What Should I Write About on my Blog?

Ah yes, the age-old question.

Here’s something pretty ironic: no one knows your business quite as well as you do. But when it comes to actually having to write about it, or about your industry, you find yourself coming up blank.

Is it writer’s block?

Is it the pressure of deadlines?

Is it the nagging feeling that you’ve got something more urgent to do?

Whatever it is, you’re not alone, so you can breathe a big sigh of relief. There’s a massive difference between understanding your business and your sector, and understanding exactly what it is your audience is looking for at any given moment. If there wasn’t, then marketers wouldn’t exist.

But here’s the downside… you’ve got to write about SOMETHING.

There are so many benefits of blogging that you can’t afford not to. From building audience trust and sharing the human side of your business, to generating more leads and boosting profits, blogs matter.

But it’s not just about creating content. It’s about creating content regularly.

Why? Well, you’ve got Google to thank for that.

Way back in 2010, Google introduced an update to its ranking algorithm called Caffeine. Now, caffeine as we usually know it, in its rich, creamy, frothy disguise, is the stuff that makes us feel fresh and new after a bit of a late night. And Google’s version of Caffeine is pretty much the same thing: it provides that fresh, new feeling by putting more recent links higher up in the search engine results pages.

That means, if you want to keep showing up, you need to keep posting.

So the big question is… what should you write about?

You’ll find the answer in your content strategy.

Wait a sec – what is a content strategy?

OK, we might have gotten ahead of ourselves a little bit there.

No content strategy? Not even sure what one is? Don’t worry. We’re going through it all.

Think of it as a roadmap that’s going to take you from having zero content (or a bunch of pretty sad-looking content) to having a blog filled with effective and powerful stories.

A content strategy uses your business goals and your audience’s needs to shape what your content should look like for best results. This includes what sort of topics you should write about, and what format they should be in. So if you’re struggling to know what to write, your content strategy is what’s going to spell it out for you.

A content strategy brings together 5 distinct factors into one single document:

Your business case: why you want to improve your content
Your business plan: what you’re hoping to achieve from content
Audience personas: who you’re creating content for
Your content maps: what you’re writing about, and how you’re presenting your ideas
Your channel plan: where you’ll publish your content so audiences can find it

Of course, there are other advantages to creating a content strategy, beyond finding things to write about. We’ll get to that a little later.

Do I really need a content strategy?

Nope. You can live without a ‘content strategy’, ‘content marketing plan’ or whatever you’ve heard it called. But, you’ll get a lot more out of your blog if you have one.

Why?

Well, look at it this way. There’s a LOT of content out there. In 2021, 70% of businesses invested in content marketing, so just publishing any old stuff isn’t going to give you a competitive advantage.

What will give you a competitive edge? Content that you’ve created strategically. Content that has a purpose, that’s totally on-brand. Content that works for your audience and is 100% on message. Content that drives you towards your business goals.

A group of professors from MIT developed a framework to help managers understand challenges, and identify opportunities. Over time, this framework became the foundation of the now-popular three lenses of innovation.

This framework says that good innovations must tick three boxes:

Desirability
Feasibility
Viability

And when you think about it, it’s the same with content.

Any content that we put out there must be desirable; it must be something that our target audience wants to see. It’s also got to be feasible; we’ve got to write about something that we know about. And it’s got to be viable; it’s got to work for us in some way, ultimately delivering some form of positive outcome.

So clearly, taking a random approach to content is a bit risky. You might create content that’s desirable, but not viable. Less than ideal. Or imagine creating content that’s feasible – you can do it – about which your audience couldn’t give a shit.

That’s where a content strategy, and a more structured approach to content, comes in.

A good content strategy can help you…

Understand what’s important to your business and your audience
Visualise where you are in your content journey, and where you need to be
See where your greatest opportunities lie
Keep your brand on-message
Stay accountable for your success
Produce great content, rather than just OK content

And perhaps most importantly of all, it can help you figure out what on earth you’re going to write!

Don’t just take our word for it. There’s been a lot of research done on the benefits of creating a content strategy, and the findings are impressive. The majority of the most successful businesses have a documented content marketing strategy. Many find that their strategy removes a lot of their content challenges, and that it helps them feel more effective at content marketing. Sounds good!

