Have you ever been contracted by a client who wanted you to blog for them, but they were in a “boring” industry?
Maybe they only sell dental chairs or shoelaces.
How on Earth do you come up with a blog to make those products interesting?
I mean, it’s hard enough to constantly come up with interesting things to blog about for a company that doesn’t sell “boring” products.
But I’m here to tell you that you can blog like the blazes about a boring industry.
No matter how boring your industry is, I’m going to show you how you can create a blog that people actually want to read (even if you sell cardboard boxes). Let’s jump right in.
Know what you want before you start
When we talk about blogging, it’s important to focus on what we wish to get out of our blogging. For most of us freelance bloggers, our clients are really interested in three specific things. They want:
- Regular blog subscribers
- Miscellaneous hits from people searching on Google
- Traffic from social shares (your blog posts get shared to new people)
And from those three things, they hope to get more sales.
With this post, I’ll show you how you can take a topic as mundane as plumbing equipment and turn it into a blog that will generate new readers and, hopefully, new backlinks.
Broaden the scope of your topic
If you’re not sure how you can write blog content about a boring industry, try to frame your topic in a larger way by broadening the scope.
For instance, if we use the plumbing equipment example, we can broaden this topic to reach a bigger audience. Since most people probably don’t know enough or care enough about plumbing equipment (other than being interested in these two plumbers) to want to read all about it on your client’s blog, you’ll have to move this topic outward to increase your reach.
If, instead of blogging solely about plumbing products, you also started blogging on other topics related to bathrooms, you’ve suddenly opened up the blog to all kinds of different possibilities.
Your number of possible writing topics has increased and your appeal has broadened to include casual searchers on Google searching for bathroom-related topics.
Instead of a niche audience, you’ve now opened up your audience to a much larger segment.
Answer common questions
I had a journalism professor in college who stressed the importance in journalistic writing of asking the following questions when searching for the lead:
Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
Using these questions with our plumbing equipment example, let’s turn our “boring” topic into something that other people might be interested in reading:
- Who invented the toilet?
- What do I need to know to remodel my bathroom?
- When did toilets become standard parts of bathrooms?
- Where do people go to the bathroom in space?
- Why are all toilets made of porcelain?
- How does toilet plumbing work?
Since Google is constantly searching for fresh, relevant articles to deliver to their web searchers, your post with that fresh content now has a greater chance of being one of those search results.
Writing blog topics centered around this type of “question” format will often include the keywords that Google uses to choose which posts to show in search results. There’s also a chance that your article might answer questions that face less competition in the search engine rankings, meaning your article might be more likely to rank higher on Google.
Questions have a ton of variations and specifics that make them great ways to generate traffic to your client’s blog. This makes using questions a powerful way to choose blog topics.
There are three other tools I like to use when doing research for possible blog topics:
- Wordtracker – lets you research which terms have high traffic and which don’t
- Quora – a community of people asking and answering questions
- Reddit – one of the not-so-secret (and best) places to research your audience
I personally use these sites when I’m stuck for a particular angle on a post, or want to know more about how people talk about my topic. I’ve found lots of new search terms this way, which broadens your reach even further in your particular industry.
A boring industry that gets this right
The Lowe’s hardware store chain is a great example of a business in a not-entirely-exciting industry that has taken its “boring” products and turned them into something useful for readers of the company blog.
Their Creative Ideas blog features posts about easy do-it-yourself projects, home makeover ideas, and decorating tips (there’s also plenty of information about how Lowe’s carries those products).
The idea with this blog is that they’ve taken “boring” products and supplanted that with useful content. Even if you’re not looking to buy something from Lowe’s, you can certainly see yourself visiting that blog for ideas or inspiration.
In Lowe’s mind, the more time you spend on that site, the more likely it is that you end up buying something — and even if you don’t, you’ve read content that you’ve enjoyed, making you more likely to buy from Lowe’s in the future when you do need to buy something.
Make any blog sexy!
With the right amount of reframing a topic, or changing your approach slightly, you can take even the most mundane of blog topics and turn it into a useful place for your readers.
No matter what you’re writing about, if you’re stuck thinking no one will want to read it, just remember what Steve Jobs once said:
Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is – everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.
Have you ever had to make a “boring” blog come to life? Tell us about it in the comments!
I blog about taxes and accounting. Pretty dry. However, what I have found is that people always have questions about taxes, and are looking for answers to the questions they are too nervous to post on a message board to get an answer.
I am still building my writing business, but hope to provide content to help people understand taxes and accounting a bit better so they aren’t intimidated by them.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your comment. Your comment actually brings up something I read in “Epic Content Marketing” by Joe Pulizzi
http://www.amazon.com/Epic-Content-Marketing-Different-Customers/dp/0071819894/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404401136&sr=8-1&keywords=epic+content+marketing
Pulizzi’s assertion is related to what I wrote in this article, that it’s best to broaden the scope in order to reach more people. In your case, maybe there would be a larger audience for you if you moved the topic outward towards “Personal Finance” instead of just “Taxes”.
