If you’re anything like most small business owners, your website has a blog.
Whether there’s anything written on it, though, is another matter.
Someone, at some point, probably told you that you needed a blog. Every website design comes with a blog option. So you went ahead, created a blog tab on your business page website, and then…
Nothing. You left it blank. (Or you wrote an awkward “Welcome to our blog!” post, which I kinda think is worse.) You have no idea what to write.
Why? Because you haven’t decided what that blog is supposed to do.
Before you can start coming up with great ideas for posts (and worrying about things like images, headers, and SEO) you need to know what you’re trying to achieve.
Here’s what you need to remember: a business blog is not about you. It’s not even about your business. It’s about customers. A blog should create a relationship between you and your customers that leads them to trust your expertise. You become a valued resource to them Tha Pyay Nyo Technology.
HOW DO YOU DO YOU CREATE A RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS?
There’s one great way to do that: by giving away information for free.
Hold the phone.
No, that wasn’t a typo. Your potential customers can find bad, but free, information anywhere on the internet. You gain their trust by giving them good information for free.
Once they know they can rely on you, once they feel connected to you, they’ll be more willing to buy your services and products. (After all, if you’re giving away such good stuff for free, the services you charge for must be awesome!) You can also use blog posts to link to your products, launch new services… just about anything. But you can’t start doing that until you’ve created a relationship with your readers.
It all starts with trust and builds from there.
SO, NOW THAT YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TRYING TO ACHIEVE WITH YOUR BLOG… HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH IDEAS?
By thinking about what your customers need. Make a list of the five questions customers ask you the most. Answering each of those questions thoughtfully and in-depth, and voila: you have your first five posts.
Need an example?
A hotel blog could feature one post on activities for visitors in the area, one on travel tips, one on local cuisine, and one on a questions customers ask about their amenities. The blog for an organic cosmetics company could share information about the ingredients in their products, a recommendation for allergy-safe products, an interviews with a makeup artist, and a gluten-free recipe.
That’s a month’s worth of posts — plenty to get you started!
When you keep in mind who you’re writing for — your customer — and what you’re trying to achieve — a trusting relationship — it’s not so hard to think of ideas after all.
