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Where do you find ideas for your business blog?
We’ve talked about a number of sources for topics:
Here’s another idea to add to your topic-generation machine: Ask your readers.
We may think we know what readers want to see, but the best way to know for certain is to actually ask them. The results will not only spark new ideas for business blog topics, but can also provide insight into how often your readers visit similar blogs, what types of content they prefer to see and what challenges they are currently encountering.
We believe in practicing what we preach. So we want your feedback! Click here and tell us what you want from the Inbound Accelerator - it will take less than 5 minutes - so we can provide even more of the posts that help you reach your marketing goals.
1. What to ask in a blog survey:
Ask readers about their online habits: blogs, social media and other online content
Get to know your readers’ more general habits. Do they read a number of blogs, or only yours? Do they read business blogs about your industry only occasionally, or every week? Do they subscribe or just read what they come across on social media?
Also ask if they are part of your social media networks and how often they visit those sites or use the mobile apps.
Do they read blogs mostly on a computer or more often on a mobile device?
Answers to these questions could help you identify gaps in your blog promotion efforts and help you learn how best to format your blog pages for the device most of your readers are using.
2. Ask readers about the topics they are interested in reading
Ask about topics in a couple of ways. First, you can list the topics your business blog typically covers and then ask readers to choose their top three or five areas of interest. If most readers choose a topic you haven’t covered very much, or revisited lately, you now have the sign you need to dig deeper into that subject.
Along with listing the topics you already cover, ask an open question: What subject area would you like to see us address that we don’t already?
3. Ask readers about their format preferences
Blog posts can come in many different formats. Here are templates for five text-based formats: lists, how-to posts, curated collections, newsjacking posts and SlideShare presentations.
But not everyone gravitates toward text.
Ask your readers to rank the blog format types they read most often, offering them the options listed above, along with video, infographics, or audio/podcasts.
Ask also about what length they prefer. Do your readers want “quick hit” content they can read in just a couple of minutes, or are they willing to invest the time into read in-depth meaty material?
While your best bet is to provide a variety of content to appeal to different personas and personality types, the survey results could point to areas of opportunity.
4. Ask readers what challenges they are encountering that you might be able to address
Earlier I said to ask readers what topics they want to read about, but this question, which should be open-ended, is even more specific.
“What problems or challenges are you facing that we can help you solve?
Business blogs shouldn’t be about the business that is publishing them. Business blogs should be about the problems their customers face. (See more on that here.)
Asking this question, and then addressing the responses in your blog, shows your readers and prospects that you are focused on their success. It also provides information not only about what your blog can emphasize, but about the pain points that all of your marketing and sales efforts should address.
Now, what do YOU think? We want to know about you, our readers.
Click here to respond to our Inbound Accelerator survey - tell us what inbound marketing topics you want to read about, what blog formats you prefer, and what marketing challenges we can help you address.
