Do you struggle with choosing the types of blog articles to write for your business?
Do you know the critical questions your buyers have about your business, products, and services?
Are you tuned into the topics they’re researching that help them decide whether or not your solutions are right for them?
If you’re reading this article, then I’m going to safely guess that connecting with your audience and driving them to your website is an ongoing struggle.
And don’t worry, you’re not alone. In fact, you’d be shocked at just how many companies have little to no idea what kinds of topics their audience finds valuable.
I’ve been helping businesses develop and fine-tune their content calendars for nearly a decade now, and it still surprises me how few companies are in touch with the questions their buyers ask online.
But I also recognize that I’m in a unique situation. Having worked with 100s of businesses in dozens of industries, I’ve had access to some insightful analytics.
Using tools like HubSpot, SEMrush, Google Search Console, and others, I’ve been able to peer into what kinds of content drives traffic to these websites. What kinds of questions buyers ask as they navigate their way to making a purchase. And ultimately, what answers help people decide which business to work with.
And I’ve found some very interesting results. What I’ve learned is that while your business and offerings may be unique, your buyers aren’t.
Most buyers, regardless of what they’re purchasing, have very similar pain points that need to be addressed before they make a purchase. Whether you’re a manufacturer of metal roofing materials, a local furniture retailer, or an online nutrition coach, your buyers are asking a lot of the same types of questions.
I’ve written another article on how to uncover the best questions to answer in blog articles, but that article mostly focuses on talking with your sales and customer service team, doing keyword research, and even turning to new and exciting AI tools like ChatGPT.
But in this article, I’m going to give you 25 (nearly) universal blog topics that I’ve seen buyers ask regardless of what they’re buying or who from. And to sweeten the pot a bit more, I’ll even tell you where in the buyer’s journey many of these questions occur, so you can map the questions to the buyer’s journey.
By the end of this article, you should have enough ideas for content to develop a full-funnel blogging strategy.
Let’s dive in.
Let’s go ahead and kick this article off by discussing the top-of-funnel blog topics.
These are often the questions people first ask as they embark on their buyer’s journey.
Something has happened. Something has changed. A problem or a desire has arisen that has them reaching for their phone or laptop to articulate a question.
And that’s why, this stage of the buyer’s journey often starts with these types of questions:
During this stage of the buyer’s journey, many people only know the problems they’re experiencing. They may not know what is causing the problem, what any solutions are, and they dang sure aren’t researching which companies can solve it for them, but they do know something is bothering them that needs to be looked into.
These questions often begin with keywords like:
Here are some examples:
Similar to “symptoms of a problem,” these questions are often asked when someone is starting to dive into what may be causing their initial pain point.
When I worked for The Alaska Sleep Clinic writing articles about sleep apnea therapy, I found a gold mine in these types of questions.
Long before scheduling a sleep study, people are looking into whether their symptoms are signs of a larger problem.
They asked questions like:
Before people are ready to go down what could be a long rabbit hole of research, they often want to know if it’s worth their time and effort.
Let’s say you rent office space for your business and are starting to feel like you’re outgrowing the place. Before you find a commercial real estate agent, you may want to run some quick numbers to see if you can even afford to think about.
You may look up questions like “how much office space do I need,” or “how to plan an office build-out.”
Often, as people are researching their problems and solutions, they will inevitably stumble across terms they’re unfamiliar with.
So what do they do? They often turn to Google with questions like what is this thing? What does it mean? What does this person do?
For example, if your home has cold spots, and you’re researching whether or not you need to insulate it better, you may hear about spray foam insulation.
If you’re unfamiliar with it, you’ll naturally be inquisitive and ask, “what is spray foam insulation?” and look for an article that clearly defines it for you.
It’s a good practice to write definition and description articles for all of your products, services, and even professional occupations.
Some other examples include:
The middle-of-the-funnel is probably my favorite for researching and writing blog articles because this is where most research is done by consumers.
Once people are set on solving a problem, they often invest a significant amount of time researching the solutions.
Here they want to explore all their options, compare those options to each other, and ultimately decide which solution is best for them.
To help people quickly understand all of their potential options, they’ll want to see their choices listed out.
