How can I come up with new blog ideas?
Generating regular content for your financial services business needn’t keep you awake at night
Writing a regular blog is a great way of increasing awareness about your company and driving traffic to your website. But even the greatest writers suffer from the dreaded writer’s block from time to time.
Here, we look at five ways to keep the ideas flowing and to keep your financial services content marketing strategy on track.
#1 Listen to your customers
The main purpose of a business blog is to create added value for your customers. A successful blog is one that helps clients to solve a problem so a good place to start is by targeting common queries you receive – whether those arise by phone, email or face to face.
For example, an accountancy firm could write a blog on the steps that a business needs to take to register for VAT. A financial adviser could write a blog on the pros and cons of investing pension savings into a buy-to-let property, compared to taking out an annuity.
#2 Write a series of blogs
While you are not limited to a word count on a web page, this doesn't mean that you should write literary epics. According to web analytics provider Chartbeat, 55% of visitors spend less than 15 seconds on a web page, while the average number of words per page is 593.
If you don’t think you can do a topic justice in less than 600 words, then break it down into more manageable chunks. Rather than creating one weekly blog that readers will struggle through, you could have several weeks’ worth of informative material.
#3 Be inspired by your competitors
Other organisations in your industry are engaged in some form of content marketing. While plagiarism is certainly not advised, you can quite easily borrow a theme and put your own personal slant on it. You might even disagree with what your competitor, or entire industry, is saying about a particular subject.
Taking a slightly different view will help to establish you as a thought leader as well as giving you new ideas for content.
#4 Comment on the news
Besides being inspired by competitors, financial services industry news is a good source of ideas for a blog. While ‘evergreen content’, blogs that remain relevant for a long period of time, are more likely to generate traffic in the long term, Chartbeat has found that people spend more time reading newsworthy posts.
Rather than regurgitating what the news is, however, give your thoughts on how an industry reform is likely to affect your customers in particular. If a major industry study has produced findings that do not seem to represent what your customers have been telling you, then say so.
#5 Be trendy
If you have seen a trend developing, for example, an accountancy firm might have seen a surge in SMEs becoming VAT-registered, write about it. Give your thoughts on why you think it is. If you have been in your industry for a number of years, comment on whether you have seen this before or whether it is a new trend.
Carrying out small-scale market research among your clients, using free software such as SurveyMonkey, could help to generate a number of ideas around this.
If you would like help generating ideas and writing blogs for your business, then contact Love Letters here.
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