. The fact of the matter is that blogging has lots of benefits for businesses and content marketing such as this helps drive traffic and customers to businesses.

To start, content marketing is a form of marketing that focuses on creating and then publishing content online for consumers. The goal of this type of marketing is to engage your online audience in a new and exciting way. Blogging is one of the most effective and easiest ways to do this.

Think about it, if one business provides you blogs and resources that help you learn about all the different types of options related to their product or service, you will be more likely to want to do business with them. You will have helped them, and they in return will be more likely to want to use you and your business. This will also distinguish you among competitors.

Additionally, if you inform, amuse, or entertain with your blog, you will have the same effect. More consumers will want to do business with you. Plus, your brand awareness will not only increase, but so will the credibility and positivity associated with your brand. With each blog post, you are creating new ways for your audience to find you.

By opening up new channels through which consumers can find you, you may be able to both expand and broaden your audience. Your typical target audience or user base may grow, and you will find yourself naturally increasing sales revenue. Not to mention, you are creating deeper relationships with the online audience you have already created.

This development of relationships is the entire point of blogging and of content marketing. As we share information and ideas with our audience, we create and foster relationships. Through these relationships, business can increase brand, sales, relevance, and their target audience. As these relationships grow, your business will have an entire online community surrounding it.

Therefore, if you are thinking about starting a blog on your business website, it probably is a good idea. There are so many different ways it can benefit you, and numerous studies has been done to show how posting blogs directly affects your site visits and audience engagement. Don’t wait till later, get started now!

The Scoop On Content Marketing

Content marketing. We’ve all heard of it, but what exactly is it? You’ve made an educated guess about content marketing, but you’re still not sure about the ins and outs. And you’re too embarrassed to ask anyone. This post is for you!

The dictionary definition of content marketing is:

“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

The goal of content marketing isn’t to create as many ads as possible – it is to add value to the customer with the goal of encouraging customer behavior. Content marketers create the media people actually want to consume. It is not about selling the product, it is about delivering valuable information to the clients in hopes that they will use their newfound intelligence to purchase your product.

Do not think of content marketing as being a separate entity of your current marketing strategy, but rather intertwined with your current tactics. Content marketing should be involved in most all of your marketing strategies. Social media uses content marketing because it is all about making the audience connect with your brand by delivering relevant information. SEO uses content marketing because search engines look for quality content. PR strategies cover the issues customers care about, blogging delivers relevant content, and many other strategies utilize content marketing as well.

So what are some examples of content marketing?

1. Blogging: The most obvious example of content marketing is creating a blog post. Blogging fits all of the descriptions of content marketing. It delivers valuable, relevant, and consistent content to an audience.

2. Infographics: Infographics are exactly what they sound like – info and graphics. They may include statistics, charts, facts, and timelines. Infographics are extremely useful because they can be easily posted on social media and websites.

3. Videos and podcasts: These are often underutilized because it seems intimidating to create a video, but don’t underestimate your ability! Create a high-quality video that never goes out of style so you can reuse it over the years.

4. Ebooks: These speak for themselves. Lots of information in an easy to access format. Give your customers some valuable insight to make them keep coming back to you every time!

Those are just a few examples of content marketing, but the possibilities are endless. There is no cookie cutter example of what is or isn’t content marketing. The main takeaway is to always remember to add value to your customers. Think like your customers and try to imagine what information would be most useful to them. For more tips, contact us today!