10 Content Strategies for a Year's Worth of Blog Posts

Blogging for Business Series Part 4

Welcome to the end of my four-part Blogging for Business Series which aims to support you in creating effective and efficient blog content.

If you follow the tactics below, you’ll learn 10 content strategies, develop your own blogging strategy for your business and will come up with an entire year’s worth of blog posts for your site!

10 Content Strategies

#1: Create tips or a how-to

Put yourself in your client’s shoes and think about what they want to learn more about, what they want to learn how to do, and what they want to know that will help them solve a problem or get closer to an answer. Maybe they just want a resource, a tool or a three-step suggestion to help bridge the gap to their goals.

Think about your everyday life, working with and for your clients. There are going to be things that come naturally to you in your work, but when you share it with others, they are amazed at how it might help them do something a little faster or save them money. It depends on what your business is, but consider writing tips or how-to blogs that revolve around ways you can help your clients:

Save money.
Save time.
Feel more confident.
Discover resources they could use to get them closer to something.
Gain Encouragement.

#2: Use personal lessons you’ve learned

The key to this is being engaged, sharing, and relating to your clients. You want to share a piece of yourself that makes you a bit less business-y and more personal.

For example, I went to an event called I Am The Boss in the Toronto area. There were probably about a hundred people there, and we had a ton of key speakers throughout the day that were sharing tips about being an entrepreneur and how to achieve success as an entrepreneur.

After the event, I wrote a blog post called The 10 Aha Moments I Took Away From This Event. I wanted to share what I had learned, but also make it relatable and of value to my customers. By sharing the information and my perspective, people could connect more with who I am.

#3: Highlight success stories

Often when people read about the clients that you work with, they can identify with the client’s needs, results, and experience they are looking for. By sharing success stories of your own client experiences, you’ll have the opportunity to highlight and showcase what you do for and how you work with other people.

Success stories are all about connecting with your community, promoting your own clients and giving them some visibility and momentum. Think of five people you worked with and over the next five months, feature them in your blog post and on your website. This is a great way to honour them while also celebrating their success, and ultimately, providing social proof that you’ve actually had or having success with your clients.

#4: Highlight your favourites

Pick an afternoon to round up some of your favourite articles, resources or tools and make a top-five list for your audience to enjoy, experience or learn about. By highlighting and explaining them to your audience, you’re able to be of service with content that’s already written.

#5: Guest blogs

This is another strategy where you can reach out to colleagues in your business or those who support you that your clients would appreciate more knowledge about.

Here’s how:

Really think about the people that you work with, perhaps those you refer work to.
Offer them an opportunity to blog on your website.
Provide some guidelines and be specific about what you are looking for.
Explain some areas that your clients may need more support or things they would be interested in hearing about.
Provide a deadline.

#6: Record your tips on video

Video is a medium or content type that is continuing to explode when it comes to marketing your business online. I think the main reason why video is so effective is that it’s engaging, it’s personal, and people can relate not only visually but by listening to your voice. They can hear and see your passion and they get to see who the person behind the business is.

Most phones come with headphones and a microphone, so even if you’re on the go, you can record a tip, then email it to yourself and upload it later. If your phone doesn’t have that capability, you can also use your computer to tape a series of tips.

#7: Show life behind the scenes

It’s really interesting to look at social media and see that we’re all a little voyeuristic. Many people want to know what others are doing, seeing and feeling and what it’s like to live their lifestyle.

When sharing the behind-the-scenes of your business, you don’t have to overshare. You could simply showcase something like your office, an office reno, or what’s going on out your window. People are naturally curious, so when you take a video and walk them through something that you do or a tip that you think will help them on video, it goes a long way. It’s worth breaking through any fears you have about getting on camera because the benefit is that you connect with your ideal customer instantly.

#8: Conduct an Interview

This strategy is unique because you benefit as much as your audience. Think about the people in your industry that you think of as leaders, who have inspired you, and you’ve learned from that you could interview and ultimately create content that would inspire or help your audience. Although planning the interview takes a little more time, you could simply think of those five people, the questions you would ask them, what kind of value they could give your audience, and reach out.

Although it may feel a little risky, there are many benefits to reaching out and calling somebody that you saw present on stage or listened to in a webinar.

Benefits of interviews:

This is a great way to help your interviewee promote their business.
It helps you understand things from a different perspective.
You are able to learn through a one-on-one discussion.
It’s an exciting way to create new content for your website.
Your audience learns with you.

#9: Suggest a book

This may seem a little old-fashioned, but seriously, it works. Many of us enjoy reading book reviews and love to receive suggestions on what to read next. Trust me, people want to know what you’re reading, they want to learn, so why not share five things you’ve learned from that book recently? This benefits our customers and gives them another connection point they might find you a bit more relatable.

#10: Promote a popular event

Before heading to an event, help others decide what to check out before they go. I was once going to an event and noticed that a woman had attended the same event year after year and had posted an article titled 10 Things That You Must Check Out if You’re Going to Go to Social Media Marketing World in San Diego. She gave insights and tips on what she thought others needed to check out, who to talk to, and what to do when you went to the event. It was incredible. Not only was she providing a service to her audience, but also encouraged them to come to her website and check out some great content she put together that makes her accessible, relatable, and more connected.

Thank you for reading my Blogging For Business Series! If you have any questions or comments about any of the information gained, please feel free to contact me.

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