About 20% of all businesses fail within the first few years. It can happen for a variety of reasons, but the main one is that they burn through their resources before they get the word out about their company.
The best way to advertise is to start up a business blog. If you can provide helpful information to your potential customers, they'll see you as a trustworthy source to get their goods and services.
The question is, what do you write about? We've got a list of blog topic ideas that will get you going in the right direction. Keep reading to learn more.
1. Cost and Price
When someone needs a good or service, nine times out of ten, they're going to Google the cost. They want to get several estimates so they can make comparisons and get the best deal.
Surprisingly, there aren't a lot of companies that want to address cost. They don't want to scare customers off.
That means you should be the person willing to put that information out there. Doing so will net you quite a bit of traffic.
If you're a small business owner, you'll gain customer trust by writing blog posts about your prices instead of trying to divert attention away from the subject.
2. Talk About Yourself
It's not easy for customers to connect to a faceless business owner. They want to interact with people who are like them.
Show them that you're a person behind that keyboard by talking about yourself. Give them your sad (or not so sad) origin story. Confess the mistakes that you've made as a company, and tell your adoring audience all about your day-to-day life.
Team Members
Are you a sole business owner, or do you have employees working alongside you? If your answer is the latter, talk about your amazing team.
Brag about everything they do for your business. If you've got remote employees, encourage them to post pictures of their furry co-workers. The sky is the limit.
How You Began
Unless you had a lot of help with getting your startup off the ground, there's a good chance that you've struggled to some degree. Maybe you only began with a few quarters in your pocket and a dream.
On top of talking about your struggles, tell your audience why you started your company. For example, let's say that you're a soap business that was inspired to create products to help people with eczema because you have it.
Writing out your story will tell your audience how you stand out from other businesses like you.
Mistakes That You've Made
Another way to humanize your company in the eyes of your target audience is to use some of your content marketing to write about your mistakes.
There's something warm and fuzzy about being able to acknowledge what you've done wrong and laughing about it.
Your Day to Day Life
What is day-to-day life like for your company? How do you care for the customers that come into your place of business?
What is your production like? There are all kinds of interesting things that you can talk about here.
Your Past and Future Product Releases
Lastly, your loyal and even new customers want to learn when you're going to be releasing new products.
You can also discuss your company's past. Highlight all the awesome things you've accomplished over the years.
3. Current Trends
When people have an interest in a certain industry, they're going to want to read the latest news about it. That's why you should make writing a current events post part of your weekly digital marketing strategy.
It will allow you to become a reliable source of recent information, which helps with establishing trust.
4. Solve People's Problems
The thing about life is that it's meant to challenge you. People come across issues every single day that your product might be able to solve.
Consumers won't know that your goods are the solution to their worries unless you tell them, though. That's why this is one of the best blog post ideas you can try out.
You see, when people encounter an issue, they go to Google. If you have a blog post that presents the solution they're after, that's a click.
You don't have to stop at common problems individuals face. You can expand this idea even further by talking about issues in your industry.
5. Make Comparisons
Comparison articles are great for digital marketing because it instills a sense of competition. When you see a post that's titled "Granite Vs. Quartz Countertops: The Ultimate Showdown," you're going to read it because you want to know who the winner is.
This format is fun because there are a few different ways you can tackle it. You can do it as a vs. article, or you can write up a pros and cons list for both combatants.
6. Myths Surrounding Your Industry
Dentists are demonized in the media to the point where kids are terrified when going in for an appointment.
In reality, most dentists are pretty chill. They didn't take a job in the industry because they like hurting people. In most cases, they use all the technology they have available to them to not cause pain.
Every industry has a bunch of myths surrounding them that scare people. That's why posts that debunk them are so popular to read.
7. Listicles
If you don't have any other marketing blog topic ideas, doing a top ten listicle is a safe bet. They're simple to write.
This being said, they're just as simple to mess up. Not all content does well when you put it in a listicle format.
Make Sure It Fits Your Content
If you want to write a narrative about a time you and a few of your employees took a business trip to Florida, you can do that, but it's not going to work as a listicle.
