Did you know that according to a recent HubSpot Survey, 60% of businesses who blog acquire more customers than those that don’t? That’s reason enough to break out the old keyboard. But it also provides you content that you can use in all your social media channels over and over again. If you need a bit of inspiration to get you started on your blogging journey, here are 15 ideas for different types of blog posts you can use in your content marketing plan.

1. How To’s or Beginner’s Guides 

This is a really easy and simple type of blog post because you are going to talk about something you already know how to do.

• How to bake the perfect chocolate chip cookie
• How to baby proof your house
• How to properly install a child’s car seat
• How to make your own play dough

2. Lists

Lists are great. They are actually one of the most shared types of blog posts on the internet. This blog post that you are reading right now is both a “How To” and a “List.”

• Top 10 kid friendly restaurants in the YOUR CITY area
• The 20 books every child MUST have in their personal library.
• 12 reasons to go camping with your kids

3. Resources or Link Lists

This is just like a List, but includes links to the resources on the list.

• 9 Places offering free kids services (free clinic, eye exam, hair cut, wic office, coats for kids, toys for tots, other community resources, etc.)
• 12 Kid Approved Dinner Recipes (then link to each of the resources)
• 10 free opportunities to visit with Santa in downtown Cleveland

4. Cheatsheets & Checklists

These are so simple to make and people love them. A cheatsheet for surviving hosting a holiday meal, a checklist for back to school shopping, you get the idea.

5. Reviews /Testimonials

If you receive a particularly heartfelt testimonial or have made a huge impact on a family, share the heck out of that story!! Feature it on your blog and share it on social media. You can do a write up, a video or an infographic to share these types of stories. But share them! You want the world to know how attending your school has made a difference in the lives of real children and real families.

6. Infographics

Create some kind of chart or image that shows in pictures a message you are trying to convey. The image can contain text but should be an image. Power Point, Canva, Piktochart and Visage are really great tools to help you accomplish this.

7. Videos

You can take just about ANY of the ideas on this list and take a video of yourself or your teacher or guest talking about the topic instead of writing up an article to post. This is a huge time saver, and adds variety to the type of posts you publish.

8. Interviews

This is so easy. Set up an interview, record your conversation and then have it transcribed. You can do this yourself or hire it out on fiverr. Just think of people to interview that might be of interest to your audience and tie your conversation back to something that would be important to children and parents. 

• A local pediatrician or dentist
• The family of the month
• One of your staff members
• A kindergarten teacher or school principle
• A school bus driver
• A fireman or police officer talking about kids safety

9. Guest Blog Posts

Ask a parent or trusted community member to contribute to your blog by being a guest author. This is a great way to honor someone local and take the burden off you for the week. Look at the list in #8 for ideas for the type of person that would make an excellent guest blogger, but there are TONS more. An accountant could contribute about financial planning for families, a real estate agent could talk about the best neighborhoods or school districts, a plumber could talk about what to do when your kid flushes 40 hot wheels cars down the toilet. You can get so creative with the type of person that will be your guest blogger.

10. Staff Stories

Help your audience get to know your team a little better by featuring them on your blog. You could either tell their story one by one, or one class room at a time. OR you could have all the staff answer a series of silly questions and post the answers with their photos. It will help your prospects and clients get to know your team better, which increases that know, like trust factor.

11. Blog Series

Sometimes a topic is too broad or complex to cover in one post. In that case break it down into smaller parts and write a series of posts. Example, Potty Training: Readiness Signs, What parents can do to get ready, Tips & Techniques, Parent Stories, Pull Ups vs Undies, When nothing seems to work, etc

12. Case Studies/Feature Families

Similar to an “All about Me” poster, feature a family of the month. Interview them or have them fill out a questionnaire and write up a little blurb about them. This makes the family feel special and fosters a sense of community among your clients. It shows prospects the type of quality families that have chosen your school and reinforces that you are a good choice because other quality parents have chosen you.

13. FAQ’s/SAQ’s

Frequently Asked Questions and Should Ask Questions. Think of things that parents and clients are always asking you, or SHOULD be asking when considering child care and make an article out of it. You could either create one blog post that covers all of the questions you can think of (or a good chunk of them), OR you could create a blog series from this list and answer each question more in depth.

14. Recipes /Crafts

 This is kind of like a How To post, but you will be sharing directions for creating a really cute craft with the kids, or the recipe for the best chicken noodle soup known to man. Use lots of pictures in these types of posts, or even a video.

15. Recycle or Leverage Old Posts

After a while, if you stick to a weekly or bi-weekly posting schedule, you will have a TON of blog posts available. When you are having a really busy week, leverage the work you already did by re-sharing an oldie but goodie on social media! You will get a ton more traction out of the post, and remain in front of your audience on a weekly basis.