Better Blogging

I feel like I post about this a lot, but the truth is, content creation is probably the top thing I spend time coaching customers on through out my day. I recently sent an email to a customer who is struggling to get content up on their blog - they don't have the resources to currently to create enough content themselves, nor do they have the budget to pay for a ghost writer to contribute content to their blog. Here are my suggestions for them (note - they are a b to c company):

Can you (or someone on your team) put every piece of marketing material that has already been created up on the blog? i.e. email marketing newsletters, mailers that are sent out, flyers, etc. As long as it is not on the web anywhere else, it can be put on the blog
Could we solicit stories from customers/potential customers (about their experience with your company) in exchange for a gift card of some sort (i.e. submit your story and be entered to win a $50 giftcard) – these stories could be turned directly into blog posts
Can we get sales reps or customer services reps to submit customer stories and provide a gift card to the person that submits the most stories?

Content creation is the most important thing for your business blog program, so if your team is not naturally producing enough content, make sure you think outside of the box for easy ways to find content. Most of the above ideas take little extra work and put the burden of content creation on the customer!