5 Ways to beat writer's block when creating B2B blog posts

Content marketers (like me) will tell you that creating content is one of the best ways to help boost your SEO. Google is constantly tweaking their algorithm to favor the most recent, relevant, quality content it can find for users. This means that not only do you need to be creating content, but you also need to be creating quality content.

Creating content is easy enough. I’m sure your PR team can create dozens of press releases in a single day if you needed them to; however, this goes against the number one rule of a press release: it has to be newsworthy. This is the same with your content. Though it doesn’t have to be picked up by the press, it needs to be compelling enough for users to want to share it with their network, hence the emphasis on quality.

How do you create quality content on a consistent basis? I find myself asking this very question. Whether you’re a professional writer or not, everyone gets writer’s block, so here are a few tips to help you create quality content for your brand’s blog.

1. Subscribe to RSS feeds. Lots of them.
   I subscribe to over 50 blogs/RSS feeds. The topics vary from CMS to marketing to social media and general technology news. I recommend also subscribing to a couple news site RSS feeds as it’s important to keep up on your current events, no matter what industry you’re in.
   
   Now, I don’t read every single post that comes in through my 50+ RSS feeds, but I do browse the headlines (side note – this is why blog titles are SO important!) and select posts that I think would either teach me something new or that I would like to share with our customers. Scrolling through these blog posts will help you get an idea of what is going on in your industry and can inspire your own blog posts.


2. Talk to your colleagues. Especially people who don’t work in your department.
   You have a vast amount of resources within your own company, use them! Talk to people within your company, get their point of view on topics, issues, concerns. Even if you’re not talking directly about your brand, talking can inspire some excellent posts. Perhaps one of your coworkers brings up a problem that they have that a lot of your customers have as well. Talking with them can give you an in-depth look at what some of your customers may be feeling and help you address the issue better than anyone else, leading to more shares and higher SEO.


3. Revisit old posts.
   Have you or someone else in your company written an opinion piece about an industry trend? Now that some time has passed, do you still have the same opinion? Revisiting old posts is a great way to link back to previous content as well as create new content for your visitors.


4. Create lists.
   Lists are great for blog posts. They draw in readers as people like to have the option to just skim and get the gist or delve deeper into the content. Lists can be anything from tips to lists of your previous posts around a specific topic or lists of posts from others that apply to a topic your customers are interested in.


5. Take a break.
   So you’ve read the blog posts, talked with co-workers, looked through your old posts and still have writer’s block. Take a break. Step away from the post. Take a walk outside. Go grab a coffee. Do something that is completely unrelated to content creation. Sometimes you need to take your mind completely off the task of writing to come up with something brilliant.

When you’re suffering from writer’s block, what do you do to combat it? Let me know in the comments below.