Content, Content, Content! But what do you publish?
Without a doubt, experts and service providers understand the importance of creating and publishing content. When we share our knowledge and expertise, we attract an audience of prospective clients and build brand awareness.
But what do we share?
All this talk of publishing and it seems like the creativity creek dries up.
Let’s explore some ideas on what you can share on your blog or newsletter. Next week, I’ll share my formula for mapping out a year’s worth of content in minutes.
What Should I Write About?
- Commonly asked questions: What are your clients or sales prospects asking about regularly?
- Industry news: Always be customer-focused and distill what is happening in the industry and why it matters to your clients
- Trends: You’ve seen trends appear on Instagram, Reddit, and other media. Adapt this to your audience and put your personal spin on it
- Common misconceptions: What common industry, product, or service myths are you tired of hearing about. Your clients are likely wondering about them, too. Break down what they mean, what is true, what is false, and what your clients should do as a result
- Product comparisons: Not all products are created equal. Compare new, popular, or established products and offer your insight. You’re the expert and have more insider knowledge than your clients
- Sales objections: If you’re doing any sort of sales calls, you’ve heard objections. How do you respond? What have you found to be successful? What creates the “Ah-ha!” lightbulb moment for your prospect? Share these facts and positions
- Search Google for “How To” plus the solution you are offering. For example, I am ranking for, “How to Use Content Marketing to Get More Clients” because I’ve found a lot of my ideal audience is asking this very question. By using Google, I can see what others are doing, I can see suggested searches, and Auto-Fill (where Google fills in the rest of a sentence before you finish typing)
- Visit group sites like LinkedIn, Reddit, and Clarity to see what people are asking. AnswerThePublic is another great source for mining what folks are searching for
- Scour comparison sites like Capterra, G2, TrustRadius, Product Hunt or Alternative.to and read the reviews of similar products/services/tools. You’ll find a treasure trove of insights buried in the “Cons” portion of the review.
- Look at your competition: (Note, don’t obsess over them … just look) see what they are blogging about. What are they sharing on social media? What is their audience responding to? Do they have comments on their blog posts? If so, what posts have the most comments? What are people asking?
- Play Devil’s Advocate: Write the “Evil Twin” of your best-performing blog post, popular competitor post, or trending topic
- Be Personal: Share your story, behind the scenes, product development, product failures, client case studies, facts about your business, share your processes
- Round-Ups: Share year-end recaps, first of the year predictions, or Top X Products/People/Tools to Watch (these are especially sticky on the socials because the people you mention are likely to share with their audience … so make sure you tag them or message them when you publish)
- Lists: Create a list of Best Practices, Top Tools, Recommended Products, Free Resources, etc
- Old Content: If you have older content on your blog, consider recycling it. Polish it, update it, provide clarity, or bulk it up. After 500+ blog posts on my own site, I’m finding more and more that are still relevant in theory but need some updating. That is a lot of content.
- Repurpose content: If you have an active Twitter, YouTube, Podcast, or content channel, break it into new blog posts, elaborate on thoughts or snippets shared across your other channels
Many of us suffer from the curse of knowledge, a cognitive bias of thinking our audience has the same or similar understanding of a topic. This is false. What is simple to you is a mystery to your audience. They are not experts, you are. So, don’t worry when you feel that you are publishing “simple” work – it may be simple to you, but it is not to your readers.
They come to you for advice and expertise. Meet them where they are, answer their questions, and be a trusted partner in their process.
Once you consider all the questions they have, you’ll have a lot to write about.
All the best,
-Shaun