Writing content is not easy. Having to write a new blog for your business every week or every month might not seem much when you chat it over during the quarterly marketing meeting, but when it comes to it, it is amazing how quickly it can slip down the list of things to do and can quite literally fall off of the list by the end of time allocation for this month’s work.
For many business owners who are working on their own or that only have a small team, blogging, writing content and content based marketing often never gets done, simply because they cannot associate a real value for doing so. The article you write and release today might only ever result in a sale or rankings increase 4 months down the line, as content marketing and SEO is the long term game, where the actions you take now will have results later down the road.
One of the other big issues when it comes to writing content is really knowing what to write about or finding the topic that is 1) easy enough for you to produce but 2) is going to be worthy of a place on your website and for your readers to enjoy.
So, here are few things that you can consider when it comes to writing an amazing blog or article and making your content marketing start to come alive!
Identify A Problem
How to guides make brilliant content, as do articles and blogs that take a problem and then offer a solution. How To Implement Exact Match On Your Google AdWords Campaign or How To Change A Front Light Bulb In Your Kia Car, all of these types of articles are not only searched for on Google, but if the user finds your blog answering their problem, you have just become an authority. Will it win you business at that moment? No, probably not, but going forward it has just made someone have a connection with you and helped your rankings, and this is just as important for the long term strategy.
Give Information And Advice
Website visitors and customers love information and advice, and whilst we have touched on how to guides and problem solving blog posts above, content that gives some advice or offers case studies are equally popular online, as once again, this is useful content. How I Grew My Business In 5 Years To Be Worth £1 Million or Why I Think SEO Is The Way Forward Based On My Biggest Clients Results, things like these work, as once again within them you give a few bits of advice, but generally, you are making a piece of content that is truly interesting and engaging.
Share Your Opinion
Opinions, be them wrong, right or of no real value, are something that any business owner holds, and whilst it is best not to be politically involved or make comments that are detrimental to your image as a company, if something in your industry happens and you have an opinion, then this can make great content. Again, like I say, just go careful on this and always be respectful to maybe the opposite of your opinion, but if it is well written, well presented and engaging, opinions make pretty smart blogs!
Look Around You
Whilst I am not saying copy, as copying or plagiarising someone else’s content is a no no, there is no harm looking at what your competitors are doing and then writing related content but with your own spin. At the end of the day, this very article would have been written a hundred times before, and probably a thousand times after, but although the subject might follow suit, the content and opinions are totally different. But, if the subject works for others, make it work for you, just do it better than they did.
Industry Happenings
Every industry in the world has key events, updates, changes, policy implementations and so many other things, and if you can write a blog or article about something that is happening right now, or something really major that has happened recently, this serves many purposes. Firstly, it makes you look like you are on top of your industry, secondly it looks like you care and want to be involved in the industry and finally, over time, it all comes together to make you look like an authority in your industry, three key reasons to write about what you know.
