How to Blog for Boring Industries
Think your business is too “boring” for a blog? Think again. A good writer can make just about any subject compelling – and a good marketer can make your subject compelling to your target clientele. Here are the tricks we pull out of our sleeves when writing for “boring” industries. (We haven’t found an industry we think is truly boring yet).
Mine Your FAQs
When someone finds your website, it’s because they typed a specific string of words into Google. Those words were the result of a question or a problem. What is that question? What problem are they looking to solve? Often, you can use your own experience answering client questions to get a good start guessing what your clients most want to know. Use your FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) for source material and you can’t go wrong.
Write Like You Talk - Almost
Every mode of communication requires a certain appropriate tone. When you’re writing a proposal, your tone needs to be authoritative and professional. When you’re writing a blog post, you want the way you write to sound almost as informal as you’d talk. You still want to use correct grammar, but feel free to loosen up like everyone on the internet is your friend. For some industries, you might still want to keep a more professional tone, but there’s a big difference between Pro and Stuffy.
Study Your Studies
Everyone loves a good study, so if a recent study in your industry made the news, create a blog post that comments on it. Opening your post with a surprising statistic makes for a great grab.
Don’t Get Too Locked In To One Topic
For many business owners, it’s really tempting to only blog about exactly what you do. However, when you’re trying to build a larger audience (and thus boost your authority), you need to branch out a bit. Think of your ideal customer. Who are they? What are they interested in? What else are they doing with their time, other than searching for your services online? Write material designed with them in mind.
Who are your customers?
Answering, "anyone who pays us money," is a cop out.
Almost as bad is describing your customers by demographics. It's only a little interesting to know that they are, on average, 32 year old, white, male, lacrosse fans.
No, what we need to know is:
What do they believe?
Who do they trust?
What are they afraid of and who do they love?
What are they seeking?
Who are their friends?
What do they talk about?
Switch It Up!
When we’re designing a content strategy for a client, we like to make half the posts informational to educate the client, and half of them “fun.” These two styles of posts speak to two different parts of the buy-cycle. The informational posts are keyworded and written to answer a question. Questions come from people with problems, and people with problems are looking for solutions. Your solutions! But, other people aren’t quite there yet. They think they might have a problem, but want to research all the possibilities and are willing to spend a little time “surfing the interwebs.” You want to attract both.
But No, You Don’t Understand. My Industry is REALLY BORING
To the people who need and use your product or service, you are not boring.
You – the personal you – the writer you – are also not boring. Infuse your blog with your personality, rather than writing as the long arm of a corporate machine. How do you write with personality? Here are a few tips to get you started:
- Use Sports analogies (or whatever you’re into)
- Reference pop culture
- Use humor
- Talk about your pets (briefly – don’t write an entire post about the hairball your cat left on your pillow this morning – we’re talking anecdotes here)
- Use your own personal photos instead of stock photos (and take a photography class so you don’t totally flub it)
When you write as a real person, for real people, there isn’t a subject on earth that’s truly boring. Interview the higher-ups. Talk to your co-workers. Most importantly, connect with your clients. Because they all have questions, and you have answers!
Examples of Sites Getting it Right
Need Ideas?
If you're having a difficult time coming up with ideas for your business, leave a comment or tweet to us at @Inturact and we'll try to help you out!