You would have to change up your formatting a bit. Instead of telling a story about all the cool things you and your staff members did during your trip, write it as "10 Amazing Things to Do In Florida Over the Weekend."
Pay Attention to Your Title
Let's say that the title of your article is "7 Benefits of Going to the Beach" and one of your headings is "Pack More Sunscreen."
That is excellent advice that everyone should follow before spending time outdoors, but it doesn't fit your article. The good news is that there is a simple fix for this amateurish mistake.
Change the title of your article to "7 Tips for Going to the Beach." See how much of a difference that makes?
You've also got to be careful not to write clickbait. For example, having your title be "7 Foods That Will Help You Live a Healthier Lifestyle (Number 4 Will Surprise You) and making number 4 "Broccoli" is a letdown that will leave your readers annoyed.
Slip in Some Surprising Content
So, your article is "8 Simple Ways to Live a Healthier Lifestyle." You're going to have a lot of the basics in there like "Drink More Water" or "Consume a Veggie."
These headings are expected and not all that interesting. It doesn't give someone a reason to continue reading your article.
To keep people from clicking away, you're going to need to be surprising. Throw something in there about how if you want to eat fatty foods, do it when you wake up in the morning. That's more shocking than telling people they need to go exercise.
Keep It Scannable
One of the main reasons why people read listicles is because they're scannable. Most individuals don't have a large attention span. They're not going to want to read paragraphs upon paragraphs of text to get to the reason why they clicked on an article.
That means you need to make all your paragraphs less than 300 words. If you are working with large chunks of text, break things up by bolding important words.
Pick the Magic Number
When you see listicles, a lot of them are top ten and top five. These are numbers that stick out to people.
It's not a bad idea to use odd numbers when you're writing a listicle. They tend to get more clicks.
You also have to think about your word count. If you're planning to write a 500-word blog post, you wouldn't make it a top 30.
That's way too much. You won't be able to write a lot of actual content. For something that short, keep the number of headings you have down to three or four.
8. Ultimate Guides
Ultimate guides are long-form blog post content that usually delves deep into a particular subject. For example, the ultimate guide to writing creative blog content.
These can be a bit tricky to write because of how much research and work goes into them. It's easy to veer off-topic.
Decide on an Idea
The first rule of writing ultimate guides is to decide on an idea and run with it. We're talking about a single good concept that you want to expand on.
The topic you choose should either be one that you're pretty familiar with or one that you're passionate about. It also needs to be somewhat unique. People don't want the same long-form content that they've read a million times before.
Research Your Topic
You're getting close to the word count minimum you were trying to hit, but you can't think of what else to write about. The answer is to do more research. You're sure to find something you haven't touched on yet that you can work into your other points.
You also need to research for accuracy reasons. The average everyday person might not catch little inconsistencies, but if an expert in the field reads your article and spots them, it's all over for you.
Stay Focused
When you're writing long-form content, it's easy to veer off course. Most subjects have a million others that can branch off from them.
We know that you want to talk about everything, but do your best to stick to your main topic. You can always write separate blog posts on the stuff that you weren't able to cover in the first.
If you're having problems getting the hang of long-form content (as many people do), you can hire an article writing service to help you out.
9. Do Product Comparisons
Writing posts that compare one of your products with your competitors isn't as easy as you may think. Some people use these posts to trash talk their competition. That's not what you want to do here.
Using an entire blog entry to say mean things about other businesses makes you look bad. Highlight the pros of both products while telling your target audience how yours stands out.
10. Interview Customers
Have you had some happy customers in the past? Take a moment to interview them and find out what they liked about your products.
With their permission, post their responses on your blog. People like hearing the opinion of their fellow consumers.
Blog Topic Ideas That Will Drive Traffic to Your Site
Are you having problems bringing traffic to your website? It sounds like you need to polish your content marketing skills.
As you can see, there are plenty of blog topic ideas that can help businesses flourish. You can write eye-catching listicles, interview a few of your adoring customers, do product comparisons, or talk about costs and pricing. Pick a concept and run with it!
For more tips that will help you get more eyes on your business website, feel free to explore the rest of our blog.