Either way, I think Pulizzi’s book is worth a read for any freelance blogger 🙂
Thanks, Matt. I just picked up the book.
Actually, my target has been small businesses and people thinking about starting a small business and helping them make sense of the financial stuff that intimidates them so they aren’t afraid to start or expand their business. I will see if I can expand this so that I write about how to finance their ideal lifestyle.
Thanks for the feedback!
Glad to be of assistance, Chris! Hope you enjoy Epic Content Marketing.
Chris, check out our other guest contributor Rosie Slosek at http://onemanbandaccounting.co.uk — she works with the same target audience you described and on the same topics, but in the UK. Maybe you can absorb some content marketing ideas from her website. Or email her and see if she minds sharing a few tips on building your audience. 🙂
Thanks, Sophie. I checked out her blog, and left her a note. I am very impressed with what she does.
Thanks!
“No one who ever bought a drill wanted a drill. They wanted a hole.”
The lesson here is, don’t teach people about drills – teach them about everything that drills can do for them (the client) and why they need one!
Great analogy for the drill and the hole … People hardly have time nowadays to crawl your content for mere appreciation. They outrightly think : what’s in there for us ? If we deliver on this account, we shall go places.
That’s a great quote, Daryl! I’m going to use it from now on 🙂
Hmm… what did they want the hole FOR? 😉
I’ve always thought that saying should be more specific. It’s true that people don’t want “a drill”, but they don’t want “a hole” either! What they really want is to put their TV on the wall / build their baby a new cot / give a practical gift / etc etc.
Same applies to clients: they don’t merely want “a blog post”, and they don’t want the simple result of “blog readers” either. If you keep asking them “What will that do for you?” you’ll eventually uncover their core objective. 🙂
Great chain of “Why?” or “What else?” guyz!
Another step: If they don’t *want* a drill, they want to hang the TV – how else can that happen?
Most “As seen on TV” products are new or different answers to that last question.
Yep! No More Nails comes to mind. 😉
Thanks, Matt! As freelancers, we’re always being called on to write about different industries. And more often than not, the “sexy” just isn’t there. So great reminder about how to introduce some spice to a bland dish. It’s a lot like what Procter & Gamble does with their various newsletters. Cause if you’re just writing about soap, there’s only so much you can say. But if you can show people how to improve their lives with that soap, now you’re talkin…
Makes me think of the Fairy dish soap jingle: “Now hands that do dishes can feel soft as your face…” Not a damn thing in there about getting your dishes clean! See above about drills and holes — same principle. 🙂
Proctor and Gamble is an excellent example! Their “Home Made Simple” magazine is one of the best examples of what’s known in the marketing industry as a “cohort” publication – something that’s not even done with marketing in mind, but still does the trick.
Gary Vaynerchuk’s latest book Jab Jab Jab Right Hook is another fascinating study of this type of marketing/blogging.
http://www.amazon.com/Jab-Right-Hook-Story-Social/dp/006227306X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404535808&sr=8-1&keywords=jab+jab+jab+right+hook
Great post. Fabulous for me. I’m writing a weekly newsletter for agents in the insurance business.
Any ideas? Now I have been mainly doing motivational articles, keep learning and reading type stuff. Any ideas for me?
Sure appreciate this post.
Barb
Hi Barb! Great question. A newsletter that had all the motivational stuff as well as perhaps industry information, like news, all the latest happenings in the field would be an excellent resource for people interested in the subject. Plus, you’d always have plenty of topics to write about!
I agree! I wrote about this topic some time ago, only I called these “Blue Duct Tape” subjects. http://www.deadlinedervishwritingservice.com/posts/blogging_advice/
GREAT post! And funny enough, my newest online marketing client is — you guessed it — a plumber! (My other client does concrete. Boy, I sure know how to attract ’em! LOL) Thanks for writing this — and thanks to Sophie Lizard for sharing it!
Matt you are speaking my language! As a ghostwriter this kind of thing rears its ugly head more often than not. I have 1 client who works in a division of the shipping industry and another in concrete foundation repair. They’re amazing and it is cool to learn about new things but I’m guessing neither of these companies have “groupies” ha!
Great tips and advice here. I’m in process of writing an eBook for the foundation client so this will come in very handy when I’m formatting my interview questions for the expert (getting creative to avoid boredom, yea!)
Thanks Jenn! Hard to get more dull than shipping industry and concrete foundation repair! You got your work cut out for ya 🙂
Don’t forget the power of Pinterest! It’s a great way to search for ideas when you’re stuck and can’t figure out what to write about. This would work well for your example of plumbing in particular, because I’m sure lots of people are saving photos of bathroom designs and such on Pinterest.
Great point, Bree. Pinterest is another great source of inspiration for us bloggers.
Nice post, Matt.
We’d like to think there’s no such thing as a “boring niche,” but it’s just not true. Haha. These are some great tips for bloggers facing this dilemma. Kudos.
Thanks Kevin! Glad you got some tips from this article!