Blogs are a great way to get your key messages out there for potential customers to find. Posts are highly searchable and easy to share, making it a great channel for owned content. But, none of this matters if you experience writer’s block and can’t come up with anything to write!
Whether you have been blogging for a while or just starting out, coming up with ideas for blog posts can be a struggle. How do you come up with topics to write about? Here are five ways to help you jumpstart your creative process and create content that your target reader will want to read.
1. Tips to Do Something Better / Easier / Faster
Blog posts that can help the reader do something better, easier or faster than they currently do will always be popular. Think of a skill that you have that your target reader does not. You were once in their shoes — what did you learn on your journey from then to now that you can share? What advice can you give them for things to watch out for? What are common mistakes you see others making?
2. Your Step-by-Step Process to Accomplish a Task or Goal
Have you developed a process that helps you accomplish something better, easier or faster? If you are a service-based business, is there a particular method you follow with your clients? Explaining your strategy for completing a task or overcoming a challenge provides good advice to your target reader while simultaneously explaining what differentiates you from your competitors.
You can either write out your process sequentially to outline the steps your reader needs to take in order. Or, you can develop an acronym with each letter representing a step in the process. You might even want to create something visual, such as a map for your reader to follow.
3. Interview with an Expert
Interviews are fun to read. Consider transcribing the conversation into a Q&A format for a quick, informative read. (Be sure to edit it for grammar and clarity as needed.) Think of a handful of questions your target reader may be asking him or herself. Pose these to your expert and simply share the advice. Be sure to also explain what makes the person an expert, too.
You might be wondering why you would give a post to someone else when you want to be known as the expert of your topic. Well, you can’t know everything. Your readers will appreciate if you include another person’s opinion every once in a while, particularly on related topics that you aren’t as familiar with. For example, if you have a blog about helping kids learn how to be stronger readers, you could interview an education publisher about trends in children’s book publishing. Or, if you run a bakery out of your home and you blog about the experience, perhaps you can interview your supplier about what people should know when storing and using their spices.
4. Product Review or Recommendation (Book, App, Gadget, Software, etc.)
Are there books, apps, classes or anything else that you have or currently use that others interested in the topic of your blog should know about? Share them with your readers with a balanced review. Explain what it is and why it’d be valuable to them, as well as any shortcomings. The goal with this type of post is to give a recommendation on something you have personally used and benefited from.
5. Create a List
We all love lists, and it’s one of the easier type of blog posts to brainstorm. This could be a list of your most popular posts from the year, or your most commented on ones. Maybe it’s a list of things you wish you had known earlier about a topic. Or a list of quotes. It could also be a list version of any of the blog post topics above. The sky is the limit in how you can create and use a list in your blog posts. Be creative and see how other bloggers you read incorporate it into their own posts.
What are your standbys when you get stuck thinking of new blog posts? Leave a comment below to share.
If you are interested in learning tips for how to jumpstart storytelling into your business communications, download my free cheat sheet with five easy ways to start doing it now. Your blog is an excellent channel for your storytelling — make the most out of it!
Photo courtesy of Marten Bjork, Upslash
