When it comes to writing content, my content calendar ideas folder in Asana is running off the page. But for some, coming up with business blog post ideas can be really challenging.
As you’ve heard me say before, it’s not enough to just throw any piece of content out there. You need content with intent - that is, a piece of content that leads people to the next step in the pathway to working with you.
One other really critical step for me is to ensure that it’s not a piece of content people see once, but something that is rediscovered by others regularly for many years to come - without any effort on your part. That means either it's automatically scheduled out to social media on a regular basis and/or (the holy grail) Google is sending me free traffic each and every day based on the keywords I used in that post.
There are a heap of “editorial calendar ideas” posts out there and some are great. But most are overwhelming. Which one do you choose, what’s the goal behind it… etc?
I’ve decided to do something a little different with this and segment / categorise the posts based on your goals.
There are two things to bear in mind as you read through these:
- Some blog styles can work well for different types of goals. So don't feel you HAVE to use a List Post ONLY for opt-ins, for example. The idea is that it's where it works most effectively or how I tend to use it.
- While every page on your website should have ONE clear goal, you may find that a blog post both attracts opt-ins AND helps with awareness of a service you offer. That's OK too.
If you've been around these parts for a long time, you will have heard me say before that there are no hard and fast rules here but rather frameworks and guidelines you can use to adapt to you and your business. Modify them to suit you.
Before you dive in, make sure to download my content marketing plan. This is what I use in my own business and with clients to ensure there is a clear focus and outcome for each post I write.
Let's dive in.
When You’re Trying To Generate Aligned Leads and Subscribers
For most of us, this is where the crux of our blogging is focused on - building an email list of people you can nurture and then invite to work with you. As I'll discuss soon, it's hard to ask people to buy from you straight from a blog post, so an opt-in offer is a better way to allow people to experience you and your world and for you to nurture them towards working with you.
List Posts
Naturally, I'm going to start with list posts because, well, this post is a list post and this is one of the top business blog post ideas. This is a great way to give readers a list of ideas or concepts they can choose from.
It works perfectly for opt-in offers because often there is a "next step" once they have their own personalised list created from your bigger list.
In this post, it's to create your own content marketing plan by downloading my template. Other examples include a list of ideas to get a business started, which is attached to a checklist opt-in for them to tick off which items make the most sense to their new business idea.
You'll often see these posts start with or include a number.
EXAMPLE: This post! Another example is the 19 clickable Facebook post ideas for small business to increase engagement
OPT-IN OFFER: A planner to put the list into action; a checklist to tick off each item on the list; a simplified version of the list in PDF form.
How To or Tutorials
My nature is to teach, as it's what lights me up when I'm in a coaching session with a client. I love seeing the aha moments clients have and the confidence they gain when they're empowered to tackle a task they once had no understanding of.
That method spills over to a lot of my business blog post ideas too. You'll notice there are many tutorials with templates you can use to put your learning into action.
This type of post has been particularly successful for me in attracting opt-ins, as readers can see the value I bring and the knowledge I have simply by reading the post.
What knowledge do you have to share? What tutorial can you teach that will prove your expertise?
EXAMPLE: Free Download Media Plan Template is one of my more popular blog posts as far as conversion to opt-in, because people are lazy. I zero in on that desire for things to be easy by giving them a template already started that matches what the blog post was teaching.
OPT-IN: A template for those that can't be bothered starting from scratch; A workbook to use as they're working through the blog post.
Complete Guide to
This is an expanded version of the tutorial post, as you're taking a complete view of a topic and showing step by step the entire system.
These are often what we call epic posts or mega posts and are the posts that usually attract a lot of social media shares. The downside of these types of posts is they can take longer to pull together. But the payoff is often worth it, allowing for more traffic and for you to rank for a keyword that might be a little more difficult to ordinarily.
When it comes to the opt-in, this is like going to the all-you-can-eat bar and having the opportunity to take a small piece of each away. The opt-in needs to be a simplified overview of everything they've learnt in the blog post in PDF form.
EXAMPLE: Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing
OPT-IN OFFER: A guide that provides a recap of each of the points made; ebook version of the post.
When You’re Trying To Acquire Qualified Clients
Asking someone to spend a few thousands dollars with you on coaching is difficult when the first interaction with you is reading a blog post. That's not to say it hasn't happened.
