Does your business have a blog that you are regularly writing, updating, and promoting? Blogging is one of the most effective content marketing channels to really show people that you are the expert in what you do. When people believe that you are the expert, they’re more likely to buy from you. And that’s what you want. You want people to buy from you.
Blogging for business helps you develop trust. But the most common question I get from entrepreneurs is how to come up with great content and topics that people really want to read that also emphasize your key messages and your business.
Developing blog topics for my clients used to be a struggle for me, but I’ve found the right tools to do it and you can use them too! I shared these tools in an online blog training and one of the participants said she now has “no excuses” for not knowing what to write about!
I’ll be honest, I’m not always in a creative mood. But we don’t have to be creative on cue to write a blog. Today, I’m going to share five ways that you can use some of my favourite free online tools to brainstorm blog topics:
1. Keyword Research
The first one is to use your SEO keywords for inspiration. Even if you don’t have a professionally prepared SEO keyword list for your business, you can do some basic research on your own.
I want you (after reading this to the end of course), to go to Google. Start typing in a phrase that’s related to your business. For example, if you are a life coach, you could start typing “how to work with a life coach,” and then see what the Google auto-suggest suggests to complete your sentence.
Did you know these auto-suggest phrases are based on what people are actually searching for on Google? So by writing content that’s using the same phrase that people are searching for in Google, can help you write content that people are actually searching for…word for word!
2. The 5Ws
The next one is to think about titles/topics that answer the question or that start with what, how, why, or best?
Think of the last time you typed something into Google to find the answer. We’re typing in things like:
- “what vehicle should I buy?”
- “how can I install my child’s car seat safely?”
- “why should I be doing ______ in my life?”
- “the best ways to ________?”
If people are looking for answers like this, why not write about it! Just make sure to SEO that post for those keywords (more on SEO for blogs coming in a later post from me).
3. Frequently Asked Questions
Some of us who have been in business for a while can almost predict when we’re going to be asked a particular question. And it takes time for us to answer these questions, over and over again! Not a very efficient use of our time right?
So why not turn a frequently asked question into a blog post? For example, I always get asked how to get started recycling and repurposing your content…so I wrote a blog post about it! Now I don’t have to answer the question every time! I can give a brief overview, and direct them to read my blog post.
4. Friendly Stalking
For most of us, we’re not the only one in the world that does what we do. We may be the only one doing our specific niche, but there are many coaches, many writers, many travel agents, many essential oil reps.
Make sure you’re checking out your competitors and colleagues to see what they are writing about on their blogs and social media. I’m not suggesting plagiarism though! What I am suggesting is that you use it for inspiration and write your own perspective on some of those topics.
5. Start with Themes
Develop sets of blog topics around themes. For example, if you were an HR professional or firm, you may want to write a series of posts to help people write an awesome resume. “Resume writing” is your theme.
Next, break that theme into different sections of a resume that you could write about: educational background, work experience, interests, and skills. Each of these subtopics can be their own blog post. Then write a final article (called a cornerstone article) that summarizes all the subtopics in a paragraph or two, then links to the full blog post on that topic.
Coming up with content for your blog does not have to be difficult. If you want to learn more about developing topics for your blog, there is a large module focusing on blog topic brainstorming in the Blog Blueprint Bootcamp online course.
I’d be happy to send you a 75% off coupon code for the course if you email me at [email protected] and let me know you read this blog article!
I look forward to reading your next blog post!
