How to Never Run Out of Blog Topics to Write About
The first concern most people have when it comes to blogging is: “What do I write about in the emails I send out?”
Don’t worry. After reading this, you will never want for topics to write about again.
In fact, if you follow what I talk about here, you’ll quickly run into the second concern most people have next, namely: “Where will I get the time to write all of these posts?”
Let me knock both of those questions out at the same time–I’ll start with a simple suggestion which will not only help you come up with a wide range of ideas on what to write about, but will also help you understand how blogging will actually give you more free time.
Great Blog Posts that will Free Up Your Time
The first thing I suggest you write about are common questions and concerns your customers usually have. It’s very simple–what are some of the questions you get over and over again? What are some of the things that stop your customers from buying? What doubts do they normally have when working with you?
By answering these questions you have a virtually unlimited source of great blog material. Are customers concerned about your pricing? Do they have questions about quality? When they’re trying to figure out why to choose you over your competitors, what do you tell them? All these things make great blog posts you can use to educate customers and win them over for your business!
Not only that but–and this is key to your busy schedule–as you answer these questions you save yourself all the time it use to take answering these questions over and over again for every customer that asks them. If you send these answers out by email as well as post them on your blog (yes–do both), then customers can read the answers whenever they want. It might take an hour for you (or someone who works with you) to thoroughly write out the answer to a customer question, but then you never have to take the time to answer it again.
Saving time in person
In many instances when someone asks me a question I’ve already written an answer to (this is great for any question that requires more than 30 seconds to answer), it works very well for me to say “I’ve actually written down the answer to that question, and several other questions that you may have such as…” then I list a couple other common questions people in their position have. Then I ask them “Could I have you read over that information on my web site after we’re done talking? You’ll get very thorough answers to your questions and I think it would be very informative for you.” If I’m at a computer, I’ll offer to send them an email with a link to the page answering their questions.
Most the time they agree and I continue on with our conversation without having to explain things or do any telling and selling.
Use your judgement here, of course. If putting off answering a questions is going to cost you the sale then don’t do this.
A long list of ideas
To give you some additional ideas on what you can write blog posts on, here’s a whole list of possibilities. See if some of these get your imagination going:
- Insights from company officers
- Tips and tactics
- Product reviews
- New product introductions
- FAQ’s
- Questions from other customers
- Updates on products, services, and your business
- Surveys and survey follow ups
- Requests for referrals
- Industry news
- Your newest customers and current projects
- Contests
- Discounts
- Coupons
- Special offers
- Articles
- Sales
- Customer testimonials
- Tutorials
- Downloads
- Changes in business that affect customers
- New applications for existing products/services
- Statistics
- Links to relevant sites
- Create a series of emails on a topic and send them out over the space of several days or more
- Tips and advice on how to find quality businesses to purchase from and work with (what to look for, what to avoid…)
I love that last one–there’s a lot of concern out there about buying shoddy merchandise, getting bad service, or getting involved with a bad company. If you teach them how to avoid businesses they don’t want to work with, you can then help your prospects understand how a quality business, such as yours, CAN help them.
Scare them
You can even educate your readers on all the bad habits most other businesses have. Horror stories are great. Any tales of caution you can supply will get read religiously.
You want to make it so that by the time someone gets done reading everything you’ve provided for them, it won’t matter if they look at other alternatives or talk to other sales people–they’ll return to you because you’ve educated them on all their alternatives and they’ve chosen to work with you.
What sets you apart?
Can’t think of anything that sets you apart from other business owners? You’d better come up with something fast. If there aren’t any good reasons for your prospects to choose you above all others, you won’t be in business very long.
There is no end to the things you can write about in emails to people. In addition to the suggestions in the article above, just put yourself in the shoes of the people visiting your blog and imagine what kinds of questions you would have. What kind of questions do people wanting what you offer generally have? When you talk to people or reply to emails, take note of the questions they ask and turn them into emails.