It’s funny but sometimes as business owners we get caught up in doing things and forget why we are doing them in the first place. And the problem is that once you forget why you are doing something, you often do a poor job doing it.
For instance, lets consider blogging. Most business owners neglect blogging. The ones that do blog, forget that they are writing a blog post for their target customer.
Instead the blog post is written for some other audience and has vague relation to the product or service you are actually offering. Writing an off topic blog post does not drive sales, engagement, or brand awareness. So today we wanted to help you as a business owner, refocus on why and how to blog with our top 5 blog post ideas!
We are Giving Away Our Top 5 Blog Post Ideas!
The following is a list of 5 different blog post ideas and topics that will help you write engaging content for your ideal customer or client. It will position you as an authority on the subject matter which subtly is helping you to sell your product or service.
1. Blog Post Strategy 1: The YouTube Video ReactionÂ
This blog post is the easiest to do of the bunch & works magic on driving new traffic to your website. The concept is to go to YouTube and find a high quality video in your niche.
Then embed that video in your blog post towards the top and give your evaluation and reaction to the video.
For example if you are a motivational speaker, you should embed a short clip of a Tony Robbins speech.
You can rephrase what he is teaching in your own words, explain the layout of his speech, how he is engaging his audience, and so forth.
What’s so great about the YouTube Video Reaction strategy is that it almost associates your expertise with that of the individual in the video. In this example, Tony Robbins. It’s an instant credibility builder.
Here are the four steps to implement the YouTube Video Reaction Strategy:
- Open YouTube.
- Search for a relevant and high authority video that matches with your niche.
- Embed it into your blog post.
- And, below the video, write a reaction to the video.
You might start by saying, “Here’s my take on that video”.
2. The List Post Method
Often today’s most shared and appreciated blog posts are what we call “list posts”.
List posts are those blog posts that list the “Top 10” or “Top 25 SEO Tools to Use” as an example.
List posts are blog post that pull together or aggregate the most interesting stories, quotes, resources, products, GIFs, photos—and yes, infographics—from a wide variety of sources on the web.
Writing a list post related to your product or service is a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your industry. For example we wrote a list post titled, The Top 20 Questions to Ask and SEO Firm Before Hiring Them!
It has been shared over 521 times on social media networks, consistently drives new leads for our business, and demonstrates our knowledge of our service, SEO.
Everybody loves a top 10 list. Make this a blog post!
Best of all list posts are rather easy to put together. After all you are simply aggregating content from the web. Just make sure you give appropriate credit when due if you use images, quotes, or videos from other websites.
3. Interview an Expert in Your Niche
A post where you interview someone is a win-win all around.
You get content, the profile of the expert is raised and your readers get a fresh perspective.
Make sure that the expert you interview is relevant to your target market, as with all of your blog posts.
Remember: Any interview, if it’s going to increase your blog’s profile, must be of major interest to your niche, or you’ll be wasting your time and energy.
You can contact experts via e-mail, telephone, and so on to request their participation in an interview to be published on your blog.
Your whole interview depends on the number of questions you send. Avoid boring questions. No one has time to read boring content. You’d be surprised how experts will welcome the exposure your interview can bring them.
(This guys looks fairly familiar….Conan O’ Brian even uses Google Hangouts.)
Once you have responses, write a short introductory text, add the expert’s information, and you’re all done.
We highly recommend using a Google Hangout to record a video interview that you can then post on your blog and website.
4. The Quote Post
Quoting is again a great strategy to aggregate content from others so that you do the minimum amount of work. It also can build your expertise with association to other top experts.
The quote post is simply when you aggregate quotes from several authorities in your industry and then post them into one blog post.
These can be quotes from celebrities, industry leaders, speakers, and so forth.
If you are a financial advisor, quoting Warren Buffett makes sense!
Putting together a quote post is rather simple. Here are the steps:
1). Choose a Topic or Question to Ask
2). Outreach to Experts (via social media, their website, or LinkedIn)
3). Ask for Quote (Using Twitter to reach celebrities is your best chance to receive a quote)
4). Create a Quote blog post
5). Use Canva to turn each quote into an image
That’s it!
Bonus tip: The quote post also works great as an info-graphic. Once you have your infographic made, be sure to send the embed code to the experts whose quote you have included in the graphic.
All it would take is one of these experts or celebrities to share your infographic online with their quote included, for you to instantly have your blog post go viral!
5. Create an Engaging Crowdsourced Post
A quick and easy way to write a stylish and engaging blog post is to crowd source the content.
A crowdsourcing blog post is similar to a list post or a quote post except you ask fewer experts for their opinion on a subject matter and expect an answer that goes into greater depth.Â
Many people think that a crowd-sourced post is nothing more than putting a question on Facebook and waiting for your friends to answer. However this would be the wrong way to do it.
The crowdsourced post works best if you can get higher authority figures in your industry to contribute their analysis and answer your question.
Here’s how to do it:
1). Ask industry experts a burning question that your customers might like to know the answer to.
For example, a gym owner or personal trainer may ask celebrities in the fitness space: Â “What motivates you to workout and eat healthy every day?”
Most likely such a question will provoke a rather long answer.
2). Record or transcribe your crowdsourced answers into quotes to include in a blog post
3). Introduce your crowdsourced answers in your blog post, compare the experts responses, and related it back to your service or product.
Don’t forget to share your final blog post with any experts you quoted or crowdsourced their opinion from in hopes they will also share your post online!
Have another blog post strategy that you think we should add to this list? Please let us know in the comments below!
