How-to/walkthrough/tutorial
How-tos are fantastically popular on the web, and whether in the form of a video, a series of images, or a detailed text posting, they can be of real value to searchers. Think about the people who might benefit from your services and the kind of thing they need to know, then put together a step-by-step post on how to do it.
Infographic
Graphics are a perfect way to get concepts across in a simple way. Even though theyve become ubiquitous, theres still room for a good infographic showing original content.
Creating your own infographic is best but it can be expensive to make a really good looking one that will get noticed.
Community
Local businesses like restaurants, cafes, bookshops and food shops will benefit from immersing themselves into the life of the local community. Mentions of other local businesses, announcements of community events or gossip about local news can all be used in blog posts.
Pick of the Week/Month
Regular daily or weekly news roundups (regularity depending on your resources) will bring in some extra readers, keep you abreast of whats happening in your industry, and hopefully attract a link or two.
Instructional
DIY companies, plumbers supply shops, cosmetics retailers, furniture shops, fruit and veg shops and many, many more must surely have instructional content they can impart to casual browsers.
Memes
Latching on to the latest fad may not be to your taste, but it can certainly get you noticed. The search gangman style spoofs in YouTube brings up 789,000 results, so youll be swallowed up amongst the thousands doing the same thing unless you produce something quickly, making sure you understand how the meme works.
Links and Resources
Link to other local businesses in your area and valued clients you do business with. The important thing is that they should В be businesses you genuinely admire and think people will benefit from knowing about.
Review
Book reviews by a bookshops own staff, and tech and gadget reviews by customers are just two of the ways businesses can use review content for their blogs.
List
Top 10s, 50s, 100s, best of, worst of, greatest, funniest, biggest, smallest: theres no end to the headlines for your list post and theres no end to the subjects you can make lists of. And these posts are really popular, with lots of shares on social media platforms for the best of them.
Series
A series with a theme for your blog posts will help you come up with ideas for new content, plus youll be giving your visitors an incentive to sign up for more of your blog posts to receive the rest in the series.
Problems and Solutions
DIY suppliers and hardware stores, food retailers, clothing stores and more can use the device of the problem and solution in their blog posts.
News
News can come in the form of company news, industry news or relevant local or national news. Tie it in with your company and give a link to the source if its from outside your company you never know, the link may even be reciprocated (let them know youve posted it).
Posts about your own Products
If youre proud of your products, why not show them off? Especially if you have professional or artily-shot photos of them.
Prediction
Seasonal predictions are regular staples in the world of the blog. During the year, youll see a flurry of articles predicting the most popular toys for that years Christmas period, and at the beginning of the year youll be bombarded with articles on where the most-visited travel destinations will be. Try and apply this predictive thinking to your own business.
React
Take a note of whats happening within your industry and write a reaction blog post referencing the latest news.
Research
Look into a subject in depth and produce an interesting, detailed blog post based on the results youve seen.
Testimonials
If someones written something nice about you, why not comment on it as part of a blog post? You could even turn it into a case study if your customer is willing to expand on what theyve said about your product or service.
Show Examples of What Not To Do
If you think youve run out of good advice to pass onto your readers, turn it the other way round what shouldnt they be doing?
Summary
Its worth setting aside some time a month for blog post writing. The search engines love new content and so will your readers and you never know, you may even enjoy doing it!