So, it’s time to put pen to paper, and you have no idea what to write about.
Well, first off, if you are an aspiring content marketer, trying to figure out what to write at the last moment can be pretty much a waste of time.
When you’re planning to put a content marketing strategy into place, you will have to plan what you’re going to write about in advance. The best thing you can do is to, first, generate content ideas and create an idea bucket that you can keep going back to.
So how do you generate content ideas?
You aren’t writing for yourself, you are writing for your audience. So figure out what they want to know, read, and learn, and how your expertise can cater to those needs. Here are a couple of ways you can go about finding out what your target audience would like to know, thereby generating content ideas that are bound to be successful.
Social Media followers.
Head to your social media followers’ profiles and get a feel for what kind of content they like, engage with and/or share the most. Use this as a starting point.
Competitor websites
Check out what your competitors are doing and what kind of topics or type of content is gaining a lot of engagement. Take inspiration from these to generate content ideas, and just spin content around them
Blog Comments
A lot of bloggers ask their readers to leave comments in their blogs. You can do the same to know what your audience wants to read about. But while you’re still putting things into place, you can also look at the comments on your competitors’ blogs for ideas of what people need information about.
Do a survey
Go straight to the question. Instead of just figuring out on your own, you can run a survey online and ask your followers, email subscribers, and blog readers what they would like to read about.
Quora
Quora is a great place to go to for generating content ideas based on what people are talking and asking questions about. You can write informative pieces to help them out. It’s a great way to drive more traffic to your website as well.
Twitter, just like Quora, is a super active platform where you can find topics that are trending and being talked about in real-time. All you have to do is monitor Twitter for keywords, topics and questions related to your industry.
Google Search Suggestions
Finally, if you have a general topic in mind, just start typing in Google Search and take inspiration from the suggestions that pop up below. Apart from these, you can also head to the bottom of the page and check out the related searches you’ll find there.
So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to start generating content ideas and writing. Have fun!
