No matter what kind of business you run, your website needs a blog. In addition to your home page, product pages, and other information, you should also have a place where you can post new content regularly and interact with your visitors.
I recently had a client tell me that they didn’t see a reason for having a blog. When you have a regularly updated blog on your site, you offer fresh content, giving your audience a reason to check back regularly. Believe it or not, your clients do want to hear from you. Having a website online doesn’t just stop with your home page. Freshly posted content is king in the google world! Not only will it keep people on your site longer, they will also visit more often and Google sure does love it when a site it updated.
Perhaps you are like me, and just don’t post regularly. While I try hard, I know that posting takes time. Precious time you may feel like you don’t have. I’ve fallen into this trap over and over myself. However, if you approach it strategically, you can make blogging much easier.
What to Write About on Your Blog
The goal of your blog content should be to offer help and solutions for the problems and issues your audience faces. If you can offer tips to help them solve their problems, you’ll build a strong relationship with them. Your site will become the go-to source of information in your niche and this will result in sales. Think about this post. While I’m blogging about telling you to blog, not only am I giving you the information you may not have known but I’m going to help create more authority and fresh content.
Start by creating a customer profile. Include demographic information so you can get to know your readers. Focus on problems they face and questions they have. Write your content with this ideal individual in mind.
Where to Get Ideas for Your Blog
Writing is just one part of the process. In order to blog regularly, you need a steady stream of good ideas for your content. I know, I know…. I struggle with this one myself. If you met someone in a room and had to tell them about your business for 5 minutes, what would you say? What would you tell them? That’s what you write about. And then next time, find out something your clients always ask you – solve their problem, in a blog post!
Create an idea file that you can add to as you brainstorm and refer back to when you’re ready to start writing. Start by considering things like:
- Questions people regularly ask you
- Ways you’ve helped people before
- The basics of your niche and industry
- Things you can talk endlessly on
Since you have a customer profile in hand, brainstorm the type of information this person would be looking for.
Locate Idea Sources
Since you’ll need to gather more ideas as you go along, locate a few good places to search for ideas to add to your list. Question and answer sites like Quora are great for finding ideas. Other places to look for ideas include social media, online forums, blog comments, and competitors’ blogs. Go to these places to see what people are talking about and asking about. Look for topics you can address.
Once you find some good places, bookmark them so you can refer to them when you’re looking for ideas.
Tips on Writing Great Blog Posts
- Write in a conversational tone like you’re talking to a friend and avoid industry jargon.
- You don’t have to be a great writer, but make sure there aren’t any typos, misspellings, or grammar mistakes.
- Use at least one image for each blog post. Images give people something to look at and make it more visually appealing.
- Avoid huge blocks of text. Break up your posts with subheaders and space between paragraphs so they’re skimmable.
Once you get into a routine of writing and posting to your blog regularly, you’ll quickly see results in your traffic and website conversions.
Do you want to learn more about designing your web content? Schedule a call with me today and we can chat about getting your blog posts up and running!