If you’re here, it means you don’t want to publish content randomly. You understand that creating blog content without a plan is akin to driving without a map. You may have a destination in mind, but you lack the knowledge of how to reach it precisely. It becomes more challenging to navigate when you have to chart the entire route on your own. So, you’re probably contemplating the approach for your blog:
- Which topics should I write about?
- How in-depth do I need to go?
- How often should I publish new blog posts?
- What content will make my audience take action instead of just passively read?
Fortunately, you don’t need to navigate through the questions alone when it comes to devising your blog content strategy. This article presents six straightforward measures to help you achieve your goal: establishing a robust, enduring strategy for your blog that ultimately generates revenue for your business.
The Elements of a Blog Content Strategy
A blog content strategy is the link between your blog and the company’s objectives and products. It ensures that your blog content is purposeful and cohesive, rather than relying on your team’s sporadic bursts of creativity. However, it doesn’t have to be overly complex. In fact, a solid blog content strategy can be built upon only three key elements.
- Your audience, and the problems they’re looking to solve
- Your product, and how it solves those problems
- Your content, and how it connects problems to solutions
Your Audience and Their Problems
When determining your target audience, consider the desired outcome they seek and the obstacles preventing them from achieving it. Begin by questioning yourself:
- Who are our current best customers (for example, those with highest spend, lowest support needs, and/or have been with you for a long time)?
- What qualities do our best customers share?
- What made them search for a solution like our product or service?
- What do these customers gain by choosing us instead of our competitors (or doing nothing)?
Your Product as a Solution
When you have a clear understanding of your target audience’s pain point, your product becomes the solution they need. This applies to various types of products and services, whether they are software subscriptions, physical products, delivered services, digital products, or a combination of these. By comprehending your target audience and how your product seamlessly integrates into their personal or professional life, you gain the ability to:
- Launch and update products and features they need and will actually use
- Describe and position your product through marketing and sales in a way your audience can understand and relate to
Your Content and Its Role to Connect Problems to Solutions
The content you provide should address the inquiries of your audience when they are searching for a solution. Your intended audience may not be in a purchasing mindset, and may not even be aware of the specific problem they are facing yet. This is why your blog should not solely focus on your products or company, but should instead encompass the entire range of the customer journey.
- Awareness (top of the funnel, or TOFU): your audience is learning about the problem they’re experiencing
- Evaluation (middle of the funnel, or MOFU): your audience is evaluating types of solutions for their problem
- Decision (bottom of the funnel, or BOFU): your audience is ready to choose a specific product or service to solve their problem
Your blog content needs to educate and empower potential customers throughout their journey towards finding a solution, as the path from awareness to decision is seldom straightforward. Failing to do so will give your competitor the opportunity to do it instead.
The Tools of the Trade
You don’t need a lengthy 50-page document for your blog content strategy that no one reads. On the contrary, it should be an easily understandable and direct action plan that you and your team can depend on. To achieve this, you only require three uncomplicated tools.
- An editorial calendar
- A content idea backlog
- A blog content strategy template
1. Your Editorial Calendar
What is the upcoming scheduled blog post? What is the planned format? Who is responsible for writing, editing, approving, and publishing it? How does it align with the current marketing strategy of the company? There are various options available for an editorial calendar, such as printed calendars, Excel spreadsheets, and specialized apps. Ensure that your chosen option meets your requirements for collaboration, workflows, automation, and flexibility. Tools like CoSchedule’s Marketing Calendar allow you to effectively plan and schedule all your content from one platform, whether you work alone or as part of a team of 20. It provides you with a comprehensive view of both past and future blog content, making it convenient to adjust your priorities when necessary.
2. Your Content Idea Backlog
Afterwards, it is necessary to have a centralized location where all content concepts can be stored and easily accessible for every member of your team. This is the spot where you will store all your content ideas generated during brainstorming sessions, as well as any ideas that arise spontaneously at different times, such as those from:
- A customer email
- A sales conversation
- Social media listening
- Questions from your target audience on Reddit, Quora, etc.