What makes a good content strategy?

That’s a bit like asking what makes a good breakfast. It all depends on what you need. A bit of burnt toast isn’t going to sustain you if you’re running a marathon, but a full English can sometimes be a bit heavy if you’re a trapeze artist, say. So ask yourself the right questions…

Who’s reading? Knowing who you’re creating content for is key. It’s going to shape what you write about, how you write it, your language, your tone – just about everything. A good content strategy is one that puts the audience at the core, and builds everything else up around their needs and preferences.

What’s the problem? Every person that’s reading your content will have a problem. This could be anything from a broken vacuum cleaner to boredom! People read blogs for a reason. So a good content strategy should identify these reasons, and help you create blog posts that resolve these problems.

What’s so great about me? There’s no way you’re the only business in the world that can solve the problem your audience is having. So why would they come to your blog over someone else’s? A good content strategy focuses on your uniqueness, and turns it into selling points.

What do people want to see? A good content strategy shouldn’t just help you decide what to write about. It should also help you share your chosen topic in a way that engages your audience. And there’s an almost never-ending list of formats. Content doesn’t always have to look like a standard blog post.

Where’s my audience? So you’ve created content. Great. But where are you going to put it? It’s no use leaving it sitting in the deep dark depths of your hard drive going mouldy. It’s got to go somewhere – ideally, somewhere your audience can find it. And that’s yet another thing a good content strategy does: it determines the best place for your hard work.

Who’s in charge of what? The final thing that every good content strategy should have is a list of responsibilities. Content is complex, and you can’t carry it alone (not if you want it to be good, at least!). For example, we at WordHound can look after topic generation and content creation, while you’re on design and scheduling.

It might seem like there’s a lot that you have to squeeze in there, but it’s honestly not as bad as it sounds. You can see how it all comes together by checking out our content strategy template.

Content strategy & SEO

There’s one critical question that we DIDN’T mention in the above list. It’s one that we need to consider when building a strong and robust content strategy.

What is my audience searching for?

Now, SEO is a massively important thing to consider here. But it’s so massive that we can’t possibly squeeze it all into a content strategy without it getting out of control. That’s why we recommend creating a separate keyword strategy that helps your content rank highly in the search engine results.

But we will touch upon the SEO-content strategy link a little, because keywords are vital for 2 reasons:

They give you an idea of what you can write about (which is, after all, why you’re here!). Using tools like UberSuggest, you can enter a single keyword and see a bunch of related keywords. These can help you expand your topics beyond your core business to attract and engage a larger pool of potential leads.
They make sure your hard work isn’t going to waste. There’s nothing sadder than creating amazing content, then having no one see it. When you consider keywords while you’re writing your content, you’re giving Google the information it needs to display your blog and website to the right people.

But a quick word of warning: don’t go crazy. It’s really important to find the right balance – the happy medium – between writing for the Google Bot and writing for actual sentient humans. Too keyword-light, and Google might miss you. Too keyword-dense, and your readers won’t know what on earth you’re going on about. A good rule of thumb? If keywords fit in nicely, use ‘em! If not, don’t force it to happen.

How to create a content strategy

This isn’t a set-in-stone process. You’ll probably create your content strategy differently from how RugBonanza.co.uk or WeBuyAnyShoes.com have created theirs. That’s OK, as long as it works for you.

But if you really don’t have a clue where to get started, we are of course here to help. We help our clients – and our clients’ clients – create content strategies, and we’ve found that it works best when we follow a solid structure.

Step 1: Define your goals

Know what you want to achieve. Do you want to bring more traffic to your website, or improve your ranking for specific keywords? Do you want to extend your reach to new demographics, or promote your products or services? Understand what you want, and set goals that you can edge closer to through the right type of content. Try to keep goals SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-constrained – so that you’re not setting yourself up for failure from the very beginning.

Step 2: Do your research

Take a look at the sort of stories your target audience is sharing through their social platforms. Have a sneaky peek at the type of content your competitors are churning out (and see if anyone’s actually engaging with these posts). Skim through some content that’s being published in the wider industry. It all helps. Of course, you can’t just rip off someone else’s work (nor would you want to). But just getting to grips with what’s out there already – and where there are gaps – can help you start shaping your strategy.

