Content marketing and blogging are key for any business – they help drive relevant traffic, increase visibility in search and demonstrate industry expertise and thought leadership – which in turn can increase your chances of converting customers.
Coming up with blog post ideas can be a challenge and it’s even harder for those of us who don’t work for a famous fashion brand, the latest hot restaurant or an innovative tech company. With that in mind, I’ve pulled together 6 ways to find to blog post inspiration – even if you work in one of the sectors that don’t lend themselves to exciting blog post topics.
1. Ask a website
There are two tools I find particularly helpful when it comes to content inspiration.
Portent’s Content Idea Generator
This free tool presents you with entertaining and inventive blog post titles based on your chosen topic. The Content Idea Generator is a pain free route to content inspiration and can offer some light relief too. Here’s what came up when I requested suggestions based on ‘garage doors’ and ‘plumbing’.
What to Write
Although this tool requires slightly more input from you, it generates good content suggestions. Simply answer a short series of questions about your blog topic and this tool will reward you with a month’s worth of blog topics in 10 minutes. The amusing copy on the site will also keep you entertained while you are completing the questionnaire.
2. Pair your industry topics with related themes
Think about where your product fits within the wider context of your customer’s life. For example, if you manufacture laminate flooring, you could write about kitchen interior design trends. If you sell garden furniture, why not recommend a selection of white wines to try on a warm summer evening?
3. Use a tech angle or social media to spruce up your topic
Curate a list of the best apps available in your sector. For example, if you make medical supplies you could feature or review the most popular health apps available. Search social media platforms to see what people are saying about your topic. A quick search for the word ‘boiler’ on Pinterest turned up a huge selection of interesting images including a boiler that had been converted into a hot tub, creative boiler storage ideas and three examples of boiler rooms that had been turned into tiny, self contained houses. Any of these could form the basis of an original blog post.
4. Make your own news
Interrogate your own customer data, web analytics data or social media engagement metrics, spot trends and draw conclusions. Are more customers ordering your product in a particular colour or was there a spike in traffic over the weekend? This type of interesting quantitative data is perfect for an infographic too. Do some keyword research (using Google Trends or Keyword Planner) to find out what the biggest movers and shakers in search are for your chosen topics. What were people most interested in? For example, a quick search of Google Trends told me the top 10 most searched for cake recipes in the UK in 2014 were:
And apparently in 2014, people where most baffled by the following concepts:
Any industry could find data like this to inform blog post ideas and it can add a touch of humour to content too.
5. Feature an employee
It may be a cliché, but people buy from people. Featuring a recent addition to your team or highlighting a loyal employee on your blog will show the human side to any company, as well as demonstrating the wealth of experience behind your brand.
6. Solve a problem for your target audience
If you can solve a problem with your content, you make that content indispensable. The key to this is having a deep understanding of your target audience, or at least an insight into a specific area of their lives. If you work in the construction sector, you could create a simple “How to” guide or better still, a video demonstrating a particular DIY process. Produce a downloadable template or simply provide a list of useful tips or resources (relevant to your industry or product use) that readers will find helpful.
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