How to Get Started with Blogs for Your IT Business

You’re busy running your business, dealing with customers and staff, and trying to keep on top of everything. Putting time aside to write blogs is another task you can do without adding to the list. Or, you may be looking for ways to grow your business, find opportunities and win new clients, but although you’ve heard about blogging and content marketing, you can’t see how to apply it to your IT company.

One of the biggest barriers that business owners have around writing blogs or producing content is that they don’t know what to share, or worry that what they do isn’t interesting enough. This is especially true in IT, where you’re providing a much-needed service to help another company operate, but it happens behind the scenes and can be hard for people to understand.

You can read more about whether content is right for your business here, and what to do if you think nobody will read your blog here.

You already know you need to stand out from your competitors, and if you’re offering similar services to large, international organisations with big marketing budgets, you need to do something to show that you’re different and a good choice for prospective customers.

Where Should You Start with Your Blogs?

What makes you different can be a good place to start when you’re ready to write some blogs. Talk about the personal approach you take and how that benefits the customer – maybe emphasise the fact that when they call up with a problem they get through to a real person rather than an automated list of options.

Or perhaps you send the same engineer out to fix a fault each time, which makes the client feel they’ve got their own, dedicated expert who comes out to help them, understands they need a resolution in a hurry and is familiar with the company.

You also need to make sure that any blogs you write are at the right level for your readers, so before you start, think about your target audience, their needs and their understanding of what it is you do and how you can help. You need to communicate the value of your products or services.

If you work with other IT companies, they will be a lot more interested in reading about technical specifications and will appreciate detailed descriptions of how things work. Their concerns will be around if and how well your services or software will integrate with what they’ve already got, or what they need to have in place so it will run seamlessly.

On the other hand, if you’re providing IT solutions to small business owners, they will have a different set of needs. They don’t care how you built a platform and won’t understand jargon, so don’t tell them. They want to know that what you offer will work and make life easier for them, and if something goes wrong that you’re able to fix it quickly.

What to Write Blogs About

Write blogs that show you understand the problems they have and how you can help them. Use case studies or examples of where you’ve helped a company that’s similar to theirs – people like to think that they have something in common with each other, and talking about satisfied customers is a great way to show that.

Talk about one feature per blog, and highlight how it could save them time, streamline a process, save or make them money or simplify something they already do (such as taking online payments or booking appointments). Check for jargon and technical terms, and ask someone who’s not in your company to read it to ensure it makes sense.

One piece of advice given to all new bloggers is to make a list of 10 or 20 frequently asked questions from your customers, and answer them one at a time in a blog series. It seems obvious, but it works, and it helps you think about what else you can write about.

If you’re not talking about a tool or software that will be replaced or upgraded in a year or so, these blogs can form evergreen content – information that continues to be useful to new readers in years to come. Make a point of checking them every so often so you can add the latest statistics and refresh any other information as necessary.

Make a commitment to blog twice a month to start you off, and you’ll find that you can quickly produce a valuable library of content you can share across social media platforms to encourage new visitors to your site. The posts don’t have to be long; the key is to share the information people are looking for clearly and concisely.

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