After a few minutes of pondering what I was going to write about in this blog post, I figured, why not write about what to write about?
Coming up with blog topics is a challenge for everyone—even professional writers like me. If you own a small business, the odds are that it is an industry that interests you and that you know a lot about. The hard part is getting your thoughts down on paper, especially when the goal of blogging for your business is to write in such a way that the topic becomes interesting to potential clients and makes them want to do business with you, even if they don’t share the same passion for your industry that you have.
I’m far from perfect in this area, but here are a few tricks I’ve used when struggling to come up with blog topics for WordJack or for our clients.
1. Don’t stress about it. Don’t overwhelm yourself with the daunting prospect of “I have to write dozens of blogs over the next few months so I can start building up my company’s online content, but I just can’t think of any great ideas, so I’m not even going to try!” Your blogs probably aren’t going to be perfect, but that’s okay—they don’t need to be! Your blog posts don’t have to be in-depth, hard-hitting exposés or captivating investigative pieces of journalistic brilliance. There’s nothing wrong with blog posts that are short, sweet, and simple. Take a deep breath and try not to overwhelm yourself with the daunting, long-term task ahead.
2. Take baby steps. If you have a surge of inspiration today and come up with 20 amazing blog ideas to keep you busy for the next few months, great! If you only come up with one topic for tomorrow’s blog, that’s okay, too. Just take it one at a time. Sooner or later, you’ll get the hang of it, and ideas will start coming faster.
3. Answer questions. How many questions do you answer each day? Probably dozens, if not hundreds. Maybe you just received an email from a customer or co-worker who asked you a question about your industry or your company. Write down the answer, and then post it on your blog. What questions are your prospective customers asking your sales or retail team? Answer each one of them in a blog post. Answers to common (and sometimes even uncommon) questions you receive are often the best blog fodder.
4. Change the angle or scope of your topic. After you’ve written your first blog post, think about other angles you could take on the same or a similar topic. If you’re a master plumber, maybe you wrote your first blog about some tricks your customers can use to fix minor plumbing problems. So what could your next topic be about? How about one focusing just on common problems with toilets? Showers? Faucets? Garbage disposals? Or maybe instead of fixing plumbing problems, you’ll tell your customers about proper maintenance in the next post. Or how to prevent a plumbing emergency. You could also flip it on its head and write a “what NOT to do” article along the lines of “How to Make Sure Your Home Has Lots of Plumbing Problems”. Once you get a few ideas, dozens more will start coming with just a little bit of twisting and tweaking.
5. Always be on the lookout for topics & write them down. Your next greatest blog topic idea might come to you in the middle of the night. It might come when you’re in a meeting with your sales or marketing team. Or it might come when you’re surfing the web on your lunch break. But if you don’t recognize that idea as a blog topic and write it down, it will be gone before it can become a reality. In the back of your mind, always be on the lookout for blog topics and make a note in your phone or on a notepad when one comes to you. If you decide it’s worthless later on, you can always throw it out. But trying to remember an idea you had 3 weeks ago that you didn’t write down, or that you pushed out of your mind because you didn’t originally think of it as a good blog topic, is often impossible. So always be ready for an idea to come, and be prepared to recognize it as such. You never know when one might hit you!
If you have any blog topics in mind that you’d like one of our writers to develop for you, feel free to pass those ideas along to your WordJack Marketing Manager, and we’ll see what we can do. Or if you’re feeling the fire and want to take a crack at writing a blog yourself, go for it! If you’d like, we can help you post it when you’re through.
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WordJack Media provides a wide range of website design and online marketing solutions to clients throughout Canada and the US, including Collingwood ON, Ottawa ON, Barrie ON, Miami FL, Lakeland FL, Orlando FL, Charlotte NC, Hickory NC, Asheville NC and more. Contact WordJack Media today for more information about how we can help your business win on the web!
