The Best Blog Post Types for IT Companies

You know:

In fairness, to continuously generate new leads for your MSP, you just need one strategy – blogging.

But I bet you already know the benefits of business blogging.

What you probably don’t know, though, is what blog topics can help you achieve those results.

Luckily, that’s exactly what I’ll show you in this post. You’ll learn the 4 best blog topic ideas that work to help IT companies attract traffic, and convert visitors into leads.

Intrigued? Then let’s get right to it.

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#1. Quick Tips

Think about it:

Most of your prospects probably have little or no IT knowledge.

But at the same time, they face many technical problems every day, from above-average printer cartridge usage to phishing emails and other security threats.

And so, as part of your content strategy, you could offer quick tips that would help them overcome many of those challenges.

For example, this company posts relevant updates to their audience, alerting them to possible threats, as well as posting solutions to common problems:

3 Easy Ways to Find Ideas for Quick Tips Posts

Monitor questions clients ask you during service calls. Even a simple story how a person couldn’t overcome some simple challenge could become a great blog post idea.

Use sites like Quora or Yahoo Answers to discover problems your potential customers struggle with. Search those sites for specific issues, like “email phishing” or browse entire topics (i.e. “Cloud computing”).

Finally, survey your current clients. You don’t need to create a full-blown questionnaire to do that. Simply email the companies you currently service, asking what IT-related challenges they face in their work.

#2. Industry and Technology News

Here’s one of the simplest blog post types I know – industry news.

Look:

You’re probably already subscribed to various industry newsletters that help you to keep track of recent developments, updates, and technology breakthroughs.

And you could write about them, and any other news or emerging trends that would affect your clients or prospects in an industry you target.

For example, CMIT Solutions uses their blog to regularly update their customers and prospects about latest threats to their security:

Many other IT companies publish similar content. For instance:

The simplicity of this strategy lies in the fact that, as an IT professional, you already have access to all this information. Plus, you have all the expertise to translate it to a casual reader like your clients.

And so, all it takes to implement it is to select the most relevant news and explain them on your blog.

#3. Case Studies and Client Success Stories

Here’s a common content marketing misconception that drives me nuts:

“You should use content to attract clients early in the buying process.”

That sounds great but what about people who are ready to hire an IT firm? Or potential customers who already made a decision to engage with an MSP, and are looking for information to help them validate potential providers?

Naturally, you should publish content that brings people eager to learn more about their IT-related problems (and that’s what ideas 1 & 2 above help you achieve).

But you should also target clients who may have heard about you before, and are now considering to hire you.

How? By publishing case studies on your blog.

And once again, it’s a relatively simple blog post type to create.

For example, every time you receive a great testimonial from a client, ask them for permission to rewrite it into a blog post.

Or, alternatively, approach your best clients with an idea to write up their story, explaining how your services have helped them overcome their IT problems.

And then, publish this content directly on your blog.

Note, I deliberately recommend including case studies among your articles, rather than creating a separate section on the site to host them. By including them within your blog posts, you increase the chances for more potential clients to see them.

Take a look at the example of software companies like Drift that constantly mix educational content with customer success stories:

By doing so, they strategically position case studies in front of ALL blog visitors, communicating the perceived value of their products or services to the entire blog traffic.

As Jessica Mehring wonderfully puts it:

“There’s a lot of value in putting your case study in a pretty PDF. A great presentation like that builds credibility and ensures your marketing assets are all branded consistently (which provides a better customer experience).

The content of the case study, however, doesn’t have to stay inside the confines of a PDF.

Turn the case study content into a blog post to squeeze extra marketing juice out of that already-valuable asset.”

#4. Full-Blown “How To” Tutorials

I already told you about the benefits of posting quick tip posts that help your audience overcome specific IT-related challenges.

But there is another, a highly-engaging educational content idea you should use on the blog – the “how to” style tutorial.

But before I tell you more about it, let’s define what makes it different from the quick tip.

You see:

A quick tip, at least the way I understand it, is a short and punchy suggestion for overcoming a particular problem. Speeding up Windows is a good example. You could offer a handful of quick tips someone could implement to make their machine run faster.

A tutorial, on the other hand, teaches visitors how to perform a bigger task, and offer a step-by-step guidance. For example, you could create a tutorial that teaches how to defragment a hard disk, showing each step required to complete the task.

Here is a good example of a quick tip post. It’s short and presents actionable ideas for overcoming a particular issue – improving Microsoft updates speed.

And here’s a how-to type blog post (note, this content type doesn’t necessarily have to include the words “how to” in the title. But it needs to teach a person how to do something, as the name suggests.)

But why teach your customers something you could do for them in the first place?

1. Because I’d assume you don’t actually want to help them with smaller, mundane tasks. You want to take care of bigger, and more lucrative problems.
2. Because many of those people who’ll find your tutorial might also be looking for more advanced help, and in turn, hire you to deliver it.

(TIP: You could also take this strategy further, and create a video tutorial, making it even easier to share your knowledge with potential prospects.)

Final Thoughts

Business blogging offers an unparalleled opportunity to continuously drive traffic and generate new leads for your MSP.

But the problem is that often times, you don’t know what topic or ideas to focus on to generate results for your company.

Hopefully, after reading this post, you now the best blog post types for IT companies.

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