This is where you're often better using one of the other goals - like building your email list and nurturing people that way.
However, that's not to say you can't use a blog post to sell a smaller priced offer. These can be easier to achieve when we're strategic with our content.
The other option is to encourage them to not invest "money", but rather "time" with you by booking a free strategy session.
Let's look at some of the post types that translate into sales or free calls:
Testimonials
If you can get someone to write a testimonial for you that's a few hundred words, you can turn that into a blog post.
Testimonials can work well when the goal is offer awareness too. A great way to do this is to embed a video of them talking about working with you or buying your product and then have that video transcribed to use as the copy for the page.
Interviews
This is the Oprah effect, where you interview someone with a high profile and being in their presence is like them endorsing you. This builds trust with the people who read your blog post (or watch the video or listen to the audio if you're Youtube or podcasts).
A lack of trust is one of the greatest barriers when it comes to someone buying from you, especially for those of us who operate in the online world. We don't know anymore who is going to provide value for the dollars we're handing over.
When a high profile person or someone you know your audience trusts endorses you by taking the time to chat with you in an interview, then the audience automatically trusts you too.
For me, this works both ways - whether you're the one being interviewed or if you're the interviewer.
EXAMPLE: How to Reclaim Your Joy
Demos and product reviews
There are a few different ways you can approach this, depending on the platforms you have available to you and what you're selling.
Firstly, if it's your own product, then you can simply provide a demo of your product on your blog. This walkthrough of what it is you're selling provides confidence to the reader about what they're going to get in return for their money.
For me, it's a bit like when I walk into a new business and I panic as I try and figure out where the front desk is with my bad eyesight. If I've already watched a video of where the reception is, I instantly have more confidence walking through that front door.
That's what it can feel like for your buyers too. Knowing what's on the other side of the door.
When it comes to reviews of your own product, it's most likely that your strategy is to get someone else to review it on their website. This is fairly straight forward, but does require you to come up with an outreach strategy to get your product in others' hands and encourage them to write about it honestly.
If you're doing reviews on your own blog, then the focus is likely affiliate products. That is, you take someone else's product, write about it and include links in your post that are tracked by the owner of the product, so if someone buys from clicking on your link, you earn a commission.
EXAMPLE: Product review of HelloBar and, while it's difficult to do a "demo" of a mastermind, I did write a post about what's it's like inside a mastermind.
Comparison posts
Similar to the above, comparison posts are merely review posts that compare one product against another.
Again, this works great for affiliate products where you can include links to one or both of the products and earn a commission.
Mistakes and Lessons Learned
When you focus in on a client's pain point - usually the thing that isn't working in their world - you grab their attention instantly.
When we have that pain point, our next step is to want to fix it. When you start with the pain, you can lead into the solution. This showcases you as an authority in your field or your product as the perfect next step.
EXAMPLE: Fix Your Sales Funnel
When You’re Trying To Increase Awareness of Your Offer
As mentioned earlier, it's difficult to get someone to invest at a higher dollar amount straight from a blog post. They don't know who you are, don't yet trust you and aren't sure if you're going to be the right fit.
You can lead people to a free strategy call, as suggested in the last step, or you can simply ensure people are aware of your offer. They may not necessarily take the next step with you right away, but they're aware you offer it.
The other goal of some of these posts is when someone is deep in research mode, comparing you to someone else on their ideal list. Maybe you've done it yourself when you've been looking for a coach or wanting to buy a higher priced product.
These are ways you can build that trust with someone to encourage them to reach out and learn more.
I tend to like to ensure there's at least a call to action, so often this post's goal will be combined with a goal from one of the previous steps.
Case studies
You can certainly use this when you want to gain a sale, but it works well to attract bookings for calls or to make people aware of your product or service.
For example, I was involved in bringing to light a $250m project for a Tasmanian city. by highlighting the role I played in that project and the outcome the city council received as a result, others are able to visualise how they might be able to use my services to help get a result for their own project.
Recently one of my roles was to write 16 case studies for an accounting client, by interviewing THEIR clients. They were then able to showcase all 16 case studies on their website.
In simple terms, a case study starts with where the client was before they used your service, what the experience of working with you was like and finally the outcome they were able to gain from using your services.
