How to Think of Creative Blog Topics

If you own a business or actively work on a website, you likely know the importance of keeping fresh content on your website. Pushing out fresh content regularly has been proven to help a websites organic ranking as well as build trust as a community resource!
Over the years, blogs have quickly gained popularity as a simple and continual way to add fresh content to your site without needing to adjust and change content that reflects your products and services. All of this sounds great right… but blogs aren’t as easy as they sound, and again, if you have any experience working on a website regularly – you likely know this to be true. Many times, marketers get into a creative and writing rut when it comes to blog posts, it’s recommended that companies post out a new blog 2+ times per week for best results, so you can see how challenging it would be to stay on top of planning and brainstorming ideas.

Why is a Blog Important?

We hit briefly on the importance of a blog for a website, but there are often lots of questions that come up when considering starting a blog. For example, can you have a successful website without a blog? How necessary is a blog to create a well performing website? What exactly are all of the benefits to starting a blog, is there a good ROI (return on investment) when you consider all the time and work that goes into keeping a blog going? Let’s answer these questions so that you can weigh out the pros and cons of having a blog for your business and website.
First thing is first, you CAN have a successful website and well performing website without a blog. Blogs are only a tool to help website be more successful and perform better – but a blog by no means is the make it or break it of your online presence. Having a blog increases your value as a community resource in both the eyes of physical website users and search engines such as Google. What are the benefits to starting a blog?
– Better SEO performance
– Strengthens relationships and trust with customers
– Creates more opportunities for content sharing (helping your brand be recognized)
– Allows opportunities to spotlight specific products or services which in turn gains them recognition and increases the likelihood of sales
– Paves the way to becoming an industry leader
Now these are just a few of the many benefits that a blog can have for your business, but they all speak for themselves when it comes to pushing your website and company above and beyond. Is there a good ROI in blogging? You need to decide for yourself what your goal ROI would be, but there does seem to be a positive ROI when it comes to blogging. StrataBeat has a great article that goes through all of the statistics and data that prove that blogging does create a positive ROI when prioritized by companies! You can read that article here.

What Content Should You Include in Your Blog?

Hopefully, you see by now that there are many benefits to starting a blog for your business, or maybe you already have a blog started for your business…but either way you may have the question of where to begin and what type of content to include in your blog. The answer is that there really is no “wrong answer.” A blog should host all kind of content, things from resources and information to more fun product or employee spotlights. A blog should be the place where your someone can get to know the very core of who your business is. Blogs often are a place where businesses answer frequently asked questions by their target audience.

For example, if you own a bakery and you often get the question about whether buttercream or cream cheese frosting is better, that might be the perfect topic to cover in your blog. You can write all about the differences between the two and what the pros and cons of each are when it comes to decorating, keeping them in the fridge and so on. A blog should be a black hole of information and resources. Here are a few other types of content that you can include on your blog!
– Lists (Ie: 10 best skateboards for 2021)
– Tutorials and how to’s
– Industry updates and helpful information
– Interviews
– Testimonials and customer stories
– FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions)
– Behind the scenes to your business
– Quizzes and Infographics
– Checklists and Cheat Sheets
– Podcasts and Vlogs (video blogs)
These 10 content ideas alone should provide you a way to get started for a substantial amount of time to get content rolling out onto your blog!

How to Brainstorm & Think of Creative Content for Your Blog

So, now that you have 10 pillars of content to get you started, the fun can begin! Brainstorming content ideas for your blog should be fun and easy – don’t overcomplicate it. Go through each of the 10 content types we listed above and apply them to your industry, products, or services and see what you come up with, and remember, there are no bad answers. For example, if you own a sporting goods store you could create a list for every section in your store:
Soccer: “5 must have soccer accessories for your 2021 season”
Hunting: “3 types of gear you need for your hunting bag”
Baseball: “Best reviewed baseball products of 2020”

For Tutorials and How to’s you can walk visitors through the proper use of products, or if you’re a service-based company you could talk about a tutorial of how to care for a recently serviced item. You get the idea, move on down the list above and think about the various ways that you can apply each of them to your business. As time goes on, information, products and resources will change and you’ll be able to start all over again from the top. We suggest trying to mix up the various content that you post in order to get a good variety of information out there for your website visitors.

We hope this helps you get to thinking of all the various creative content you can start pushing out to your blog as you begin or continue your blogging efforts.
Need help getting your blog started? Contact us today or click here to see what blog and content writing services we offer! Our marketing team is happy to help you get started.