Step 3: Carry out an audit

What content have you already got? What’s working, and what’s not? Have you got anything that you could use as a base to spin into new, more relevant content? Or into alternative formats (a long blog post into a shorter, snappier video, for example?). Why climb up from the very bottom if you’ve already got a foot on the content ladder? Your content strategy doesn’t have to be a ‘from scratch’ thing. You can use it to build upon what’s already there and make it bigger, better, and stronger.

Step 4: Think like your target audience

Now it’s time to start coming up with some great ideas. If you keep reading, you’ll find that we’ve given you a list of potential topics as a bit of inspiration to get you going. But that’s just a tiny piece of the pie. It might not always seem like it, but there’s a never-ending list of things you can write about… and it’s growing all the time as customer needs change. You can also try tools like Answer the Public that show you what people are searching for.

Step 5: Map out your ideas

Mapping out your ideas means aligning them with the different needs of your audience at the different stages of their journey. For example, you might not gain too many loyal fans by hard-selling your product when the reader doesn’t even understand their problem yet. Put your ideas into one of 3 buckets: awareness, consideration, decision.

Step 6: Organise

You should now have a bunch of ideas all separated into three categories. But we don’t want to keep all these ideas isolated. We want to make sure that your readers can easily move from one to the next as they move forward through the sales funnel. So your ideas should be organised in a way that helps them move from awareness to consideration to decision. Pillar & cluster content is helpful here – a broad overview, linking to more specific niches. If you can organise in this way, you’re on the right track.

Step 7: Choose where you’re going to publish

Finally, you should consider where you’re going to publish. You might already have your own website built and ready to go, but perhaps you can spread your articles around a bit. Knowing your target audience as well as you do, perhaps they might find you faster if you take to Instagram, YouTube, Tiktok, LinkedIn, Medium, or any of the many other platforms. When you link to your main site from different platforms you’ll have a much more solid base.

Content strategy ideas

Now that you’ve built the foundations of your content strategy, you can start deciding on your topics.

What can I write about? 56 blog topic ideas

Coming up with topic ideas that are not only relevant to your business, but also interesting to your audience, isn’t always easy – but your blog is the perfect way to add a human face to your brand. Take this chance to show off why you’re different, give yourself personality, share stories, and answer questions.

Here are some business blog ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Write about the product/service

A product showcase – talk about it with pride!
Where does the product come from?
How is it made?
How should customers take care of/maintain the product?
What can you do with it?
What conditions affect its use?
Tips and tricks for getting the most out of your product.
Give a shout out to any social accounts who are using your product.

Write about you & your company

Who owns the business?
Why did you start offering this service?
What was the inspiration? If it was a person, give them some love in your blog.
Explain your passion. Where did it come from and how has it driven you?
Is this your first rodeo? Or have you run a company before? Don’t be shy about talking about things that didn’t work. They’re all valuable lessons.
What are your favourite quotes/books/movies/YouTube channels?
Go a bit off-topic sometimes, and talk about what else is important in your life.
Share your goals.

Write about your customers

Share a customer success story (with permission).
Give use-case examples – inspire your readers to get creative.
Use celebrity examples when you find them.
Write about any problems you’ve had, and solutions you’ve found.

Share your expertise

What have you noticed happening in your industry?
Have you identified any trends?
How have past events affected the industry?
What do you see happening next?
What are you looking forward to? Drum up excitement for industry events.
Been to any expos or conferences? What did you learn?
What are you afraid of? How are you reducing the risk?
Do a Q&A yourself, or with someone influential. It’s worth asking, the worst they can do is say no.
Suggest relevant social media accounts – e.g. “5 Twitter accounts you should be following”.
Lessons you’ve learned – what rules (e.g. “never book important meetings before 10 am”) do you follow now?
What not to do – what’s gone wrong for you in the past, and how have you overcome it?

Check out your competitors and start a conversation

Are their posts getting attention?
Have they posted anything you agree with? Don’t be afraid to write a response.
Have they said something you disagree with? Don’t be afraid to give your take on it.
Do a ‘best of’ link roundup. Found several good articles on a similar theme? Let your blog be the one to bring them all together, like SEO’s answer to Love Island.

