Don’t Let Lack of Content Stop You from Blogging

The mantra for effective business blogging is to regularly pump out fresh content that is reader-centric and not focused too much on you, your products or your company. I agree.

More power to you if you already have a horde of avid readers who visit your blog every time you post new content. For others, the bulk of your blog traffic, in some cases as much as 80%, will come from first-time visitors. These people find your blog while searching for answers to their current problem or visit via social media.

It is not just your latest post that draws traffic. Your blog posts will remain online in perpetuity. A post that is a few months old to you may be news to someone else, as long as it is not time sensitive.

As an industrial marketer, you recognize the importance of constantly publishing fresh and relevant content to attract qualified visitors and convert them into leads.

However, at the end of the day, every manufacturer or distributor of industrial products wants to sell more widgets and not just publish more content. (See my earlier post, “Content Marketing: Think Like a Publisher, Act Like an Investor.”)

Many manufacturers and industrial companies tend to back away from launching their business blog because of this content dilemma.

Is there a way for industrial marketers to solve this “Catch-22” problem for blogging? There is!

Assuming you’ve done your due diligence and a business blog does make sense for your company, then look to repurposing existing content as your primary source for writing new blog posts.

This is by far the most popular tactic for generating effective content as reported by almost 1,000 B2B marketers in a recent survey done by MarktingSherpa.

Creating new blog posts by just copying and pasting portions of existing content won’t cut it. The key is to repurpose it to make it more relevant for your readers.

Here are some suggestions for repurposing existing content to make them reader-centric while driving lead gen and sales for your company:

• Drive traffic back to product pages on your site by turning Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) into individual “how-to” blog posts. Weave in a link to a specific product or product line within the text of the answer
• Generate new prospects and leads by compiling several FAQs on a particular topic or product line. Make the compilation into a “Best Practices Guide” that your blog readers can download by signing up from a landing page on your Website
• The same repurposing and compilation tactic can be used with other existing content such as engineering data, performance characteristics charts and regulatory compliance information
• Pull one or two key points out of a new white paper that you have released. Expand on those points in your blog post(s) to convince your readers that is worthwhile for them to give up their contact information in exchange for the full white paper
• Write a short post about how your product catalog has been translated into different languages to address the needs of your growing international markets. Add a link to encourage your readers to download the PDF version or order a CD or printed version
• Instead of just announcing the discontinuance of “End of Life” components, blog about your online cross-reference guides that help design engineers and other specifiers find the closest substitute product from your current line
• Use your blog posts to deliver “proof of results” by summarizing your case studies. Link your post back to the full case studies on your site
• Product announcements make great posts. Repurpose your news/press releases as posts to expand on the additional capabilities, improvements, available options and sizes and how the new product can solve problems that others just can’t. Add a link…you know the drill!

Don’t let the perennial question, “What will I write about?” stop you from launching or using a business blog as a powerful tool for inbound lead generation for feeding the top of your sales funnel.