5 Great Content Ideas for Your Business

From creating great content that makes people want to engage with your brand, to making sure you never miss an opportunity to give away information for free and demonstrate your authority in your field, here are 5 ideas for creating great content that will really help grow your business. As John Lincoln of Ignite Visibility explains, SEO and content marketing are key to increasing your visibility online. Below is a simple list of 5 great content ideas that can help you to make your content marketing more effective. As you know, creating content for your website is hard work. It can also be one of the most time-consuming parts of running a successful website or online business. If you are getting sick of creating content for your website or social media, you are doing something wrong. If you need fresh ideas for great content, this is the article for you. These ideas can be used by anyone—from the most inexperienced entrepreneur to the most seasoned pro—to help improve results in any area of their marketing efforts. 1. Share a customer success story or testimonial Ease: Easy to do Useful for: Website, Social Media, Newsletters Time: no time at all Testimonials are one of the oldest and most powerful persuasion techniques around. People love to hear stories about how other people overcame seemingly impossible odds and achieved success. If you have customers that have left reviews on Google or Facebook, then add these sporadically to every page on your website. Copy the text and post this on Social Media. In your next newsletter, add, this is what Mrs Smith has to say about… This is ‘evergreen’ content, so feel free to periodically repost testimonials on social media. If you don’t have any testimonials, start collecting them. Next time you complete a job, or sell something, ask every client to leave a review on Google. 2. What is trending in your industry right now? Ease: Easy to do Useful for: Website Blog, Social Media, Newsletters Time: 15 mins up to 1 or 2 hours What is new or interesting to talk about in your niche, or industry? If you can start a conversation about what’s hot, you could potentially draw in a whole lot of people. To find ideas for topics to talk about, look at online publications for your industry, quickly scan through the article and give your thoughts. You can use this for a quick social media post, “Did you know they are bringing out new legislation for…”, “It’s good to see they are opening a new bar in the city…”, “What is everyone’s thoughts on the new…” – ask a question, then perhaps give your view. If you want to take this further, you can write a blog post and go into much more detail. Once you have written your blog post, add links to your social media and to your next newsletter. 3. Write a case study Ease: Medium Useful for: Website, Social Media, Newsletters Time: 1 or 2 hours+ A case study is just what it sounds like: A compelling story from a client that proves your point, or perhaps show off how great your product or service is. Case studies can dramatically increase the chances your reader will see the value of what you are offering and be convinced to purchase it. Case studies might include:- • About the client / their business • What the issue was • Why did they choose you to fix the issue • What service or product you provided to fix the issue • What are the long term effects of the new system/service/product • In each section, perhaps a testimonial from different people in that business Once you have your case study, you can add the text version to an area on your website. Maybe even create a PDF version that users can download. Periodically post links to different case studies on social media. In your newsletter, add a section, “Read our latest case study from…”. This is ‘evergreen’ content, so feel free to periodically repost links to case studies on social media. 4. Answer a question Ease: Easy Useful for: Website, Social Media, Newsletters Time: 15 mins to 1 or 2 hours As the title states, this is another “How To” post in which you’ll be answering a question. How do you come up with the questions you ask? Here are some quick tips on how to get started: • Search your emails for ‘?’ – When did you last answer a question from a client? You will get lots of questions being asked and lots of answers that you have already answered. Just expand on the quetion. • Type a typical question into google, and it will give a list of related questions • Type into google “questions people ask about ” – the search results will come up with lots of suggestions Once you have your question, post this on social media “Last week, someone asked me . The simple answer was ”. Expand this slightly with a short outcome, “This allowed them to ”. You can easily expand this further into a blog post. If the subject is evergreen, then you can into your bucket of content that you continually post on social media. Why not create a newsletter, with a snippet and link to you blog post, or the question and answer in full? 5. Tell a story Ease: Easy Useful for: Website, Social Media, Newsletters Time: 15 mins to 1 or 2 hours Something interesting happened last week right? Believe it or not something interesting happens every week. It might not be interesting to you, as you do it all the time. But for your clients and potential clients, it’s different to what they do. They hired you for the service you provide. They purchased a product from you. They chose you over all your competition, so you must be doing something right. They will be interested in the same service you provide to your other clients, even if the delivery was slightly different. You may even have provided a product or service to one client, that they haven’t brought from you yet. Or implemented something slightly different for another business that would benefit them. Every time you do something, it will have a benefit to someone. Make their lives easier. Solve a problem. There is a story there. Problem > Solution > Benfit. No matter have small, there is a story. Create a small story from something you did last week and publish this on social media. In the comments, perhaps link to a page on your website for the service or product connected to that service or product. If it was a big undertaking, perhaps create a blog about the story. What the problem was. What the solution was. What the decision process was in order to come to that solution. Detail what were the benefits to the client was. Again, link to this and tell the story in your next newsletter. Conclusion If you’ve been running your business for a while, you probably have a pretty good idea of what your audience wants to hear. You know, like, “Do more X” or “Tell us how you’re making money.” If you want to expand your customer base or improve your conversion rate, have a go at some of the items in the list above of great content marketing ideas for your business. Content marketing for your business is above creating content about your company and the great products and services it provides – writing blog posts, making videos, using social media and email marketing, or writing an ebook. You can use some of these ideas to boost your brand awareness and build your reputation, drive traffic to your website and generate leads for your business. These ideas don’t have to be limited to just one type of marketing. You can mix them all together to create the perfect blend of content marketing for your business. As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop us a line.

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