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Looking to create new blog articles for your B2B website, but not sure where to start? Sourcing your next B2B blog topic is easier than you think. Below I share tips on where to turn for creating helpful blog posts that will appeal to your prospects and customers.
Tap Your Sales Team for Common Objections
Start looking for ideas to add to your list of blog topics by talking to the sales team. You should start with the Sales Manager, but often the best blog ideas come from the salespeople that are talking to customers and prospects every day.
If the sales team doesn’t have any ideas off the top of their head, which is rare, dig deeper by asking what common objections they get during the buying process. Are prospects not sure how your service or product works? Do they need your particular product or service to integrate with their existing platforms or processes? Do they think your product or service is more expensive than your competitors?
Having a chat with your sales team will often net at least 10 good topics. The only thing to keep in mind is that these blog posts will be educational pieces. They should not be a sales pitch.
Ask Your Customer Service Team for Ideas and Questions
Another great place to turn for blog post ideas is your customer service or service delivery teams. Find out what questions they currently hear from new and existing clients. Even starting with a post that answers Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) is a great post that is sure to have a long life on your blog.
Be sure to ask your customer service teams what challenges new clients are facing when you bring them on board and if there is any blog posts you can draft to help smooth the onboarding process. These types of posts may include, a list of definitions of commonly used terms, an explanation of the first 90 days of service with your company, what they can expect, best practices for getting the most from your products and services, training tools for their internal teams, or any advice long-term clients have for new clients.
Turn to Existing Clients for Ideas
If you or the sales team has a strong relationship with one or several clients, ask if you can speak to them for ideas. Specifically, ask the client what will make their life easier.
- Do they want tips on how to get the most from your product or service?
- Do they need tips from your team on other tools or platforms that you recommend?
- Do they want guidance on how to show the ROI of your product or service?
- Do they need data and resources to build support internally for upgrading?
If you aren’t able to get a client to chat with you, tap into online customer reviews, both positive and negative, about you AND your competitors. If the major complaint about a competitor is something your company solves, draft up a blog that explores that. Client feedback can be a literal goldmine of ideas.
See What Your Competitors Are Writing About
Check out your competition. See what they are writing about or if they are sharing helpful resources. While you shouldn’t copy what your competition is doing, it’s often a good source of inspiration. Pay attention to not on the types of blog posts they are drafting, but the tone of the posts. Are their posts all self-focused and promotional or do they really understand what customers are going through and speak to that? Often, just looking at their posts will inspire a slew of new ideas.
Look to Industry Resources
Whether you are in Logistics, Accounting, Manufacturing, Engineering, SaaS, or IT, there are industry-specific resources for your niche market. It’s likely that you are already following or checking these resources daily for the latest information. These same resources are a good source of potential blog topics for your own company blog.
If you aren’t following these types of magazines, it’s time to start. You can either subscribe to their weekly or monthly newsletters, bookmark the websites, start a running list of publications, or sign up for a news aggregator platform.
Don’t Overthink It, Just Start a List
The above should produce a list of good quality blog post topics. Don’t overthink it as you brainstorm them, just start a list. You can organize them into a strategy later. The main focus should be getting as many viable ideas in your list as possible.