Blogging, or having a news area on your website, can be a great way to draw new customers to your business as well as creating new regular page links for your site. It could be connected to your website directly, or it could be something separate that just links to your business. Either way, one thing is for sure: it needs to be updated regularly. A great business blog is not there to sell, it is there to show customers why they should do business with you and not take it elsewhere. We know that finding inspiration for blog posts can be tough, so we’ve come up with 10 ideas for you to get you going, draw in new visitors, and strengthen customer relationships.
1) Discuss current news – no one is asking for your political opinion, but people in business tend to discuss current affairs. Therefore, consider how these current affairs are affecting your customers and write about it. Think about running a Google Alert on certain keywords linked to your industry to find relevant news to discuss.
2) Answer the questions people are asking – creating an FAQ post shows your customers that you are responsive and aim to save your customers time.
3) Create a customer success story – it’s great when a customer sends in a testimonial, but have you ever considered turning it into a post? With your customer’s permission, you can add a personal and valid touch to your blog by talking about the testimonial, and hopefully soliciting more customer stories.
4) Talk about the future – one way to strengthen your customer relationships is to give your readers a sneak-peek into what your business has planned for the coming year to start generating interest. Perhaps you are planning a Charity Ball, or are considering expanding to a new site. If so, let your readers know!
5) Create video content – we’ve discussed this so many times, but that is because we think it’s important! Create variety with a video post by either showcasing a new product or promoting an upcoming event.
6) Make an infographic – there’s plenty of free templates out there for you to create your own fact-filled, graphic posts to share on your social media, which will hopefully be shared by your customers too.
7) Introduce your team – if you own a relatively small company, consider going behind the scenes and introducing staff profiles. This gives a human face to your company by being able to put a face to the name – you could also make a big deal about introducing new or seasoned employees.
8) Create a regular feature – this could be anything from ‘How To: Tuesdays’ to a ‘customer of the week’ feature. Regular content is the best kind of content.
9) Run a contest – we spoke about how to create a fantastic online competition in our last two posts. It could be something as simple as offering a prize for the most interesting customer suggestion.
10) Talk about the beginnings – sharing the story of your company’s origins is always something people like to read about, particularly when is discusses personal dream’s and challenges. Write about why and how you started your business to generate a human feel and a whole lot of interest.
Ultimately, the key to a successful blog is variety and consistency – mix it up with different types of posts and make sure you are posting regularly!