Coming up with fabulous blog posts full of engaging content is not easy. So in a world where us marketers want to do our best but don’t have the luxury of time on our side, any tips are welcomed with open arms.
Why Bother With Blog Posts?
First of all, it’s worth answering the question, why bother with blog posts? I mean, does anyone read them? The answer is yes (if they are good!)
Bothering with blogging is terribly important for several reasons. First of all, they are an excellent way of demonstrating you and your company’s expertise and secondly, awesome blog posts are often great sources of traffic to your site.
In addition to this, if you are really clever and work your SEO and blogging muscles to the max, you can boost your traffic AND rankings for long tail keywords already driving traffic to your site. Genius.
OK, now we have established the importance of blogging, let’s move on to the delicate business of coming up with an amazing blog in an amazingly short space of time.
Answer Customer Questions
Let’s dive straight in. This may or may not be glaringly obvious, but if you really want to write a useful blog post that will add value to your business then start with your customers. Your customers will most certainly always be asking you questions as they see you as an authority in your area of expertise and value your advice and opinions.
It therefore only makes sense to use these customer questions for blog content ideas. If even some of them are asking questions, you can be assured so are other customers / potential customers. For example, for fashion eCommerce websites, your customers may want to know how to ‘dress for work in style’ or be interested in which are the ‘best dresses to wear on a first date’. They may also have questions about how to wear a particular style and the best way to accessorise with it. These questions and curiosities are your opportunity to interact with the customer and give them what they want.
Not sure about what your customers or prospects are asking? Delve into your social media accounts and see what people are talking or enquiring about. Also ask your account managers or sales staff for the types of common questions they get asked every week. I’m sure they will have quite a few to pass over to you!
By blogging about the answers to questions people ask, you will be answering questions for those who don’t ask directly but may be tapping these questions into Google. And what better way to get leads than to produce a blog post which has the power to lead potential customers straight to you via the wonders of the internet!
Now, if I still haven’t convinced you about the power of blogging then you may like to cast your mind back to the case of River Pools in the US. The CEO Marcus Sheridan opted for a crafty blogging strategy in order to save his business from the recession. What did he do? He decided to answer EVERY possible question a customer could have about buying a fibreglass pool. The result? His company became No.1 in the Google search results.
According to Sheridan himself, “you have to stop thinking like a business owner sometimes and start thinking like a consumer and answer the questions you would have—that’s how we, as a little pool company out of Virginia, outran the major manufacturers,”
Pretty impressive eh? Luckily, for anyone running their own business this approach is certainly not rocket science.
Use Quora to Find More Questions
Another fantastic way to come up with blog post ideas is to use. Yes Quora. Glaringly obvious now, right? What better place to find awesome blog topics than an awesome Q and A site? For example, by typing in ‘Fashion Trends 2014’ into Quora it brings up a huge list of questions about Fashion and trends that would make top notch blog material. These are real questions asked by real people looking for real answers. So why not be an angel and help them out? Of course, make sure you are searching around topics relevant to your own customers.
Use Google Keyword Planner
By popping content ideas into Google Keyword Planner, you can find ideas for possible blog posts. What’s more, you can view just how large the search volume is for that particular word and therefore whether the topic is a popular one or not.
Use Ubersuggest
If you are still looking for blog post inspiration then look no further than another free tool called Ubersuggest. It’s a rather fun little number. By typing in a word or phrase it will give you back the top related 10 searches. You can add the keywords you are interested in to a list and export them to peruse at your leisure.
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Conclusion
Hopefully, now you have read my blog post, you will be thoroughly inspired to use some of the methods above to get some awesome blog post ideas fast. I mean, who wants to be stuck in the office at the end of the day still stressing about what to write for your latest blog post when everyone else has left for drinkies? No, me neither. And if you don’t yet have a blog for your website then please, please do seriously consider it. Whether you work in fashion, retail or travel or indeed any online business, a blog is an excellent opportunity to impress your customers and potential customers with your expertise as well as drive traffic to your site.
So what are you waiting for? Source those ideas and get writing. Not only is it an important part of an integrated Digital Marketing Strategy it’s actually a hell of a lot of fun!
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