Got a craft business website and want more traffic from your blog content? Feeling stuck on what to write about? Look no further, because I have a handy list of craft business blog post ideas to help you out!
1. Tutorials and ‘how to’ blog posts
This is a great category of blog post and one that is likely to be a big hit if you manufacture unique supplies, or finished pieces that need handling a certain way. Let’s give you some examples:
How to arm knit with bulky yarn
How to clean your glass jewellery
How to hang and dust a wall hanging
2. Product review blog posts
Product reviews are really useful for:
A) Reviewing a product/service you have used in conjunction with your own products - could be a tool, a cleaning product, or something else that has significance to the use of your product. For example, reviewing a laundry detergent for use with wool based yarns (which you made, or dyed).
B) Have a customer walk through a review of one of your own products - this is a great way to generate content that you just need to edit for your blog!
“Research suggests that consumers spend on average 5.4 hours per day with user-generated content and one-quarter of search results for the world’s biggest brands are links to content created by users. Customers also say that 48% of them find that UGC is a great method to discover new products (according to everyonesocial).”
Given these facts, inviting clients to write product reviews for you, might be really useful as a component of your website content. We see similar ideas on other industry blog posts called ‘Case studies’, in fact I host them right here on my website as individual blog posts, although a much more of a self written piece.
3. FAQs blog posts
Frequently asked questions, or FAQs can often be complicated to answer and so we cram the information into a condensed two lines for our FAQ page, but does this really answer our client’s question? The answer is no, not fully. Taking the time to write full answers by way of blog posts can not only provide those same clients with a better answer, but they could also be used to attract new clients to our businesses.
Look at your core product, what questions do you get asked regularly that always feels like they take an eternity to answer. Those are the ones you need to start with.
Here are some examples:
How much yarn do I need for a pair of socks?
How do I cure/cook my polymer clay?
Can I put my ceramic mug in the dishwasher?
4. Interview blog posts
Interviews can be a great way to pick up engagement on your site from people who might not have otherwise found you, especially if they are audience members of the person you interviewed.
My top tip is to interview people who have used your products or craft services, then you can throw in a question about that too. Don’t forget this isn’t a pushing sales post though, instead it is about community building. People like to feel connected.
Interviewees could also be peers in your industry (but not competitors), so as a yarn dyer I might interview a pattern designer. This interview could form part of a collaboration to share your businesses with each other’s audience and share inspiration about sympathetic, but not competing products.
5. Behind the scenes blog posts
Talking about what’s happening in your business can be hard. What do you give away and what do you not want people to know about? The reality is that in a world of more social connection than ever before, as buyers we naturally want to know more about the products we buy, whether that’s a story of provenance, or just to feel ‘in the loop’. Think about how you can frame your stories for maximum impact, without giving away any secret sauce.
6. Works in progress blog posts
As crafters and business owners we often find ourselves making samples, or working on things in our spare time. Why not document this, it could be a great addition to your behind the scenes blog posts and could be a less sales driven, product inspiration based article.
7. Tips blog posts
Particularly in the craft world and especially if you manufacture supplies, your audience will be looking for tips. Tips on how to maximise their use of your product. Think about how you could give simple to follow tips that would help make a difference to your clients and their views on your products. You will find that these also act as FAQS almost and entice those who might be on the fence about buying something from you.
8. Inspirational blog posts
Online, people are generally looking for inspiration. They want to feel inspired to do more, be more, and sometimes even have more. Now whilst I’m not suggesting we need to force consumerism in our content, what I do think we can do is inspire our customers in the craft areas we work in.
Inspirational blog posts could include: industry news, new products that help with ‘x’, 10 ideas for using ‘x’, or getting the most from ‘x’.
9. Resource blog posts
Resource blog posts work slightly differently to inspiration blog posts, in that while they do inspire, they become like the coffee table craft books you buy; the stitch encyclopedias, or the guides on what equipment you might need if you do ‘x’. They become blog posts people return to again and again.
Let us say you work in embroidery and you either sell finished pieces, patterns, kits or supplies. There are a wealth of resource articles you could write, from; individual stitch video posts, to how to fix issues with ‘x’, or which supplies to use for stumpwork, etc.
10. Giveaway blog posts
Giveaways are and should be hugely interactive content pieces. We want shares, likes and follows, maybe even newsletter subscriptions in order to enter.
Make sure you lay out the rules clearly for entries and if you are in the US I think they have specific laws about raffles that you might need to be aware of before you create these types of posts.
Remember to give a prize that is of good value and make your contest fun and interesting.
11. Challenge blog posts
Challenges can be a great way to extend giveaway ideas over a longer time period. The idea here is that your audience will have to submit at least a photo of something you have challenged them to make or do. Entries could be simple, or as complicated as you like, but remember if it feels like too much effort, people might not participate.
The best way that this can work on a blog, is if you have your audience blog their own entries. Now today a round robin of blog posts might still be the way to go, in order to show off entries before announcing your prize winner. However, what you could do is to host the winning entries as User Generated Content directly as standalone blog posts on your site. That could be a really great way to inspire the rest of your audience and give your winner some added pride in their work.
12. News
Shop news, or business news can feel like boring blog posts to write, but honestly, they are of huge benefit to your audience and can range in theme. Forget about what you cannot tell your customers and instead focus on what good news, or important information you can deliver. This could be everything from expansion plans, to new stockists, or reasons for a recent price rise. And don’t worry about negative kick back on topics like price either. You will genuinely find that when you are open and honest, people are understanding and appreciative of being made aware of things they might not have previously understood. They may still come down on one side of the fence, or the other, but at least you have achieved open communication, which is great customer service and brings a level of trust.
13. Craft fairs and shows
As crafters, quite often we attend and sell at shows of some kind, whether that’s a local church fair, or a national scale retail, or trade event. Informational blog posts like this do two things; firstly they keep your audience informed on where to find you (which they will often go out of their way to do… ask me about the lady who travelled from London to Birmingham just to meet me and buy a skein or two of yarn!) and secondly, they give a bit more depth to your story as a business owner and a brand.
The trick to pulling off these craft business blog post ideas
The art of a carefully targeted blog post is in the copy and the SEO, something I talk about here on the blog, in reference to blogging for my clients. You need to get specific and cater directly to your target customer. The article you write needs to inspire, educate, or entertain that core readership in order to elicit comments, or more exploration on your site. If you do this these posts can even lead to sales.
Think about what your client most needs from you.
Start by looking at your most frequently asked questions… somewhere in there is an answer that can become a blog post, based on one of the themes above.
If you need a copywriter to create compelling copy, someone who understands how to reach your target customer, fill in the project brief form below!
