Companies that blog earn 97% more links to their site than companies that don’t. Another 57% say that they have earned customers as a direct result of their blogging efforts. That’s a pretty significant incentive to continue posting. However, if you struggle to come up with a steady stream of ideas for your blog you aren’t alone. It’s challenging coming up with fresh new ideas that are engaging and relevant to your audience. Keep new blog post topics flowing, check out the following ten steps.
1. Listen to your customers
The purpose of content marketing is to connect people with your brand through content that is relevant to them. Who is better qualified to tell you what is relevant to your customers than your customers themselves? After all, the best contact you will write will be the blog posts that answer their questions and solves their problems.
So, what are their questions, and what are their problems? You can find that information in your customer service tickets. You can also speak with your customer-facing employees to learn what customers are asking them. Then, use that information to formulate relevant blog topics.
2. Do a bit of time traveling
If You have been blogging for a while, your old posts can give birth to new posts. Go back to your old content and find posts that can be updated or transformed altogether. For example, that best of last year or the year ago could be updated for the current year. A how-to article on one of your products could be modified to consider the latest features. With a bit of work, a dated post could become evergreen content.
You can also rework content into different formats. For example, you could turn a popular text post into an infographic. An instructional post could be used to inspire a video blog post.
3. Become a voracious reader
Do you know what is going on in your industry? What about your local community, or the world? You should, for many reasons, one of which is improving your ability to come up with new blog topics. When you know what is going on in the world around you, it is much easier to come up with current and relevant blog topics. To do this, you have to become a consumer of content yourself.
Watch the news. Subscribe to industry-related publications and blogs. Set up Google alerts for keywords relevant to your business and industry. Pay attention to local news in cities where your business is active.
4. Dig deeper
The average blog post is just over 1,100 words long. That’s great, but sometimes it’s okay to dig a little deeper and create content for the folks that want more detail. Consider taking a topic that is interesting to your audience, and really taking a deep dive into it.this is a great way to show thought leadership, and to create lead magnet content.
Just keep in mind that longer, more in-depth content does not need to be tedious for the reader. Use visuals, bullet points, numbered lists, and subheadings to make text scannable, mobile-friendly, and generally easier on the eyes.
5. Find trending keywords
The Role of keywords in content marketing has evolved throughout the years, and it will continue to evolve. While keyword stuffing is frowned upon, you should still use relevant, keyword phrases in your posts. This is still an important technique for boosting SEO.
In addition to this, you can use keyword research tools to better understand what topics are currently interesting to your audience. This will help you to come up with fresh blog post ideas. Next, turn these into well-written blog posts that integrate the keywords relevantly by using the following tools:
- Canva: Add great visual elements to your posts with ease.
- TopEssayWriting: Professional editing and proofreading.
- Hemingway: Help producing clean prose that’s easy to read.
- ClassyEssay: Additional copywriting assistance.
6. Follow your competitors
Soraya Jenkins, content writer at WriteScout says, “It won’t help your content marketing efforts to copy what your competitors are doing. Still, you should be paying attention to their content, and what they are doing to connect with their audiences. Because, ideally their audiences may eventually become yours.”
Rather than copying directly, identify the content that is getting the most engagement. Then, figure out how to take those topics, Target them for your audience, and cover that subject in new and improved ways.
7. Take notes all the time
Sometimes, the problem isn’t that you can’t come up with blog post ideas. It’s that you can’t retain them. Have you ever thought up a great blog post idea on the train coming in to work, or in the middle of a staff meeting? Later, when you try to remember it, the idea has practically vaporized.
Doing something as simple as carrying a pen and notepad can prevent this. If you prefer a more high-tech solution, consider installing a note taking app on your phone. This way you can get the idea down right away, then deal with it later.
8. Pay attention to social media and user communities
Facebook, Twitter, and other social media pages are full of community groups, and discussions about specific industries, products, and companies. Find these, and pay attention to them. You’ll find plenty of great questions, comments, tips, and other content that you can use to source blog topic ideas.
The same is true for discussion forums and user communities. These are the places where power users, brand ambassadors, and other subject experts gather. This is another great place to learn about what is currently interesting to your audience.
9. Encourage engagement
This week’s commentary can become next week’s blog post. Leave a call to action at the end of each blog post and social media update encouraging your audience to ask questions, or share their thoughts. Then, pay close attention to the engagement you create. This will give you some very useful information about the problems, topics, and questions that are currently most interesting to your audience.
10. Give somebody else a turn at the keyboard
If you’re struggling to come up with new ideas, maybe you’ve spent too much time churning out blog posts all on your own. It could be time to ‘pass the mic’ so to speak. Surely, there are other people on your team who have interesting things to say about your brand, and your products. Encourage people within your organization to submit content for publication. Here are just a few ideas:
- Insights and thoughts from the CEO.
- Product tips and instructions from designers and engineers.
- User tips and FAQ posts from your customer service team.
- Posts on company social responsibility and community involvement from your public relations team.
These are just a few ideas that you can generate from within your company. You can also make use of guest blogging, user-generated content, and influencer content.
Just remember that your coworkers and colleagues aren’t professional content writers. They may need some editing with tools and resources like, Grammarly, BeGraded, WhiteSmoke, Studyker, or LanguageTool.
Final Thoughts
Use the steps above, or any combination of them to bolster your content offerings. With these tips, it should be easy to come up with a steady stream of relevant blog post ideas to keep your audience engaged.
Author Bio: Nicole D. Garrison is a writer, content strategist, and contributor at Subjecto and PickTheWriter among other sites. She is an experienced writer, and an online marketing expert. She believes that good research is the key factor in relevant content writing. In her spare time, she enjoys running, and is an amateur beekeeper. She also writes for her own blog LiveInspiredMagazine.