Building Your Small Business Blog: Where to Find Great Topic Ideas

You know that having a blog on your small business website is a smart idea. After all, it helps with SEO and positions you as an industry expert. However, coming up with blog topics can be incredibly challenging. While you will likely be able to generate a dozen or more topics off the top of your head, you’ll eventually hit a roadblock.

Luckily, there are plenty of great resources available. These give you enough ideas for your blog posts for the foreseeable future.

Do an Online Search for Topics

A simple starting point is to search online. Just enter the term “[Industry] blog topics.” You will likely find numerous lists with dozens of ideas. These topics will range from industry-specific blog posts, such as news stories in your industry. You will also find general topics, such as telling your brand story.

Share Industry News

News stories in your industry will also make for an excellent source for blog topics. The key here is to focus on stories that are newsworthy to your audience. For instance, if you are a clothing store, you could find news stories about celebrity outfits or fashion trends. Or if you are a pharmacy, you could share stories about new medicines and breakthroughs in the field.

Use Content Tools

Don’t overlook the usefulness of content tools to help you come up with topics. There are various tools that will generate topics for you based on keywords. You can also use content tools to determine what keywords you should focus on. From there, you can create blog posts that revolve around those keywords.

Ask Your Customers

Part of your goal with your blog is to appeal to your customers and provide the information they need. You want them to see you as their go-to source for answers. Given that, it makes perfect sense that you ask them what they would like you to write about.

You can do so by sending out a quick survey. You can even ask a few questions about potential topics or categories of topics along with another survey that you send out. For the best results, keep the survey short, sticking to about five to ten questions. To make it even simpler, stick to multiple choice or checkboxes when crafting your survey. Just add a space for optional comments.

Look for Common Online Searches

In addition to asking your customers what they want to know more about, you can try to figure out what people are looking for online. Type in a keyword or phrase for your industry or business and look at Google’s “People Also Ask” section. You can also check the “related searches” section. Both of these are excellent sources for topics.

Look at Online Forums

Yet another option to determine the questions your audience wants answered is to look at forums. While forums are less popular than they have been in the past, there are still plenty of online communities and forums to get inspiration from. Some options include Reddit and Quora.

Check Comments on Blogs, Posts, Photos, and More

Comments are also a good source of topics your audience is interested in. These can include comments on nearly any topic under the sun. If there’s a comment on a recent blog post asking about a related topic, use it as an idea. Browse through your posts and photos on social media. Topics people commonly mention in the comments section give you a picture of the kind of content that would engage your target audience.

Ask Your Team

Your team can provide great ideas for blog ideas. Maybe they have a special interest within your industry that they could write about. Or perhaps the frequently asked questions from clients would make good topics for blog posts.

Get Ideas from Other Blogs

A simple and effective way to find good blog topics that attract attention is to look at blogs of competitors in your industry. Ideally, find a few companies in your industry that have really good blogs and keep them bookmarked for easy reference. Whenever you need inspiration, you can easily visit their blogs to get ideas for your own blog topics.

Just remember that you need to churn out original work. If you see a topic you like, read what other blogs have written about the same topic. Combine all the information from multiple resources and add your own personal touch based on your industry knowledge.

Get Ideas From Your Business

A long list of blog topics can come from within your business. Depending on how you use these ideas, you get an endless list of potential topics as your company grows. Some topics can easily lead to dozens of posts. For example, you could have a separate post interviewing each member of your staff. Some other ideas can include:

Different aspects of your company story
Interviews with staff members
Interviews/testimonials of clients
Introductions to products and services
Announcements of new products
Upcoming expansions
Any other company news

Convert Other Types of Content Into Blogs

Your small business likely creates multiple types of content as part of your marketing efforts. In addition to blogs, you likely have video marketing and social media posts. Get in the habit of reusing content. You can take a popular video and turn it into a blog post or turn a blog post with a lot of comments into a video. If one of your social media posts gets a lot of engagement, see if you can turn it into a full-length blog post.

Incorporate Local Events

Small businesses tend to be closely connected with their communities. So, it makes sense to include the occasional blog post about your community. Use your blog to write about upcoming community events that are somehow related to your industry. You may opt to interview community members that are involved in the events. A good example of this is when a business like a gym interviews local college athletes for a blog post.

Write Down All Your Ideas

Some great ideas for blog topics can come up in the most random moments. Get in the habit of jotting down your ideas when they come to mind. Even if you already have a lineup of next month’s set of headlines, keeping a record of all your ideas ensures you never run out of interesting and relevant blog topics.

Conclusion

With these tips, you will find yourself with a never-ending supply of blog topics. All you have to do is write engaging and compelling content, making sure you post your blogs strategically to maximize their impact.