How to kickstart your year with juicy, on-brand blog content.
Are you feeling behind the curve already? Did the new year sneak up on you like a devilish older brother shouting “BOO!”?
Do. Not. Scream. Or panic! You can easily pull together your first blog post of the year with a bit of planning, a few ideas to get the juices flowing, and an hour or so of writing. Ready?
National Days Calendar
This is a fun resource for any business. Okay, true, these are made-up holidays, but who cares to be honest? It’s January, people. Let’s start the year with an upbeat vibe. There’ll be plenty of time later to take ourselves too seriously. This month’s National Days include:
- National Hangover Day on January 1st (duh)
- National Fruitcake Toss Day on January 3rd (yes, please)
- National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day on January 14 (I’ll be celebrating this one for sure)
Product Based Businesses
If you’re a jewelry designer, you can write about the healing properties of January’s birthstone, the Garnet, which inspires love and devotion, jumpstarts your sex drive, and smooths emotional turbulence. Other product-based businesses can also capture a winter topic like:
- How to care for dry, chapped winter skin
- How to use aromatherapy to ease the winter blues
- How to brew a soothing, calming batch of yogi tea
Health & Wellness Businesses
January is primetime for health and wellness businesses as new years resolutioners scoop up gym memberships, fitness apps, diet supplements, and kitchen gadgets for healthy cooking. Tap into this renewed energy and the promise of a healthy year with:
- A guide to wholesome eating
- A review of the hottest fitness apps
- 10-ways to stick to your resolutions this year
Accountants & CFPs
Q1 is the start of an endless range of financial topics for individual taxpayers and businesses. If you’ve been in the field for a while, you’ll have plenty of history to draw from to help potential clients plan for the year ahead or make the most of tax benefits, both personal and business. You can write about:
- Wrapping up last year’s financials
- Prepping for estimated taxes
- Business and tax planning
Career & Life Coaches
While many have been planning for the coming year since last year, many others were feeling burnt out and didn’t have the bandwidth to do anything other than veg on the couch and binge-watch Netflix. It’s true. As much as we like to pride ourselves on starting the new year with a fresh attitude, the practical side is that the holiday season grind often takes over, and we defer to January. So dig into your expertise and write about:
- Q1 goal setting and thinking BIG
- Healthy mindset practice
- Balancing career vs. family life
Virtual Assistants
While your clients are excited to hit the ground running, you know from experience how quickly they can get sidelined by taking on too much, poor planning, and not having the proper systems in place. These are all excellent topics for online business managers and VAs. Write about:
- How to get systems in place, so nothing falls through the cracks
- How to meet their revenue goals with special programs, offers, or discounts
- How to find and hire your first VA
Copywriters & Marketers
You can write about almost anything! Check-in with your clients. What’s on their minds? What are they worried about or planning for? Engage them in conversation about things THEY care about and write about that! Your audience might be looking for help with:
- A step-by-step guide for content planning
- Your recommendations for writing tools or aids
- How to repurpose content across multiple platforms
Parenting & Mental Health Professionals
Winter can bring on feelings of depression and restlessness. As we start the year, many kids and adults experience a lack of energy, motivation, or drive. Write about these topics in an informative, informal way. Discuss things like:
- Self-care, both physical and emotional
- Winter activities or exercise to improve mood or mindset
- How to spot depression in your kids
- Vision board activities for a positive mindset
FAQs
Every business can write about Frequently Asked Questions. If you have a website with an FAQ section, you can write about any of those topics or do an annual overview of your FAQs and roll everything into a blog post. Keep an ongoing list of questions that pop up regularly and write about them, for example:
- What if my thing-a-ma-jig breaks?
- Do you offer training for your free programs?
- How can I work with you one-on-one?
Travel & Entertainment Businesses
January is the ideal time to plan indoor activities or make reservations for Spring break or summer vacation. Write a blog post offering ideas for different types of vacations and sprinkle in a little something for everyone, such as:
- Where is the best place to travel in Europe
- What to know about ski trips or spa vacations
- How to pull off a memorable and successful staycation
Feeling stuck?
- Start by doing a brain dump of ideas. Don’t overthink. Just dump.
- Next, write that first shitty draft. No editing (thus the term “shitty”).
- Set your draft aside for a day, then come back with fresh eyes and tweak or refine.
Still need help? Schedule a 60-minute Content Power Hour with me! You’ll walk away with content ideas out the wazoo and a step-by-step framework to keep you on track and blogging for months!
