If you’re not getting results with business blogging or using social media for business, don’t blame the tools. You probably haven’t designed a content strategy that will engage your target market around your specific topic.
Most people jump into blogging and social media and start posting content wily nily about whatever floats their fancy at that particular moment in time. The problem with this approach is that you may be writing about topics that have little to do with your products and services, so the audience that you’re building may not be interested in what you have to offer.
If you laser focus your posts around the #1 topic your work is about, you’ll drive targeted traffic to your website that is much more likely to buy from you. That doesn’t mean you can’t write about other things, but it does mean that you should choose sub-topics that relate to and support your #1 topic.
Take a moment now to decide on your primary topic and the 5-10 related topics you want to focus on. I recommend working backwards from what you’re trying sell to figure out what content will lead people into your offerings. Try asking yourself the following questions:
• What are the questions my clients always ask me?
• What urgent problems or needs do my customers have?
• What is my ideal client searching for in Google that would lead them into my work?
• What do I love writing about?
• Where can I provide the most value?
• What do I want to become known for?
Now that you’ve determined the topic you want to own online and identified the main supporting topics, you can brainstorm a list of 50-100 content ideas that fall within these areas. I recommend creating a spreadsheet or Google Doc to track your ideas – not just now, but every time inspiration strikes you, be it in the shower or on the road. You can also create columns for blog titles, email subject lines, tweets, posting dates, and anything else that strikes your fancy.
Congratulations. You now have a content strategy, enough blogging ideas and social media ideas for a full year! There’s no excuse. It’s that easy…
Tell me, what’s your #1 topic?
