Source: Travelpayouts
A company blog helps to increase the number of leads by 67%. It’s a platform for you to present the brand’s value in a well-thought-out and targeted manner and be helpful to your readers. Creating inspiring and practical content, and above all answers their questions, allows you to attract new customers, engage them, and make loyal.
To achieve these, we’ll explore easy yet effective content ideas for your small business blog.
Practical ideas for your small business blog
For a small business with a limited staff, one of the biggest challenges in developing blogs is regularly delivering content that will constantly fuel audience interest. The Internet is flooded with a huge amount of content every second, so conducting unique blog activities should be carefully planned and consistent with your company’s overall image and communication strategy.
It is not enough to sit in front of the computer with a cup of coffee, get carried away, and pour life wisdom onto the screen. The first step is to get to know your audience and the potential customers you want to reach – their needs, the problems they are struggling with, the content they are looking for.
Also, it’s essential to treat content making for your blog as a systematic process. You need to have responsible people, a posting calendar, a backlog with ideas, project management tools to track the process, etc. For example, you can use Trello and set up Trello to Google Sheets integration to keep all the data around your blog updated to understand how your blog performs.
Content ideas you should try
The following five tips will help set the start for your content strategy for the near future.
Provide exclusive content
It is often mistakenly thought that the only thing you can share in the newsletter in addition to promotions is the regular content of your blog. However, the feeling of belonging to a closed club of subscribers or a locked group of Patreon sponsors, inaccessible to ordinary mortals, increases the loyalty of existing consumers and generates interest among potential followers. Start working more closely with your audience by building a circle of devoted community members.
The exclusive type of content is the one that will only appear in the private dispatch. That is, if people are not subscribed, they will not receive it. If you have an online store, you can offer a special discount on the first purchase, a promotional code, a special offer, a welcome pack, etc.
Elsewise, you can get in touch with other businesses that do something complementary to what you do and create affiliate synergies that your subscribers will also benefit from.
Share stories
When filling a blog page, one should not stop at presenting the dry practical facts only. A personal emotive story is much easier to remember. You can use storytelling by writing about how you’ve got an idea for the business. Insights on the beginnings and challenges of the still inexperienced newby evoke a response from the public.
The company exists of people, so you should dedicate enough space to them. Customers won’t perceive your company as a dehumanized organization but a family full of energy and team chemistry.
It is important here to present the profiles of the founders and give examples of real stories from the company’s daily routine. Next, warm customer reviews will help readers choose your favor. The overall website picture will become much more engaging.
Release practical tutorials
Regardless of what your company does, from selling kitchen knives to organizing parties, show that you are an expert in what you do. People are all looking for answers and practical solutions, especially on the Internet. Just give them a video master class on how to sharpen dull kitchen utensils or a photo guide on what flowers are best to choose for a bridesmaid’s dress.
The knowledge, experience, and skills of team members are a powerful asset for the business and deserve world coverage. The educational utility of your blog can be the main hook of the platform.
Interactions with customers and feedback collected over time is a basis for writing FAQs.
Source: Skullcandy
The cyclical entries from the “how-to” series will be perfect here. It will be a win-win situation: readers will get what they are looking for, you will build trust and the image of an expert, and the company website will gain a better and better position in search engines.
Start a podcast series
We all perceive visual information more quickly and faster. The same relates to audio information. Video and audio podcasts generate the greatest engagement at the moment. Moreover, with a bit of effort, they can generate direct earnings.
Thus, you can play one topic in many channels, which will help you reach a wider audience. Later on, you can summarize the podcast into an article. Nobody forbids uploading the entire transcript.
It is impossible to act as an expert for a long time by sliding on the subject. Reliable research, proven sources, and referring to expert figures are essential. Add a variety of thoughts to your voice by interviewing famous people in your industry and becoming a program host. There are never too many recommendations, and the competition does not have to be the enemy. You never know when they will pay you back.
Talk about mistakes in your niche
Finishing with sincerity in communicating with clients, you need to understand that real life does not consist of only victories. Discuss the most common mishaps and mistakes in your industry. Fight the myths and break stereotypes – there have certainly been a lot of them over the years.
Allow your audience to learn from other people’s mistakes while avoiding the danger of making their own. In addition, reading about failures is much more interesting than flipping through a sore set of success stories.
Wrap up
As the title suggests, this article is only a signpost that can point you on the right path for your small business blog. You can use many other ideas to boost your blog performance, but 5 mentioned above will work for most niches.
As a final word, remember that both the subject matter and style should fit into your company’s communication brand strategy.
Interesting Related Article: “Content Marketing Trends of 2021“