I was on a content hamster wheel.
The thought “I need to get another blog post done!” followed by a stretch of quick brainstorming and hasty writing to meet my self-imposed deadline brought a level of stress much greater than running the business itself. And honestly, the result was usually a hodgepodge of content that nobody–neither Google nor my readers–got too excited about. But week after week, month after month, I kept the cycle going thinking that it was sustaining my business.
People were reading it…but was it bringing in business? The answer hurt: very little.
So I needed to quantify what I was doing. What was my blogging ROI? Was I getting back in sales what I’m putting out in drudgery?
I really struggled with this question because I knew that blog content had a number of benefits both for the reader and the business.
What I discovered was that my problem was in WHAT I was writing, which affected HOW I was writing. I needed to focus on what my customers struggled with the most. After I did that, producing content became more intuitive and almost effortless.
Is blogging worth the trouble?
Before I go into how to decide what content to produce, you might be wondering if it’s even worth the endeavor. A recent study by Harris Interactive found that 62% of Americans say they would be more likely to visit a website if its blog content was more interesting and engaging. So we know that people want high-quality content. But there are more benefits to blogging too.
Blogging can help…
- your business be found through keyword-rich content;
- solve common problems that your customers struggle with;
- build an audience around your business;
- create brand awareness and thought leadership;
- improve SEO rankings and online visibility.
Keep in mind that your content doesn’t need to be a written blog. You might prefer to create videos or podcasts. Interesting, engaging, and helpful content can come in any form.
Create content pillars
No matter what the platform, the steps to creating content pillars are the same:
Step 1: Define Your Content Goals
It’s valuable to define your goal up front so you know where you’re headed and how to measure if your strategy is working. Whatever your goals are, it’s probably safe to say your ultimate goal is more business. But it’s difficult to connect a blog post with a sale. A more measurable short-term goal might be…
- more subscribers;
- increased traffic to your website;
- improved customer retention;
- reader feedback.
Step 2: Know your ideal customer so you are addressing their problems
If you have only a vague notion about who your ideal customer is, you will not know who you are writing to. Not convinced? Try writing a paragraph to “everyone” and then write one to your best friend. Your tone of voice, your focus, and your content will all be different, and the one written to your friend will be personal. We all want to work with someone who knows our problems and aspirations so well it feels like they can read our mind. That’s what an ideal customer profile will do, so it’s worth the time to develop that before you start planning. Go ahead and do that now. I’ll wait.
Step 3: Look at your whole business
What products and/or services do you offer? Make a list of them on a whiteboard. If you’re a health coach, it might look something like this:
Step 4: Find broad categories
See what categories you can create from your service areas and the questions people ask you. What categories are similar and what areas are different. If you have a few outliers, leave them out for now. You can always add them later on.
Step 5: Do keyword research
If you’re a health coach, you might think that a broad term like “health and wellness” would be a good keyword to focus on because of its high search volume. But if your article is focused on recipes and the visitor’s intent was to find a fitness coach, you would miss the mark, and Google would notice that. In keyword research, the searcher’s intent matters, and specificity wins the game.
The way to avoid this is to do a brain dump of anything that comes to mind around all of your subcategories. Include a number of single words and phrases (short and long-tail keywords) that would be relevant for your services and your business, given that your end goal is to bring in customers. Then head to the Moz Keyword Explorer *(they have a free plan), search for your ideas, and pay attention to the alternate keywords they recommend.
For example, you may have both “best vitamins for runners” and “most effective vitamins for runners” on your list. You may think they would get similar results, but in fact, the search volume could be wildly different. Once you have a bank of keywords that are highly searched and relevant to your business, you can choose the best keywords words for your content.
Moz will also show you a list of blog posts that have ranked highly on the search engine result pages (SERP) along with the number of sites that link to the articles– all valuable information for you as you access how popular they are and how high the search engines rank them.
*Note: I recommend using Moz’s Keyword Planner over Google’s keyword planner. Here is why
Step 6. Divide them into 3-5 pillars of broad categories.
With your bank of keywords in hand, it’s time to start sorting them into categories. For example, if you are a health coach, you might create categories for foods, exercise, sleep, and mental health, using the best keyword for each.
Step 7: Next, come up with ideas for your content and map it out
For this, take a look at your categories and start breaking them down. Your keyword research will come in handy at this point since you’ll already know what specific terms people are searching for. Your subcategories should be both keyword-relevant and point to a product or service you provide.
Pay special attention to anything that your customers ask about, or that you know is a pain point for them. If you’re stuck coming up with ideas, visit Reddit or Facebook groups that are relevant to your product or service and see what questions people are asking.
Step 8: Schedule them on a content calendar (link)
It’s good to create similar posts in one month that are relevant to the calendar. You might, for example, focus on healthy dessert options around the holidays. To make the planning process easier, download and use my Content Planning tool for both website blog content and social media content.
Step 9: Create content in bulk
I try to batch my content and work well in advance (although I’m still working on perfecting that skill). Blocking out a chunk of time on my calendar helps me batch produce content for a month (or more) and keeps me in the writing headspace. That way I can focus on what makes a good blog post without losing my train of thought. I also use an AI writing tool called Bramework which will help you get an outline and first draft together quickly.
Step 10: Pay attention to the metrics
See what content is drawing people in, and what content is not. If you share your posts via email, what content is getting link clicks? (Sometimes what you think will be popular is not what actually is). Google Analytics will help you track how much traffic is going to your post, and where they are coming from. The metrics tell a story of what is working well and what is missing the mark.
Step 11: Share it!
Since you’ve spent time and energy producing great content, share it with your subscribers and on your social media platforms. Ask people about their thoughts and invite discussion around it. Include a share button on your blog post to make it easier for the readers to share it with their network.
Step 12: Repurpose it
Break your post or video or podcast down into easy-to-consume chunks of learning for your social media followers too. A blog post can become days or even weeks’ worth of content for Instagram Reels, carousel posts, or image posts on Facebook or LinkedIn.
Taming the content beast is doable with planning, and your site (and your business) will be stronger for it.
