How to Find Content for Your Small Business Blog or Web Site

Looking for content ideas for your small business blog or web site?  Read on!

The three most common questions that business owners/marketers ask me when the subject of starting a small business blog comes up (right after, jeez do I really need a blog?):

1. “What do I write about on a blog?”
2. “What kind of content should I add to my web site?”
3. “We’ve got product/service descriptions, testimonials, capability brochures, tech specs, white papers, and other marketing collateral.  What other content do we need?”

I’ve posted on this topic before and thought I’d update it.  Good quality content is just another basic business requirement these days.  It’s not a nice-to-have.

Especially for small businesses without large marketing budgets.  Writing compelling, interesting, helpful content and posting it online can help you to be more “findable” when buyers are searching for solutions.

In order to make your web site or blog the go-to Internet site for buyers in your industry looking to solve problems or achieve goals, here are some ideas for creating killer customer content:

Check Out Competitor Sites: If your competitors are blogging or hosting online community sites, check out the topics being discussed.  Write a blog post or article with your fresh approach to solving the problems.  Remember to share your (best) insights when you create content.  You’re goal is to start a conversation with a customer or future customer.

Monitor Social Networking Sites: What are the most popular questions, issues on the social networks used by your customers & prospects?  If your target market is on LinkedIn, the Answers section is a good source of content ideas.  Or Twitter, or  ITToolbox. Or other social media sites your customers use.

Ask Your Customers: Start with your current customers.  What kind of conversations are you and your sales and service folks having with your current customers?

• Talk with a few of your best customers every week.   Find out what’s keeping them awake at night.  (This week/month.)  It’s a fast-changing market/world.  Don’t assume you know what’s on your customers’ current list of priorities today.

• What pages on your web site are the most popular?  Take those subjects and expand them into multiple blog posts.  (Make sure you have visitor stats and analytics added to your web pages.)

• What are the most common questions that come up on your customer or technical support calls?  List each question and provide detailed how-to answers.

• What new strategies are your customers are using to weather the rocky economy?  Expand on those.  Offer your insight for improving operations, doing more with less, cutting costs or whatever your core competency is.  You’re the expert.  Share!

• What’s the most common topic in email messages you send to existing customers? You probably have several useful approaches to solving problems around your products and services.  Those make great blog posts.   (Or web site articles if you’re not ready to launch a blog.)

• What are the problems your customers encounter over and over?  Create blog posts, or a series of articles, to explain the options—and when to use each one.

Ask Your Sales Team: What are the top 10 questions customers ask when making purchases? Paul Gillin, in his most recent book, Secrets of Social Media Marketing, says in that a ‘frequently asked questions’ blog is the safest type of business blog.

• You can get lots of content-mileage out of prospects’ questions.   Be sure to get your sales people’s feedback.  They’re hearing different questions than others in your company. There are probably a few ways to answer each question, depending on the customer situation.  So take different slants and write web site articles or blog posts about each one.

Listen to Prospects: For people not using your products and services yet, list their most common issues. Think of the type of information you offer during your first sales call with a future customer. This can be a treasure trove of customer conversation (blog) topics.

• Also, check in with partners that refer potential buyers to you. Ask them to describe the buying signals that indicate it’s time to refer a customer to your company.

All Work and no Play…Back in 2006 (when blogs were sort of the new, new thing) at a conference I attended in Seattle, Robert Scobel (leading tech blogger) suggested that business bloggers should publish one personal post out of every 17 posts.

Share your passions. What are your favorite causes, charities or fundraising events?  Talk about why you love your favorite non-profit.  Write about your favorite team occasionally on your company blog.

Personal stories about a travel experience during an industry trade show, a family trip or about a local hero.  Content that reveals your personal interests like ScienceLogic’s blog does is valuable because it builds a picture of who your company really is.

Share Your Expertise

How-tos and tips. Share your fave shortcuts for problem solving.  Stuff your customers do not think to ask you about.  Be generous with your expertise.  As you’re writing, ask for other ideas from your readers.  Remember, this is a conversation.

When creating content, remember to share your very best ideas.  Your best practices, advice and secrets for getting things done.   When you publish surefire ways to solve problems, cut costs and achieve goals, it helps you to stand out from the crowd.

What useful content inspirational ideas did I miss?  Add your ideas below in comments.