Boomm knows that business blogging can be challenging and time-consuming, and we’d like to help. So we’ve launched a new ebook, “Introduction to Business Blogging,” all about generating, optimizing and promoting blog content. This blog post, and the others in the series, are just a sample of what you’ll find in the ebook. Download it here!

Ever find yourself staring at a blank page, racking your brain for an interesting business blog post topic? Or letting weeks go by without updating your company’s blog because you don’t have time to write? Generating content often feels like the hardest and most time-consuming part of business blogging. There are some strategies that can make it easier, even for busy people.

Repackage existing content. There are two ways to do this. The first is to audit older blog posts and see if any can be re-written, expanded, or combined to create new posts. Have you learned new information about a topic since you wrote a post on it? Add that information to create a new post. The other way to repackage existing content is to adapt internal communications. Chances are that there is plenty of excellent content floating around your company already. Oftentimes, removing proprietary information from internally published content yields a great starting point for a blog post.

Talk to others in your organization. Go beyond the people whose job description includes content creation. Those in your company who interact with the outside world, such as sales, customer service or technical support, usually have a good understanding of your blog audience. They can help you figure out what information people are searching for when they come to your website and what questions they’re asking. Ask someone who speaks to clients or customers to write down every single question somebody asks them for one day. This will generate a rich list of business blogging ideas.

Hold brainstorming sessions. Gather anyone who might have great content ideas and bounce these ideas off of each other. It can often be more helpful to come up with lots of ideas at once, rather than one at a time—the ideas that can’t be used immediately can be added to an editorial calendar or content plan to be used later on. Consider also making a collaborative document where people can post their ideas at any time. Encouraging people to think about content outside of formal brainstorming sessions will help create a pipeline of ideas.

Solicit guest bloggers. Invite other industry experts to write guest posts for your blog. Guest blogging is a great way to build a relationship with these experts as well as a great way to grow your content. If you’re not sure whom to invite, think about influencers who are already in your network or experts on a specific area of your industry that you want to address.

Curate content. Aggregating valuable and interesting content on your blog is a simple way to generate posts. However, curating content needs to be done in a thoughtful way, not just for the sake of doing it. Ask yourself if your audience will find this content helpful, and if you are adding value through your post. A helpful way to curate content is to create a “primer” on a topic in your industry: find informative articles on the topic and collect them in one post that can serve as an introduction to the subject.

These are just a few strategies that can make business blogging easier and more effective. What are some content generation best practices that you have found helpful? Let us know in the comment box.

Want more tips on creating and maintaining a successful business blog? Don’t forget to check out our other post in the series: “The Key Characteristics of a Best-in-Class Business Blog.” And check the blog next week for our third post!