- Audience surveys
CoSchedule’s Idea Board is perfect for this purpose as it allows you to classify content ideas, allocate team members, and effortlessly organize topics that you are ready to work on. What’s more, it can be accessed by your entire team, ensuring optimal productivity.
You will never feel like you’re out of topics to write about again when you have a backlog of ideas.
3. Your Blog Content Strategy Template
In order to populate both your editorial calendar and your idea backlog, it is essential to have a straightforward document outlining your blog content strategy.
- Your target audience and its key characteristics
- A list of top problems your audience faces
- Your solutions for those problems (products, services, and/or features)
- Your content core
- Your blog categories
- Your top keywords, with volume and difficulty
6 Effective Strategies to Find Blog Topics
1. Learn From Your Favorite Blog Sites
When you contemplate starting your own blog, it is important to visit a website that you genuinely enjoy or find inspiring.
What aspects of the site do you enjoy? Are you fond of the blog topics or the blogger’s writing style? Does the arrangement of information and the visual presentation of blog posts please you, or do you think improvements could be made?
When you begin your own blog, it is important to pay close attention to the small details, as they can be useful.
2. Find Your Niche… Or Don’t!
You might hear from numerous accomplished bloggers that discovering your niche is essential. Indeed, having a unique idea or subject is crucial for beginning a successful blogging journey – but is it necessary to exclusively focus on one niche or topic? Absolutely not!
In order to achieve genuine success, bloggers should progress and adapt their blog site as they expand, even if they initially began with a broad focus known as an umbrella niche encompassing various related topics.
You have the freedom to control the content on your blog site, allowing you to explore various topics and discover what motivates you to write. However, it is important to avoid going too far off track. For instance, it would be inappropriate for a fashion blogger to suddenly shift their focus to writing about car engines.
Ensure that the subjects you choose align with the vision you have for the site, and allow your creative instincts to steer you.
3. Use the Internet
The internet is an excellent tool for staying informed about current trends and monitoring the activities of your potential competitors. You don’t necessarily need to know every detail of their actions, but it can provide you with some extra inspiration and a few valuable ideas as well!
Posting your blog site’s content on social media is a proven way to promote engagement and increase the visibility of your posts, making it an excellent platform for keeping up with the latest trends in the blogging community.
4. Choose Topics That Interest You
Take some time to consider how you can transform your passion into incredible content, as everyone has something they are intrigued by. Compile a list of your personal preferences, whether it involves your love for cooking or expertise in gardening. Are you skilled in DIY projects or do you possess a keen eye for fashion that could contribute to a popular blog?
After making a list, begin analyzing the subjects you consider yourself most proficient in. Once you have mastered this, you can transform the question “what topics should I write on my blog?” into highly informative content.
5. Check Out What’s Trending
Certain blog topics may have a fleeting presence, whereas others consistently maintain their popularity. To discover the presently trending subjects, consider conducting a swift Google Trends search or explore blogging forums. Remember to actively participate in these forums by posing your own queries and providing advice, instead of being a mere observer.
6. Use Online Tools
Despite the fact that even the most skilled writers employ tools to guarantee impeccable grammar and the desired tone in their blogs, it is insufficient to generate the necessary visibility for your blog to stand out in an overly crowded domain.
To increase visibility of your blog writing, make use of tools like:
- Keyword and trend research tools. Some big names include Keywords Everywhere, Moz Keyword Tracker, and Google Trends
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization) platforms – we think SEMrush is great!
- Spelling and grammar checkers. Grammarly is gold!
- Plagiarism checkers. Copyscape works for us, but there are a whole bunch on the market!
If your main objective for your blog is to rank highly on Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) – and honestly, why wouldn’t it be? – these tools will be extremely valuable. While your first blog may not immediately reach the top rankings, don’t lose hope – your content will gradually rise in the rankings as your blog builds a dedicated and enthusiastic audience.
