Blog to Put New Twists on the Same Theme

While the entire September 23 issue of TIME magazine was devoted to a single theme, each of the eleven articles was different from all the others, illustrating a point I keep stressing to business owners and practitioners hesitant about launching a blog.

“I’ve already covered my products and services on my website – what else is left to say?”   True, the company or the practice has already covered information about the products and services, but what the blog is for, by contrast, is to provide relevant, useful, and timely content to your prospects and customers to help them solve problems, understand industry trends, and make sense of the news and how it relates to them.

Yes, effective business blogging is centered around a limited number of keyword phrases and key themes. Those keyword phrases need to be repeated in order to “win search”. More important, the very nature of blogging for business over long periods of time offers a “training benefit” to the owners themselves, even if they’ve engaged the services of a professional content writer. That’s because the very process of choosing themes, sharing strategies, and planning for content creation, (which of necessity involves both owner and writer) has a 2+2=5 synergy effect.

In terms of finding variety while writing about the same topic again and again, that issue of TIME proves my point. The magazine’s chosen topic – global warming. The overriding message – we need to pay attention to global warming if we are to save our planet. Still, every single one of the articles came at the topic from a different vantage point. Here are just five examples:

1. Paper straws alone won’t save the planet. Focusing on individual choices…heightens the risk of reliance on fossil fuels.
2. Can we innovate our way out of this mess? Message: Advances in technology have transformed the energy industry, and ongoing research and development in wind and solar power will help drive down costs and reduce pollution.
3. Climate change is the global health emergency of the 21st century. Discusses public health risks in different areas of the world and in poor urban U.S. communities.
4. Kid’s-Eye View. Young readers drew their view of the planet 30 years from now.
5. In Africa, necessity is the mother of climate-change innovation. African cities and governments, having already experienced many of the worst impacts of climate change, are adopting innovations in water treatment and telephone communication.

Yes, there is sheer discipline required in maintaining a marketing blog week after week, month after month, and year after year, without becoming same-old, same-old. But, as TIME editors so effectively demonstrate, that is far from an impossible task. Finding interesting pieces of information on topics related to that business or practice. If you can provide information most readers would be unlikely to know, so much the better. “Startling statistics”, anecdotes relating to hardships business owners and clients have overcome, and information about community activities all help lend variety without departing from the core message.

Blog to put new twists on the same theme!