MSP Blog Topics (Part 4) - Training and How-To’s

Maintaining a blog is critically important for your web presence as a managed service provider, which means you will need to write blog content about a variety of topics. This way, your audience will have both a reason to stay engaged, as well as to view you as their friendly neighborhood IT expert.

One of the most common reasons that your audience will be seeking out an IT blog is to find a resource that tells them how to do something or other regarding their technology. This blog covers other reasons why it pays off to include training and how-to content in your rotation, and how to go about producing some.

Why Write About This MSP Blog Topic?

Like we said, it isn’t uncommon for people to turn to the Internet for information - it wasn’t nicknamed “The Information Superhighway” for nothing. So, if your blog is providing the information they are looking for, this translates into a few very significant benefits for you.

For example, these blog posts:

• Provide Immediate Value - One of the most obvious benefits of writing an informative blog is the fact that you are providing any visitors with an actionable example of the benefits you can provide, and proof that you know your stuff. As you might imagine, this is a far more effective approach than just boasting about your capabilities without anything to support your claims.
• Share Well - Like many other blog topics, blogs that provide a step-by-step process to complete a common IT task are pretty popular. This means that leveraging these blogs in your marketing initiatives (like on social media, or in a Blog Tip Postcard) can help boost their impact among your audience. Furthermore, there’s an increased chance that your audience will share your blog post among their peers if they find it particularly valuable or useful.
• Establish You as a Resource - By regularly providing helpful blog content tutorials that teach basic IT processes and best practices, you are building your authority. This makes it more likely that the next time your audience needs insight, they will think to turn to you first - and eventually, reach out to you directly for assistance.

How to Write About This MSP Blog Topic

Your first order of business will need to be determining exactly what you will be telling your audience how to do. This may not always be as easy as it sounds. You want to strike a balance between your process being too simple to require training and being too advanced for the users that make up your audience to worry about. For instance, neither “How to Use Your Computer Mouse” or “How to Set Up Active Directory” are the most appropriate topics for the average end user.

The particular audience you are trying to target matters here. Take our “How to Set Up Active Directory” example. If you are writing for end users, this topic will effectively mean nothing to them, as it is something that they simply don’t have to do. However, if you are trying to speak to CIOs, that could be a useful topic to review for them. This is why it helps to have a target audience in mind as you select your topic and compose your blog.

As far as the blog’s composition is concerned, it will most likely follow this pattern:

1. Introduction - Someone who stops to read a blog intended to teach a certain process is most likely encountering some issues with that process. To show your audience that you understand their challenges, you need to begin your blog by describing some of the difficulties they are likely having. This will help communicate to them that they are in the right place to find the answers they need.
2. Cause/Solution - As your blog continues, you have options as to how you continue your narrative. One option is to explore the underlying cause of the issue. This approach will help to establish your credibility and knowledgeability, which will help prime your audience to trust you when you share the solution to the issue. Otherwise, you could jump right to the solution and deliver what your audience is looking for directly. Taking this route shows your audience that you understand their priorities and aren’t afraid to cut to the chase.
3. Alternative Options - Of course, if you offer a service that can assist your audience in fulfilling their desired outcome (or removes some responsibility from their shoulders), you should mention it and its benefits before you finish the blog. While having one less thing to worry about can itself be a powerful motivation, the more reasons you can give your audience to opt for your services, the better.
4. Conclusion/Call-To-Action - Once you’ve delivered the value that your audience sought out, you need to be brief as you wrap up your blog. A succinct call-to-action that encourages your reader to consider the alternative solution you suggested (and to reach out to find out more about it) is an effective way to continue your interaction with your audience, or at least cultivate the impression of your company as a resource that is available to them.

Let Us Write About This MSP Blog Topic (And More!)

Our team has accumulated quite a bit of experience putting together informative and instructional blogs that can help walk your audience through common IT tasks and processes, along with the variety of other blogs that we produce for our three-blog-a-week MSP Blog Service. To learn what else your blog needs to address, keep reading this series, and to sign up for the MSP Blog Service, let us know by filling out the order form.