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3 Easy Ways to Get Ideas for Your Company Blog

blog ideasStuck for ideas on what to write about for your company’s blog?  It’s a common complaint, especially if you don’t think of yourself as a writer. But no matter what your industry or profession – be it plumber, landscape lighting contractor or chiropractor – you can come up with plenty of articles for your blog if you focus the topics on these three areas:

  • Price/Cost
  • Problems
  • Comparisons

Price/Cost Blog Topic

Many businesses that sell services, or expensive products, are reluctant to talk about their prices online. They prefer to discuss pricing with prospective customers in person or on the phone.  The reasoning is that their prices may scare off potential customers, who perceive the product or service as being too expensive. Or, businesses may be afraid that their competition will undercut them.

Here’s the problem with this type of thinking.

Why worry that someone can’t afford your products/services? Not everyone can. That’s just a fact of life. You should be more concerned about doing the best job you can, so you’ll attract people who CAN afford your products/services.

As for the competition — well, they probably know your prices already.

You don’t have to mention specific prices in a blog article, but you can talk about pricing in more general terms, such as:

  • Pricing forecast for your industry
  • Compare price ranges of two different products
  • New vs. used in terms of pricing

Write about Problems

Do your customers ever have problems with your products or services? Maybe you already have a list of Frequently Asked Questions that deal with problems on your website. These make great material for blog articles.

Address each problem in a separate article and of course, provide the solution.  Try writing a, “How NOT to…” article for your business  as well as a “How to…” article and explain the problem and solution with each one.

Odds are, for every product or service you sell, you can come up with at least 3-6 articles  that relate to problems.

Compare and Contrast Articles

A third strategy to use for coming up with blog articles is the compare and contrast style.  Write about pros and cons of buying your services/products. Present the best and worst products, services, etc. in your industry and justify your reasoning. If you offer a low-price item versus a  more expensive one – contrast the two and make the case for when people should buy the inexpensive one, versus the deluxe model.

The key in all of these articles is to demonstrate your expertise about your products/services and your industry. Also, keep in mind the Golden Rule of Blogging: “they ask, you answer” which means you will endear yourself to your readers and prospects if you address customer questions and problems in your blog.

Get Organized

Before you write your next blog article, take time to make a list of article titles based on the three categories I’ve mentioned here: Price/Cost, Problems & Comparisons. Use an editorial calendar to plan out when you’ll publish each article. This way, you can finally stop stressing about what to write about and concentrate on providing useful content for your prospects and customers.

If you enjoyed this article, please share it on Facebook, etc.

Golden rule of blogging
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The Golden Rule of Blogging

Golden rule of bloggingOne of the highlights of the Social Media Marketing World conference that I recently attended was a presentation by Marcus Sheridan, owner of River Pools & Spas, and creator of The Sales Lion blog.

Marcus shared his story about how he was able to rescue his pool business from near bankruptcy when the recession hit in 2008, by starting a blog. Marcus did something unique with his very first article, that no other pool builder had done before. He wrote an article that talked about how much a fiberglass pool costs. Continue reading “The Golden Rule of Blogging”

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5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs an Editorial Calendar

Editorial Calendar Ever since Google’s Panda update, content marketing has become all-important since businesses have been told that they need to come up with original content for their websites. But the challenge lies in creating that content. If you don’t have a plan in place, you may find yourself struggling to come up with ideas for the next week’s blog post or your company newsletter. Continue reading “5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs an Editorial Calendar”

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3 Reasons Why You Might be Reluctant to Start a Hotel Blog

Starting a hotel blog One of the best ways to enhance hotel marketing efforts is to start a hotel blog. But many small properties and boutique hotels don’t engage in blogging. If you’re a property owner or hotel manager, you may be reluctant to start a blog for one of these 3 reasons: Continue reading

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7 Ways to Use Pinterest to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

pinterest drive blog traffic Want to drive more traffic to your blog? Start pinning!

If you aren’t up on the latest social media craze, let me enlighten you. Pinterest, the image sharing website, has become the third largest social networking site – driving more traffic to websites than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn, combined. The majority of users are women between the ages of 18-44. Why is this important? Women make the majority of buying decisions! If you want to tap into this market, your business should be on Pinterest. Continue reading

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Why Your Boutique Hotel or B&B Needs a Blog

I’ve been searching for boutique hotels on Google lately to see how many include a blog as part of their marketing strategy. The results have been interesting. The vast majority of boutique hotels and bed & breakfasts on page one and two of Google all have blogs. But most of the hotels and B&B’s on subsequent pages do not. This is a missed opportunity on their part. Let me explain why. Continue reading

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Why it Might be Worthwhile to Chime.in

[tweetmeme]Chime-In logoAre you ready to Chime.in? No, that’s not a punctuation error. Chime.in is a new social networking site. Uh oh. Did I just hear a collective “Not another one!!!!” coming from my fellow small business owners? Don’t panic. I think this one has potential. I already like it more than Google+ and I’m still working on setting up own account. Once I do, I’ll have a full review. In the meantime, check out this Mashable article. They’re calling Chime.in a cross between Twitter, blogging and Reddit.

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Free Webinar: 10 Blogging Techniques to Generate Sales

[tweetmeme]Blogging may have been overshadowed in 2010 by Facebook, but it’s still a valuable tool in a company’s marketing arsenal.

Technorati, the leading blog search engine, reported last year that 58% of business owners who blog have sold products or services to their readers. So if you’re a small business owner without a blog, 2011 is the time to launch one!

Join this free webinar on Wednesday, January 19, 2011 to learn:

· Importance of using guest bloggers
· Why search engine optimization strategies are necessary
· How to leverage the power of social networking sites for your blog

You’ll also get a sneak peek at the upcoming unGeeked e’lite social media, branding and marketing retreat coming to Orlando, FL in March.

Join SEO Copywriter & Social Media Consultant Gloria Rand for this high-impact, one hour webinar.

Title:
FREE Webinar: 10 Blogging Strategies to Generate New Sales
Date: Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Time: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/745384030
After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

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7 Best Sites to Supply Content for Your Facebook Business Page

[tweetmeme]

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=facebook&iid=4353147″ src=”7/8/c/c/PicImg_Social_Networking_Sites_8bda.jpg?adImageId=12939135&imageId=4353147″ width=”234″ height=”130″ /] Stumped about where to find content to share with readers of your Facebook business page?

Social media coach, Mari Smith, the “Pied Piper of Facebook” shared a list of 7 websites during a recent session of the Social Media Success Summit 2010.

I thought I’d share the list with those of you who may not be attending the summit.

  • Socialmediaexaminer.com – This site was started by white paper expert Michael Stelzner and features great how-to articles on everything to do with social media, from Facebook to Twitter to blogging. Excellent resource.
  • Smartbrief – I learned about this site from Guy Kawasaki, the founder of Alltop, who was the keynote speaker at SMSS2010. This site offers excellent content from different industry niches. You can sign up to have newsletters delivered to your inbox daily. I’ve already found terrific content here.
  • Mashable – Great source for news about technology & social media
  • Marketingprofs – terrific content about marketing
  • readwriteweb – lots of great info about the internet, social media, etc.
  • chrisbrogan – Chris is the author of Social Media 101, so naturally he blogs about social media
  • techcrunch –  technology, internet, social media site

If you have any other recommendations, I’d love to know what they are. Reply to this blog post, or email Gloria@gloriarand.com.

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