Content is king. But, as the internet grows more and more saturated with company blogs, it can seem futile and frustrating to get your content in front of the people whom you want to read it most.

However, it isn’t impossible for your blog to grow a broader readership; you just have to be writing the right kind of posts on the most useful topics.

If you are struggling to identify what these may be, here is how to determine the most effective blog topics for your client.

1. Thoroughly understand your target audience.

No matter how well you write, how innovative your marketing strategies may be, how much brand influence you have, or how many people distribute your content, if you aren’t writing blog topics specifically for your target audience, then they are quite simply pointless.

In order for your blog posts to bring any traction, it is essential that you thoroughly know your target audience. Your content needs to connect with your readers, in a way that shows you understand them and therefore are only writing about topics or promoting products or services that are going to benefit them.

If you are a new business starting out, you get to define your target audience. At this point, you are in control of who you want to reach, and then can create content specifically with them in mind.

Over time, as you build your brand and your blog’s presence, you will come to understand your audience more and more. The feedback you receive can be used to deepen that understanding, meaning it is essential that you listen to feedback and engage with your readers.

Once you have customers or readers, communicate with them to get to know them better. Send out surveys or polls that help your content team to understand what blog topics are essential for and to them.

The more you understand your readers, the more natural (and more obvious) it will be for you to choose compelling blog topics.

2. Never be afraid to ask your community for content ideas.

The first step to creating valuable blog content is to understand your target audience thoroughly. But, after a while, you are still going to need help brainstorming content ideas. Time and time again, you are going to have to produce and generate content that intrigues, engages, and converts.

For every writer — even the most renowned copywriter around — it can be challenging to have brilliant, creative ideas flowing consistently. For this reason, you should never be scared to consult your community for advice on plans for blog posts.

In addition to asking your customers what they need help with, urge your sales team to provide you details of what potential customers or clients need to know. Speak with other team members to see what questions they often hear, where they see gaps in the content, and how they think your content can help support their role in the company.

From speaking with other members of the team, you can be assured you are writing blog posts that answer questions which your future and current customers have.

3. Look at the performance of past blog posts.

While you are starting out blogging, it is best to try out a variety of topics and styles of posts to see how each one performs. Over time, as you write more and more and grow a more significant readership, you will be able to see more clearly which posts do better regarding sharing, engagement, and views.

This is hard to predict until you begin writing.

However, from the get-go, make sure you are utilizing some form of analytics to track the successfulness of each post. You should gather analytics based on topics, formats, times they are posted, and length. Play around with all these factors until you find your sweet spot.

You may find that your readers engage more with how-to’s and tutorials, or perhaps they love to share your lists. Some companies prefer comprising resources or link lists, while others find infographics, videos, interviews, guest posts, or controversial posts to be what is most effective.

How do you generate your blog post ideas? What strategies do you find work best? Let us start a discussion in the comments below!

AUTHOR BIO

Hisham Wyne is an award-winning copywriter, brand consultant and content creator based in Dubai. He has over a decade’s expe­rience in helping brands get their messages right. From crisp web copy and zippy brochures to in-depth company profiles and analyt­ical annual reports, Hisham makes words work for you – so you can sell better, gain visibility, and give your brand a unique voice.