You’ve got people on your team who talk to customers all day, every day. What are they saying? What problems do they face? What questions do they ask most often? If your team hears common themes, there’s good reason for it. Prospective customers likely have the same issues, and would find content about them valuable. A ten-minute, informal conversation with someone on your customer service team could lead to plenty of ideas.
What keywords would you love to rank for on Google? Choose one from your keyword list, and write about it. If you’ve got a product or service page on your site optimized for that keyword (hint: you should), then you can hyperlink your content to that page. The interlink will help SEO from a technical perspective, and with the right call to action, the relevancy will help covert prospective customers to leads and sales.
You’ve likely got piles of old print flyers and literature laying around your offices. While some might be outdated, some is likely still relevant with a few tweaks. Great examples include checklists, comparison sheets, and case studies. Type them out, rearrange them for the web, and update details for a fresh new piece.
While it’s not appropriate in every situation, a human interest piece is a wonderful way to infuse your company’s personality and brand into your online marketing. You can also use it to show your depth of experience, which plays well into nurturing customers for results. Do you have a long-tenured employee with a special history and a lot of industry know-how? Have your recently celebrated a corporate milestone? Write about it, and then tie it back to a reason to do business with your company.
While you can’t copy what they’re writing, you can use it as a springboard for your own ideas. Did they make a point, but neglect to expand on an important aspect? Write about just that aspect. Did they write a white paper about a topic that could be summed up in a quick blog post? Decide what matters most, and write about that. There’s nothing wrong with using competition to stir up some inspiration.
No matter which path you choose to generate your ideas, don’t overthink the writing process. If you speak to your prospective customers in a genuine, helpful way, you’re off to a great start.
There are 7 key areas you need to focus on to attract, acquire, and engage clearly defined target audiences with the goal of driving action. Learn more in our essential guide to B2B content marketing.
And if you want a partner to help make sure your writing efforts produce results, contact SVM for a content marketing consultation.