You’ve run out of blog post ideas for small business. You have 10 minutes to spare before your next meeting. You can do this. Trust me.
This is wide-open, fast and furious, seat-of-your-pants brainstorming. Just write down or type out blog post titles. No jotting down or even thinking about actual content outlines. No keyword research. You’ll do that later. You may scrap half of them later, but those 25 keepers will keep your content fresh for a good long while.
Open Wordpad, you don’t need anything fancy. Set your timer and test yourself. I’m serious. Set your smartphone alarm to go off in 10 minutes. Post how many ideas you came up with in the comments. GO!
- Are you going to a Trade Show? A lot of people will be doing search queries on that trade show. If you have a booth, take a picture of it now so your fans will know what to look for. If the trade show has given you a floor plan, post it, so your fans will know where to find you. If you have been before, make recommendations on restaurants, hotels, etc.
- Have you been to a Trade Show? Post pictures and a recap. First one to make the blog post after (or during) the event wins.
- Same thing for future conferences.
- Same thing for past conferences.
- What are you known for? What do your clients and customers brag on you about? Our clients brag on our well-written proposals, so we wrote a blog post on how to write good proposals.
- Are you active in your community? Post about it. Support ministries and charities by publicizing them and if you’ve helped them out, you can certainly mention that as well.
- Have you updated your website? Maybe you have a new contact form or added new functionality. Tell why that makes your visitor’s life better.
- Newsjacking. Check out David Meerman Scott’s book, Newsjacking, to learn how to do this like a pro. Last month, we made a post discussing how The Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies is an opportunity for Inbound Marketing, which is what we do. You can get another one out of this . . .
- Newsjacking 2
- Create a poll and blog about the results. Center it on your community if you are a regional business. Polls are FANTASTIC content. People love data and it instantly cements you as a thought leader in your area.
- Answer common questions. Talk to your receptionist or whoever answers your phones. What is the most common question they get? Answer it on your blog with a thorough explanation. You just made your receptionist’s life a whole lot better. You can get 3 posts out of this.
- Answer common questions 2.
- Answer common questions 3.
- Your Projects. Finished a project recently? Blog about it. Pictures, client interviews, case studies. Go. This could turn into 10 posts in a hurry. And that’s good.
- Your Projects 2.
- Your Projects 3.
- Your Projects 4.
- Your Projects 5.
- Your Projects 6.
- Your Projects 7.
- Your Projects 8.
- Your Projects 9.
- Your Projects 10.
- Powerpoint. If you or someone on your staff have given a presentation in the last 6 months, dig up that powerpoint and publish it. You can make a PDF and post it or you can share it with a broader audience using SlideShare. If you really want to make your presentations schnazzy, check out Prezi.
- Where in the world is your business? Our office is hard to find if you don’t know downtown Johnson City. On our blog list is to make a short video showing the main arteries through town and walk people right into our office. Recommend a good place to park if you are in a downtown area. The next time someone asks how to find you, send them a link to the post.
- Staff interviews. Text or video. Preferrably both.
- Staff Interviews 2.
- Staff Interviews 3.
- Giveaways. Always a good idea to keep folks interested. Here’s a blog post we wrote about giveaways.
- Who do you follow on Social Media in your industry? Make a post about “Must Follows” in your industry. And don’t forget to Tweet to those folks and let them know they made the list. You can see how that might work in your favor.
- Infographics and Flowcharts. Some people call these link bait. They get links for a reason. They’re great content. Do it.
- Thanksgiving. Make a Top 10 list of things you are most thankful for and tie it in to the business. Write it now and schedule it to post in early November.
- Invite a Guest Blogger. You didn’t even have to work on that one.
- Google Alerts. Use Google Alerts to send you news on industry related terms and then do a round-up article tying a few of them together.
- Google Alerts 2.
- Google Alerts 3.
- Predict the Future. This is always fun. Where is your industry going next. Put a date on it. You could even tie this one in to #1. Predict the topics, speakers, bombshells of the next big trade show. Right or not, you win because people will read it.
- Trip on a Tweet. Find an interesting tweet from an industry personality and agree or disagree in 500 words.
- Trip on a Tweet 2.
- It’s time to debate. Keep it congenial, maybe even lighthearted, but get two folks to take opposing sides on an issue and see how it plays out. (Lou Holtz is hilarious when debating on College Football Final.)
- Mine the Analytics. See what terms people use to get to your site and blog about the Top 5. They will likely be variations of post or page titles you already have and that’s a good thing. It makes you look at your business from a different angle.
- Mine the Analytics 2. Blog around keyphrase #2
- Mine the Analytics 3. Keyphrase #3
- Mine the Analytics 4. ok you get the picture 🙂
- Usability Testing. This can be done on your own website or product or you can go get the latest industry gadget that is somewhat related to yours and find and point out some problems. Do a test on your own website, fix the problems, and make a post about how you fixed them. This can be done on a dime or less. Buy Steve Krug’s book Don’t Make Me Think. Steve explains how to handle usability testing quickly and easily, no two-way windows, no formal reports. Hist testing methods can be applied to any product or industry.
- How To’s on Your Products. How to clean, protect, use, fix, share, etc. etc. etc.
- How To’s on Your Products 2.
- Industry Myths. There’s a lot of hoo-hah in your industry and you know it. Clear the air, for everyone’s benefit. No reason to name names here.
- How to Choose Your Product or Service. What are the key differentiators between the offerings in your industry?
- Best Posts of the Year. Yours or elsewhere on the web-o-sphere.
How did you do? Post your number in the comments. Feel free to post your whole list if you want. GO!
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