Ideas of valuable content for small business blogs

As a communications designer and online marketing consultant, I regularly field questions from small business owners about the sort of content they should post on their company blogs. “What can I say that people will want to read?” is what I hear from businesses in the US and the UK alike.

When responding to such questions, I emphasise that small businesses are not competing with the BBC or CNN to be the primary news source for their audiences. Small businesses should focus on their target audience (existing customers, potential customers, suppliers, local journalists and other local businesses), generating content geared to make a connection with that audience.

Valuable blog content for small businesses

Over time, I have developed a list of ideas for types of valuable content that small companies can post on their business blogs. By no means exhaustive, this list gives small business owners a place to start when thinking of ideas to blog about.

• An exciting case study: Discuss how we met a particularly tough business challenge and how that more than met our client’s needs.
• Insight into our business: Reveal our business personality … what sets us apart from our competitors?
• Examples of innovative problem solving: Demonstrate that we’re savvy business people by describing a problem that we resolved with particular ingenuity or innovation.
• Photos of new products, services or from social events: A picture is worth a thousand words … enough said.
• Connections with partner companies: Publicly offer thanks or share the credit with our business partners or suppliers.
• Links to valuable offerings online: When we find a great article offering tips or advice for small businesses, share it!
• Promotion of other local organisations: Market our local business community. There is strength in local promotion, so be an integral part of that.
• Customer ‘how to’ insights: Give customers tips on how to get greater value from our services or products. It’s a good approach for building brand loyalty.
• ‘Day in the life’: When our business interacts with customers it is through our staff; help our customers get to know our greatest assets by featuring them on our blog.
• Professional commentary on recent industry news: Use our experience and expertise to offer insight to high-profile news stories that affect our industry or local area.

My list of valuable content for small business blogs is only a starting point. Use your creativity to generate other ideas. What additional examples can you add that might help other small businesses generate valuable posts for their blogs?