How to Blog About a Boring Industry
Last week, the Grammar Chic blog raised a common question: Is your brand too boring for content marketing? You can probably guess what our answer was, even if you haven’t yet read our blog: No, there is no such thing as an industry that’s too boring for content marketing, no vertical that’s exempt from the mandate to fill the Web with compelling, user-centered content.
Last week’s blog offered some general tips on how you can make a boring industry—like furniture repair or insurance; your definition of ‘boring’ may vary—into something content-ready. This week, we’re going to narrow it down and look at a closely related question: How can you come up with compelling blog topics when you have an industry that is, perhaps, just not very bloggable?
Read Around
It’s long been said that good writers are always good readers, and we think that’s the case with blogging. When you get stuck for ideas because your subject matter is just too bland, it’s time to seek out some inspiration. Head to some blogs or—maybe even better—some actual, glossy magazines that relate, even tangentially, to your industry. You may be surprised how reading some other articles gets your mind moving in the right direction.
We’ll give you an example. Say you’re writing a blog about your plumbing company, and you’ve exhausted all the ideas you may have about do-it-yourself plumbing repairs and home improvement projects. Flip over to a home improvement magazine and you may find all kinds of fresh ideas about kitchen renovations. Go to a blog aimed at housewives and you’ll surely find some cool tips for keeping bathroom fixtures clean. These topics are related to plumbing, and might make for excellent blog fodder.
Note that we’re not encouraging you to plagiarize—but there’s nothing wrong with casting a wide net for inspiration.
Look to Other Industries
Another way to bring new life to your “boring” blog is to see what other industries are blogging about. You may be blogging for a company that manufactures gardening tools—and frankly, that might seem a little blasé to you. Meanwhile, the technology sector may strike you as really fascinating—so why not click over to some tech blogs and see what they’re talking about.
You may find it astonishing how much overlap you can find between the two industries. For example, you might do a blog about the top 5 iPhone apps for gardeners. You might be inspired to write about affordable gardening gadgets. Other industries can point the way toward successful blogging within your own.
Fill in the Blank
As a final tip, try this blogging exercise: Write down a keyword that is closely associated with your industry, followed by a blank. For example, to once again use our plumbing example, you might write down: Garbage disposal ________. Now, give yourself one or two minutes to fill in that blank with as many complementary phrases as you can. Better yet, you might ask one of your team members or even a family member to fill in the blank for you.
Here’s the kind of list you might come up with:
- Garbage disposal maintenance
- Garbage disposal cleaning
- Garbage disposal smells
- Garbage disposal installation
- Garbage disposal tips
- Garbage disposal dos and don’ts
- Garbage disposal types
The list could go on and on—and within each of these bullet points, you’ve potentially got a whole new blog topic!
Our bottom line: There’s no industry so boring that you can’t think of some compelling blog topics for it. To learn more about the business of blogging, we invite you to contact the Grammar Chic, Inc. team today: Visit http://www.grammarchic.net, or call 803-831-7444.
