9 Captivating Ways to Blog About a Boring Business
So you’re not an astronaut or a spy or a Kardashian. You’re the one at the party who never gets the follow-up questions about your work. You’re in a boring industry and you don’t know how to create interesting content for your company blog. Well, I have some great news: just about anything can be written about in an interesting way—even boring businesses. Usually you just need to see it from a different angle. Believe it or not, you can have a fascinating blog about a boring business! Here’s how.
9 Ways to Write Interesting Content About a Boring Business
1) Know Your Customers’ Pain
Dentistry may sound boring to most people, but if you’ve got a cracked molar that won’t let you chew, your interest level is extremely high! So it is with your boring business. Every one of your customers has a pain they’re feeling, and they’re coming to you for help. Speak to the pain and you’ll be providing valuable information your customers will chew up (so to speak).
2) Tell Stories
Everyone loves a good story. Capitalize on it by sharing case studies. Lead your readers through a three-act journey to show how you saved the day for a customer. Don’t falsely inflate the drama, but do show the tension and make clear what was at stake. Even small stakes can have emotional appeal.
You can tell stories in all your blog posts, too, not just your case studies. Include real-life examples to illustrate your points. Use a short story to set up a situation as the introduction. Create a hypothetical problem your customers might face and walk them through the solution.
3) Dive into the Details
When you get specific, people become more interested. Talk about tax law in general and you’ll put your audience to sleep quicker than a trigger-happy anesthesiologist. But start answering specific questions about the details of tax law and you create articles like H&R Block’s post on the legal issues of gambling during March Madness.
4) Be a Trendspotter
People love to be the first to know what the future will bring. Identifying upcoming trends is a great way to feed their hunger while also positioning yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
But don’t stop there. Ramp up the relevance by explaining how these trends will impact your reader. What should they prepare for? What actions do they need to take? How can they be the first to benefit? Now you’ve cranked their interest up to 11.
For a great example of this, check out Allstate’s terrific article on the influence of technology on bad weather driving.
5) Highlight Your People
No matter how boring your business might be, you’ve got interesting people! Use your blog to introduce your customers to the people who make your business go. You’re proud of your employees, so why not brag a little about them? Tell your customers about the people who love them. Cathy from Accounting sees it as her personal mission to take care of the financial health of the organization so you can give clients your best service. She’s also a former semi-pro bowler and organizes company parties at the local bowling alley. Now you’ve got an interesting blog about your boring business—but suddenly, it doesn’t seem so boring, does it?
Human companies are always compelling. Your customers love to know that you’ve got a team who loves working together and serving your clients.
6) Repurpose Old Content
Struggling to find a lot of topics to blog about in your industry? The content you’ve already created is terrific fodder for new content. Take those old blog posts and reuse them. Turn them into videos or top 10 lists or infographics. Write about the same topic, but come at it from the opposite approach. Post an update on an old post to show how things have developed since you first published the story.
7) Think Like a Newbie
Just because your industry is old hat to you doesn’t mean your customers think it’s boring. What questions would you ask if you didn’t know a thing about your industry or your company? What would you be worried about or confused by? What would you need to know to get started? What myths are out there that you might have bought into? These are driving questions for your customers, and they’re inherently interested in these blog topics.
One dental blog did a great job of this by tackling the newbie question, “Is chewing gum bad for your teeth?”
8) Focus on Educating and Equipping
Even boring topics are interesting if you’re getting something valuable out of them. Any time you can help your customers solve a problem or do something more effectively, you’ve scored some major points with them. We thirst for knowledge—especially relevant knowledge—and no matter what industry you’re in, you’ve got a boat-load of knowledge you can share with your customers.
Just make sure it’s relevant. No one wants to waste their time.
9) Share What You Love About Your Business
Even if you think you’ve got a boring business, chances are pretty good that you enjoy your work. So write about the stuff you love. What gets you out of bed every morning? What do you live for in your work? If you’re excited about it, you can probably find a way to make it exciting to others, too.
Boring industries aren’t boring to the customers that need help from them. Try out these tips, and you’ll be surprised how interesting your boring business blog can be!
Need help mastering your blog? Let’s talk—I can help you get back on track!