In our marketing agency role, we routinely assist clients with driving website traffic and getting more leads into the sales funnel. Often this leads us to the topic of content strategy and more specifically blogging.
While many of us understand the importance of having a content strategy and how the creation of rich, deep content can have a positive impact on our marketing programs…that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. Sometimes just coming up with subject matter for the next blog article can be more daunting than writing the article itself.
I was in this exact predicament the other day. I needed to turn out an article for a valued Client and, as I scanned through the list of “approved blog ideas” we had in the queue, not a single one of those article topics seemed to resonate. Most of the topics seemed far too self-serving and the others were just somehow “off”……
Unfortunately, a result of simply “brainstorming” blog ideas – without enough real direction or purpose.
With the pool of articles we had in mind, I banged out an email to my client asking to revisit our topics from a slightly different perspective. I thought I’d share that email, in hopes that it inspires or helps you when brainstorming blog topics for your content strategy.
—
“Hey Folks…
For the blog, I need a new batch of articles to write from and as content writing has evolved – my immediate needs are to be a bit more specific in the types of articles we write.
In the past, I’ve always just asked for “blog ideas”, which has been successful in driving traffic to the website – but we need to dial the content in a bit. By doing so, I think we can not only attract more organic search traffic, but we can deliver more valuable content to prospects via the site, email blasts and social channels.
So, here’s my ask….
I need you guys to think about questions you’re frequently asked by clients and prospects. And hit me with a list those. By us writing blog articles that specifically answer the questions that these folks are routinely asking, we’ll be providing more valuable content and, at the same time, capture organic search traffic as users “ask” those questions when doing Google searches.
In addition, as we roll out the e-newsletter, these articles are going to resonate with recipients a bit better then the “blog ideas” we’ve been writing from….
So, I need a list (20 or so) of the questions you guys hear most often.
Whether related to products, services, team members etc…. It doesn’t matter. Just dig deep and think about the questions and challenges you hear on a regular basis….Then we’ll answer those questions long-form….
Thanks!”
—
I think it’s a straightforward way to think about blog writing – answer the questions, in detail, that you’re most routinely asked. Pretty simple really.
So, you might be thinking, “What was the question being answered by this blog article?”
Again pretty simple, I’m frequently asked by Clients “What would we blog about”? Think about it.