It’s the bane of any business blogger’s existence: writer’s block. What do I write about today? What’s relevant to my audience? What else is there to write about?
Hopefully, your writer’s block is more than thwarting a whim; it’s an interruption to your content marketing plan, because a strategic content marketing plan is more effective than writing about everything and anything that comes to mind. We’ll give you a prime example: when we took over content marketing efforts, we inherited a company’s business blog. After a quick scroll through the business’ blog, we found that we had to completely start from scratch because the posts were about musings from going on a walk with the writer’s dog and other non-relevant content. Very few of the posts were about the company’s business or their audience’s interests—and who’s going to be driven to a website about if they don’t have any relevant and valuable content that can help them?
A strategic marketing plan also has another benefit; creating a content marketing plan leads to consistent content, the second ingredient in a successful marketing campaign. Unfortunately, creating consistent content also leads to writer’s block, leaving you searching for writing ideas. So how do you come up with new ideas for content?
Talk to your salesperson & business owner
A business blog is not—should not—be a one-person job. That’s not to mean that one person can’t do all the writing to produce content for the blog, but a GOOD business blog requires a village. Talk to your business owner or a salesperson for ideas. You don’t have to take up hours of their time, just have a simple conversation with them. At KD Interactive, we always get the input of a contact from the business, though many of them don’t think they have “blog ideas.” Once we start asking questions, we find they know more than they think. Ask your salesperson, “what are your customers asking about?” “What are the latest industry trends that appeal to your customers?” “What are common problems that your customers encounter?”
Research your industry
What are latest trends and new products? Are there any new solutions that you can make your customers aware of? Remember, one of your top business blog goals is to give value to your audience. Write a blog post that delivers with new solutions or products that resolve their problems, or new trends that they can utilize in their life.
Look at the calendar
What kind of services are your customers looking for this time of year? Are there any national holidays you get inspiration from? How is the calendar affecting your audience’s lives? Make sure you stay ahead of the game (another reason to create a content calendar) so you’re not late to the party. You don’t want your blog post to look like an afterthought.
Create a list
Most likely, you found this post because you’re looking for ideas—you’re not the only one. Give your audience what you want; a list filled with ideas, tips, or topics relevant to them.
Still don’t have any ideas? Or don’t have time to come up with ideas and create consistent, relevant content? If you find that you don’t have the content marketing expertise, time to keep posting content on your blog or that you’re losing steam in your content marketing efforts, outsource your blog to a company experienced in content marketing. Even though you are putting your blog content in an expert’s hands, don’t walk away. Your input is a valuable part of successful content marketing, so use these do’s and don’ts for working with a marketing company. (And be wary of marketing companies that don’t ask for your input).
Remember, content marketing is not an “overnight success” marketing tactic. A quality business blog is a marathon effort, built on relevant and regular content for your audience. If you stay in the marathon (even amidst the writer’s block), you and your customers can reap the rewards of a good, relevant business blog.
