The blog dilemma: What am I supposed to create content about?

What do I blog about?

This is something that I hear often: business-owners understand that they should be blogging/creating content but when it comes down to ‘What to create?’, they are often perplexed. They will tell me, “I’m in personal finance, I don’t know anything about blogging/writing content!”.

In a previous post, I discussed three reasons why you should be creating content and today I’ll give you ideas to help you get started.

I was first faced with this dilemma two years ago when I launched a B2B technology blog as part of an inbound-marketing strategy. At first glance, a lot of the blogs in the niche I was researching were self-promotional i.e. just talking about their products and new features and honestly, boring!
I think even some of the bloggers got bored because the posts were infrequent and it seemed like they were just blogging for the sake of blogging.

This is the easiest path to take. Setup a blog and start writing about what you know-your products.

STOP!

Don’t do it!

Talking about yourself, while it may sound easy at first, is not interesting for your readers/customers. And it gets old fast.

Ever go to a cocktail party/5 à 7, where there is that one person who keeps going on and on about him/herself and monopolizes the conversation? Eventually, you tune out, right? Well, that’s what will happen if you create that kind of content. People will get bored and not come back.

Don’t be that person!

People want to know what’s in it for them.

So, if I can’t talk about my products, what am I supposed to talk about, Sandy?! What?

Take the time to develop a content strategy.

Instead, change your perspective and think of how you can help.  Get into their heads and think of what they are searching for when they are looking for problem they need solved.  Is someone interested in losing weight necessarily searching for a personal trainer? Maybe not initially, but if you start blogging about weight loss tips/techniques/recipes they will come across your content as well as your services. It allows you to gain their trust.

The blogs that I did find interesting were sharing relevant news about the industry, case studies, how to’s and best practices. And on occasion they would mention their products & services but that was not the focus of their content. The focus was on educating, helping and consequently, positioning themselves as the go-to company/person for a particular product/service.

Taking this approach will give you much more to share and talk about and shift the focus away from you to them.

So instead of  “ME, ME, ME” think of your customers and ask-“How can I help you today?”

In the next post, we’ll look closer at a developing your content strategy and the different types of content you can create.

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