Spotlight your staff

Who have you got on your team? What makes them special?
Who’s had a great idea lately? Can you talk about it, or is it top secret? It might be a short article if you can’t talk about it at all, but even a few well-worded hints could build anticipation.
Talk about your work culture – how does your office run smoothly?
Let other staff members write about their own roles and plans.

Use a blog for some market research

Ask your audience for their opinion.
Talk about your plans for the brand and ask for feedback.
What would they like to see next? Embed a poll or a survey.

Write an extension of your FAQs

Are there any questions that you get asked regularly? Instead of just copying and pasting your answers, address them in a perfectly worded blog.
Are there any tools you’re using from another industry? Write a review in your blog.
Comparisons can be helpful too, e.g. “iPhone SE vs iPhone X” or “Yoast vs Rank Math”.

Use imagery

Photos, graphs, infographics and videos can be the starting point for a great blog post. Just make sure you explain what they are, so that your post can be found by search engines.
Think about creating how-to videos involving your products.
Lift the curtain – give your readers a tour of your factory. Post pictures of your office, or a ‘day in the life’.

Give back

Are you supporting any charities or fundraisers?
Is your brand solving a problem?
Is there anything you can teach? Run a course for something more in-depth, or create an ebook, then talk about it.
Run competitions to find talent, or to reward good ideas.
Seen someone doing something awesome lately? Give them a shout-out.
Offer free templates or tools.
Create a space for guest blogs.
Collate useful resources you’ve found.

And if all else fails, topic generator tools can be helpful. They show you what sort of stuff is performing well on the web right now, providing you with a little cheat sheet full of ideas.

Is my content strategy working?

Near the beginning of this article, right back when we were looking at what a content strategy was, we looked at all the things a content strategy brings together:

Your business case
Your business plan
Audience personas
Your content maps
Your channel plan

Some of these things – like your business case, business plan, and content maps – will usually stay pretty much the same, no matter where you’re at. But others, like audience personas and channels, will normally change a bit as your business grows and develops. Knowing when to adapt your strategy is key.

You need to be on the lookout for signs that one of your external factors – like audience need, expectation, or behaviour – is changing. Be ready to shake things up to keep your strategy relevant. You don’t want to waste time creating content that doesn’t engage.

Knowing if your content strategy is working – and figuring out where there’s room for improvement – means measuring your efforts and impact using the right metrics. So what are the right metrics to measure?

The metrics that most people will be drawn to are called ‘vanity metrics’. They make you feel good, but they don’t really tell you what’s going on below the surface.

Traffic? It tells you how many people have visited your blog – not how many have read it and taken action.
Social shares? Lots of shares don’t always equal lots of reads either.
Search ranking? It means you’re doing well with your SEO, but that’s as much as it tells us.

Instead, when it comes to measuring your content strategy, you should be looking at metrics like…

Engagement: How frequently are readers interacting with your content (e.g. comments)?
Conversions: How many people have taken action after visiting your blog post?
Qualified leads: How many people have become customers after visiting a blog post?
Revenue: How much revenue can you attribute directly to your published content?
Authority: Your trust within the industry. This is the hardest metric to measure but if your content strategy is working then your position in the market as a content creator will display your Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

If your current strategy isn’t getting the results you’re looking for, it might be time to rethink it. Use our

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to help round up your ideas, shake out the best ones and stick them to your wall for safe keeping.

Getting started on your content strategy

Hopefully, we’ve covered everything you need to know about building a content strategy (and thinking up some cool things to write about) in a non-scary and not-too-overwhelming, easy-to-digest way.

But, it still sounds like a lot of work, right?

And it is.

But the good news is that this is what we do best.

We do all the hard work for you, developing a content strategy for blog owners that takes all the stress out of organising your ideas – and coming up with them in the first place! Our writers and editors are ready and waiting to scour the most obscure corners of the web to find studies, news items, emerging trends, industry predictions, and hot topics relevant to your sector and your audience.

We specialise in content strategies for direct clients, and for web designers who want to offer the full package as a white label service for their own customers.

From those initial lightbulb moments to keyword research, customer analysis, content writing, and going live, we do it all. So get in touch with us today to learn more about how we can help you get it right.

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