Any company or blogger that hasn’t started utilizing their blog in their content marketing strategy is missing out on a massive (and affordable) market. However, when it comes to generating content for your company’s blog, it isn’t always easy to regularly conjure up original and new topics to write about.
Aside from generating new ideas every week, you are constantly trying to keep up with the surplus of competition that comes out every single day across the digital world. Sometimes it feels impossible to get your posts on the first or even second page of a Google search.
If you are looking for ways to generate content and make the most out of your blog, take a look at these five tips.
Solidify Your Niche
There is nothing worse than visiting a blog and having no clue what the content is about. When someone is browsing the web, they are more than likely searching about something very specific.
For instance, my most recent search in Google was “how to replace a fog light on a 2010 Volkswagen Tiguan.” That meant I was looking for quality content that provided in-depth detail from someone who has experience not only working with cars, but specifically with Volkswagen Tiguans.
This is how you build trust with your audience and solidify yourself as an expert in your industry. You provide quality, detailed content that narrows in on a specific niche. In this example, perhaps your focus is “Volkswagen DIY Repairs” or “DIY Repairs for European Vehicles.”
Answer Your FAQs
You might not know it, but you are filled with content already. Think about the questions your clients and customers frequently ask. These are excellent prompts for article topics on your blog.
Remember that your audience is looking for answers to something. They may have a question about how to change their oil, or they might be looking for ways to become happier with their jobs. Think about why people would come to you in the first place. Then address those questions and concerns in your blog posts.
Promote Your Business
What’s happening behind the scenes of your company? A blog is a great place to promote new product releases or news about your business, especially if you have a very specific niche or a hyper-targeted audience.
Thread Check Inc., a leading company in precision gage solutions, has a very specific niche. Their blog is used primarily to share updates on new products and press releases about the company’s major milestones.
This is most pertinent to their needs since it’s a B2B company whose content leans towards more technical writing for a very specific audience.
Connect and Network
Don’t just keep the space within your blog all to yourself. Your company’s blog is a great way to feature various industry leaders, influencers, and other businesses for cross-promotion. It allows you to build relationships with outside sources and gives them a free platform to share pertinent information that provides value to your customers.
Eventually, as your following and website traffic begins to grow, you can even start to monetize this for extra income. People could pay to have a spot on your blog to share their information and grow their audience in return. But don’t think you can simply jump to having people pay to be on your blog. You need to nurture your relationships first.
Keyword and Search Term Research
Here’s where a lot of people go wrong with their blog content. While they may be providing quality content that is filled with valuable information, your content might blend into the background of the millions of other blog posts that are shared every day. What can help is if you start using relevant keywords and search terms that people are actively searching for.
Keywords essentially are certain words or phrases that search engines use in their algorithms to identify what your content is about. Explaining the complexity of keywords would take longer than a simple paragraph in this blog post. We suggest doing your research and learning more about the power of keywords and search terms.
You can do your own analysis and research through Google Keyword Planner or through Google Trends. These websites allow you to research relative search terms and keywords, along with their competition in the search engines.
When starting to build your blog content, the most important thing you can do is plan it out in advance before you start sharing. Having a content strategy is more important than putting random content out there on the web.
Otherwise, you’ll find yourself wasting time, energy, and resources that could have been used elsewhere for your business.