To do this, they often use queries starting with
or other superlatives like:
While people don’t always choose the absolute best in class, what they’re often looking for is the best fit for their own situation.
Examples Include:
As someone is reviewing their options, they’ll naturally want to know if a solution is a good fit for them. So they’ll ask questions like:
These articles are best done in listicle format as most people will want to quickly peruse the perks.
One difficulty with these articles is that because these articles only focus on the positive aspects, they’re a lot easier for companies to approve them, which means there’s a lot more competition to rank for these articles.
Similar to “best of” lists, as people are reviewing their options, they may find many different types/categories of solutions.
Getting back to the home insulation example, if someone realizes they need insulation to keep their home warm, they may not realize there are different types of insulation. To them, insulation is insulation. But as they hear about different kinds, they naturally want to explore these new options.
Examples include:
“How to” is one of the most popular phrases in search (especially in YouTube searches). In fact, in SEMrush’s Keyword Magic Tool, there are over 70 million searches containing “how to.”
Sometimes these searches are performed by the “do-it-yourself” crowd who genuinely want to know how to perform an action themselves, but other times, people just want to know how the signature sauce is made.
Examples include:
These articles help people from making the wrong choices or performing actions they’ll later regret.
Blog titles with negative in the copy often catch people’s eyes too.
Now, I don’t see these types of articles searched as much online as some of the others, but they often make great lead magnets on your website.
So, if there’s something people often do wrong when buying your product or service, help them avoid the pitfalls by discussing them with your audience.
As people get closer to a decision of what product or service to buy, their questions start getting more specific and detailed.
In this stage, they’re getting closer to finding a vendor to work with, but still have some questions they need answers to about the solutions.
Benefits articles only give one side of the story, the good side. Here, people can really weigh the good and the bad side by side.
These articles give people a much more complete picture of the solutions they’re vetting.
If you want to help people avoid buyer’s remorse later, you’ve got to include the negatives of a purchase as well.
Examples include:
Show your customers that you’re truly transparent and helpful by listing out alternatives to the solutions you provide.
You may sell these alternatives, you may not. But regardless, by addressing this topic, you demonstrate your trustworthiness to your prospective customers.
Examples include:
As people are wrestling with their options and reviewing alternatives to their solutions, they’ll inevitably want to compare the solutions against each other.
This is your opportunity to show how different choices compare in a head to head breakdown and which may be better for different situations.
There’s two ways to approach comparison articles. You can do a “pros & cons” approach where you discuss the good and the bad of each option.
Or, you may go with a categorical approach, and show how each stacks up in important categories.
The key here is to be as objective as possible and really help readers discover which solution is right for them.
Examples include:
If you sell products, people are going to want to review those products to really gauge if they’re a worthwhile purchase.
If you want to build trust with your viewers, you should be giving honest, detailed reviews of your products. Come up with a list of the criteria to grade your products on, and explain how your products rank in those categories.
It’s better that people learn all of the features, benefits, and drawbacks of a product from you rather than one of your competitors.
Examples include:
It’s also helpful to have standalone articles that address just the negatives of a particular choice.
These articles, while they may highlight issues with your services, do wonders for building trust with your audience by showing them you’re not afraid to address the elephant in the room.
In addition to describing these problems for people, you can also use these articles to give them solutions to these problems. Therefore, you can take this negative slant and spin it to a positive.
Examples include:
If your product or service is very visual, people are going to want to pursue different examples.
Whether you build websites, design office space, translate documents, or build custom sheds, people will want to get a feel for their options by looking at examples of works completed.
Some examples of examples include:
Are there specific laws and regulations people should know about before making a major purchase?
For instance, if you were to hire a contractor to put a new building on your property, what might you need to know about the location it can go, how many structures total you’re allowed, how big it’s allowed to be?
These might be questions your buyers need answers to long before speaking with a sales rep.
Some examples include:
Help your customers better understand how long specific tasks or processes take when buying from you.
Questions answering: how long will it take for a sales rep to write up an estimate of service? Once a contract has been signed, how long will the entire project take? How long will specific milestones take to achieve?
Writing these types of articles will help both your business and your customers plan ahead with transparent timelines.
Timeline articles can also be used to tell people when the best time is to make a purchase or perform an action.
