I hear from a lot of small business owners who say they know they need to be blogging, but they don’t for one reason or another. Time is a big factor, but a close second is that a lot of people don’t know what to write about. So, I’m going to kill that excuse right now by giving you 9 blog post ideas you can use in any industry.
Table of Contents
- Blog Posts That Answer FAQs
- Blog Posts That Celebrate a Holiday
- Blog Posts That Teach Something
- Blog Posts from Audio and Video
- Blog Posts That Provide Updates on Your Company and Your Industry
- What Blog Posts Have You Already Published?
- Blog Posts Inspired By the Competition
- Do a “Best Of” List
- Use a Blog Post Idea Generator
1) Blog Posts That Answer FAQs
Just like I decided to write this blog post because because it’s something that comes up a lot when I talk to business owners, you should also consider some of the questions or problems that tend to come up when you talk to clients or potential clients. What do they have questions about that you could answer? What information are they consistently looking for that you could give them?
If the questions have short answers, you can write an entire blog post devoted to several FAQs (like I did in this blog post). If they take longer to answer, you might want to devote an entire blog post to it, or even a series of blog posts. For every answer you provide, think about how you could expand on it to create more content that will drive traffic to your site and answer those burning questions your target audience has.
If you feel like you’ve already answered all the questions you hear at networking events and in meetings, try checking out some online forums in your industry to see what questions people are asking there. You’re bound to see some oldies you’ve already heard, but it’ also likely that you’ll find some new questions you haven’t yet heard or answered.
2) Blog Posts That Celebrate a Holiday
We just celebrated 4th of July, and you might be surprised how many businesses tied their products or services in with the holiday. Everyone from Hallmark to marketing consultants and social media managers found ways to promote their businesses using Independence Day, so even if you think a holiday doesn’t have anything to do with what you provide, you might want to think again.
Get creative with your holidays by going beyond the big ones. There are now national holidays to celebrate everything from Star Wars to potato chips. If you happen to know your target audience loves Star Wars, find a way to work Yoda (or Grogu) into your May blog post. It will delight your audience and make your content more memorable.
3) Blog Posts That Teach Something
There’s a reason you see so many headlines that start with “How to” or “3 Ways to”. It’s because most of the searches that get entered into online search engines are people asking how they can do something for themselves. Whether they just need a few quick tips, or a full-length tutorial, they’re looking for information that will help them do it on their own.
Most of your blog posts should provide value to your audience anyway. Save the sales pitch for the sales pages. The purpose of a blog post is to gain the reader’s trust and convince them you really know what you’re talking about, and few things are as effective at doing that as telling them your process for doing something – whether it’s changing a tire or teaching a dog how to heel.
The downside to writing how-to blog posts is that most people entering these search terms are in the very early stages of the buyer journey, which means they’re not yet ready to buy. On the other hand, if you’re successful in grabbing and holding their attention in the early stages, they’ll be more likely to choose your company when they are ready to buy. The trick is to choose the right call to action to put at the end of your blog post. Rather than leading them straight to a sales page, encourage them to sign up for your newsletter and/or follow you on social media so you can continue putting your valuable content in front of them until they are ready to buy.
4) Blog Posts From Audio and Video
Some people can talk about their business all day long, but as soon as you put them in front of a computer and a keyboard, they can’t think of anything to say. So, if you’re more comfortable talking about your business than writing about it, make videos or host a podcast where you talk about whatever’s going on in your industry these days (just about any blog post idea can be converted into a video idea or podcast episode idea and vice versa).
Once you’re done making your video or podcast episode, you can transcribe it and put it up as a blog post on your website. Remember that Google can’t read audio or visual files (yet) so it can’t index your video to get it to show up in searches, but by transcribing the audio from your videos and/or podcast, you can improve your online visibility while making your content more accessible to those with hearing disabilities.
5) Blog Posts That Provide Updates on Your Company/Industry
Since I work in SEO, I constantly have new material for my blog because Google is always updating their algorithm and throwing the world of SEO strategy into chaos.
So what’s new in your industry? Any new technology that could make your readers’ lives easier? Has there been a scandal involving a major player in your industry? What new things are going on in your industry that would interest your target audience?
The same goes for any new techniques your readers might want to know about, either a new strategy that just popped up in your industry, or one that’s been around for a while that you just tried for yourself. Talk about your experiment: Did it turn out the way you expected? Would you recommend your readers try this new tactic on their own, or do you think they’d be better off trying something else? Why?
In addition to providing updates on your industry, your audience also wants to know what’s new with your company. Did you recently celebrate an anniversary? Have the most lucrative month/year yet? Don’t be afraid to brag about yourself, especially if you can find a way to include your followers in the celebration by offering a discount or some other special promotion.
6) What Blog Posts Have You Already Published?
Maybe you’ve been blogging for a while and you just got a case of writer’s block. It happens to the best of us, but Google doesn’t care that you’ve run out of inspiration. Google (and your readers) want to see fresh content getting published on your website on a regular basis. If they don’t, they’ll start to wonder if there’s anyone still running the site and if the content on there is still relevant.
One way to get around this is by updating and republishing old blog posts. Both Google and your audience will see the publication date and neither will notice that you had originally published it at an earlier date.
7) Blog Posts Inspired By the Competition
If you’re new to blogging and don’t yet have any posts, see what your competition is blogging about. You should never copy anyone’s content (not only is it rude, but Google doesn’t like it and it could end up hurting your search engine rankings), but you can give your own take on something they said. Or maybe one of their headlines will remind you of something else you recently learned about the industry and wanted to share with your audience.
Even better, maybe your competition will have a take that you completely disagree with, in which case you can write your own blog post explaining why they’re wrong. Just don’t be a jerk about it. Respect your competitor’s position, but have reasons to back up why your position is different.
8) Do a “Best of” List
Google loves lists because they make it easy for the algorithm to index the content so it can show up in relevant searches. Readers love lists because they make it easy for them to get in, quickly get the information they need, and get on with their day.
So put together a list of the best influencers to follow in your industry or adjacent industries (presumably, you’re on the list). Or a list of the best pieces of technology or software your readers should be using to make their lives better. For example, bloggers in the field of SEO regularly publish lists of the best keyword tools or the best editing software to use to make sure your writing is clear and free of errors.
What do people search for in your industry that you could help them find the best of the best? What areas of your industry provide so many options it can get overwhelming unless you point your audience in the direction of the ones that will help them the most?
9) Use a Blog Post Idea Generator
If all else fails, ask the internet for help coming up with blog post ideas. Ahrefs has a great topic generator, as does Hubspot. Just put in a keyword or something that describes your industry and see what comes up. Answer The Public is another online tool where you can put in a keyword or search term and it will generate all kinds of questions for you around that keyword – all you have to do is pick a question and answer it in a blog post.
If you found these tips useful and would like more of them sent directly to your inbox, you can sign up for our newsletter below to make sure you never miss an update. You can also see what we’re up to by following us on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
If you want to write your own blog posts, but need help coming up with blog post topic ideas, one of our content strategy services is a list of 8 blog post topics specific to your company and based on market analysis, along with a list of keywords.
If you’d rather have us take care of all your blog writing needs from start to finish, we can do that, too.
