OK… you’ve decided to take the plunge and start a blog for your business or practice. But what are you going to write about?

Here are some topics to get you started:

• A look at our newest product.
• Some new uses for an existing product.
• A project we’re working on.
• Our new sales manager.
• Why we started our business.
• How we choose a product.
• How you should choose a product.
• How to get more out of a product.
• We’ll be exhibiting at these shows.
• What to do if you have a problem.
• A customer service issue and how we resolved it.
• How we can improve.
• Meet some of our employees.

You can also use the blog as a tool to recuit employees:

• We have a job opening.
• What we look for in an employee.
• How to apply for a job.

If yours is a service business or professional practice:
Medicine, Therapy, etc.

• A new breakthrough in our field.
• Our treatment philosophy.
• Discussion of an illness/condition we treat.
• How we handle the end of treatment.
• Insurance and billing isues.
• Example of a client/patient who benefitted from treatment.
• Meet our new employee.

Legal, Accounting, Architecture, etc.

• Cases we’ve just won; buildings we’ve designed.
• The importance of support staff in our practice.
• Our opinion of current issues in the field.
• This is a good time to go over your will/portfolio/etc.
• The process of handling a project from start to finish.
• Recent awards and honors.

See… there’s lots to blog about. Need more ideas? Go over the emails and correspondence you’ve received over the last few months and see which subjects reappear. Anticipate the concerns that customers, patients and employees might experience.

Keep it short and focused… and you’ll begin to get some loyal readers.

Do you think that people who write blogs are egotistical blowhards with a lot of time on their hands?

Some are. But many bloggers are clever marketers who’ve found an effective way to connect with clients and customers.

Here’s why blogging works for small businesses and professional practices:

1. Blogging increases sales. If you’re selling something online, chances are your web pages are seen as mere advertising. But when you write about your products or services in an editorial forum, website visitors get the feeling they’re being “informed”… not simply being “sold.”
2. A blog is the perfect way to promote a special deal, item or service. Because you can broadcast information almost instantly, blogging can be used to test your promotions before a fullscale launch.
3. It establishes you as an authority. When you write about your business you’ll be seen as someone who is tuned in to the latest trends and ideas. Blogs also create dialogs with your potential customers and make them feel as if they are on the inside.
4. A blog will improve your website’s search engine ranking. It’s no secret that Google is partial to blogs because they are information-driven. Blogs created on the WordPress platform are automatically optimized for searches engines. And because they are regularly updated, blog posts have a better chance of showing up more often in search results.

If you begin now, you will be ahead of the blogging curve. A recent survey found that only 41% of small businesses have interactive websites equipped to host blogs… and many of those have not yet started blogs.

Blogging does take some time. To be effective, you should plan to publish at least twice a week. But your blog doesn’t have to be long; and once you’ve done a few, writing them becomes easier.

Coming up soon: Ideas for your blog topics.