As we begin a new year, the 78Madison team, among other things, has begun to think about what our blog strategy will be for 2024. Believe it or not, “what to blog” is one of the most common questions asked, particularly at the beginning of a new year. Sometimes it’s a fleeting moment of writer’s block, but also a more terminal issue relating to the fact that you’ve nearly exhausted your topic list. What if your assignment is to write a new blog this week but you don’t know what topic to pick? Pretty annoying, wouldn’t you agree?
To that end, we decided our first blog for 2024 would revolve around how we come up with ideas for things to write about. Perhaps it would help you?
STRATEGY
For starters, the first thing you should always remember is strategy. Every blog post that you do should be something that helps fulfill one of your strategic goals – personally or in business. Never post just for the sake of adding a new article or driving a little bit of traffic. Have a reason for writing what you are writing.
If you don’t have a strategy, then make one! It’s something that we talk about a lot, but we really can’t stress enough how important it is to know why you are blogging in the first place.
SPY ON THE COMPETITION
Yes, do it. Everyone has a blog in their niche that they are a bit envious of. It’s important to regularly look at the content that they are producing and see how you can either do it better or re-do it in a significantly more distinctive way.
RECALL PAST CHALLENGES
One of the most powerful writing strategies we’ve found is to think back to the challenges that you’ve had and write about how you solved them. Everyone can appreciate a problem/solution story.
MINIATURIZE YOUR TOPICS
Imagine you have an idea for a blog such as “How to become an expert at karate”. Think about the important contents of a topic such as this, like punching, kicking, blocking, etc. Then just concentrate on the punching part: make a fist, twist your hips, visualize your target areas, etc. Then move on to kicking. The point is, the more you can break down your topic into key points, the more you will have to write about and the more likely they are to be long term evergreen successes.
TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT – ASK QUESTIONS
Too often we only blog about things we know – which of course makes sense. But that can get a bit boring for the writers, which in turn can result in that dreaded brain freeze. Stir it up. Make some new discoveries – ask questions to those around you. Ask people in your office what they’d like to see in a blog. Ask family members. You will be amazed how many topics will be thrown your way if you ask enough people. Whatever you do, don’t be timid and just dive in.
Not to get sentimental here, but we’ve found that the most important thing to remember when you write a blog is to try and help people. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the thousands of hits that your website gets are made up of real-life human beings. Each of them is looking for a solution to a problem. So, if you really try to pour your heart and soul into helping them discover a solution you will find that your content becomes better quality and your readers become more interested in hearing from you.
Let us know what you think, and happy New Year from the 78Madison team.
78Madison is a full-service marketing communications firm (advertising agency) located in Orlando Florida (Winter Springs, Florida). Let’s start a conversation.