Examples might include:
People love reading lists and getting fun facts. These articles often compile a bunch of different topics together into a comprehensive list.
Examples:
Is there a stigma that follows your products, services, or industry around? Is it something that’s been disproven many times over, yet, for whatever reason, it constantly rears it’s ugly head and scares prospective buyers away?
Keep people from going down the wrong path or exiting the buyer’s journey altogether by addressing these falsehoods head-on.
Examples include:
Alright, here we are, at the bottom-of-the-funnel for our buyers.
At this stage, they have a pretty good idea of what solution is right for them. Now, they’re mostly wanting to know who it is that can help them solve their problems.
It’s at this stage they’re researching companies to do business with.
But they still have some questions that may be keeping them from filling out a “contact us” form on a website. They want to make sure they’re choosing the right company.
So what kinds of questions are they asking at the bottom-of-the-funnel?
Let’s dive in.
These articles are a bit different from the other “how to” articles listed above. Those articles are mostly about how to perform actions, reviewing processes, or even watching tutorials.
These articles here are more about how to choose the right product, service, or vendor.
What do people need to know in order to make the most informed decision possible?
With these articles, walk people through a list of considerations that will help them narrow their options down.
Examples include:
Very similar to “how to choose” articles, these articles focus more on the qualifications of companies and professionals.
What certifications, accreditations, or qualities should a company possess before you do business with them?
Here, you can even prep people for the questions they should be asking these companies as they refine their options.
Examples include:
Are you willing to talk about your competitors and who among them offer comparable services to yours?
You should.
These are some of the most important questions on this list you can possibly answer.
Similar to the “Best of” products and services articles listed above, here you can write about the best companies that offer those products and services.
As people are finalizing their decisions and researching companies, they’ll inevitably turn to search engines and look for a list of businesses offering solutions.
Here’s your chance for people to learn about you and your competition on your website. This gives you the first digital handshake with prospects.
And, because you’re willing to address arguably the most difficult question for a business to answer, it’s great for building trust with prospects.
Examples include:
Before someone buys something, they will undoubtedly want to know how much it costs. That’s easily one of the most common questions people have in the buyer’s journey.
It’s also one of the least answered questions by businesses.
Most businesses want to wait to address cost when a salesperson is on the call with a buyer.
Why? Because they assume an answer to “how much does it cost” might scare a prospect away before they had a chance to explain the factors that dictate costs.
And for most services, the answer to “how much does it cost” is usually: “it depends.”
Use your cost articles to give people a detailed explanation of all the factors that can drive the price up or drive it down.
Then end with either an average cost or a range of potential costs.
Examples include:
Once buyers start to check your company out and dig in to see if you’re the right fit for them, they’re going to want to know what experiences past customers have had with you.
They may turn to online review tools like Yelp, Angie’s List, BBB, or any site that people commonly review businesses like yours.
But if you have detailed case studies on your website, you give people a much clearer understanding of how capable you are at solving customers’ problems.
Examples include:
It’s not an easy pill to swallow, but sometimes we have to be willing to say when a particular client type just isn’t a good fit for doing business with us.
That’s why having good fit / bad fit articles can be incredibly helpful. They can help bad fit prospects weed themselves out of our sales funnel. It may seem like these kinds of articles reduce the total number of leads your sales team has to work with, but by addressing this tough subject, the leads that reach out to you will be much better qualified.
So there you have it. 25 blogs guaranteed to help your buyers move through their buyer's journey faster, build trust with your brand, and win you new customers.
Now, you might be asking, "but Kevin, is that all the topics we could be writing on?"
No. There are all kinds of other blog articles you can write about. Topics like "tips, tricks, and hacks," "Idea and trends," "news and updates," and many others.
But I often call those types of articles "fluffy content." Sure they're content people may want to read, but they don't always help buyers make critical decisions.
Additionally, these are article types that many of your competitors or other industry publishers are writing about already.
I find it best to focus on the difficult questions, the ones most businesses don't want to answer because they're afraid of putting that information online.
If you want to stand above the competition, you have to put your buyers first. And to do so, you have to answer all of their most pressing question, especially the ones that make you uncomfortable.
For more help with your business blogging efforts, download my Content Writer's Toolkit below and get 3 incredibly valuable templates to help you better create and organize your content.