You’ve recently set up a blog on your website as a way to break into content marketing. You have already written a few posts, and are promoting them on all of your social media channels. But once that’s done, you realize your drawing board is blank.
Now what?
A large part of content marketing is consistency. Posting at a specific time will let readers know they can rely on you for new content. But how do you keep up with that demand when there are so many other aspects of your business to think about?
If you find yourself coming up empty on blog post ideas, keep reading for tips to help you generate tons of fresh content.
What’s Trending?
What’s something everyone is talking about right now? Can it be re-positioned in a way to fit your industry?
Consumers now research a company online before making a purchase, and your blog is part of that information-gathering process.
You can do your own research to find out what people are talking about and which topics are performing well. A simple Google autofill search (in an incognito tab so it won’t produce biased results) will show you the most popular queries for your topic. Ubersuggest and Twitter are also good (and free!) tools to research keywords.
Not only will this showcase that your brand is up to date, but it also attracts new readers who are searching for trending topics.
Pro Tip: Use a catchy headline to attract readers’ attention. The Headline Analyser from Coschedule is a free tool that checks your headline to make sure it is easy to read, emotional, and drives traffic.
Think of Your Readers
When people search online, they’re looking for solutions. They want an outlet that will give them a quick answer to specific problems and pain points that need to be addressed.
That’s where you come in. Make sure to stay active on forums or on your social media pages to hear what your customers are saying about your service or problems they face in your industry.
Another way to engage your readers would be to feature a client. Content marketing is a way to tell the story of your brand, and a big part of that story is likely your customers. Reach out to see who in your customer base has an interesting or even unconventional experience with your brand.
Pro Tip: Use a keyword research tool such as Google Keyword to take this a step further and find out what type of problems people are searching. For example, typing in “Hawaii” or “Hawaii Islands” shows that people are looking for “Hawaii living cost”, “Hawaii moving cost” or “Living in Hawaii”. These results could mean that there is a high volume of people who are interested in moving to Hawaii, so a possible article topic could be “5 Things to Consider When Moving to Hawaii”.
Share Your Expertise and Mistakes to Avoid
You’ve already learned certain lessons in your business once. And if nothing else, you can share those experiences to help others avoid making the same mistake.
Readers also enjoy a behind the scenes look at what is happening in your company as it can make them feel as though they are part of an exclusive group. Feel free to share a recent insight your company has had and what you learned.
Pro Tip: You can take an analytical approach and turn your story into a case study. Break down the process you went through to help your clients and back it up with data. This approach gives you an outline to write your blog which you can easily fill in with your experience.
Ask a Guest Blogger to Contribute
In every industry, there are thought leaders who are an excellent source for insightful content. Use this to your advantage by reaching out and asking them to contribute to your blog. This way, your readers will see that you are well-connected with experts and are able to offer them information beyond your brand. What’s more, you gain views from the guest blogger’s readers as well.
Another idea is to curate a list of tips and tricks from several leaders in the industry, thereby further expanding your blog’s reach with one post.
Pro Tip: Make the process to contribute to your blog as easy as possible. Outline any specific details you want in your posts for the guest blogger to lessen miscommunications. Consider building a landing page for guest bloggers to pitch ideas.
Hold a Group Brainstorming Session
Two heads are better than one, right?
Having a fresh perspective is crucial, and the people you work with are likely in the demographic you are trying to reach. Anything that interests them will interest your readers too. Take some time to brainstorm a list of topic ideas to pick from whenever you are running low on content.
Pro Tip: Create an excel sheet, which we call an Editorial Calendar, and put together all the agreed-upon topics before you start your research and writing.
The bottom line with generating blog post ideas is that it is meant to showcase your brand in a more human light and engage your audience. If you want to know what people will read, the easiest way to find out is to ask the people themselves. This includes your readers, consumers, teammates, and experts.
Don’t be afraid to use tools to help you in your search or even feature people related to your industry on your blog. The more connections, the better.
Do you use any of the methods we listed here? Let us know how you come up with blog posts in the comments!
Originally published at www.markovate.com on October 16, 2018.
