When it comes to marketing your business online one of the most effective means of doing this is using your company’s blog, a place on your website that doesn’t necessarily need to conform to a template and is, therefore, available for you to update with content created for your audience and with search engines in mind.
Often people start off enthusiastically and then run out of ideas if they don’t readily come to them in the form of new products or services. For this reason, we’re listing a number of ideas that can be applied to many industries, there will be something for everybody here too.
How To Do X….
You will know what your potential customers ask you about, do you know a shortcut that will help them? Or, have you found a new way of doing things that you think people in your audience might be interested in? Guides on anything from short-cuts to getting to grips to Excel through to tips for increasing your productivity are always popular. Look at your industry, if you can answer a question you know people need or want the answer to that’s a blog post or even a series of posts for you.
Behind The Scenes
Whatever size your business is there will be a person/people behind the scenes, you can share this through blog content together with photos which also take care of your accompanying social media posts too. Whether it’s a peek at the office, a quick tour of the warehouse, a snapshot of the technology you’re using, or if you’ve got a super view or location that’s shareable content too. Remember though, less can be more on this so use this is one to used occasionally only.
Spotlight On…
The technical or customer service departments, the products or services you offer, the people working in the business. Often within our business, we have lots of content sitting right in front of us every day, look at what or who your audience engages with and share a little (or a lot!) more to draw in your audience. Sometimes this is a timely reminder for everybody that you have key strengths within your business that might just make you the preferred choice over a competitor.
Your Story
Every business started somewhere, think about where you came from because chances are you may well inspire others who aren’t quite as far along on the journey. Some people and businesses are great at highlighting former glories reminding you of awards they won many years ago whereas others mention them at the time and then move on, sometimes though a refresher for your audience and even your own team isn’t a bad thing as long as it remains relevant to what you’re business is now.
Industry News
Different times of the year bring highs and lows, when you’re working in a sector you’ll be familiar with them. One very simple example of this might be the announcement of your country’s annual budget. If you were working in the motor trade there’s a strong possibility of people googling motor tax rates, a post on your blog should therefore be essential to match what people are looking for.
Diary Dates
In every business, there are particular dates that are important to your audience. In a normal year if you were in hospitality you might be looking at Valentine’s, St Patrick’s Day, Easter, School Holidays, Bank Holiday Weekends, Christmas, and New Year and you would plan your content accordingly. In other sectors, there will be key dates too such as Conferences, Trade Fairs, Product Launches, Business Anniversaries, Regulatory Changes, and more.
Customer Testimonials
Sometimes they’ll be shared on your website or social media, other times your testimonials will sit on a file on a desktop with nobody but the sender and recipient aware of the content. It’s not for every business and of course, you may not want to or be in a position to share any positive feedback you get in its entirety. However, you can share excerpts and a blog post is a perfect place to do this in a ‘what our customers say about….’ type format.
Special Offers or Deals
Not every consumer is driven by price and this isn’t an option for every industry either. That said, whether your customers are spending tens of euro tens of thousands of euro just about everybody is conscious of value and what they’re getting for their spend. If you’ve got discounted prices by all means share them but where you’re in a position to add value that’s also very shareworthy too.
Your Reviews Or Experiences Of A Product Or Service
Share good experiences you’ve had with third parties, a recommendation will always be welcome where it’s appropriate. This is one that needs to have company input as if you are aligning yourself to a third party it’s got to be for all the right reasons, not just for web traffic.
What You Do
This may sound very obvious but sometimes businesses will have products or services that everybody in their audience knows about with others that don’t sell quite so well known to just those who go looking for them. Remind people how long you’re around, the areas you service, the solutions you provide, the transformations your customers will enjoy once they buy from you. Your blog is free format and doesn’t need to conform to the style that’s in place throughout the rest of the site, occasionally use it to really sell what you do brilliantly.
These are just a selection of ideas that can be used by just about any industry where the inspiration for blog posts is a challenge. You don’t need to share aspects of your business if you’re not comfortable with it even if your competitor is more open as a little mystery isn’t always a bad thing either. That said, if there’s something you’re comfortable sharing with every one of your customers when you’re talking to them think about how you can use it in your blog, that’s where the customers you haven’t yet met hang out before they pick up the phone or send an email.
And, if you’re not comfortable with writing blogs or unsure about where it fits into your marketing efforts why not have a chat with us at The Marketing Shop? We’ve written blogs for lots of very different industries and trained people to get theirs up and running too – you can schedule a complimentary zoom or phone call here.
Debbie Ringwood is a Marketing Specialist with over 20 years of experience in B2B and B2C Marketing. She is a Graduate of the Marketing Institute of Ireland and the Digital Marketing Institute. She is a Canva Community Canvassador, Linkedin Certified Marketing Insider and META Certified Community Manager..
Debbie supports, coaches, and trains businesses in Marketing, Social Media, Canva & WordPress along with her team, working with businesses at different stages of their journey.