One thing I hear about all the time is that people want to blog, but they have no idea what to blog about. So here are some ideas. I am going to go over the reasons why blogs are useful for service related businesses and then explain some ways businesses can blog about their services.
Why Blogs Are Useful
Service related business blogs are useful for helping visitors/readers understand that the business is good at what they do and that the company can be trusted. People want to hire “experts” and real “professionals.”
Blogs Help to Build Trust
A business blog can help people begin to trust the company and their skills. If a company is the best at what they do, their blog is a resource to show people how and why they are the best.
Blogs Educate Visitors
Blogs are also great for educating visitors and education should be a priority. When you are educating, you are giving to the reader. Educational articles that offer information that the everyday person can use are often shared.
You want people to share your articles because it helps your presence, branding and reputation. Shared articles can also result in new sales. You get a lot of advertising for very little investment.
Blogs Help With Search Engine Rank
Your blog should also help you with search engine rankings. Every business needs the search engines to see quality, unique content, which is a critical aspect of SEO (search engine optimization) today. You also want them to determine that your site is about a particular subject or service(s). You want them to see that you are offering much better educational information than your competitors. You want your site and blog to be the one offering the best information locally. To be ranked well you need to offer information that deserves to be ranked well.
Google wants sites to educate and/or inform their users. They want articles that will meet the needs and answer the questions of their users. With some research and planning your website and blog can meet this need for Google and the result is better rankings – if you do it right.
Blogs Can Present a Break Down of Each Service You Offer
Businesses that offer services often do not realize that there is a lot to discuss. Often businesses go blank and are not sure what to blog about.
Consider breaking down and presenting each of your services individually.
What to Blog About: 11 Blog Post Ideas
Below are eleven ideas which can be broken off into several other ideas that your business can use to create blog posts. When you are reading this list, keep in mind that you can – and should – do this for every service your business offers:
- What is this service? Define it and define all the words people may not know related to the service. Example: Main service -> “What is Internet marketing?” Related services -> “What is SEO?” And, “What is Reputation Management?”
- Who needs this service?
- The negatives of not having this service.
- Unknown benefits of paying for this service.
- 10 reasons why the reader needs this service.
- 5-10 types of people that must have this service.
- What to look for in a company that offers this service.
- 5-10 things to avoid when hiring a company that offers this service.
- Common mistakes companies make when offering this service.
- 5-10 things to look for when hiring a company that offers this service.
- When you are discussing “Service A,” create an article about related services and how they serve one another.
A Few More Blogging Tips
The above blogging ideas I listed can be splintered off into other ideas that could benefit your business. I suggest that every time you get an idea for a blog post you write it down somewhere; it is always easy to forget ideas when you have a lot of responsibilities.
Sit down with your marketing team or fellow employees and brainstorm about the ideas you have written down. Let people help the writer add great information to the articles. Writing blog articles is a lot easier and faster when people are giving the writer different ideas to write about.
Lastly, businesses really need to take the time to paste their articles into a program like Word and check for grammar and spelling issues. Bad grammar and spelling can make a business look really bad.
Blog Photo via Shutterstock
I would add this: tell a customer story. This is like a testimonial on steroids. You explain their specific situation, point out all the different things they did to solve their problem, explain how you helped, and tell why they were beyond satisfied by the solution. People can relate to that, especially if they’re in a similar situation.
Fantastic idea Robert!
Ti Roberts
Great piece. Blogs are a fantastic home base for nearly everything you need to do online. Thanks for sharing your insights with us.
Ti
P.S. Really neat graphic, BTW. 🙂
Excellent tips and especially like the examples for blog post ideas. This is very helpful for a number of businesses. Robert Brady’s comment on helping solve their problem with storytelling is a nice add on.
Well done, Melissa. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Dana! 🙂
Blg, blog, blog! Yes! Great points, Melissa! Hoping this post and blueprint will help,your readers!
http://marketingthink.com/how-to-build-the-perfect-blog-post-blueprint/
@GerryMoran
Jennifer Cunningham
Enjoyed this article. There is definitely a nedd to know a lot of information and a blog does answer these needs. I particularly liked the idea about 5-10 types of people that need a service. Thanks for the tips.