One of the most common excuses I hear about why a business doesn’t employ a blog on their website is because they’re afraid they won’t have anything to talk about, or they won’t be able to find topics to continue writing about past the first few posts.
I hear things like:
- my business doesn’t really change that much
- my business isn’t that exciting
- I don’t know what I would write about
Sound familiar?
If you’ve caught yourself reciting any of these lines, I just want to tell you – you’re wrong.
Coming up with content for your business blog might seem like a daunting task at first but I’m going to share with you a few awesome tools and some handy tips to make your life easier.
Here are 3 free tools you can use to generate blog post ideas:
Portent’s Content Idea Generator
https://www.portent.com/tools/title-maker
I really love this tool because all you have to do is drop in your topic and the generator literally handles the rest for you. It doesn’t get any easier than this.
For example, let’s say I want to write a blog post about “email marketing” but I’m not sure what aspect I should write about. I just write “email marketing” into the box at the bottom of the screen and bam, instant blog topic.
If I like what it gives me, I can run with it. If not, I can click the refresh icon and get a new idea. The idea it kicked back to me for this example was “The 16 Best Email Marketing YouTube Videos.”
Personally, I could definitely see myself reading an article like that to get a round-up of the 16 best videos for email marketing. If I wanted to run with this idea, my next stop on the web would be over to YouTube to start gathering videos for my blog post.
Just to show you that these tools really can work for any industry, this is what it kicked back to me for auto insurance:
Hubspot Blog Topic Generator
https://www.hubspot.com/blog-topic-generator
You can talk about content marketing or blogging without mentioning Hubspot. They are a powerhouse for content marketing tools and resources and their Blog Topic Generator is right on target.
The directions are pretty self-explanatory: Fill in the fields with terms (preferably nouns) that you’d like to write about, and they’ll give you 5 blog ideas.
I wrote in “blogging“, “email marketing” and “SEO” and here’s what it kicked back to me:
- Why we Love Blogging (And You Should Too!)
- 10 Quick Tips About Email Marketing
- 15 Best Blogs to Follow About Seo
- Think You’re Cut Out For Doing Blogging? Take This Quiz
- 14 Common Misconceptions About Email Marketing
Using those as guides (with a little tweaking maybe), I could easily see each one of those as a post on my blog.
Here is an example using the fitness industry – I used the terms “Weight Loss“, “Fitness” and “Workouts“:
There’s a little overlap on blog topics but these all look like solid blog ideas. Give it a try.
TweakYourBiz.com Title Generator
http://tweakyourbiz.com/tools/title-generator/index.php
This is one of my favorite blog idea generators because the list of ideas it spits out is pretty comprehensive. If you’ve read my previous post about 5 types of headlines our brains are wired to click, you’ll recognize this generator presents ideas for your search term that cover all 5 of these types of headlines and more.
In this example, I used the term “SEO” to generate ideas. What it gave me was 344 title ideas, arranged by type of headline (lists, how-to, questions, etc), as well as all titles together in one big list if I wanted to copy and paste them into my own file.
The only downside to this particular tool is that the grammar isn’t always perfect on some of its title suggestions, but it should at least jumpstart your creative process and give you a starting point.
In keeping up with the other examples, here are some titles that were generated when I used the term “security system“:
- The 5 Biggest Security Systems Mistakes You Can Easily Avoid
- Apply These 5 Secret Techniques To Improve Your Security System
- How To Improve Your Security System In 60 Minutes
- 14 Days To A Better Security System
- Security Systems: Do You Really Need One?
Bonus Idea Generator: Ask Your Customers
Seriously. Just ask them. Most people will tell you what they want to know about your industry, especially if it helps them make a more educated buying decision.
Conclusion
Blogging is such a powerful tool for a business, it:
- builds authority within in your industry
- builds credibility in the eyes of your customers and potential customers because you’re showcasing your knowledge and expertise
- turns your website into a resource of knowledge to educate people
You can create consistent, regular content for any industry in any niche, so don’t let a fear of not having enough topics or information stop you. The potential is literally unlimited!