At a Loss for Words? How to Come Up with Great Content Topics.

At a Loss for Words? How to Come Up with Great Content Topics

In today’s digital marketplace, getting noticed online is essential to the success of your business. The key to getting noticed is writing and publishing outstanding content. Without quality, engaging content, your brand simply won’t get the attention it deserves.

Coming up with engaging content can be a difficult task. In fact, most marketers will tell you that it is their biggest challenge. In light of this fact, we’ve assembled a list of ideas that may help to get your creative (and marketing) juices flowing.

  • Follow the leaders. What are the thought leaders in your industry talking about? While you don’t want to cover all of the same topics, when you keep up with the experts in your field you get a feel for what is trending in your particular industry.
  • Provide answers. If you have customers, chances are these customers have asked you questions about products or services they want or need. Expanding on these questions makes for great content.
  • Get social. See what topics are trending on social media. If people in your industry are talking about it, they will want to read about it on your blog or website, as well.
  • Read the Comment Section. Comment sections can be a goldmine of content topics. When you read what people have to say about issues relevant to your industry, you can address those comments in your blogs or articles.
  • Brainstorm. Writing content can be a lonely task. That is why it is important that you take time to brainstorm with people in your office from time to time. What do they think you should be writing about? Just bouncing ideas off other people can spark ideas you may not have otherwise considered.
  • Conduct Interviews. Are you a blogger for an interior design website? Interview an up-and-coming designer. Chances are he or she will be thrilled with the exposure. What’s best, such interviews may help you come up with other ideas.
  • Talk about your failures. Not every blog or post has to have a happy ending. Cautionary tales are a great way to save your readers from making the same mistake you—or someone else—has made.

There are a million things to write about but, unfortunately, sometimes it can be difficult to come up with just one. Hopefully, the tips above will spark some incredible content. Happy writing!

Content Creation vs. Content Marketing

Content Creation vs. Content Marketing

If you believe that content creation and content marketing are the same thing, you are making a common, but costly, mistake. While content creation is an important part of content marketing, it is still just one part of the content marketing equation.

A great content writer is a wonderful asset. However, no matter how well your content is written, if it does not speak to your target audience, it won’t matter. Further, if it isn’t distributed properly, your target audience won’t be able to find it.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a content marketer is to expect your content to magically produce results without an overall content marketing strategy. Since great content can’t be created in a vacuum, here are some things you need to consider:

  1. What do you want to achieve with your content?
  2. How will you measure whether or not you have achieved that goal?
  3. Who is your target audience?
  4. What type of content is your target audience most likely to respond to?
  5. What are the most effective ways to distribute your content so that your target audience will see it?

If your content marketing strategy is not working the way you had hoped then you will have to consider all of these things again. Sometimes you will only need to tweak one or two things. In other cases, you will have to completely overhaul your content marketing strategy.

By the same token, even if your content marketing strategy is right on target, that strategy will fall flat if your content is subpar. Your content must draw the reader in and make them want to learn more.

If you are unsure exactly what constitutes outstanding content, whether it be blogs, podcasts, video or any other type of content, here are the most important qualities of outstanding content:

  • It connects, educates and inspires its audience
  • It uses thought-provoking headlines, striking photos and/or interesting graphics to grab attention
  • It is original
  • It is consistent with your brand

Useful, original and well-crafted content is essential to your content marketing strategy. Equally important, however, is knowing how to get that content noticed by the people you want to see it, namely new business leads!