One major concern that we get from companies is that they don’t know how to continuously produce quality content for their business blog. If you’re a content marketer trying to drive profitable customer action, you know the struggle of producing content that your customers would search for and enjoy while staying relevant to your field of business.

Here are our easy-to-implement tips for continuously producing quality content for business blogs:

Schedule Time for Blogging

I can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard business owners say “I don’t have the time to blog.” In the context of your business, blogging is marketing — free marketing. So take the time- whether you hire us to do it for you or do it yourself. It’s one of the best tools for increasing your visibility online and shouldn’t be left out of your marketing plan.

To make the time, you have to schedule it. To be efficient, we suggest using a content calendar. Make half-hour slots for blogging at least 2-3 times a week and schedule your writing during the hours when you are most creative or productive. For me, it’s mid-morning, but each person will have a time that works best for them.

If you only have one day a week to blog, there’s nothing wrong with writing multiple blogs and scheduling them to publish over the course of a week or two.

Make a List of Categories and Subtopics

By listing categories and subtopics that are relevant to your industry, you will always have a blog posts at your fingertips. Find out what interests your audience and list the categories and subtopics that are of high interest. For example, as a marketing blog, we could have categories like “SEO, Content Writing, Social Media Marketing, Print Collateral, etc.” and subtopics like “Facebook Marketing, Twitter Marketing, Keywords, Tags, Images, and Advertisements.”Now this is a short list, but from it I can vary posts among categories and have a guide to follow when creating content.

You can add another layer to your planning by assigning each topic to a style of post:

• How-to
• Top 10 List
• Opinion
• Case Study
• Q&A
• Interview

Finally, assign each subtopic idea to a date on your editorial calendar and you’ve got four months of blog post ideas so you’re not facing that all-too-familiar blank page. Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from being spontaneous when a current event or hot topic in your business must be addressed with a blog post.

Make it a Team Effort

Unfortunately, for many businesses, even larger organizations, the marketing falls on the shoulders of just a few. That’s why we believe that any business can and should enlist their teams to increase blog variety and volume so that they are found by more readers. Employees want your company to succeed, so why not have them create their own content pertaining to their skill-set and field of work?

Without fail, there is always a diamond in the rough just waiting to show his or her talent to the rest of the company, and world for that matter, by embracing the content marketing opportunities. Companies that grow and get to know they’re employees skill sets, capabilities, etc., and having them participate in creating content for the company brand already have a leg-up on the competition.

Write About Common Customer Questions

The simplest FAQs that you answer everyday can make some of the most powerful posts because everyone wants the answer. Common questions will be searched frequently, and since we often search in question format, these posts are great for generating search traffic. They also tend to have higher click-through rates in search engines, social media and email newsletters. Also, there’s an additional benefit that comes along with answering common questions. When someone asks you it again, instead of explaining the same scenario over and over, just send them the link.

Read, Read, Read

Everything you do, every conversation you have, every book, article or blog you read, becomes ideas for your own blog. Make a list of industry leaders that are constantly posting new material or coming out with new ideas and follow them on social media to stay current on hot topics. Create a list of ideas and links that you find and when you’re having blogger’s block, you can draw inspiration from it.

When in Doubt, Interview.

Interviews are one of the best ways to create content – you build a relationship with an expert, gain credibility, learn and educate your audience. Its easy, the benefits are great, and you usually don’t know exactly what topics may be covered or what interesting tangents the interview may take.

Leverage Your Blog Material on Other Platforms

So, you’ve posted some great content on your blog. Don’t stop there- share that content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. Have a newsletter? Put links to it in there!

Image courtesy of Crenshaw Communications.

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