EXAMPLE: Kellie O'Brien Media part of historic moment for Devonport
Your why or the why behind a concept
Whether it's your personal "why" story or the "why" behind your product or service coming into existence, these can be powerful stories to tell. Why, you cheekily ask? It's that old Simon Sinek quote you've been clubbed over the head with a thousand times
"People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it".
If someone is comparing your service to someone else's, sometimes telling your why story can help someone gravitate towards you because they relate to it. They know that you're going to "get" each other.
If they feel that perhaps you're solely about making money to get rich, rather than because you genuinely want to help people, that may jar with their core values and beliefs about business.
The goal of the "why" story isn't just to attract the right people, but to also repel the right people too.
Reader Q&A
Do your readers have questions about your product, your service or what it is you do? Maybe they don't understand one aspect of your skillset and why that's important.
You can highlight this through a Q&A blog post. Answer your readers' questions directly and show them why you're the best choice.
Like many of the posts in this section, these type of posts can be great for using "priming words" to share that you have a product without selling. For example, "One of the core concepts I use with my VIP coaching clients is the business eco-system to map out all the free and paid offers they have within their business to determine what pathways people take to work with them. Here's how that works..."
See how I used the words "with my VIP coaching clients". I'm making people aware I offer coaching without bolding coning out and saying "you need to use me as your coach".
Award wins
If you win an award as a business owner or for a particular product or service, make sure the world knows about. The social proof and trust that can be built with readers when they know you or your offer has won an award is powerful.
Some businesses, through their PR and marketing strategies, will focus on creating a plan for winning awards over a certain period of time to build up the social proof in their business.
These are great to highlight why you or your product/service is the right choice.
Position self as a thought leader
Sometimes we're not selling a product or service, but rather ourselves as a thought leader. This could be because you're looking for a book deal, speaking opportunities or to get on the radar of a high profile company or person.
There are many reasons and motivations for wanting to write content that positions you as a thought leader. Here are some content types to start with:
Industry news
If you can be a thought leader on your industry and report the changes you're witnessing, then you become a go-to resource for people interested in or working in your industry.
As you write these type of blog posts, be really conscious of who your ideal client is. Sometimes we get so caught up in wanting to provide the best inside news, that we write for our peers instead of a major stakeholder we want to influence.
Roundups
A little similar to the above and using the Oprah effect we mentioned earlier, Roundups are where you take other people's blog posts on a particular topic and add them as a list in a blog post.
You can get the Oprah effect by having your name associated with other influencers in your field, you're creating a valuable resource of collated posts for readers and you're positioning yourself as the leader in a particular field - particular if you can add a little commentary to the post.
The other little bonus from writing this type of post is that the people mentioned will get notified of the backlink and are more likely to want to share it with their own audience, expanding your ow reach.
Opinion pieces
A staple of news media and early blogging, opinion pieces are exactly what they say they are - your opinion on a particular topic or news item.
Before you start writing, ensure you're clear on your stance on the topic and that you have evidence to back up ay claims you make. Avoid any instances of defamation as well.
Predictions
If you want to be a thought leader, one of the great business blog post ideas is to share your predictions in your field. These are often written at the end of the year or beginning of the new year, when people are keen to see, for example, what the trends are going to be for online marketing in 2020.
The only real thing you need to consider before writing this one is that if your predictions are way off, you have them there for everyone to see!
Poll or survey results
In the early days of my PR business, I ran a survey which highlighted the role of social media and women in Australia. It gained major media coverage, got shared on many blogs and positioned me as a thought leader in the social media space.
While it took a bit of time to set up and required some effort to attract 1000 responders for the survey, the hard work was worth it.
You may want to simplify the process and simply use a poll.
EXAMPLE: Australian women and social media survey + included a series of press releases
Research, facts or statistics
If you don't have the time or resources to put into creating your own survey, then use the results of others. By doing some research or using statistics gathered by reputable organisations, you can pull out the data you believe needs to be highlighted and discuss your insights.
What to do with your business blog post ideas
You may already have a few posts you want to start creating.
Before you start putting your business blog post ideas into action, download a copy of the Content Marketing Plan to ensure you have a clear focus and outcomes for each post you create.
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