Creating Valuable Content for Your Business Blog is Challenging, Right? Think Again

content low (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

Would you like to know how to create valuable content?

Clients, friends and family often say to me, “Amandah, you have a couple of writing specialties. How do you think content ideas for clients and your blogs?”

My answer is, “I listen.”

I listen to:

• Webinars
• Teleseminars
• Conversations
• News
• Podcasts
• Books on tape

Most importantly, I listen to my clients and what they want and need and what their target markets want and need. As one of my clients told me last week, “Amandah, it’s not about me. It’s about the audience I serve.” She’s right.

So…

How can you create valuable content your audience wants to read? For starters, check out the four ways I listed below. I’ve been writing since 2008 and have a good handle on how to brainstorm for ideas for blogs, articles, newsletters, etc.

How to Create Valuable Content for Your Business Blog

Get inside your audience’s head.

In order to get inside your audience’s head, you must know who they are. For example, if you’re a dentist, do you specialize in families or are you a general dentist? If you specialize in families, you’ll want content to provide moms and dads with content they need to keep their child’s teeth and gums healthy. Your first blog post could be “How to keep your child’s teeth and gums healthy.” You could also write a post such as “The secret to teaching your child to floss every day.” You get the picture.

It’s important to know your audience inside and out. Otherwise, your content won’t resonate with anyone.

Listen to others.

Do you listen to others? You probably have much to share that you may forget to listen to others. You want to share your ideas and thoughts, but they may get lost in translation. Instead of being in a hurry to share your wisdom, pause, and listen to others. Digest everything they speak about and hear what they say. Even when they’ve finished speaking, resist the urge to blurt out advice. Ask questions and keep the conversation going. When you feel you’ve reached the end, mention how you can help and schedule a time to meet. This gives you more time to think about your conversations before offering help.

Participate in discussions.

Participate in forums and groups because they’re a great way to create valuable content. Read blogs within your industry and leave comments and read the comments, too. Why? Because you’ll discover the problems your audience faces.  Being active in discussions helps you find golden nuggets of information that can be used for content development.

Conduct research.

Research can be done via polls and surveys. You can also read eBooks, books, articles and blog posts written by your competitors. What have they written? How many comments does their content receive? How many times is content shared? You can also listen to podcast, webinars and teleseminars from your competitors. What do they speak about? Do they provide transcripts and links to recordings? Are these well received by the audience? The more research you do the better. Why? Because you’ll know exactly what content your target market wants and needs.

Over to you. What tips can you share? Let me know in the comments.

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