Many blogs struggle to find their voice. They struggle to find the crossover between what they can create and what the audience wants. And obviously I’m talking about the writer or writers of the blog. But usually what the writers are creating comes from the business’s values and experience in some way.
It can take awhile to find what’s relevant to the target audience. You can get a pretty good idea by looking at other blogs in the industry. But you don’t necessarily want to copy their style and their topics. You want to build off what others are creating. You want to bring something unique to the landscape.
If you’re struggling to find relevant topics for your business blog, here are some tips that might help.
1. Post Regularly
Obviously we are all looking for quality with the content we create. But that can cripple a lot of writers. You have to get through the quantity in order to figure out what works. And it’s really the only way to possibly get good at anything. It’s not a guarantee, but you can’t really skip the work.
If you’re struggling to create relevant posts for your audience I would suggest posting more often and on a regular schedule. Force yourself to commit to and stick to the routine. Force yourself to look for more and new ideas. Experiment. That’s really the only way to learn what will work and what won’t. You’ll find a lot of what won’t. But you only need one thing to work out to be off and running.
2. Aim For Timeless Posts
Evergreen content. It’s known by other names. There is a tendency in blogging it seems to write about the present. What is going on the news. Or creating news-type articles. This can be good. It can be great actually. But news content is usually short-lived.
When was the last time you read a newspaper from last week? Let alone five years ago.
It’s not easy, but when blogging look to find timeless topics. Look back on your old posts to find what is still relevant to readers. Those are clues to the types of posts you should be writing more.
3. Share More Stories
Humans connect in a few ways. One of the key ways is through storytelling. Share the experiences you have in the business. With customers. With employees. Everyone. Talk about what is happening in the business. Maybe share an old story about the early days of the business.
The more human elements you can include in your blogs the more people are likely to connect to the content. I can’t explain exactly why it works, but it’s one of the best ways to blog. Stories are good.
4. Connect The Past To The Present
Sometimes we have short memories. We think what is happening now is happening for the first time. It’s especially true every 80 years or so. That’s about the average human life. And as people reach that age and die, their memories start to fade from history. We often hear stories from our grandparents. But as time goes on those memories fade and get lost.
But it also makes us feel comforted when we know that things often happen in a cycle. Talk to the folks that have been with your company for awhile. See how current events relate to previous events. If your company isn’t that old then talk to others in the industry. Colleagues. Vendors. See what their stories from the past are.
Then make connections from the past to the present.
Conclusion
These are just a few ideas for making your content more relevant to your readers. Unfortunately there aren’t any shortcuts. You just have to put in the work to see what your readers are looking for. You have to experiment. See what others are doing. Emulate them. Then try to find your own offshoot on certain topics and see what hits with readers.