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It was the best of moments, it was the worst of moments, it was the age of SEO, it was the age of Content, it was the epoch of telling a small business owner that doing his business now involved writing about it on the Web.* It's true: Some of my best and worst client moments have happened when I explain the “content is king” concept. Best, because I've seen some priceless facial expressions; worst, because I've heard some priceless reactions! It's no secret that you have to write content; that's not really the question anymore, is it? The question now: What to write? Small business owners are already busy enough running their business; asking them to sit around brainstorming content ideas is often unrealistic. So, for the small business owner who's struggling with what to write on your Web site, in your newsletter, or on your blog, here are a half-dozen sources of content inspiration to help cut down on your Web-based perspiration. Customer Questions Your customers are a great source of content ideas. What do they ask you when they walk in your front door? What do they ask when they call or send an e-mail? Whether they're curious about something, or have problems that need help, these ongoing customer contacts are telling you what your customers want to know. Make a point to track customer communication as much as possible. Look for trends, and also look for unique situations - both should be a great supply of content ideas. Customer Stories While customer questions give you a chance to develop content around answers to problems, stories from your customers are a chance to let your customers do your marketing for you. If a customer tells you how your product or service made her life easier, that's a story worth telling. If a customer tells you that he found a unique way to use your product, that's worth sharing with other customers. Real life, 1st-person stories like this can be some of the most compelling material on your Web site. Your Products or Services If you're a retailer, content about your products is a no-brainer. This is your chance to educate consumers about what you sell and how it improves their life. “How To” and “Tips” articles are a natural. A quick example: A small electronics shop would be smart to write articles that explain how to select and install home stereo equipment. If you have a service-oriented business, writing about what you do will help de-mystify the services you offer and help establish you as an expert in your field of work. This is why there are hundreds of SEO blogs, by the way. Industry News Writing about what's happening in your industry serves a couple purposes: First, it keeps your customers informed about trends and events that may affect them. Second, by sharing your opinions on the latest news, you position yourself as a thought leader. If you do this well enough, you may even find yourself on the receiving end of questions from journalists looking for local reaction to the latest news. Your Staff Humanize your company. Introduce your customers and prospects to the people who build the products you sell, or the CEO who came up with the brilliant idea for your purple widget. Make sure the articles focus on your company and/or business, and don't get into your staff's personal lives; I'm not suggesting random employee profiles with pictures of their pets. (However, if you're a veterinarian, that might be perfect!) Yourself What's your story? How did you get where you are today? What have you learned along the way? Why do you do what you do? What advice would you offer to others wanting to do what you do? All of these are topics that could make for interesting Web site, blog, or newsletter content. In the end, the question isn't if you should write; online marketing today demands small businesses develop quality content. The ideas above should offer some leads on where to start looking for that content. * Thanks to Charles Dickens for inspiring the lead. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
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January 2008 OK, I'm a little late to comment here...better late than never!
I'm the administrator of our site's forum, and I get a lot of topic ideas from the topics of discussion in the forum. I'll also scour other forums for ideas, as well as industry news sites. Our site, which is a portal for small businesses, has benefitted tremendously from adding content in the form of articles, which (surprisingly) we did not have for a long time. In addition to the obvious SEO benefits, we have a never-ending source of content for our newsletters, fodder for discussion with our forum members, and (best of all) the all-important "stickiness" factor.  Reply
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5.00 (Excellent) Vote:
November 2007 The challenge for SMB/Es is to devote time to building content - it is one of those things which gets dropped when things are busy because the pay off is not immediate or immediately evident. The trick is to be smart - consider using English, PR or Marketing Majors to generate content quickly and cheapily. Students love the experience and not to forget, the money! Reply
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5.00 (Excellent) Vote:
November 2007 top "insert number here" lists are also a great way to get logical content that doesn't take a month to brainstorm. if you sell seasonal products have a list "top 5 things to do to your lawn before winter sets in" and you can probably get that right out of your training manual...
if you're a restaurant owner looking to promote: "top 5 dishes of the month - as selected by the staff," and then just list out the ingredients. content is everywhere, you just have to package it intelligently Reply
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5.00 (Excellent) Vote:
October 2007 I think this is some great advice and I try to add useful content regularly as much as possible. I subscribe to the belief that content is king but lately I have been questioning my faith and falling into the camp that links are more important. The reason I believe this is because it is getting more and more difficult to get my new pages to rank well. The site I am working on has little link juice as it is fairly new and it seems we have reached a point where new content (no matter how good) is indexed but it either goes supplemental or has so little link love that it ranks very low in the SERP (at least in Google). In MSN and Yahoo our new content does very well while our main page ranks so-so for our biggest keyword. In Google it is the opposite, our home page generally ranks well for our top keyword while the informational pages do not rank well (or at all) when using their title as a search term.
I have been trying to create more direct links to these pages from higher ranking pages and focusing my link building efforts on these internal pages but IMO as long as the Google Algo relies so much on links the best content will not rise to the top unless their is a ton of PR flowing to them. Reply
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3.52 (Good) Vote:
October 2007 One point of mention is that if you have content on your site, never throw it out.
If you decide to update your content do your site a favor and archive it in some form or fashion. I see a lot of sites neglecting to do this. Reply
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