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!

Can a Robot Write Content that Connects, Educates and Inspires?

Can a Robot Write Content that Connects, Educates and Inspires?

Look around stores, restaurants and other businesses and you will see examples of humans being replaced by machines. From self-serve kiosks at the airport to self-checkouts at the grocery store, there are many instances where humans are no longer needed. According to many experts, this is a trend that is here to stay.

But certainly some jobs are machine-proof, right? After all, you can’t expect a robot to write content. Or can you? Writer Suzanne Lucas was so intrigued by this prospect that she decided to find out for herself. In her article, This Post Was Written by a Robot, Lucas discovered that a robot can indeed write content. The problem is, it isn’t very good. Here are a few lines from one robot’s article:

Hiring employees is really a beginning to creating a strong workforce. High employee turnover costs company owners in time and productivity. Offer a competitive rewards package that suits your personnel requires.

That’s not to say that writing-robots are completely useless. For example, Lucas says that such programs or tools can help an inexperienced writer come up with ideas and can offer some options for putting keywords into different contexts. Other than that, let’s just say that Lucas isn’t worried about losing her job to a robot anytime soon.

It’s not a bad deal if you’re willing to do some editing and your focus is on getting content available for search engines. If your focus is on getting people to read, love, and share your content, hire a human.

Quality content connect, educates and inspires. Something a writing-robot has yet to achieve.

The Advantages of Outsourcing Your Content Curation

Now, more than ever, the key to getting your website noticed by the search engines is high quality content. And this content must be so engaging that people want to comment on it and share it with others.

If you are a small business owner, chances are that even if you could write such quality content, it is unlikely that you could find the time to produce the amount necessary to gain significant traction. The kind of traction that results in things like increased sales leads.

Many business owners, however, have a difficult time turning over the reins of their content writing tasks. If you fall into that category, here are some things to keep in mind:

  1. Professional writers have a keen understanding of grammar and style. Therefore, they are able to produce copy at a much faster clip than someone who does not write full time.
  2. Professional writers know how to write. It may seem obvious but well-written content that flows well and speaks to readers will help to establish you as a thought leader in your industry. Poorly written content will do just the opposite. It can take years to become a great writer and chances are you have spent your time building a business, not perfecting your writing skills.
  3. Professional writers know when to say when. When it comes to writing their own content, small business owners can struggle with wanting to document every detail about their product or service. This is almost never a good idea, however, and such writing turns readers off (if it doesn’t bore them to death first). A professional writer is able to look at the message you are trying to convey and make sure that you don’t overload your readers with minutia that won’t matter to them.
  4. Professional writers get to know their audience. It can be tough for an engineering firm, for example, to write in a way that a layperson will understand. Often times, business owners use too much industry lingo that is hard for its customers to decipher.
  5. Professional writers are trained to meet deadlines. When you hire a reputable writer to complete your content writing tasks, you can be sure it will get done on time. That’s because they won’t get sidetracked by the many responsibilities of running a business.

Many business owners see hiring a professional writer or content curation firm as an unnecessary expense. The truth is, not hiring one can cost a business a great deal more.

Quality Content is More Important than Ever

Producing quality content is becoming more and more important for companies looking to market their products and services, generate sales leads, and get noticed by the search engines. Unfortunately, producing such content is proving increasingly difficult as the marketplace becomes more crowded and the competition gets tougher.

So how can you make sure that your content stands out from the crowd? What follows are some helpful tips and small changes you can make to ensure that your content doesn’t get overlooked.

  1. Make sure that all images attached to your content are relevant. While experts have told us for years that images make a huge difference in attracting readers, slapping up just any picture won’t reflect well on your copy. Also, make sure that all photos are formatted and optimized to avoid slowing load times.
  2. Make your posts as reader-friendly as possible by including bullets and lists. More than the look of your content, however, it’s important that your content uses clear, simple language. Unless a sentence adds real value to your post – get rid of it!
  3. Include influencers. Readers respond to industry leaders. Quotes from authorities on a subject matter always add credibility to posts.
  4. Tell secrets. Let’s face it, readers want to learn something they won’t hear anywhere else. Make sure when readers finish reading one of your posts, they learn something new – an insider tip. This type of information is what will keep them coming back for more.
  5. Don’t always play it safe. Got a controversial point of view on a particular topic? Don’t avoid it, embrace it. Even if readers disagree with what you have to say, they will respect you for having the guts to say it.
  6. Get emotional. There may be no crying in baseball, but when it comes to writing content it’s OK to get a little emotional once in a while. When readers feel that they can relate to your struggles and even failures, you will gain their trust. Open yourself up a little and you will be surprised at what happens next.

Many businesses believe that getting their content noticed involves making huge, sweeping changes to their posts. The fact is, sometimes just a small amount of tweaking can make a big difference. After all, when it comes to content, the way you are saying things can be just as important as what you are saying.