How many times have you heard that as a business all you need to do is write ‘useful’ content for your customers? Probably about as many times as you’ve heard that all you need to do is write ‘awesome’ posts.
The problem is that all the ‘experts’ tell you to write useful content, but don’t tell you what constitutes content that is ‘useful’. Last year I addressed the issue of how to write an awesome blog post, now let’s talk about how to create ‘useful’ content on your business blog.
What Exactly Is ‘Useful’ Content?
First, we need to tighten our definition of ‘useful’ content. For the purposes of this post, useful content on a business blog is any content that creates value for both the reader AND for the content creator. Too often, blogging businesses focus on creating useful content for itself, or its customers, but rarely does a business create content that nails both. In short, with each post you publish on your business blog, you should be able to point to the value being created for your reader, and for your business.
An easy way to do this is to ask and answer three simple questions before you write every post:
1 – Who am I writing this post for?
2 – Why will they care?
3 – What do I want to happen after they read the post?
Answering these three questions ensures that your content will be useful for your reader (#1 and #2) and useful for your business as well (#1 and #3).
Creating Customer-Centric Content
Now let’s talk about the content-creation process. You want to create content that is focused on the needs of your customer, not your brand. This is one of the most basic, and misunderstood, rules of online content creation. Many businesses believe that their blog should effectively be a dynamic website, ergo another way to promote the business. In other words, many businesses believe a blog should basically be brochureware. Instead, customers are used to reading blogs in order to get valuable information, which is exactly what your business should be creating via its blog.
So how do you create useful content for your customers? Start by writing content that teaches them a skill that’s associated with the products you sell. Instead of writing content that focuses on the product, you want to write content that focuses on how (and why) your customers use your product! If you sell lawncare products, don’t blog about your products, blog about maintaining a beautiful lawn. If you sell high-end audio components, don’t blog about your tweeters or woofers, blog about how to properly position speakers in your living room to create perfect acoustics. It’s not about your products, it’s about how your customers are using your products.
